First View: Nissan Leaf EV

So, is the Nissan Leaf electric car just something for the geek car buyer, asks Brian Byrne? Like those who buy Apple iPhones just because they want to talk about their latest tech buys?

Maybe. Maybe they are the people that Nissan needs to buy their pure EV compact family hatch first time out. Because, if the Apple iPhone and iPad experience is used as a marketing primer, the Leaf could become successful beyond the maker's wildest dreams.

If Nissan can succeed in getting a relatively small critical mass of buyers' bums on seats, they are the ones who will sell the car to their friends, neighbours and workmates. That's how the iPhone became a gamechanger even after coming to the phone game late, and not even as the best phone. They made it so that everybody wanted one just to be in the game.

Electric cars have been around since cars first rolled out over a hundred years ago. But, just as Nokia was the standard bearer for the most years of the mobile telephone age, and was finally trumped by newcomer Apple, Nissan could be the catalyst to bringing cars to the mass-market electric age.

Electric cars have reached the buzzword zone because they're finally being produced by mass market carmakers like Nissan, Renault, Mitsubishi, and Peugeot-Citroen.

In the Leaf's case, Nissan has put a €5bn commitment to establishing the car on a global basis, despite the fact that the EV share of all the cars produced will be very small for some time to come.

It's a big gamble. And Nissan is a Japanese brand, from a nation whose carmakers are not known for gambling. Blame it on the European influence when the company joined with Renault a little over a decade ago. Europeans gamble, but with calculation. And it is significant that the top people in the Nissan Leaf project are European.

The car is about the same length as an American Ford Focus, about as tall as a Nissan Tiida. And in style with a sexy look all of its own. It would probably sell as well as any of the standard competition if it was the replacement for the Almera with a conventional engine.

There are things it doesn't have. No exhaust pipe. No petrol filler flap, instead an electric connection at the front, under the bonnet badge.

No noise on the road, apart from wind and tyres, and from them nothing much, really. They had to find a way to cut the noise from the wiper blades because the car was generally so quiet. They also worked magic on the airflow over the front lights cluster so that they eliminated noise from the side mirrors.

It's a 5-seater. Big five, as much room for me in the back as in any car a segment up. A full-sized boot, because the battery is built into the lower platform. Along with the smaller weight of the electric motor, and the lack of a gearbox, this makes for a very low centre of gravity and thus a very agile car.

The power output is equivalent to 109hp, a bit above the average for the segment. The torque is punchy from revolution one, and makes this at least as fiesty as a good diesel off the line. Without any sound and fury but with a lot of satisfaction.

On the sound thing, it is up to five times quieter than any luxury car at low speeds, and still significantly more silent even at top running.

The inside is quality at least to the average in class. The instruments are clear, and don't have some of the tweeness of the hybrids which have made some of the running for this one. You get a readout on kilometres left in the 'tank' which is updated in real time according to your driving style and the external conditions.

The Leaf can do a 'safe' 100kms on a charge, and realistically up to 60 percent more depending on where and how you drive. That's good enough for 80 percent of European daily driving on working days.

The Leaf drives like fun, especially when giving motorcylists a run for their money off the lights.

A day behind the wheel in a range of driving environments showed it to be, most of all, a real car. And, with the potential to save an average of €1,000 a year on running costs against a conventional engine, there's big scope for justifying the highish price of around €30,000 across Europe. Nissan says you would pay as much for a diesel Golf with the same level of specification.

There are arguments to be raised about the cost, about the residual values, and about whether you want to be one of the early adopters who make sure that any new technology works.

Those are for another day. Just now, after a day in and around Lisbon with the Nissan Leaf, I can safely say one thing.

Nissan's gamble looks to be more than worth the punt.