Since then I've had some equally brief encounters with other brands in, or coming into the electric game. Renault's Kangoo EV concept, Mitsubishi's iMiEV, Peugeot's iOn, BMW's electric Mini development prototypes.
But now it all seems like the EV is coming real, after a flip with the Leaf on its international launch a couple of months ago. Once such a launch gets under way, it is the real thing. And now, with the first customer deliveries in place to Japan and USA paying customers, it is real real, if you know what I mean.
Nissan will be the first mass market carmaker to bring real EVs to Europe, beginning with Ireland, Portugal, the UK, and The Netherlands. Spain, France, Switzerland, Italy and the Nordic countries will be rolled in during the rest of 2011.
So this is a serious initiative. Not just from Nissan, but also its Alliance partner Renault, Peugeot-Citroen in conjunction with Mitsubishi, and other major makers are rolling up not far behind.
First impressions are positive. Starting from the matter that the Leaf isn't a toy, isn't an experimental vehicle. It is a real compact family hatch in every sense, the only difference from any other being it is powered by an electric motor.
There's nothing milk float about its performance, either. Step on the pedal off from the lights and the car is instantly on full torque, silently teasing the scream of a two-stroke bike whose owner thought he'd get a clean run away from this unfamiliar white hatch.
It isn't going to be unfamiliar for long in Ireland, or indeed in Portugal where I got to drive it a couple of months ago. Nissan Ireland say they already have orders for 500 units and anticipate selling double that number by the end of 2011. Which will be a fair achievement given that supply will only arrive three months into a year that looks ropier by the day the closer we get to it.
The Leaf figures are easy to pin down. A €30,000 buy price includes the battery. Savings on fuel costs might be between €800-€1,100 a year. Nissan says the price matches well enough what a similarly specced diesel Golf or Focus could be. Or a Prius. And they're offering a PCP lease option by which the customer can trade in after three years, buy out the remaining one-third of the loan, or simply hand the car back, no strings.
The Leaf's warranty is the standard 3-year Nissan bumper-to-bumper, with a 6-year guarantee on all the electric drive components.
All pretty straightforward. Not by any means the cheapest car in the class, but the economics are understandable.
In fairness, Nissan has been working strongly with the Government, the ESB, and other partners to make sure that there are going to be enough public charging points to meet the normal needs of a family hatch driver most of the time.
With 80 percent of European motorists doing no more than 60kms a day in their normal commute, there's enough juice in the battery pack to more than cover that even if they don't recharge while the car is parked at work.
And as the numbers of EVs increase, the availability of public charging will grow rapidly. Shopping centres, car park operators, hotels, even Luas park and ride will see the investment in charging systems to be an attraction for a particular kind of customer. Light commercial vehicles will also be coming onstream over the next 18 months. The EV LCV is an ideal match for urban deliveries, and will also help to make the public more comfortable with the idea.
That's an ongoing part of the story. For now, what is it really like driving a Nissan Leaf?
Well, it's really like ... driving any other car in the segment. Except that it only comes in automatic. And it doesn't make any noise. And it doesn't pollute at the point of use (pollution in the making of electricity is related to local market policies on renewable energy sources).
The car accelerates in a smooth linear manner, handles as tidily as any Golf or Astra, and meets the normal accommodation needs of a family at this car size.
In one respect, it is directly different from a petrol or diesel equivalent. The Leaf EV works most efficiently in the stop-go situations of urban traffic, where there's no motive power draw while the car is stopped and where there's energy regenerated while coasting and braking. On the open road there is just constant drawdown of power.
So Leaf will have to be matched to owner lifestyle, and that's one of the things which Nissan's dealer salesmen will have to assess. If the car isn't a fit, it won't be sold to you.
There's lots of other stuff happening around the Leaf and its electric mates, involving communication, navigation, and smartphones. More about that anon.
In the meantime, while the Leaf won't immediately change the world, it is definitely going to change small parts of it. Not from some time in an aspirational future. From now.
