Tokyo, Japan - It’s actually a lot cuter than we thought it would be, even if it is just window-dressing.
This fully-functioning convertible Nissan Leaf was on display at a seminar celebrating the 100 000th Nissan Leaf sold in Japan since Nissan’s first volume-production pure electric car was launched in 2010.
It’s a remarkably neat conversion, and the ‘roll bar’ behind the rear seats rather neatly solves the perennial problem of what to do with the folded roof of a convertible hatchback. If you want to see what we mean, Google a picture of the first-generation Mini convertible with its top down.
The seminar brought together Nissan executives with local and prefectural government officials to discuss the creation of a ‘zero-emission society. In Japan, just as in most countries, that means not so much building more electric cars as building the infrastructure to charge them and supplying that infrastructure with ‘clean’ electricity - i.e. not generated by smoky coal-fired power stations.
However, Nissan officials at the meeting said there were no plans to put the Leaf Open Car into production. We’re not whether to be disappointed or relieved.
