Nissan's Leaf: "Distinctive"

“It’s distinctive without being bizarre.”

This is the description that Plug-In America’s Paul Scott bestowed upon the new Nissan Leaf, a sleek electric vehicle that will be introduced in the US next fall. I finding this telling, as it’s what I’ve advised the industry since I became involved as the VP Marketing at EV World 18 months ago: make the right statement with the design. The Aptera‘s design is cool, but how many people want a car that looks like that?

Understanding and appreciating the psyche of the customer is critical – and I normally like to do this by survey; it’s best when a client places a real value on market research and funds a statistically valid sample of one-on-one interviews that enables me to get my finger on the pulse of the market. Absent that, we have to guess, which is always a bit frightening.  But here, I think we can take a pretty darned good guess.

EV customers want to be noticed, respected, and tacitly yet sincerely thanked for their enlightened contribution to environmental stewardship.

EV customers do not want to be regarded as self-deprecating weirdos, ridiculed for their willingness to throw away all material comforts to protect some species of rare earthworm.

To me, design speaks to this very directly. And I agree with Paul: Nissan has nailed it. Let’s hope that behind this announcement there is full, unflagging commitment to production and distribution, and that we’re standing at the dawn of a new era of electric transportation.