2015 & 2017 Nissan LEAFs
Just over three weeks ago, I was walking to the lawn of local Senn High School on a Sunday afternoon to attend one of the weekly, free concerts put on by jazz guitarist Steve Knight and his combo when I saw something I was completely unprepared for. Just one block away from the school, there was a tree that appeared to be fully immersed in the act of shedding its leaves. This was on just the first day of September, and also before Labor Day. This seemed akin to some friends and connections on social media who have been posting for weeks now about how they’re minutes away from wearing flannel and sipping pumpkin spice-flavored things.
I looked at this tree, pictured above and below, and thought of these friends, thinking to myself how ludicrous it seemed to be rushing things. Granted, this is now the first Tuesday of autumn in the northern hemisphere, but at the time and amid high temperatures that were still yet regularly reaching past 80°F, it seemed really premature for this tree to basically be throwing the rest of summer into the trash. I do remember from my youth when I would wear my new fall clothes to class when the school year had started and it was still hot outside, just to be able to show them off. I’d sometimes be sweating by third period. I feel like that was this tree. (Slow your roll, tree.)
These were not the only leaves to be found during that walk to and from Senn High School… or I should say LEAFs. It had been a long time since I had remembered seeing any of these cars around, and within the span of maybe five minutes, I had walked past three first-generation examples, with two of them parked nose-to-tail. I should point out that I’m not yelling, but that the LEAF model name is actually an acronym for “Leading Environmentally-friendly Affordable Family vehicle”. (I also think “LEAF” sounds better than trying to pronounce “LEFAFV”.) While it’s entirely possible that I might have seen some of these around in traffic or in the neighborhood, I for sure do not remember them being especially common, even in a big city like Chicago.
According to Motor Trend, the black 2015 example would have a range of about 84 miles from its 107-horsepower, 80 kilowatt motor, with its power supplied exclusively by lithium-ion batteries. That doesn’t really seem like a lot of distance, but I suppose it would make one of these acceptable for use as a commuter car for driving downtown or into the suburbs and back. Forty miles one-way seems acceptable, but I wouldn’t want to risk having it run out of juice. The LEAF was the first, mass-market, all-electric vehicle available for sale in the U.S. It was also the best-selling, fully electric car in the world from between 2011 and 2014, and again for 2016. It has since been surpassed in popularity among plug-in electric vehicles by the Tesla Model S.
For its first thirteen years of production between 2010 and 2022, almost half of all LEAFs (about 177,700 out of 367,800) were sold in the United States. The black ’15 model was one of just under 17,300 sold in the U.S. that year, and the silver ’17 was one of about 11,200. These first-generation cars could haul a reasonable payload of stuff, with about thirty cubic feet of cargo space behind the front seats with the rear ones folded down. There’s a Whole Foods supermarket a couple of blocks away that has charging stations, so I could see how a LEAF might be a reasonable choice for someone in this neighborhood who prioritizes driving a zero-emissions vehicle and also relies on street parking.
It still seems completely bonkers to me that all of these fall leaves and Nissan LEAFs had decided to all show up at the same time and on the same short walk, seemingly just because it was technically September by then. Colorful leaves on the ground are only going to increase in number as autumn advances. Let’s see if more LEAFs will appear in what I will consider one of the more bizarre manifestations of the CC Effect that I have ever witnessed.
Edgewater Glen, Chicago, Illinois.
Sunday, September 1, 2024.
It would seem that a LOT of trees had started dropping their leaves earlier during this unusually hot summer. The first leaf falls always invoke a tinge of sadness within me, as it’s a reminder of the (ever swifter) passing of time, and a reminder of all the things that I didn’t get done! But, just as the LEAF can recharge, there’s always next year!! 🙂
Perhaps I had never stopped to think about it, but I didn’t know these LEAFs had been around for so many summers.
The leaves here are starting to fall, but slowly. Summer was wet enough to keep things nicely green then it was suddenly quite dry. Rain the last two days has certainly knocked more leaves down, meaning I will need to get out the PVC pipe I attach to the shop vacuum so I can clean out my gutters. My house is in a semi-wooded area so leaves are a thing. LEAFs are not nearly as much of a thing in these parts, although I do see them periodically.