Leafs in Japan

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

bradleygibson

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 1, 2011
Messages
88
I'm visiting Japan, spending a couple of weeks here with my in-laws.

I saw a two page newspaper spread on the Leaf here in Japan and I decided to check out how the economics for an EV work here in Japan.

FYI, current exchange rates are about 80¥/1US$, car is for 2011 MY (we think--surprisingly, the ad was quite vague on this). There are 1.6km in a mile.

Car's advertised price 3,764,250¥ (incl. sales tax) base model (3,585,000¥ before tax). Upgraded model: 4,060,359¥ (3,867,000¥ before tax). These prices are exclusive of a 985,000¥ rebate--I assume analagous to the US $7,500 tax rebate program, but since I can't read Japanese, I don't know who is giving this rebate.

Interestingly cars in Japan are subject to an annual "tax" (no one here is sure who is getting this revenue) based (traditionally on the engine displacement (CC's). Obviously, this is not applicable to an EV, but my brother-in-law feels it would be subject to the 30,000¥ per year rate, which is about middle of the road.

I took a look at the economics of electics here, out of curiosity. Regular gas sells for 140¥/L (this is equivalent to $6.62/gallon), so I thought that EV's would make even more sense than in the US. Surprisingly, peak rate electricity is even more expensive compared to home here than the gas! Peak electricity rates (outside of Kobe/Osaka) run 32¥/kWh (compared to 0.1075$/kWh renewable wind electricity in the Seattle area--price/kWh is roughly 4x!).

Good news though is at nighttime rates in Japan fall to 8.1¥/kWh (my rates don't vary with time of day back home). So, assuming timer based nighttime charging (after 11pm) was OK, even with the high taxes and fees the economics should be at least as compelling as back home:

Cost to drive 100km (calculated assuming a 140km range and 24kWh capacity--note that the car here is advertised as having 200km of range--that's 120 miles--clearly a stretch) @ 8.1¥/kWh: 139¥

Cost to drive ICE 100km assuming a generous 25km/L efficiency: 560¥.

In Japan, an EV driver can expect to save at least 3.61¥/km driven: for an annual 20,000km driven, this represents a savings of 72,200¥, or ~900US$ each year.

I found this interesting, so I thought I'd share.

Off to a Japanese Nissan dealership next week to see if there are any Japanese Leaf accessories I can snag and put on my Leaf back home... :)

Take care,
Brad
 
bradleygibson said:
Surprisingly, peak rate electricity is even more expensive compared to home here than the gas! Peak electricity rates (outside of Kobe/Osaka) run 32¥/kWh (compared to 0.1075$/kWh renewable wind electricity in the Seattle area--price/kWh is roughly 4x!).

Did the peak electricity rate increase because of the spring tsunami/earthquake/nuclear problems? Perhaps the utilities are intentionally increasing peak rates to push usage to the evening/night hours.
 
I just got back from Japan! (I also have lived there over 10 years in total).

Try to go to the Nissan world HQ and gallery just behind Yokohama station (behind SOGO dept store) and check out the accessories and cars. Ask them while you're there about signing up for a factory visit in Oppama, about 20 minutes by train from Yokohama. (Better yet if you have a Japanese person call in advance and ask.)
WORK1306741106.jpg


Try to catch a LEAF taxi by Yokohama Station!

In a different thread I posted the entire list of options in Japan for the LEAF. With the dollar so weak, they're fairly pricey these days.

The annual tax is the "Road Tax". It goes to help pay for the infrastructure. Traditionally it's been based on two things: engine displacement and weight. They figure that the engine displacement will give a fairly good indication of air pollution and fuel economy and that the weight is directly related to roadway wear and tear. I'm not positive how they're handling the engine size aspect, but guess that its a 'free ride' for that portion of the tax.

BTW, the road taxes go UP as your car gets older whereas in US mostly they go down. Why? Because older engines are 'more likely' to pollute more, because older vehicles were statistically more likely to be involved in accidents, and because raising the taxes as cars get older structurally puts an incentive into getting new cars which is good for the economy and jobs.

If you go to the HQ, check out the Nissan Fuga: it's a diesel-electric hybrid that looks pretty good.
Nissan-Fuga--172676.jpg


Enjoy your stay!
 
GoSolar said:
Try to catch a LEAF taxi by Yokohama Station!

The taxis in Japan are clean, but expensive. I took a taxi from Oppama Station to the Oppama Nissan site, about 1.5 miles, and the cost was the equivalent of about $10US. On a cool day, the walk is nice.

I assume there is no differential in cost for the Leaf taxi compared to ICE taxi.
 
Hi, herm, mwalsh,

I've yet to see a Leaf over here; I've been here a week now. I plan to hit the dealership today, and I'll take some photos while I'm there.

Herm,
We did a 200km road trip with the family (15 people, total!) over the past couple of days--highway speeds were 100km/h but people will drive at 120km/h fairly commonly. Some highways were 90km/h, but we didn't see many of these. City speeds vary from 40-60km/h, and residential areas will be down around 15-20km/h.

Linkim,
Yes power rates did increase here, and we are a few hours southwest of Tokyo (Kobe/Osaka area). Even looking at their bills, the family doesn't know by how much. I don't think they doubled or anything, the families don't seem angry or shocked, but this is definitely a cultural difference. They seem to feel "it's necessary", so they just pay. I think in the West we'd be more skeptical and questioning of an increase, even if due to a large-scale natural disaster.

GoSolar,

Thank you for the great information! It was your posting of the Leaf accessories in Japan that got me curious to see for myself. If I can make time, I would love to do the tour--I'll see what I can do--thanks again!
 
My girlfriend and I are trying to plan a trip to Japan for about two weeks in December and it'd be awesome to see the Nissan factory. She wants to go to the Hello Kitty theme park so I figure going to Nissan would be a good trade. :D

Do you know if there's anything online for the factory tours or is it something you can only setup in person?
 
I just got back from my trip (also 2 weeks with the in-laws). I saw one leaf at a dealership and that was it. I did bring back that two page add though. My wife called Nissan Japan to ask about a rear seat seatbelt extension (answer no of course) and then gave the operator an earful about how hard it was to buckle up our first-grader in the rear seat.
 
Devin said:
My girlfriend and I are trying to plan a trip to Japan for about two weeks in December and it'd be awesome to see the Nissan factory. She wants to go to the Hello Kitty theme park so I figure going to Nissan would be a good trade. :D

Do you know if there's anything online for the factory tours or is it something you can only setup in person?

Send an e-mail to [email protected]. Give them the date and they'll arrange an English translator.
 
Hi, garygid,

I assume you're referring to this?

http://www.nissan-global.com/EN/NEWS/2010/_STORY/100521-01-e.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
I contacted Nissan HQ yesterday about arranging a factory tour before departing this coming Sunday. Unfortunately, Thu and Fri this week are holidays, and Saturday is already booked up.

That means I'll have to do the tour on another trip, unfortunately. For others thinking about this, they said you can book your tour up to three months in advance.

I also visited a dealership today; I took lots of pictures; a few small differences with the Japanese Leafs vs. the American ones (driver on right hand side, console buttons in Japanese; etc. I took some pictures of the experience--as you might imagine, the Japanese car-buying experience is, well, Japanese! :)

I'll post photos and a writeup soon, during some downtime.

Take care,
-Brad
 
bradleygibson said:
For others thinking about this, they said you can book your tour up to three months in advance.
Thanks for the heads up! I'll wait a couple weeks to contact them as we'd be going in mid December but still working on firming up our travel dates.
 
Hi, Devin,

If I'd known about this, I'd have booked ahead too. No worries, as this won't be my last trip to Japan...

We wrote to the e-mail address that Clippy provided above. My wife wrote them in Japanese, but they wrote back in English the next day. Enjoy your tour!!

All the best,
-Brad
 
Clippy said:
Send an e-mail to [email protected]. Give them the date and they'll arrange an English translator.
That's great to hear that they'll have a translator/tour in English. When I visited one of the Oppama plants in late 2003, Nissan was no longer doing English tours but I lucked out. I posted about my story at http://my350z.com/forum/2003-2009-nissan-350z/118370-tour-of-tochigi-confirmed.html#post1390402" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. At the time, I owned two Nissans, an 02 Maxima and an 04 350Z.

For car enthusiasts visiting Japan, in the past, I'd highly recommend coordinating it with http://www.tokyo-motorshow.com/en/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. Unfortunately, the show has gotten a lot smaller over the years. I've been to TMS in 03, 05 and 09. 09's was the smallest by far and unlike previous years, most foreign (to Japan) automakers didn't show up. It used to always be held at Makuhari Messe. Now it's being held at Tokyo Big Sight.

I'd be hearing for years that the TMS following 09 would be smaller but http://www.tokyo-motorshow.com/en/booth/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; shows that at least foreign automakers are back. Besides the cars, there are lots of booth babes :) and also a LOT of suppliers (e.g. Calsonic, Denso, Jatco, etc.). It is kinda neat to see cut open parts such as differentials and transmissions. It's also neat to see how many different vendors supply parts to automakers. I've seen displays of instrument clusters for lots of different cars all being supplied by one company. At bigger TMSes, car enthusiasts should allow for at least 2 days to see everything, esp. if interested in lots of things.
 
Thought I'd give this thread a bump to thank the folks at Nissan Oppama, especially Ms. Yayoi Tooyama, for making my visit to the factory today (that's tomorrow for you folks) really special. They provided a translator and even paused at times to wait for a Leaf to come down the line to show me the inverter assembly, battery pack placement, etc.

I'd suggest that anyone who is a Leaf fan and has a bucket of extra airline miles take a trip over here and visit the birthplace of your Leaf. It's a simple hour long rail journey from Ginza and if I can do it, so can you. Just make sure you have your Suica card, pocket wifi ($100 for two weeks has saved my life more than once) and tablet/phone of your choice (Samsung Galaxy Tab 7, here). Although they say it's OK for kids, my son and daughter would have freaked out and been eaten by a robot (who plays music, cool) 'cause it.is..loud. They're over at the Emerging Science Museum, and from the look of things out my 34th Floor window, about to get rained on.

For those waiting for your Leaves, production is now 1-7 Leaves-Other Models. That's down from 1-5. There were a whole bunch of Leafes awaiting transport. I mean a whole bunch.

Speculate away.
 
Back
Top