EcoShuttle Charges Ahead with New All Electric Nissan Leaf

Online, July 18, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Local transportation company, ecoShuttle, based out of Portland is among the first companies in the Pacific Northwest to begin using the zero emission Nissan Leaf. The five year old sustainable charter bus company had been waiting on the new Leaf since mid-December, when the Leaf was originally expected to make its way across the Pacific. Manufacturing setbacks pushed the arrival date to April, but after the tsunami in Japan, the date was pushed back again to late June, when the vehicle finally arrived.

The all electric vehicle has a range of 109 miles when fully charged, so the company plans on using it primarily for chartered services in the greater Portland area, such as trips to and from Portland International Airport (PDX). The Leaf has won several awards since its debut, including the 2011 World Car of the Year, the 2011 European Car of the Year award, and the 2010 Green Car Vision award. The car produces no greenhouse gases at the point of operation, and thus, has no tail pipe and drives without any sound from an engine. For safety purposes, the Leaf does emit a bell sound to alert pedestrians that the vehicle is in reverse.

The Leaf ranks as the most efficient EPA certified vehicle for all fuels ever, and ecoShuttle owner Jesse Yun says that is one of many things he took into consideration when adding the company to Nissan's waiting list in April of 2010: "It was really a kind of no brainer for us to go after the Leaf. It's really the first affordable electric car that has practical applications for our business." Yun continued to mention that full-size electric buses are still a number of years away, so in the meantime ecoShuttle will continue to use diesel buses running on 100% biodiesel until a better alternative becomes available.