Nissan To Voluntarily Repair Start-Up Glitch In All 8,000 Leafs

Electric Vehicles - Solution or Diversion?

Tokyo April 16, 2011; Nikkei.com reported that Nissan Motor Co. said Friday that it will launch a repair service campaign for its Leaf electric car in response to the vehicle's start-up problems.

Nissan has received reports from some Leaf drivers that the car fails to start. The automaker has determined that the glitch is not a safety-related issue and will not cause major accidents.

All 8,000 or so of the Leafs built in Japan and the U.S. will be covered by the repair service, though only a "very small proportion" of the vehicles have been affected by the glitch, Nissan said.

The company will reprogram software to fix the problem. Dealers will contact customers about the fix next week. By swiftly responding to the issue, the automaker hopes to retain confidence in EVs.