Video: Nissan Leaf - Polar Bear commercial

Nissan’s new commercial for the Leaf electric vehicle will either make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, or it will make you question the direction Nissan is going with this whole thing. The commercial starts off with a lonely Polar Bear who, in seeing that its polar wonderland is melting away, finds its way into a suburban town. The polar bear finds himself in a garage of a Nissan Leaf owner and proceeds to give the owner a hug for thinking about him and his home. We guess it’s better than those other commercials where the bears have bits and pieces of toilet paper stuck to their butts, but we have to wonder what those guys who deny global warming would have to say to all of this. We, on the other hand, find it rather touching.

Refresher: The Nissan Leaf features a set of batteries made up of laminated lithium ion cells that are capable of delivering over 90 kW of power and weigh only 440 pounds. The battery pack sends it stored energy to the Leaf’s front mounted electric drive motor that only outputs 80 of those kilowatts for a maximum output of 107 HP. Nissan claims that the Leaf will take 8 hours for a full charge from a 200 V source; so a high capacity 220 V outlet is recommended, otherwise it will take twice as long for a full charge from a standard 110 V AC outlet.