Nissan Canada Commits 500 Nissan LEAFs for sale to Toronto Atmospheric Fund
FleetWise EV300 Partners

First All-Electric Nissan LEAFs arrive in Canada in Fall 2011

MISSISSAUGA, ON, Dec. 9 /CNW/ - Nissan Canada and the Toronto Atmospheric Fund (TAF) today announced a Letter of Agreement to ensure the Nissan LEAF will be an important part of TAF's FleetWise EV300 program. Nissan has committed the availability of 500 Nissan LEAFs for sale to TAF partners with initial deliveries beginning in the second half of 2011.

"In order to assist with the wide-spread adoption of electric vehicles, partnerships like this are crucial to demonstrate the commitment of both manufacturers and consumers to zero-emission mobility," said Allen Childs, President, Nissan Canada Inc. "Fleets are an important part of the launch strategy of the Nissan LEAF globally and in addition to sales opportunities, fleets provide an understanding of how best to support electric mobility in that region."

"The FleetWise EV300 program enables fleets to pool their purchasing power and share information about best practices when it comes to electric vehicles and we're pleased to have this significant commitment from Nissan Canada," said Julia Langer, Executive Director for TAF.

"A big part of what FleetWise EV300 is about is getting electric vehicles on the road in the GTA so that we can assess both performance and what needs to be done to create a more supportive infrastructure," explained Langer.  "By making up to 500 Nissan LEAFs available for our fleet partners, Nissan is helping us take another big step toward this goal."

TAF's FleetWise EV300 is supporting a transition to electric vehicles with tools that allow fleet managers to calculate cost savings and select vehicles, as well as through driver training sessions to help optimize the performance of their plug-ins.

"As a fleet manager I need to ensure that I have the right vehicle to fulfill our day-to-day travel requirements, while at the same time keeping operation costs on budget," said Gerry Pietschmann, Director of Fleet Services for the City of Toronto, a key EV300 Fleet Partner. "Today's announcement gives fleet managers the green light on electric vehicle availability that we need to really start planning the integration of these vehicles in our fleets."

Public and private fleets are responsible for thousands of vehicles operating in Ontario. Many are high-mileage, short trip vehicles making them well-suited for replacement by electric vehicles.

Nissan, along with its alliance partner Renault, is the only automaker committed to making affordable, all-electric vehicles available to the mass market globally. Nissan LEAF is a five-passenger mid-size electric car that uses no gas, creates no emissions and has no tailpipe. It has a top speed of more than 145 km/hour and is powered by an advanced 24Kwh lithium-ion battery pack which provides the car with a range of 160 kilometers on a single charge, as tested on the LA4 test cycle, enough to satisfy the daily driving needs of more than 70 percent of Canadians.

Over six thousand Canadians have already signed up for the latest information on Nissan LEAF at www.nissan.ca/LEAF.

Images and B-Roll of LEAF (including two new videos on "The Making of LEAF" and "LEAF Production") can be found at www.media.nissan.ca.

About Nissan Canada Inc.
Nissan Canada Inc. (NCI) is the Canadian sales, marketing and distribution subsidiary of Nissan Motor Limited and Nissan North America, Inc.  With offices in Vancouver (BC), Mississauga (ON), and Kirkland (QC), NCI directly employs 250 full-time staff. There are 162 independent Nissan dealerships and 29 Infiniti retailers across Canada. Nissan is dedicated to improving the environment under the Nissan Green Program 2010, whose key priorities are reducing CO₂ emissions, cutting other emissions and increasing recycling.  More information about Nissan in Canada and the complete line of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles can be found online at www.nissan.ca and www.infiniti.ca.

About Toronto Atmospheric Fund
The Toronto Atmospheric Fund, Toronto's climate-action agency, has been sparking innovation on climate change for 20 years. TAF turns ideas into action, nurtures new approaches, and clears the way for the wider adoption of critically needed new programs, policies and technologies.  More information can be found at www.toronto.ca/taf or www.FleetWise.ca.

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