It will, however, remain a one-off event.
It’s safe for us to say that no one expected this. The Nissan Leaf Open Car, which is as real as yesterday’s Honda Civic Type R Pickup truck, shows what happens when you take an electric five-door hatchback and remove its roof. What is the point of such an act by Nissan? To commemorate a significant sales milestone in Japan, where the deliveries of the pure electric hatch reached the nice round number 100,000.
The droptop Leaf was brought to you today by the same company that produced the controversial Murano CrossCabriolet. Around 100 people met in Tokyo to discuss setting up a zero-emission society. Nissan is keeping quiet about details about the targa-styled roofing (if it has one) as well as about the other modifications the hatchback underwent to become an EV-topless vehicle. It will be a unique concept, as Nissan has stated that it doesn’t plan to make the droptop production-ready. However, it is not likely that anyone would rush to buy one anyway.
The Leaf is a hatchback and a concept cabriolet. However, it is also a sedan when you consider that China will be getting a Silk Zero Emissions with its guts. The Leaf was revealed at the Beijing Motor Show exactly one month ago as Nissan’s first Chinese-made electric car. The Leaf will soon have a cross-platform counterpart in the form a road-going IMx Kuri concept. The company has not yet provided an exact date for the model’s launch but we know that it will be available “in a few more years.”