‘Tis the Season to Be Leafy: Nissan Makes Christmas Tree out of Leaf EV

To spread some seasonal joy, Nissan dressed up one of their Leaf EVs in thousands of LED lights and turned it into a glowing, traveling Christmas tree. The lights, powered by the Leaf’s onboard battery, showcases the vehicle’s regenerative braking system that recovers energy normally lost as heat. With regenerative braking, the Leaf/Christmas tree can keep shining bright while also meeting its mileage range.

Nissan provides this explanation for their innovative braking system in their press release:

“Two driving functions provide energy regeneration in the Nissan LEAF. The Nissan LEAF e-Pedal allows the driver to start, accelerate, decelerate and stop using only the accelerator pedal. The e-Pedal also helps the car to harvest energy via regenerative braking. This works by recycling the energy from the movement of the car during braking or deceleration, which then goes straight back to the batteries, where it is used to recharge them. Meanwhile, B mode is a driving function that regenerates energy under braking, with drivers using the traditional brake pedal as normal.”

According to Nissan, the Leaf can regenerate 744 kWh of clean energy in 18,000 kms of driving. This much energy can power up:

• 266 Christmas trees with 700 incandescent lights for a full hour of joy
• 297 ovens for one hour to cook your Christmas dinner
• 744 televisions for five hours to watch your favorite Christmas movies
• 10,783 houses with 1,000 LED lights for five hours