Leaf Owners to Be Monitored by Nissan

Becoming owner of the world's first mass produced EV will bring with it not only the feeling of being a pioneer, but also a few more responsibilities than you bargained for. Essentially, the way your car behaves and the way you drive it will form the basis for the next generation electric vehicles.

Nissan, in an attempt to keep things under control (and because it did not test the Leaf properly with real users before launching the model), will fit the Leaf with a monitoring system.

The Carwings telematics system (a subscription-based service connected to a global data center) will be used by the carmaker to provide competitive rankings for energy use. It will monitor and report daily, monthly and annual figures related to distance traveled, electricity consumption and average miles per kilowatt-hour (kWh).

According to Inside Line, the coolest thing about Carwings is that you will know, at your request, what the other Leaf drivers are up to and what they have been able to do with their cars.

Using something which looks like a game, or a competition between Leaf drivers, the data will be compiled into a ranking which will give the driver with the best score in miles per kWh the honor of ranking first.

A prize of some sorts for the winner has not yet been announced by Nissan, but the manufacturer did say that the first 36 months of the Carwimgs subscription would be free of charge.

The Leaf is already present on some streets in the US and Japan, with more countries to join the race in the year to come.