Restart problems in Leaf EV reported

Nissan Leaf AC glitch ties to the air-conditioning unit in this EV; Nissan probes a software bug or component fault. No recall yet; a service bulletin may follow. Reports span the United States and Japan.

Nissan Motor Co has received complaints from owners that its Leaf electric car on occasion fails to start, posing a potential setback for the automaker's goal of promoting zero-emission vehicles.

Japan's No.2 automaker said it was looking into the exact cause, which it traced back to the Leaf's air-conditioning unit. Nissan is investigating whether the glitch was in a certain component or the programming, spokesman Toshitake Inoshita said.

Nissan plans no recall for now since the issue does not affect safety, but, as green carmaker profitability is a priority this year, will decide how to proceed after identifying the source of the problem, he said.

"When we know the exact cause, we will decide whether to issue a service bulletin, or take other steps," Inoshita said.

He added that the phenomenon was reported in both the United States and Japan, where EV demand outstrips supply in several markets, although he did not have an exact figure for the number of complaints.

Nissan and its French partner Renault SA are aiming to become leaders in the nascent field of electric vehicles, which plug into an electric outlet to power the car's batteries and have no tailpipe emissions, and Nissan plans to mass-produce electric cars in 2012 as part of its strategy.

Nissan launched the five-seater Leaf in Japan and the United States in December, following an EV rollout at its new headquarters earlier that year. It sold more than 3,300 units in Japan as of February and delivered another 452 in the United States through March.

Production at Nissan's Oppama plant south of Tokyo, where the Leaf is made, resumed on a normal basis — from supplier-delivered parts — for the first time in a month, after it was halted by a devastating earthquake that rocked northeast Japan on March 11, even as Nissan plans to build Leaf EVs in the UK to diversify production.

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