Of course, the original contest "concerns a hare and a slow-moving tortoise. The tortoise challenged the hare to a race. The hare soon left the tortoise far behind and, confident of winning, he decided to take a nap midway through the course. When he awoke, however, he found that his competitor, crawling slowly but steadily, had already won the race." And thus we have the Leaf, the new "affordable," zero-emission, four-door, all-electric city-car from Nissan. Keyword: affordable.

Nissan has been criticized for being slow to enter the green market -- they have only one hybrid vehicle in their fleet. Impressions to the contrary, Nissan has been hard at work "to leapfrog 'transitional' powertrain solutions like gas-electric hybrids in favor of genuine zero-emissions vehicles." The Leaf promises to be available in the U.S. next year at a price somewhere between $25,000 and $30,000 -- considerably less than the Chevy Volt. It will charge in eight hours at 220 volts providing a 100-mile range -- plenty for an urban or suburban errand runner for a family of five. The car is already being tested with real customers in Japan. Combine this with smart-grid technology to charge at off-peak hours, and you have an economical and green personal transportation solution.

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