Auto News 5

It's hard to avoid thinking of the Nissan Leaf when I first eye the Mercedes-Benz A-class E-cell outside of Valencia, Spain's dramatically modern City of Arts and Sciences. Even before the Leaf has landed in a buyer's hands, the first mass-market electric car has made itself an icon for battery-electric vehicles. Of course, it helps that the A-class is similarly shaped and sized, but the comparison of Leaf and E-cell also points out the fact that we're past the point where an electric car can impress on novelty alone. Nissan has set an aggressive benchmark in packaging, performance, and price, and anybody who wants to seriously compete in the electric-car market will have to challenge it on those terms.