Nissan Leaf electric car hit with starting problems

The much-anticipated Nissan Leaf battery-powered sedan has been hit with its first mechanical malfunction, acknowledged over the weekend at headquarters in Japan, a problem affecting an unspecified number of vehicles that can prevent the vehicle from restarting.

According to Nissan, the problem resides in a sensor in the air conditioning system. If the sensor is activated “it will illuminate a warning light on the instrument panel” and the may prevent the car from restarting once it’s been shut down.

Nissan described the number of vehicles affected as “a small number.” The Japanese automaker said it is investigating to discover the “root cause” of the failures and what actions to take. So far Nissan hasn’t issued a recall because the malfunction has no bearing on vehicle safety.

But the number has to be small simply because the number of Leafs sold so far is small. Leaf went on sale globally in December; only 452