A Year and a Half With a Nissan Leaf (Part 2): The Summer Drive

I do agree that the Leaf could benefit from more range, of course. Although it should be able to handle your commute in the summer without an extra charge. In the winter it would be a stretch, especially with the heater running.

The Tesla is an awesome car, if you can afford it.

I could be proven wrong, but it doesn't feel anywhere near that bad. Also, it has to work a lot harder in 100F+ heat. It's a really good system, but it's also a relatively small cabin. Compared to my previous Jeep Grand Cherokee or Volvos it's performance isn't really noteworthy. It's definitely not worse, but I'd be hard pressed to claim it's substantially better either.

My commute to the office is 5 miles each way. So the Leaf is about perfect for me. I still take the 20+ mile trip (each way) downtown, or up to the suburbs to visit friends on weekends without any worries.

Another guy at the office who also has a Leaf has a 30 mile commute (each way), and he's also on the trickle charger. A few close calls early on, but he seemed to adjust to it pretty quick.

BTW, 60 miles round trip is pretty extraordinary for a commute. Even in the sprawling sub-sub-suburbs of TX. I'd guess that the Leaf would work fine for more people than not on a commuting basis. But that's just my gut.

The only frustrating thing I've run into is the high cost of DC Quick Charger subscriptions (none of the ones deployed around here are pay-by-the-minute, you have to be a member). I didn't drop a $200/month gas bill just to pay $80/month for a Quick Charger membership I'd only use once a month at best.

It might be worth it if there were any quick-chargers between Dallas and Houston so I could visit family in Galveston, but there's absolutely nothing, and even if the state gets around to putting Level2 chargers in at rest-stops, who's going to want to stop twice for 4 hours each at rest-stops along the way? That'd turn a 5 hour trip into 14.

So we take my wife's SUV instead. As a two-car family with a short commute the Leaf really isn't much of a compromise at all. I'm about to buy a Level2 charger for home, but it's not really necessary. It's more about once-in-a-blue-moon convenience of a very busy weekend and getting to leave the SUV in the driveway. Plus the 30a chargers are (I gather) a lot more efficient than the trickle charger.

Statistically speaking, such long commutes are unusual. However comments like this create the impression that an electric car with ~80 miles range is a toy. I think 80 mile range is plenty for a commuter car.

Only 15% of commuters have one-way commutes longer than 30 miles, according to http://www.statisticbrain.com/commute-statistics/.

Just my two cents.

Oh, get over yourself. Some people like cars. I commute to work every day on a bike too, and you know what, my family _also_ owns a car. How am I going to get my 6-month-old to his doctor's appointment with a bike? That would need a bus or a cab. No thank you. Bike's aren't appropriate for everything, but this car will take care of everything you need it to as long as you don't leave the city with it. I don't really like leaving the city. But for the rare time I'd need to, I'm sure renting a Lexus with the gas savings would be acceptable.

That's true in an unregulated motor, but Nissan electronically regulates the motor so the torque isn't ridiculous at 0rpm. The torque curve ends up being flat over most of the range, and it seems to start falling off around 50mph. I haven't seen a plot, so that's just my impression. I can see how the wording is incorrect, so I modified it to refer specifically to the Leaf's motor.

> No documentation I have found states it has a CVT.

You're right. Fixed.

I don't participate. I figure I'm already doing my part to save the environment, and the measly extra kWh I'd save in a month by driving like that isn't worth it. I'd rather have some fun. I do drive 55 on the beltline, but that's the speed limit. I'd only get to my destination a minute faster by going 60.

There's nothing about the car itself that limits driving normally. Even in ECO mode all of the acceleration is there. It's just farther up the accelerator.

* Slow acceleration can use more energy than "normal" acceleration (engine efficiency). * 45mph is a good speed in an EV (faster results in too much drag) * 35mph gives relativly little more range than 45mph

I'd peg it about the same as my wife's old Volvo S40 T5. The 0-40 is very spunky. Much more than your average car IMO. The only time it feels sluggish is highway (65mph+) passing, but even then not slow-er than your average non-turbo hatchback. Just back down to less thrilling levels.

Also I've run into more than a few wall plugs that weren't up to snuff according to my charging adapter so there's some risk there too.

I wouldn't recommend buying a Leaf for your situation unless you were able to rent / borrow one and do your commute with it for at least a few days (preferably in unfavorable temperatures if your climate has them) to be sure it'll work out.

So they can use renewable energy and their engines are energy efficient -but who cares?

It's challenging to find an objective arbiter of taste on cars. I happen to like the look.

> slow

I presume you mean something like "doesn't have as much power (and thus less acceleration) as my preferred style of car".

That may well be true, but it's completely irrelevant to me how fast a car accelerates. Most of my time is spent at the speed limit (+8mph).

> and expensive

Well that is just ill informed. Prius consistently comes out on top (it's the cheapest) on total cost of ownership studies. And that's in the US, with its ridiculously low gas tax.

The relative cheapness of a Prius is much more obvious in cultures that don't abhor Pigovian taxation.

I thought it was ugly as well before, but it grows on you. Honestly I think it's more of a familiarity thing.

It's far from slow. It's faster than most hatchbacks in it's price range for city driving. You get a loaded Leaf for ~$27K (off the top of my head, after tax-credit). Anything faster is going to be in the same ball-park if not more (ie: VW GTi).

I bought it because it saved me several hundred dollars a month and I've always liked hatchbacks. After test-driving it I was pleasantly surprised at just how much fun it was.

Honestly I never considered it until a co-worker came back from a test-drive raving about it. Then I spent a few seconds thinking about it and realized it actually made some sense for my short commute.

Looks are subjective. I think they're not ugly, not the prettiest cars either. As a motorcyclist all cars feel slow. Most people don't need a high-performance car. They might be expensive today, but you need to take into consideration lower usage costs.

Ugly? They can't be uglier than, say, an FSO or a Dacia :) .

Slow? Many cars are slower than a Prius (I drive a Renault Twingo). See also http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130725164108AA...

Expensive? Yes. That's the dealbreaker for me, otherwise I'd buy one in a heartbeat.

- It's quick enough to merge onto any highway around Boston safely, without waiting at on-ramps. I don't notice it being slow, and my previous car was a BMW 330.

- it's more than big enough for my wife, 2 young kids and 90lb dog to take on a weekend trip (with all our stuff.)

- I drive it as hard as I can, and it consistently gets 42 mpg average in mixed city/highway. It's cheap as hell to run.

- It's really nice inside, with lots of gadgets that most cars didn't have 5 years ago (like auto-dimming mirrors, reverse cameras, bluetooth, etc)

- I bought it used, but new it was roughly the same price as a similarly sized and equipped (as in, not base model) conventional engined sedan.

I'll agree, it is sort of ugly, but the new ones are much nicer, and actually one of the nicer looking non-performance cars on the market, in my opinion.

Cringed.