WSJ Leaf tester gets only 58 mile range

Hi Hill,

Welp, the GM Dogma machine is already out and cranking news stories. I really am having a hard time being Christian towards these people lately....

 

just like the prius, once they get large numbers out to the true believers, the real story will come out. ten years from now, all the posers will be jumping on the bandwagon. will the american mfg. stay in the race? i sure hope so.

 

Why is this news? When it's been -10c here I've been getting 35-40 mpg when taking short journeys with the heat on high. I know that in summer I get 50-70 mpg. Surely the Leaf will get more in summer time on a run.

Horses for courses.

p.s. I'm still toying with the idea off replacing the Prius with a Leaf for my job. Sure I'd lose out on range but I'd save the money in fuel. That's fuel which now costs £1.29 a litre (£4.90/ $7.56 US gallon).

I don't think I can continue to make the job viable at that petrol cost and the Leaf, using electricity which has a more stable prices, might indeed make it viable. Lord knows how my colleagues are managing with 'normal' cars.

 

do you have time to keep it charged?

 

~60 miles on a charge sounds like a realistic lower bound.
That isn't range anxiety, that is range planning for the depths of winter.

GM better be careful, the first reports of sub 20 mile EV range in the Volt are any day now. And while Volt fans can say "we got an ICE," the detractors will say "we do too, and it cost $20k less!!"

 

It's funny. When you read the responses, it's the same 'ol same 'ol. You would think that if one were capable enough to post a reply to an article, that he/she would AT LEAST be technically savvy enough to do some simple Googling. It's always the same stupid arguments about how Prius, Leaf, etc. are anemic and dangerous vehicles with impractical features. Frankly, even though I have been following the Leaf for as long as it has been getting reported, I took the drive with the intent of nitpicking any flaws I found. I ended up being blown away by the fit & finish and how well it handled. It totally exceeded my expectations.

 

It pretty much works out a pound£ a mile, so at the worst I would make £60 on a low charge day. I could pop home or preferably a free charge bay somewhere, charge up for 8 hours and then pop out later in the day if needed. The UK has 220v supply so charges much quicker than the US standard.

I'm sure I've read somewhere that the Leaf can get upto 130 miles in ideal conditions - low speed town traffic in mild temperature conditions. If I can get 80-100 miles a day out of a Leaf then I could break even compared to the Prius. I spend at least £5,000 a year in fuel and servicing which I wouldn't need with a Leaf.

It's so tempting but such a gamble if the range just doesn't happen. Ideally I'd have to borrow one for a day or two but that's unlikely.

 

One thing that the review made crystal clear is that Nissan did a great job of letting the driver know how much range was available. For all his yammering about how much less range he had than ideal conditions, it was clear that he knew where he stood from start to finish.

 

Unless you have something stouter than the standard 13 amp plug available you will need a new circuit in Britain too.

Most US houses built in the past 20 or so years have at least 200 amp 240 volt service to the house, so adding a 40 or 50 amp 240 volt charging circuit isn't much of a problem. 240 volt power is already normally used here for electric cooking, clothes dryers, central air conditioning and electric water heaters.

 

In cold weather - and high speed driving - people are reporting 22 to 25 miles EV range in Volt. About the same penalty as this guy got.

Preconditioning can increase the range - which the WSJ guy didn't do. Another thing to do is not drive in the fast lane @ 75mph - but in the middle lanes @60-@65mph.

As they say, speed kills. It kills the range.

 

should've pulled into a crackerbarrel.

 

Standard circuit in the UK is 240V with either a 3, 5 or 13A circuit rating. Given that the first gen LEAF can only charge at 3.3 kW max (~14A), I suspect that it will be easier in the UK to get the equivalent of a L2 charge than the US.

L3/QuickCharging will require the CHAdeMO plug (up to 50 kW or so) and the appropriate charging equipment. Would be very useful for Taxi use although Nissan does not recommend more than one quick charge per day otherwise battery life will suffer.

 

The standard domestic circuits in the UK are 230volts at 6/12/16/21/32/63amps the standard wall plug is 13amps (on a 32amp circuit) but 32amp plugs are available in weather proof fittings for external applications.