papayaparty
Member
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2019
- Messages
- 16
About 6 weeks ago, I got my brand new 62kWh e-plus delivered, and I've done about 3500km so far. I did an 8-day 2000km trip through western Japan, whose longest stretch was on the last day, a 450km ride from Kyoto back to Tokyo.
My impressions so far:
By the way, I don't have charging at home, and I don't use this car for commuting.
Feel free to ask me anything if you're considering getting this car.
My impressions so far:
- This is a pretty good solid car. The difference between 40kWh and 62kWh is huge, and for 2019 in Japan, I think this is the sweet spot in battery size.
- The motor is in paper more powerful than the non-e-plus version, but with the added weight from the additional battery, it felt pretty much the same as the non-e-plus version.
- In my 8-day ride through western Japan, I only needed to do one technical charging stop (that is, a stop whose main purpose is to charge the car). Apart from that, every time I charged the car, I was resting in a place where I would have stopped anyways.
- Most quick chargers in Japan are 40kW, 45 kW, 50kW or 55kW. One 30 minute charge gives around 30% to 35% worth of charge, but of course, as you get closer to 100% charging gets slower, so you get less charge per unit of time used.
- I never got below 40% battery charge, except on the last day, where I reached home with 14% charge left. With this car, with the charging infrastructure in Japan, range anxiety simply doesn't exist for me.
- Some places, like the parking near Matsuyama castle, or at Miyajima-guchi, have EV-only spots with charging., which I can use, even if the rest of the parking is full. That was nice.
- I've always monitored the battery temperature, and it almost always stood at the middle of the gauge. It only went to about 70% after a 450km ride from Kyoto to Tokyo. But this is in spring... I'm interested to know how it will work in the summer.
- Driving speed is crucial to making a charge give more range. It seemed like 120km/h consumed battery about twice as fast as 80km/h. I never had to force myself to drive slower to save battery though...
- I wouldn't buy a hypothetical Leaf with even more battery capacity as of 2019: more battery means more weight, which means more power consumption. This means that each charge will give less range. I can imagine how frustrating this must be for Tesla owners when they can't get to one of the very few superchargers available in Japan...
- However, there's a new generation of 90kW chargers. I tried the only one available in Kyoto, and it was freakin' awesome.
- I'm paying a flat fee of 2000 yen a month (18 US dollars) to charge as much as I want in public chargers. So the more I drive it, the less it costs to do so.
By the way, I don't have charging at home, and I don't use this car for commuting.
Feel free to ask me anything if you're considering getting this car.