I've been driving a leased Chevy Volt for the last 2 years. It's been great. I plug into my regular wall outlet when I get home at 7pm and hop in the car and leave for work with a full charge the next day around 9:00am.
I do a 42 mile round-trip Bay Area commute from San Jose to Palo Alto. I use highways 87 & 280 for most of it (bumper to bumper parking lot during rush hour but some days I get lucky and can do 40-60mph).
I make it to work and back with between 1-8 miles of charge left on the volts battery almost every time.
My wife's car is a dying 11yr old Subaru.
I'm thinking of giving her the Volt and getting a used 2013 Leaf SV. But everything I'm reading about battery degradation, super long charge times, and best practice being to charge the battery to only 80% have me wondering if a Leaf would work for my commute at all.
First of all will 14 hours of charge from my regular outlet give it the at least 55 miles of charge I'd want to feel comfortable leaving the house?
Having a level 2 station installed sounds like it wouldn't cost too much. And from what I understand both my Volt and Leaf could use the same station (just not at the same time) but then I read using it on a daily basis will damage the Leafs batteries unless I set up a complicated charging schedule that takes into account battery cool down, etc.
This all sounds crazy to me because I haven't had to worry about any of this with my Volt. I don't worry about where I park (sun or shade). I don't worry about when I plug it in. And I certainly don't think twice about charging it to "100%" and driving it down to zero every single day.
After two years and 26,000 miles it still performs better than the 38 mile range that was advertised.
By contrast I see lots of tales here of Leafs with 30,000 miles with 2-3 lost bars and a chart that tells me at 4 bars (the point T which Nissan is willing to do warranty replacement) the battery is only good for effectively 47 miles.
I'm not trying to Leaf bash or sell Volts.
Leaf prices are tempting right now. i've found a wealth of information on this site but honestly it's a lot to process and I'm not sure I've interpreted it all correctly.
The only thing I'm clear on is the Leaf is clearly a very different animal than the Volt.
I badly need a replacement for our rusted out ICE wagon. I'd love it if the Leaf could work for my commute as at present it seems like my only option for keeping us a 2 car household without breaking the bank.
Anyone have any experience with a similar commute in my area? Can I make it work and back or am I pushing the boundaries a bit too much?
I do a 42 mile round-trip Bay Area commute from San Jose to Palo Alto. I use highways 87 & 280 for most of it (bumper to bumper parking lot during rush hour but some days I get lucky and can do 40-60mph).
I make it to work and back with between 1-8 miles of charge left on the volts battery almost every time.
My wife's car is a dying 11yr old Subaru.
I'm thinking of giving her the Volt and getting a used 2013 Leaf SV. But everything I'm reading about battery degradation, super long charge times, and best practice being to charge the battery to only 80% have me wondering if a Leaf would work for my commute at all.
First of all will 14 hours of charge from my regular outlet give it the at least 55 miles of charge I'd want to feel comfortable leaving the house?
Having a level 2 station installed sounds like it wouldn't cost too much. And from what I understand both my Volt and Leaf could use the same station (just not at the same time) but then I read using it on a daily basis will damage the Leafs batteries unless I set up a complicated charging schedule that takes into account battery cool down, etc.
This all sounds crazy to me because I haven't had to worry about any of this with my Volt. I don't worry about where I park (sun or shade). I don't worry about when I plug it in. And I certainly don't think twice about charging it to "100%" and driving it down to zero every single day.
After two years and 26,000 miles it still performs better than the 38 mile range that was advertised.
By contrast I see lots of tales here of Leafs with 30,000 miles with 2-3 lost bars and a chart that tells me at 4 bars (the point T which Nissan is willing to do warranty replacement) the battery is only good for effectively 47 miles.
I'm not trying to Leaf bash or sell Volts.
Leaf prices are tempting right now. i've found a wealth of information on this site but honestly it's a lot to process and I'm not sure I've interpreted it all correctly.
The only thing I'm clear on is the Leaf is clearly a very different animal than the Volt.
I badly need a replacement for our rusted out ICE wagon. I'd love it if the Leaf could work for my commute as at present it seems like my only option for keeping us a 2 car household without breaking the bank.
Anyone have any experience with a similar commute in my area? Can I make it work and back or am I pushing the boundaries a bit too much?