Hey everyone! Just joined; this is my first post.
@nanjaco: That Maryville Leaf may have been ours. We got our ocean blue Leaf on September 10th from Twin City Nissan in Alcoa, TN. Roger Wittman was a great salesman to work with! He loves the EV movement and was very enthusiastic about delivering another Leaf, not just selling another car.
We leased ours at $1,250 down, $390/month for 39 months with 15k per year. From what I've read it's a pretty good deal.
We are absolutely loving our Leaf!! It's my wife's car, really, for tooling around Maryville, taking the kids to school, soccer practice, etc, but whichever of us is driving the most each day takes it. Some days I drive to West Knoxville or Halls and I'll take the car if she is staying local. We try to save the most "household" gas that we can.
I ran the Tail of the Dragon in the Leaf on September 25th. It was 72 miles to the other end and back to my house, and the meter read 37 miles left! The Dragon was so perfect for the Leaf....moderate speeds and lots of coasting and braking...very easy to conserve and regenerate. However, I had my first bout of serious range anxiety about halfway through, with my son, out there in the middle of nowhere!
Away from home, I have only charged at work on 110v (I own the Sylvan Learning Centers in the area), but I discovered the following restaurants in Sevier County have chargers (which do not appear on Carwings, which is useless).
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I had my second bout of range anxiety when I drove to Oak Ridge this past weekend, planning to charge at a friend's house while we were out at a rifle range, but his house was 60 years old and the charger said "No Ground" when it was plugged in! We couldn't charge! My son and I made it home with 7 miles left on the car...had to drive quite slowly on the Pellissippi to make it. It was about 68 miles round trip.
We are really, really loving the car and the whole EV experience. The car gets a lot of positive attention and even a few sneers (this is talk radio country, after all), but it keeps people thinking and talking. I love that.