Can I reliably make a 65-mile drive?

[DaveinOlyWA]

when i did my Seattle trip at 57 mph i actually had some company in the slow lane but only because gas prices are back on the rise. when gas was $3.25 a few weeks ago, the slow lane was pretty lonely. when gas was $4.20 two months ago, the slow lane was packed!

trust me; the slow lane will fill up again.

 

[SanDust]

Yesterday it was 61.2 miles. About 40 miles was freeway at less than 65 MPH. LBW didn't appear but it was imminent (usually shows up at 8 miles and that's the range I had left). Temps around 70F.

Unlike Tony I'm not seeing any decrease in range. It's been stable for quite some time. My guess is that the increased driving efficiency is offsetting lost capacity in the battery.

Still not buying the idea the Leaf will work reliably for a 65 mile commute for the vast majority of drivers.

 

[vegastar]

Sometimes I have to do two 50 km (31 miles) trips in the same day, and with a 80% charge (my degraded battery has 215 gids@80% charge) I arrive with 50-55 gids (almost at LBW). No freeway, just roads with 90km/h (55mph) speed limit.

I have come to the conclusion that I can always arrive to the destination, its just a matter of speed. Last sunday I made a 40km (25 miles) trip from 60 gids to 36 gids (24 gids, or 8.5% of a new battery). Before somenone says that it is impossible, I have to say that of those 40km, 6 km were 500m downhill (around 1500 feet) where I gained 16 gids. The part with no elevation loss was 34km (21 miles) wich were made with 40 gids (or 14% of a new battery capacity). The speed: 55km/h (35mph) limited by the cruise control.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Sometimes I have to do two 50 km (31 miles) trips in the same day, and with a 80% charge (my degraded battery has 215 gids@80% charge) I arrive with 50-55 gids (almost at LBW). No freeway, just roads with 90km/h (55mph) speed limit.

I have come to the conclusion that I can always arrive to the destination, its just a matter of speed. Last sunday I made a 40km (25 miles) trip from 60 gids to 36 gids (24 gids, or 8.5% of a new battery). Before somenone says that it is impossible, I have to say that of those 40km, 6 km were 500m downhill (around 1500 feet) where I gained 16 gids. The part with no elevation loss was 34km (21 miles) wich were made with 40 gids (or 14% of a new battery capacity). The speed: 55km/h (35mph) limited by the cruise control.

this is the correct conclusion!~! it is a small concession made to drive EV and more than worth it imho~!!

My Seattle trip described above i made it with more than 20 miles to spare mostly because it was Summer. in Winter, i would make it also but with 5-8 miles to spare but if I had to go farther, I would just lower my speed to whatever i needed to get the job done.

I have done trips at speeds as low as 53 MPH and I am more tnan ok with it.

*its better than walking
* its better than supporting foreign oil
* its better than knowing i am playing a part in GCC, health, environmental or financial issues
* its better than buying gas!!

it is simply BETTER!!