First day impressions + plus spouse impressions

[mm2001]

I finally got a leaf. I was on the original wait list but the timing didn't work out. But Thursday we took delivery of a Slate SL with the Premium package (sound + cameras). My goal is for this car to replace my wife's Subaru Forester for her ~200 miles/week driving around town. Let's call my wife Jane.

Unfortunately, Jane's first impressions weren't good.... The short version is:

• "What do you mean I shouldn't turn on the AC (though its 59 degrees outside the car). I always run the car with AC. I like it."
• Range anxiety on steroids: We left with 65 miles range for a 15 mile trip (via freeway). By the time we got there, the range showed 27.
• Bose stereo didn't have the clarity or oomph she was expecting
• Gave up waiting for me to work out how to have Blink charge the car at a free station (don't have a card yet)

Now, just to be clear, Jane is being a really good sport about this! I viewing this more as an anthropological experiment and a view to how general ICE car drivers will react if/when they make the switch. Some observations:

• The range estimate in the Leaf is going to take some getting used to, especially by Jane. After we left the freeway, the range actually went UP for the next 3-5 miles of driving. (From 27 to 29!) I'm guessing this is all about high speed freeway driving vs low speed stop start suburbs driving, but it left Jane thinking "I have no idea when this is going to run out and I'm very uncomfortable!" (I read elsewhere that people call this the "guessometer" and I now see why!) I can see the one Blink station not too far from us getting a lot of use until Jane gets comfortable with the range.
• We're lucky to have charging stations around us (Bay area, CA). But it sure would be helpful for Blink + Chargepoint if they provided every Nissan dealer with a card and signup sheet so owners could have a card at the time of delivery. I figure it will be another week before a blink + chargepoint card arrive in the mail, and for reasons I don't quite comprehend, the apps for blink and chargepoint which (apparently) will avoid me needing the card, first require a card to complete registration(!). I stood at a Chargepoint station earlier in the day on the phone for 5 mins to get a "free" station unlocked and only managed to get Blink to work because I had a phone with a web browser so I could provide my credit card and get some magic code. I have to say that providing my credit card over and over again for free charges is annoying. (Don't get me wrong, I don't begrudge the service and I happily jumped through the hoops, but there is no way Jane would have bothered!).

Hope this is amusing / interesting to some!

 

[Publius]

I finally got a leaf. I was on the original wait list but the timing didn't work out. But Thursday we took delivery of a Slate SL with the Premium package (sound + cameras). My goal is for this car to replace my wife's Subaru Forester for her ~200 miles/week driving around town. Let's call my wife Jane.

Unfortunately, Jane's first impressions weren't good.... The short version is:

• "What do you mean I shouldn't turn on the AC (though its 59 degrees outside the car). I always run the car with AC. I like it."
• Range anxiety on steroids: We left with 65 miles range for a 15 mile trip (via freeway). By the time we got there, the range showed 27.
• Bose stereo didn't have the clarity or oomph she was expecting
• Gave up waiting for me to work out how to have Blink charge the car at a free station (don't have a card yet)

Now, just to be clear, Jane is being a really good sport about this! I viewing this more as an anthropological experiment and a view to how general ICE car drivers will react if/when they make the switch. Some observations:

• The range estimate in the Leaf is going to take some getting used to, especially by Jane. After we left the freeway, the range actually went UP for the next 3-5 miles of driving. (From 27 to 29!) I'm guessing this is all about high speed freeway driving vs low speed stop start suburbs driving, but it left Jane thinking "I have no idea when this is going to run out and I'm very uncomfortable!" (I read elsewhere that people call this the "guessometer" and I now see why!) I can see the one Blink station not too far from us getting a lot of use until Jane gets comfortable with the range.
• We're lucky to have charging stations around us (Bay area, CA). But it sure would be helpful for Blink + Chargepoint if they provided every Nissan dealer with a card and signup sheet so owners could have a card at the time of delivery. I figure it will be another week before a blink + chargepoint card arrive in the mail, and for reasons I don't quite comprehend, the apps for blink and chargepoint which (apparently) will avoid me needing the card, first require a card to complete registration(!). I stood at a Chargepoint station earlier in the day on the phone for 5 mins to get a "free" station unlocked and only managed to get Blink to work because I had a phone with a web browser so I could provide my credit card and get some magic code. I have to say that providing my credit card over and over again for free charges is annoying. (Don't get me wrong, I don't begrudge the service and I happily jumped through the hoops, but there is no way Jane would have bothered!).

Hope this is amusing / interesting to some!

Your wife's reaction sounds a lot like my wife's initial response to driving the car (we got it in the winter, which made the guess-o-meter that much more inaccurate and I'm not even going to go into the situation with using the heater). The sooner you can get her to ignore the guess-o-meter the better, and I wouldn't worry too much about using the AC if that's important to her unless you need to maximize the range-- the AC doesn't affect range as much as the heater. I'll bet that she'll learn to enjoy driving the car and get over the range anxiety issue soon. Best of luck!

 

[mhigley]

My wife started out with small trips and now she takes the car all the time. We totally ignore the GOM.

Congrats on your LEAF!

 

[abasile]

Congratulations on the new LEAF! I am sure your wife will feel much better once she learns to rely on more accurate indicators of battery charge status, specifically the bars of charge and the SOC percentage, rather than putting faith in the guess-o-meter (GOM). IMHO, this is just part of the learning curve for any electric car, especially the electric cars within the price range of "regular" people.

Besides driving fast, another explanation for your low GOM reading could be hill climbing, as the car projects its remaining miles as if you are going to continue hill climbing. I live in the mountains and have to climb almost 5000 feet in altitude to return home. My GOM readings are typically in the low single digits by the time I pull into my driveway. But am I worried? No. I know from looking at my SOC (provided by a "gid meter" in my 2011 LEAF) that I actually still have an okay margin of charge. My wife has become quite practiced at this as well.

 

[Nubo]

I wouldn't worry too much about using the AC if that's important to her unless you need to maximize the range-- the AC doesn't affect range as much as the heater.

Yes, the efficiency of the AC was one pleasant surprise when I got the car. And especially if it's already cool outside, the AC is going to be doing very, very little work and consuming only a sliver of energy. And the dehumidification can help avoid or reduce the amount of heating needed to keep the windows clear.

 

[thankyouOB]

tarzan, get a small piece of black tab and cover the GOM, or a tiny sticky.
then, you got it covered.

 

[Herm]

We really need a guidometer that uses your long term economy (3.7m/kWh) and the remaining guids to calculate remaining miles to zero, not a display of guids or percentage remaining, those are too nerdy.. you can edit the economy factor as desired and dont forget to put a piece of electrical tape to cover the GOM. If you want to get fancy also display your instantaneous range, but in smaller graphics so it does not get too distracting. So much angst over this issue in the last two years.

 

[abasile]

We really need a guidometer that uses your long term economy (3.7m/kWh) and the remaining guids...

GUIDs? Are you by chance a Windows programmer? :lol:

 

[nosuchthing]

The simple guide for Jane:

Every charge bar represents 6.5 freeway miles (the 1st one a bit less)

The last 2 bars represent 10 miles each. Once those are gone and you get
3 blinking lines she has roughly 4-6 freeway miles left.

Then onto the turtle zone. 1-2 miles at 35 mph forced.

Tell her to just watch the bars, not the GOM. It's easy to calculate what's
remaining.

 

[mm2001]

Many thanks for all the advice and comments! Glad this is not just my situation

I'm wondering if its worth charging to 100% for the first few weeks to help mitigate range anxiety. In all likelihood she'll never get close, but having the numbers all a bit higher are likely worth the extra 0.05c/kWHr I'll pay to keep it up there (though still trickle charging in off peak hours (9pm - 10am), so I may not get a full charge each night).

 

[planet4ever]

I'm wondering if its worth charging to 100% for the first few weeks to help mitigate range anxiety.

I recommend a two-step remedy for range anxiety:

1. Using the top left button in the 2x2 cluster to the left of the steering wheel, change the display in the bottom center of the dash to show state of charge - xx% inside the outline of a battery. Assuming you have just charged (to 80% or 100%), press the bottom left button to reset the trip odometer.
2. Go for a long pleasure drive with your wife, watching the % charge. Drive at least until all twelve blue and white bars on the right side of the dash disappear and the "GOM" displays three dashes instead of a number. You will want to be within a few miles of home or a charging station when you reach that point.

If you should get caught with three dashes more than two or three miles from a charging station, drive slowly. At a constant 30 mph you could probably squeeze another 8 miles out of it, maybe a little more.

Once you know what the car can do without running out of electricity you will be much less anxious, guaranteed.

Ray

 

[cwerdna]

We really need a guidometer that uses your long term economy (3.7m/kWh) and the remaining guids to calculate remaining miles to zero, not a display of guids or percentage remaining, those are too nerdy..

WattsLeft (http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=269771#p269771" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false almost does that. It'll give you an estimate based upon 3.5 miles/kwh, 4.0 miles/kwh, etc. until LBW, VLBW, and turtle. It has lots of other "nerdy" stuff though.

Do utilize Tony's range chart and forget the GOM. As I've heard from other Leafers, the GOM (and audible warnings) can cause unnecessary range anxiety.

 

[supra410]

We've had ours a little over a month and 1300 miles. The misses was so focused on the gom reading that I made her pull over one day. I finished the last 10 miles of our journey. The car read 35 miles on gom. I took the scenic route and the gom didnt budge but 1 mile for the remainder of the trip. The light bulb finally went off in her head realizing the distance is merely the cars calculation of the current driving style. Another thing I did, was show her how far we could go with a mix of 70mph+ and a bit of light driving. I took it down to low batt warn just so she could see it's true range in "speed demon" mode. Also, I showed her what a HUGE difference driving conservatively makes for the range. Right now she's really into making trees. Bottom line, the car is definately capable of handling the old ICE driving habbits we have, but is better suited for that driving Miss Daisy style of driving. I'm sure terrain is a huge factor, but I tend to do better in drive than eco as the cars momentum is easier to maintain with very light acceleration. You both will have to play with it. Hope you enjoy your Leaf as much as we do...

 

[mm2001]

Thanks for the many suggestions. I'll be taking it quietly with Jane over the next couple of weeks. For now my current strategies are:

• charging to 100% on the weekend as we have lots of off-peak electricity, and are also likely to drive further
• Using the car for all family trips
• Recruited my daughter to help 'sell' it
• Won't push the energy saving strategies too much to start with ("Why should I change the way I drive?"), though just mentioning the "blue bubble" meter got her attention
• got all her music onto Google Play so she can pair via BT with her phone and enjoy her favourite tunes (her ICE car is filled with CDs, both commercial and burned from iTunes)
• worked out how to disable the talking navigator
• told her to use the A/C whenever she wants (see original post)

Meanwhile, I've been having a blast driving the car! I took it up a big hill near our house last night and watched the GOM plummet. Then driving home it barely moved at all (except up a few miles). And its incredibly zippy if you ignore range!

Not sure how long we can survive on the trickle charger ... and it might be a pain to upgrade. Our breaker box is full (adding solar 3 years ago tipped it over) and the line to the (standalone) garage is regular 110. I *might* be able to remove the 240v dryer circuit (we have a gas dryer now) and send it to the garage instead, but if I'm understanding everything correctly, that will be a 30A circuit, so I won't get the full 6.6 charge. (I might be limited by the overall breaker bus of 150A so can't run a higher amp circuit ...). Anyhow, that's the next expense ... having an electrician stop by for a quote ... :|.

Thanks again for all the advice!

 

[thankyouOB]

took a 60-mile drive, almost all freeway with the spouse, to the theater yesterday.
it was a play called the nether about pedophilia and murder in a virtual world.
on the way, I reminded her that I would drive more slowly than some of the traffic, and that I would be counting miles per bar to see that we would "make it."

"Please dont tell me again about how the EV works. I get it. this is not my first ride with you in it. that stuff is really boring."

hmmm. seems she gets it.
but that eliminates a whole line of possible conversation. good thing there was the play to talk about on the way home.

 

[mm2001]

"Please dont tell me again about how the EV works. I get it. this is not my first ride with you in it. that stuff is really boring." hmmm. seems she gets it. but that eliminates a whole line of possible conversation. good thing there was the play to talk about on the way home.

LOL, I can imagine having that exact conversation! My teenage daughter is far more interested, so far, but I'm sure that too will change

 

[thankyouOB]

"Please dont tell me again about how the EV works. I get it. this is not my first ride with you in it. that stuff is really boring." hmmm. seems she gets it. but that eliminates a whole line of possible conversation. good thing there was the play to talk about on the way home.

LOL, I can imagine having that exact conversation! My teenage daughter is far more interested, so far, but I'm sure that too will change

she likes the car and drives mostly her avant.
if she says she gets it, she gets it. she has a degree from an ivy league university.

though i would really know she got it, if she drove it on a 60-mile trip.

 

[teichholtz]

Hmmm, seems like a bunch of us are married to the same woman! I thought there were a bunch of shirts in the closet that I did not recognize.

I have had my SL for two weeks. When I went to do the test drive I brought my wife since I thought she would be sold on it after a drive. She did not drive it but said something that made a lot of sense. She said 'I have enough anxiety getting to places with traffic/time constraints/etc. Do you really want to add in a range component"?

Most of her driving would fall into a 80 mile day but there are a few that would not. She drives a Honda Civic Hybrid BTW.

I have a 50 miles round trip commute. I charge for free at work, drive home, do not plug it in, drive to work and plug in. Probably the reverse of what most people do. I did have a day last week with a doctor appointment that caused me to pull up to the charger with the GOM at 19.

Heat? The second day I owned it I turned the frigging heat on (to 64, I like it a bit cooler in a car) and let it stay on. It was low 30's one day last week, heat,on, heated leather seats on, heated steering wheel on and listening to the Met Opera on the Bose. Oh, and blasting down the Mass Pike at 75. Quiet, comfortable. This, my friends, is the future.

The suggestion to display the percentage of the battery is good. I have been doing that. Is there a way to make that the default?

 

[planet4ever]

I *might* be able to remove the 240v dryer circuit (we have a gas dryer now) and send it to the garage instead, but if I'm understanding everything correctly, that will be a 30A circuit, so I won't get the full 6.6 charge.

So what?? Let's say you have driven nearly 40 miles today and want to put 12 kWh into the battery to recharge it.

Trickle charge: About 12 hours. That's what you are up against right now.
30A EVSE on a 40A circuit: About 2 hours. This is your sweet dream.
20A EVSE on a 30A circuit: About 3 hours. Think you could live with how "terribly slow" that is?

Ray

 

[thankyouOB]

The simple guide for Jane:

Every charge bar represents 6.5 freeway miles (the 1st one a bit less)

The last 2 bars represent 10 miles each. Once those are gone and you get
3 blinking lines she has roughly 4-6 freeway miles left.

Then onto the turtle zone. 1-2 miles at 35 mph forced.

Tell her to just watch the bars, not the GOM. It's easy to calculate what's
remaining.

miles per bar vary from battery to battery.
i used to get 6.5, not anymore.