Essiemme said:
Now that we are anxioulsy waiting for our Leafs, here in Europe, there is a big expectation, for sure.
Since some of you guys have received yours some days ago, I was wondering how are you feeling about this, have your entusiasm levels gone down, I mean, have you already lost this feeling we're now feeling ?
Does the Leaf still keep you excited, like making you feel like going out to drive it agains, and again ?
...is that, I feel I cannot wait any longer...
:roll:
Still enthusiastic. Yep. 19 days and 794 miles (1,278 km). It's still amazing that I'm meeting my basic transportation needs using a car running "solely" on the energy stored in a chemical battery. That right there is very cool. And it drives like a regular car and is a very smooth ride. The seats are terrible - leather and motor driven are needed as an option - but otherwise a VERY nice car. Nice job to all the folks at Nissan from the designers to the assembly line to the QC folks. Not stopping at a gas station or dealing with loooooooong gas lines (like some of us grey-hairs will remember from the 70's) is also a big plus. Cost of fuel is also nice (15% of my 2003 Volvo xc90) but don't forget we will need to replace the battery someday and it will not be inexpensive I imagine. Also, as Americans, we are spoiled with the low cost of fuel due to low fuel taxes here in the U.S. Europeans pay about 2.2 times the price Americans pay per volume of fuel.
Then it hits me that my emissions footprint is smaller (of course not zero when you consider the primary energy source and subsequent conversion to electricity to charge the car but some of the pitch is how the U.S. rates the vehicle as well). Now I'm not getting all holy about all electric cars and bashing anyone driving an ICE 'cuz I've been doing that for 37 years and still own one that I will keep using. No, rather, I'm just lucky enough to have stable employment that allows me to take this financial leap and geek enough to want to make it happen.
The one thing that I'm discovering is the viability of this vehicle as a function of use.
Example one: 80%+ of my driving is on the freeway. That has a MAJOR (read that again as MAJOR) impact on range due to the fact that in San Diego you can't go much slower than 65-68 mph (105-109 kph) on the freeway without it being a MAJOR hassle during peak commute hours. There are a few exceptions to this. One exception is if you are lucky enough to work in San Diego's Sorrento Valley and are commuting north on I-805 at say, oh, ANY time in the morning and you are moving at the typical 3 mph crawl (5 kph) MAX, you will get GREAT mileage as you are traveling so slow. The other exception is any other traffic congested freeway during commute hours.
Charging to 80% nightly, driving 56 miles (90 km), and running the climate control on auto just about got me to walking last WED night. In this distance I went from 75 mi (121 km) of range pulling out of my garage in the morning to "---" (read that as less than 6 mi - 10 km - of range left) as I pulled into my driveway that night. 10 of the last 17 miles (16 of the last 27 km) home I shut off the heater (it was 57degF, 14degC outside) to ease the, "holy crap, that unplanned long lunch run may be coming home to roost" moment. Of course the deal here is I could have done the typical 5-10 mi (8-16 km) lunch run but this was unplanned and just happened due to freeway exits as I was letting a friend demo drive the car. This may be saying I'm a 100% charge guy with my usage if I want to reduce the always having to plan my next days range issues (which after another few weeks will be old). It's fun playing with it for a while to see what the capabilities really are but at some point I'd rather this be a regular thing and not have to think about next day every night I go to bed. I did ask Nissan for a 90% (91.7% for 11 bars out of 12 max) charge limit but who knows if that will happen. Seems it could easily be a software push since the display showing the 100% or 80% options has plenty-o-room to add a 90%er (hello Carlos... I love you and love the LEAF, you have incredible vision, this is the best car on the entire planet, etc, etc... hint, hint, beg, beg, plead, plead, plead).
Example two: Driving mostly NOT on the freeway. You get GREAT range and operating efficiency. With lower speeds you don't have the air resistant to overcome (energy requirements to move through the air go up as the square of the vehicle speed). Going from 62 to 68.2 mph (100-110 kph) may be only a 10% increase in speed but it takes 20% more energy from the battery to move you at 68.2 mph than it does at 62 mph. Coupled with this phenomenon is the fact that the faster you pull the juice out of the battery the less juice the battery can deliver for a given charge (yeah, bummer I know). As I stated above, it's a challenge to go slow on the freeway here in San Diego. Coming down I-805 in the morning at 65 mph, nearly EVERY vehicle is going faster than I am. Yesterday (SAT) I drove 11 mi (18 km) north on I-5 from Del Mar Heights road to Leucadia Blvd and a bit east to a store and back home. My range dropped only 7 mi (11 km) to travel the 11 mi (18 km) to get there. The freeway was at a crawl at 10-15 mph (16-24 kph) the ENTIRE freeway drive due to an accident that, of course, was at the Leucadia exit where I was getting off. However, on the way home at my standard 65-68 mph (105-109 kph) freeway driving speeds it burned up 21 mi (34 km) to travel the SAME 11 miles (18 km). The freeway is a KILLER on range if you go with traffic flow in the 65-68 mph (105-109 kph) speed.... and if you go slower, a LOT of your time is spent looking in your mirror at the car behind you that you are holding up.
In summary, I'm very happy with this car but I may be needing to:
1. always charge to 100% to meet my needs (unless Nissan sees it fit to revise the charge control software to include the 90% set-point I asked them for).
2. figure out some way to change out the seats (leather and motor operated though with airbags in the seat seams this is slowly fading as a practical reality).
3. upgrade the music system... mid range and bass need some help in my book but it's not as plain as say, a 2003 Lexus IS300 (ugh).
Malcolm
