user 20964
Member
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2017
- Messages
- 19
I've been lurking for awhile trying to get all the information I could before deciding to purchase a Leaf. I've been researching electric and hybrid vehicles for the past few years but my car, a 2009 Mazdaspeed 3 still had plenty of life left in it. Finally decided that the value of my current car was about equal to a pre-owned Leaf and jumped at the chance. My commute is only 20 miles/day round trip and I had only accumulated 45,000 on my car in nine years, so I felt like I was the perfect target for a shorter range car like the Leaf. The downside, in living in Montgomery, Alabama there is not a lot of charging infrastructure yet, but I would almost always be charging at home anyway.
I found a 2015 Leaf S with QC Port in Newnan, Georgia. A one owner lease turn-in and decided to make the trip (about 120 miles) for a test drive and possible purchase. It has just over 20,000 miles and 12 bar battery capacity (I'm waiting on my Elm device for LeafSpy) and is in decent shape. Took the test drive and loved it but my biggest anxiety was getting it back to Montgomery. There was only one DC Fast Charger on route at a Georgia rest stop (awesome by the way as it is solar powered, free and donated by Kia), but it still left me with about 70 miles to get back home.
The first leg went great and I drove pretty normally, as the 70 mile speed limit on I-85 (with everyone passing me) and we stopped and got lunch then went to the charger for a quick charge. Once I figured out the charger we had a nice lunch and talked to several folks that were curious about the Leaf. We then started on the 70 mile leg of the trip and I had only one L2 charger available at a Nissan dealer about half way so we planned on stopping there as well just to be safe.
I managed to get behind a semi that was doing around 65 and I pretty much stayed behind him the whole way and as we got to halfway point the big decision was stop or don't stop, but at that point it looked like we would have about 9 miles in reserve when we got home, but definitely felt a lot of range anxiety. We went for it anyway, and were about 6 miles from home when the low battery alert went off and then the range meter went to ---- and that made me very nervous!
We made it home with one bar remaining and 20.5 hours to recharge (120v). I've already ordered a juicebox L2 charger and looking for a local electrician for the outlet, but until then the trickle charger will have to do.
Ironically, in the middle of the night last night, the first night I'm charging our new electric car, the power goes out in the whole area for about 2 hours! We never have power outages, so this was especially entertaining.
I hope to learn a lot from on the folks on this forum. The research I've done already has been so helpful.
Thanks everyone!
I found a 2015 Leaf S with QC Port in Newnan, Georgia. A one owner lease turn-in and decided to make the trip (about 120 miles) for a test drive and possible purchase. It has just over 20,000 miles and 12 bar battery capacity (I'm waiting on my Elm device for LeafSpy) and is in decent shape. Took the test drive and loved it but my biggest anxiety was getting it back to Montgomery. There was only one DC Fast Charger on route at a Georgia rest stop (awesome by the way as it is solar powered, free and donated by Kia), but it still left me with about 70 miles to get back home.
The first leg went great and I drove pretty normally, as the 70 mile speed limit on I-85 (with everyone passing me) and we stopped and got lunch then went to the charger for a quick charge. Once I figured out the charger we had a nice lunch and talked to several folks that were curious about the Leaf. We then started on the 70 mile leg of the trip and I had only one L2 charger available at a Nissan dealer about half way so we planned on stopping there as well just to be safe.
I managed to get behind a semi that was doing around 65 and I pretty much stayed behind him the whole way and as we got to halfway point the big decision was stop or don't stop, but at that point it looked like we would have about 9 miles in reserve when we got home, but definitely felt a lot of range anxiety. We went for it anyway, and were about 6 miles from home when the low battery alert went off and then the range meter went to ---- and that made me very nervous!
We made it home with one bar remaining and 20.5 hours to recharge (120v). I've already ordered a juicebox L2 charger and looking for a local electrician for the outlet, but until then the trickle charger will have to do.
Ironically, in the middle of the night last night, the first night I'm charging our new electric car, the power goes out in the whole area for about 2 hours! We never have power outages, so this was especially entertaining.
I hope to learn a lot from on the folks on this forum. The research I've done already has been so helpful.
Thanks everyone!