Nissan LEAF UK Test Drives

[DeaneG]

Question for Mike or anyone here I guess. I believe LEAF comes with remote tire pressure monitoring; in the spec sheet= " (TPMS)" . Tire pressure certainly affects ride, handling and EV range. I haven't seen anything resembling tire pressure on any of the screen shots or vids so far. Did I miss that or is it just a light that comes on when any tire is low?

TPMS is federally mandated for all new cars made after September 2007. Often it's just an idiot light on the dash, plus a "reset" (calibration) button somewhere.

 

[thimel]

Mike,
Can you tell when the hydraulic brakes cut in to supplement the regenerative braking? How?
Thanks.

 

[johnr]

Excellent mini review, thanks Mike! My current car is a 2004 Hyundai Elantra. With speed-sensitive power steering, fairly stiff suspension, and less body roll than many cars in its class, it handles very well for the most part. In contrast, I really dislike the handling characteristics of the Ford Focus - it has too much body roll and the steering is too stiff at slow speeds. So, I wonder how the Leaf would compare to the Elantra. I read that the Leaf has very little body roll due to its center of gravity, and it also has speed-sensitive steering - sounds good so far.

 

[LEAFguy]

TPMS is federally mandated for all new cars made after September 2007. Often it's just an idiot light on the dash, plus a "reset" (calibration) button somewhere.

Nissan's system has no reset button. Sensors in the wheel read the pressure. When low, you will see an indication on the dash. Just add air. The system resets itself. Some upper-end Nissan's have had individual wheel pressure readout. I would expect the LEAF to just have a "low tire pressure" light, but I may be pleasantly surprised.

 

[lne937s]

Excellent mini review, thanks Mike! My current car is a 2004 Hyundai Elantra. With speed-sensitive power steering, fairly stiff suspension, and less body roll than many cars in its class, it handles very well for the most part. In contrast, I really dislike the handling characteristics of the Ford Focus - it has too much body roll and the steering is too stiff at slow speeds. So, I wonder how the Leaf would compare to the Elantra. I read that the Leaf has very little body roll due to its center of gravity, and it also has speed-sensitive steering - sounds good so far.

The European Focus is a different car than what we get in the US. The Euro model is on the same platform as the Mazda 3- so I would use that car for comparison.

 

[MikeBoxwell]

Good point about the Ford Focus - I forgot that the car you call the Ford Focus is based on an entirely different floorpan to the Ford Focus in Europe. Sorry!

As to the Hyundai Elantra, I've not tried one of those before, so I can't comment on a direct comparison. As I mentioned earlier in this post, manufacturers have different suspension settings for different countries to appeal to local tastes, so my experiences here in the UK are going to be very different to experiences other people have in different countries.

With regards to the braking, when you gently touch the brake pedal, it feels like pure regenerative braking. When you start pressing harder, the hydraulic brakes come in alongside the regenerative effect. The best way of describing it, I guess, is if you imagine that in a normal car the brake pedal has been engineered to give you an inch of play at the top of the pedal. If you press the pedal down less than an inch, you're getting little or no hydraulic braking and the braking effect on the LEAF comes from the motor slowing the car down and recharging the batteries. Press the pedal harder and you get both regen and hydraulic braking working side by side.

 

[garygid]

Through that "first inch" of the brake travel, does the amount of Regen braking gradually increase to some substantial "max" level?
(Perhaps as shown on the "energy-usage" screen.)

If it does, then essentially all non-abrupt braking can be done without using the mechanical brakes, right?

 

[Jimmydreams]

With regards to the braking, when you gently touch the brake pedal, it feels like pure regenerative braking. When you start pressing harder, the hydraulic brakes come in alongside the regenerative effect. The best way of describing it, I guess, is if you imagine that in a normal car the brake pedal has been engineered to give you an inch of play at the top of the pedal. If you press the pedal down less than an inch, you're getting little or no hydraulic braking and the braking effect on the LEAF comes from the motor slowing the car down and recharging the batteries. Press the pedal harder and you get both regen and hydraulic braking working side by side.

Mike....

Did you notice or do you know if there is an easy way to completely coast in the Leaf? I'm talking no regen or anything....like you put it in neutral while moving??

We have a lot of hills here, and a pure coast mode would be GREAT for maintaining speed and not playing footsie games with the gas/brake pedal to coast. The regen itself will be useful on some hills to generate energy while maintaining speed control, but on a low-grade hill, it might be a case of regen=slowing the car too much/gas pedal= car goes too fast.


I'm sure we're ntipicking at this point, because we can all get used to whatever is presented to us. Just curious is all. Thanks for the great write-ups!! very interesting and informative!!

 

[johnr]

Until Mike can weigh in on this, you don't mind if I share my 2 cents, do you? :lol:

Through that "first inch" of the brake travel, does the amount of Regen braking gradually increase to some substantial "max" level?
(Perhaps as shown on the "energy-usage" screen.)

Based on the various youtube videos I've seen, that seems to be the case.

Did you notice or do you know if there is an easy way to completely coast in the Leaf? I'm talking no regen or anything....like you put it in neutral while moving??

According to the review found here, apparently so. If I understand it right, light pressure on the go pedal effectively puts it in neutral, much like with the Prius:

...with careful feathering of the accelerator and at least one eye on the Leaf's built-in energy meter, ultra-efficient driving is possible. It's something Prius drivers have been doing for years, and it's called pulse-and-glide. In drive, the Leaf appears to respond well to the technique.

 

[garygid]

The "coast" spot on my 2010 Prius' go-pedal is very hard to maintain, typically impossible to avoid varying over and under the exact "sweet" spot.

If "coasting" is implemented on the accelerator, it really needs to be a "zone", not just a "spot".

 

[AndyH]

Did you notice or do you know if there is an easy way to completely coast in the Leaf? I'm talking no regen or anything....like you put it in neutral while moving??

I'm looking for this capability as well. I expect to be able to shift into neutral if nothing else.

 

[johnr]

Well, the shift knob does have a neutral position. Have you had a chance to try putting it in neutral while driving, Mike?

 

[AndyH]

Double check Chelsea's drive as well - she wrote about how regen works and talked about coasting.

 

[Gonewild]

Mike,
you said the -finish of the car looked good, but the car didn't have quite the same premium feel as the show cars that Nissan were using a few months ago. the car a few months back, it felt like a match for a BMW, Audi, Lexus or Mercedes. This car didn't. This felt like a competitor for a Honda, Ford or Toyota: still very good, but not premium.

Was it the shine of the paint or what did you mean? thanks

 

[mwalsh]

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1560838263027

http://www.dannyscontentment.net/2010/07/driving-the-nissan-leaf-ev/

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/news/new-models/2010-07/first-drive-nissan-leaf

 

[Jimmydreams]

I have yet to see a bad report on the Leaf. Sure, some pooh-pooh it's range and scream "it'll never work for the masses", but the test drives have all been positive.

I'm even MORE anxious to get this car!!! :mrgreen:

 

[mwalsh]

I'm even MORE anxious to get this car!!! :mrgreen:

The one reason I said would make me absolutely, positively, NOT get this car was if I lost my job. Now I'm going to get it no matter what...even if I have no income and need to pull the money out of my retirement account!

 

[LEAFfan]

The "coast" spot on my 2010 Prius' go-pedal is very hard to maintain, typically impossible to avoid varying over and under the exact "sweet" spot.

If "coasting" is implemented on the accelerator, it really needs to be a "zone", not just a "spot".

I have a Honda Civic GX (cng) and without my Scangauge II (let's me know right where to put the accelerator), it would be difficult to obtain the 40's mpg while city driving, so I'm hoping the LEAF makes this easy to do too.

 

[MikeBoxwell]

With regards to regenerative braking, the more you push the brake pedal, the more the regen works.

There is a very light regen when you just take your foot off the accelerator and just coast, but the car does roll quite nicely on its own, so you can coast for quite some distance and use the 'pulse and glide' driving approach to get maximum range.

With regards to the level of quality of the car, it is a mixture of various different things. The first cars I saw were show cars that were meticulously prepared and hand-built. Building and maintaining show cars costs a fortune and it is everything from the lustre of the paintwork to how well everything fits together. With hand-built cars, with each one being carefully built at whatever cost, the cars end up feeling extremely high quality.

The car I drove felt like it had come off a production line. The quality is still good, but it is not as good as a car that has been built in an R&D department over a period of weeks with absolutely everything checked, double checked, triple checked and signed off by the R&D Director!

The sad thing is - those hand built cars are probably the ones destined to be used for crash testing...

 

[mwalsh]

http://www.motors.co.uk/cars/reviews-and-best-buys/reviews/nissan-leaf