Looking at 2015 Leafs

I'm in Atlanta, GA and I have a 52 mile commute total (26 miles each way). My office has a level two charger but it's $1 an hour and I'd rather not use it.

I've been reading through some threads and I'm concerned about heat and the longevity of the battery. I'm used to driving my car into the ground and getting 150k to 200k miles from it. However, I saw the thread about battery pack cooling and people saying the pack will be dead by the time six years is up on the warranty.

Also, my commute is all stop and go. It takes an hour and a half to go that 26 miles. I have a five mile stretch of 55 mph, but the rest is accelerate/break and repeat ad nauseum.

Is the Leaf feasible for my commute and how long can I expect the battery to last before I'd have to replace it?

The stop and go driving and low, limited highway speeds actually work in your favor. Still, after six years of hot summers (it's the ambient heat that degrades most Leaf packs, not stress from driving) we can't promise that you'll still be happy with the range. Look only at cars that resided in cooler climates, like the Pacific Northwest.

The LEAF is feasible for your commute because range is longer in stop/go driving than on the highway. Your climate is warm enough to make battery deterioration over time a legitimate concern. My commute is 52 miles roundtrip (26 each way) and mostly highway. I made my roundtrip commute with normal A/C use in the 2011 when it was down to 8 capacity bars before Nissan replaced the battery, but there was almost no energy left in the battery when I arrived home each evening. I suspect I will need to replace the original battery in the 2015 after 5 years if I still need to make the 52-mile roundtrip commute without charging (compared to 28 months on the original battery in the 2011).

You could consider a 30 kWh LEAF (2016 or later SV or SL or S30) because they have 8-year, 100,000-mile capacity warranty. Based upon reports on the forum, the 30 kWh battery may have higher capacity loss due to heat than the 2015 24 kWh battery, but they have higher capacity to start with and longer capacity warranty.

Edited to add: I recommend an SV or SL because the heat pump takes less energy for heating and defrost in mild climates.

Can you run the defroster and heater while plugged in so it does use the battery?

Yes, although if you are plugged in to 120 volts (L-1) there will be a net loss of charge. At 20 amps or more of 240 volt (L-2) charging you can do what you want, which I assume is preheat the car without losing charge.

You can either preheat or precool while plugged in. You will need Level 2 charging to recharge fully overnight so you can use preheat or precool without worry using L2.

LeftieBiker said:

Yes, although if you are plugged in to 120 volts (L-1) there will be a net loss of charge. At 20 amps or more of 240 volt (L-2) charging you can do what you want, which I assume is preheat the car without losing charge.

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So, to leave the house with x% charge, you'd let it charge to x+y%, then turn on the climate control and by the time the cabin was comfortable, you'd be down to x%?

Or, if x is 100, you'd end climate control before leaving the house, with the final charging to 100% done with climate control off?

Yes, pretty much. I've found that 2-3 minutes of preheating or precooling is enough, which uses no more than about 3% charge on L-1.