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jpmarshall

New member
Joined
Sep 5, 2018
Messages
1
Firstly I wanted to say hi and thanks for the wealth of advice, tips and suggestions I've already gained from this forum. You've made the transition to driving an EV a very easy and interesting experience.

Earlier this week I was driving to my local Nissan dealer in my 3 year old Mercedes A-Class thinking to myself "Have I made the right decision?". Having had a call last week telling me my 2018 Leaf was ready to pick up, I was feeling a little apprehensive about swapping out our household's only ICE car to become a fully electric family.

I was excited for sure, but I was still milling over little issues like the lack of steering wheel reach adjustment and the quality of the dashboard/cabin. Bigger concerns like range anxiety and charger availability were also still at the back of my mind, despite all my research.

After picking my Leaf up and driving it extensively for a few days, I have to say I couldn't be happier with it. While the trips I need to do are light on miles at the moment I've been putting the Leaf through it's paces, enjoying its tech, the drive and all that extra torque as much as I can. Adaptive cruise control down to a stand-still has made navigating city traffic an almost pleasant experience and ProPilot's lane guidance still makes me smile every time I use it, it's so cool!

Yes, some of the materials used for the dash and the buttons are a little 'last-gen' and Nissan's decision not to include reach adjustment on the steering wheel still confuses me. But for every little niggle here, there's a big plus point there. I haven't missed anything from my A-Class, in fact the opposite - ultimately it's costing me less per month, and I'm not belching out fumes during my commute. I've even lost the "anxiety" about the range, having played about with Zap Map and planned a few long journeys. I now find myself modifying my behaviour - forward planning where to charge or building in a coffee/food/toilet break into a long journey.

Next up is the challenge of maximising range and my first 100+ mile trip in a few weeks, which I'm really looking forward to.

Anyways, a bit of a long introduction but I wanted to add another positive switch story to the mix.

Happy to answer any questions about the car, switching to an EV or anything else. I know how useful it can be talking to EV existing owners. For some background; I'm UK based, I bought the 2018 Leaf Tekna, the other car we have is a 2017 Renault Zoe, we also have solar panels, a 6kWh home battery pack and we're on Green Energy UK's Tide smart energy tariff.

James
 
welcome to the future... I have my 2015 Leaf for 4 years and 50,000 miles and will never go back to gasoline for my daily driving. As you drive it more, you will know that the car can handle your needs and more, and "range anxiety" will just be a buzz word you hear from gas car drivers.

With your car's 130 mile range, you will be able to go anywhere in your country, and have the fun of just plugging in for a stop over. You are lucky you got rid of your Benz because they are a money pit.. good luck
 
Congratulations on the purchase and going ICE-free!

I was just in the UK myself (flew home on Tuesday after not quite a "fortnight" there) and I did notice the EV's there, though proliferation seems to be centered around London, likely due to the Congestion Charge. One thing that did delight me was stopping at various motorway service (rest) areas and seeing the public charging stations there.

Another thing that stood out is seeing EV's being used by organizations you would not expect. For example, while waiting for the rental car shuttle bus at Heathrow, nearby was a 2018 Leaf in Heathrow livery. While in London itself I saw a few BMW i3's and a few Toyota MIrais being driven around by officers of the Metropolitan Police. I also noticed that Nissan UK offers the electric version of the NV200 van over there, which we don't get (just the ICE version). Of course the famous London taxis can now be had as a plug-in hybrid.
 
jpmarshall said:
...Nissan's decision not to include reach adjustment on the steering wheel still confuses me...

I guess it depends on what you're used to. I've been driving since 1975 and I don't think I've never owned a car WITH steering wheel reach adjustment. Perhaps ignorance is bliss :)

Congrats on the new car. I don't ever want to go back to gasoline.
 
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