bolshevik36 said:
Wow the amount of condescension for simply asking questions is pretty boggling considering this is a forum for Leaf owners, which I assume invites new and old alike.
Look, we didn't have sufficient info from you to give you an even semi-accurate or useful answer. We also didn't know your background knowledge, assumptions, misconceptions, whether your understood the concepts we were trying to convey (e.g. total kWh usable, miles/kWh, degradation, etc.) and so on. Some people call it quits even BEFORE LBW.
As I posted at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=429850#p429850:
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=261457#p261457 was an example of something very vague of someone complaining of "getting a whopping 30 miles per charge here in frigid Chicago" after having lost no capacity bars. They did answer the questionnaire but there was still a fair amount of back and forth.
The above person had a BRAND NEW Leaf but was in Chicago and had no ability to charge at home nor work.
There are plenty of Leaf drivers who don't even know about the capacity bars or are totally confused about range, like http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=16446 and http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=268304#p268304.
bolshevik36 said:
Im in the IE (45miles east of DT LA) and the Leaf will be garaged. Daily typical commute is under 40 miles, sometimes a little bit more.
So Cal heat will be not so kind to the battery, in the long run. If it cools down at night considerably, it might be better to park it outside so the battery cools. I've looked at battery temps via Leaf Spy and have a digital thermometer in my garage. The battery pack has a lot of thermal mass and takes a long time to cool down. If it's 60 to 70 F in my garage yet at night it's going to be 40 to 49 F, and my battery is at say 75 F when I come home... well, it's going to get cooler faster at the outside lower temps.
bolshevik36 said:
For those of you who did provide actual #'s, thanks a lot! Those #'s actually encourage my purchase, especially looking at the 2011 at 87k still commuting 50miles. Thats what i needed!
In http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=228326, Blue494 on an under 21 month old '11 Leaf in Phoenix was down 4 capacity bars at under 29K miles and only made it 59.3 miles until battery exhaustion on a a steady 100 kph (~62 mph) drive w/no HVAC usage. http://www.electricvehiclewiki.com/Real_World_Battery_Capacity_Loss#four_bars says (search for 494) that the 4th bar was lost at 28,190 miles.
The heater on '11 and '12s is power hungry and slow to heat. There's little free waste heat in an EV, so it takes energy to heat the cabin.
Others, like this guy have more pessimistic views for winter.... but he might be on the mark for very cold climates:
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=440165#p440165
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=428344#p428344
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=415539#p415539
And, as the battery degrades, if trips were on the edge of whatever the comfort level is, they'll get harder and harder, esp. in winter.
The guy at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=20275&p=431911#p431911 commutes 130 miles/day and to charge fully on both ends. But per that post, he has to charge in the middle on both legs now since he's down 5 capacity bars. He's in the PNW, which is a very gentle climate for the batteries, vs. So Cal. Hit hit 100K miles on his '11 in Dec 2013 per http://nissannews.com/en-US/nissan/usa/releases/washington-nissan-leaf-owner-celebrates-100-000-all-electric-miles.