Question about heater in 2015 Leaf Trim S

Hello All;
I am about to buy a used 2015 Leaf from a dealer with 20,000 miles.

I have a question about the heater. The SV and SL trims on the 2015 leaf advertise a hybrid heater but the S trim does not. I assume that's referring to the cabin heater and not the battery heater, right ?

Could you tell me the difference between the heaters in the S model and the Sv and SL models ? How does this affect performance of the heating system, battery drain, etc. Are the differences that great ?

The dealer also has a SV trim leaf but without the quickcharge port.

If you had to chose between a hybrid heater and a quick charge port, which would you chose ? I may go on trips occasionally of no more than 125 miles one-way.

Thanks for your input.

Tim

The SV and SL models use a heat pump. The S model uses a more conventional resistance heater. The heat pump is certainly more efficient. Whether this is an important factor to you primarily depends on the climate where the vehicle is used. As you have not indicated your location in your profile, it is difficult to say much more.

To me, in the mild climate of western Oregon, a QC port and 6.6 kw charger were more important than the more efficient heater.

Dooglas said:

The SV and SL models use a heat pump. The S model uses a more conventional resistance heater. The heat pump is certainly more efficient. Whether this is an important factor to you primarily depends on the climate where the vehicle is used. As you have not indicated your location in your profile, it is difficult to say much more.

To me, in the mild climate of western Oregon, a QC port and 6.6 kw charger were more important than the more efficient heater.

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Thanks for your input. I live in Ohio where we get some cold winters - usually around 20-30 degrees during the coldest monthss probably Dec - Feb.

Any thoughts about this ?

Tim

wtdedula said:

Thanks for your input. I live in Ohio where we get some cold winters - usually around 20-30 degrees during the coldest monthss probably Dec - Feb. Any thoughts about this ?

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If you wish to keep the interior of your car at 65-70 degrees during winter driving, you will certainly experience some significant loss of range with the resistance heater. Whether that is critical to you will depend on how much range is required for your routine daily use.

The heatpump saves a lot of range in milder (roughly above freezing) Winter temps. In temps below 14F or so, it makes little or no difference. So you get more range most of the time, but in frigid weather you get the same range as the S.

How much are you planning to drive in a typical day? If you're trying to regularly get 50 miles in the winter with all highway driving you'll probably want the heat pump. If you're really going to try to go 125 miles one-way you'll absolutely want the quick charge port. If you're only going 20 miles each day normally then the heater isn't going to make much difference to you. Make sure you check plugshare.com to verify that you could even go the 125 miles you're wanting to go, since if there isn't a fast charger along the route you're not going to make it in any reasonable amount of time. Also keep in mind, here in Ohio most of our fast chargers are about $12 for a 30 minute charge and taking a gas car is often easier, faster, and cheaper.

Thanks, all for your very helpful responses.

I actually ended up getting the S with the QC. The dealer actually had a SV for only $500 more and as I was driving to the dealer, I actually changed my mind that I wanted the SV. However, when I got there, the dealer said that was sold a few hours ago. Don't know if I believe that or not but anyway I am stuck with a S. Not disappointed, though because even the S is nice but sometimes I think how nice it would be to have the few extra features of the SV. Anyway it's not really a problem for me because I pretty much just got this car to break myself into the world of EV cars. In a few years, I thoroughly plan to sell this and get a new Leaf once it gets over 200 mile range and a much more mature ProPilot and (hopefully) a digital speedometer in 2020 or 2021.

Tim