Leaf for driving school

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RolandPark

New member
Joined
Feb 4, 2018
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2
I own a driving school. Our typical daily route is 70 miles (75% urban, 25% highway) . I have two questions;

1) is it realistic to get 70 miles a day, every day, for years? I'm shopping for a used Leaf (40,000 miles) and I'm not sure the advertised range (82-84 miles) still applies. The Leafs I test drove weren't fully charged according to the salesman. (that's a whole 'nother story. The dealership was expecting me, twice, and neither time were the cars fully charged.)

2) is a Leaf robust enough for daily urban wear and tear. We currently use Nissan Versas and they seem to hold up pretty well.

Thanks, Roland
 
Are you using them as part of the school? If you have 30 minutes to charge between driving sessions the 70 miles per day should be easy.
To have most of the rated EPA range you need to find vehicles with all 12 capacity bars in place.
 
Your local climate matters a lot. If it is cool (think Seattle), then you'd probably be fine. If the Summers are hot, then battery degradation would be a real problem over time. Depending on your budget, your best bet might be to find a cheap Leaf with a degraded battery, and then buy a new heat-resistant pack for $6000.
 
I think it should be great for that. Are there any fast chargers convenient to where you are for days where you don't get quite the range you want?
 
Charging and degradation concerns aside, my daughter learned to drive on our LEAF and I think it's perfect for that. She loved the ECO mode when she was learning, as the muted accelerated response was more forgiving than our Santa Fe (which has a touchy pedal). She found that especially helpful for parking.
 
Thank you for the answers.
I'm in the Chesapeake region of Maryland (Piedmont coastal) so our terrain is pretty flat (mostly) and our climate ranges wildly (but is mostly mild) For example winter is usually around freezing with occasional weeks down to 15F and summer is around 80F (and humid) with occasional weeks at or near 100F. Our spring and Fall are absolutely beautiful and each season is exactly three months long.

There are charging stations nearby, I'm not sure they are fast charging. There are 5 total chargers in our office lot and I've never seen more than two cars (but there will undoubtedly be more EVs coming! I hope).

I was initially looking at plug-in hybrids, but the mpg savings isn't so great that the additional purchase cost makes sense. (The Versas I have get 30 mpg city). The '14 Prius I looked at was the same price as an '18 Versa. Then I saw a Leaf, and drove it, and what a great car! And I want one, but it has to add up. (I want a Tesla, but, you know, cost).
 
You want to avoid the 2016 and 2017 Leaf, because it is too hot in Summer for them where you live, and they will degrade alarmingly fast. Look at used 2015 SV and SL models, for the heatpump heater and the best battery Nissan ever made.
 
@RolandPark, if you decide to take the plunge, make sure you buy a 2013/2014/2015 LEAF SV that includes the charging package (CHADEMO port) as that will allow you to charge the battery from a low state of charge (i.e. 20%) to 80% charge in under half an hour.
 
The leaf would be perfect for a driving school. It is made to run round the clock.... most time is at slow speed and idling. Gas pedal is slow and forgiving. Perfect if you have some chargers around and a little time every few hours to top off the battery.

The "not good idea" part is if your customers require really cool A/C and warm heat during lessons. That would kill the battery, and cut your range in half... Just a thought.
 
The "not good idea" part is if your customers require really cool A/C and warm heat during lessons. That would kill the battery, and cut your range in half... Just a thought.

Not true. No Leaf uses that much power for A/C, and the heatpump equipped models only use that much when temps are below 25F or so. The 2011 and 2012 Leafs do have power-sucking heaters, though. The S models lack the heatpump, but have effective resistance heaters (unless it's broken). I'd avoid the S, though, because like the early Leafs the heat still uses lots of power even for defrosting.
 
if you can charge it to top it off between sessions, you will be golden, go for a late 2013 through 2015 model as LeftiBiker mentioned, my experience confirms that those batteries last longer. if the plugs you are talking about are at the office then they are probably 6.6kw rated sockets, so half an hour of charging will give you about 12-15 miles of range as a good rule of thumb. DC chargers (fast chargers) have huge plugs and make noise while they charge (they have some big fans inside)

if you can't charge it, then driving around all day will make it tricky to hit 70 miles in every use case, even if you are mostly at lower speeds. I very easily have 60 miles of highway range on my car at 93% health, the longest trip i made was 85 miles and i wasn't turtling yet.

Marko
 
From another angle: Beginning drivers might be really confused by the LEAF. Its user interface (the shifter puck) is significantly different. The car makes no idle noise. These are things that *experienced* drivers are confused about. I worry about inexperienced drivers who then get into their ICE vehicles and it feels unfamiliar. Is this shaking when I'm not moving normal?! :eek:
 
I'd like to think that there will be a good chance that those new drivers, who learned on a LEAF, will become die hard EV enthusiasts and won't ever buy an ICE.
 
aarond12 said:
From another angle: Beginning drivers might be really confused by the LEAF. Its user interface (the shifter puck) is significantly different. The car makes no idle noise. These are things that *experienced* drivers are confused about. I worry about inexperienced drivers who then get into their ICE vehicles and it feels unfamiliar. Is this shaking when I'm not moving normal?! :eek:
Yes, the details of Leaf driving are a bit weird, which would be a modest problem in transitioning to most other vehicles. Worst case would be an older adult who hasn't driven before, learns in a Leaf then goes out to buy or rent a car and has trouble figuring everything out on the first mile.

Other transitional problem: Between the heavily assisted steering, the abundant torque and the inherent braking of B mode, the Leaf is too easy to drive! Except for the terrible rearward visibility, the student may be surprised that other cars are more challenging to drive well.
 
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