72 mile Round-Trip commute in San Francisco Bay Area, CA

[edatoakrun]

I live in San Jose and absolutely love my one and a half year old LEAF. However, I would recommend against your getting one unless you can charge at work. Today I returned home at LBW by driving south to Gilroy on 101...

So, ~65 miles to the LBW? I assume you were not driving the speed limit the entire way?

leafca, you will certainly need to drive well past the LBW on most of your 72 mile trips.

If that will bother you, you don't want a LEAF.

If you can wait a while, you may want to consider the Soul EV:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=13531&p=352158#p352158" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have a friend who with only about ~10 miles longer RT than me to Redding, is also at the extreme LEAF range, ~60 miles on 55 and 65 mph speed limit highway (and average vehicle speeds exceeding the limits) beginning with ~1,500 ft net descent, and with much colder winter temps than you have.

With zero DC or even (dedicated) AC charge sites en route, I think the Soul might just give him the extra miles he really needs.

As to other compliance cars, I don't think any BEV without DC capability would even be worth considering.

 

[dgpcolorado]

...You do not want to be dealing with range anxiety during a work day. I enjoy the proliferation of LEAFs in this area but do not want to encourage anyone who might become a dissatisfied owner/leasee.

Well said!

 

[alcalira]

You mentioned calling AAA if you run out of power. You can certainly do that, but I would like to point out that the LEAF comes with free Nissan Roadside Assistance. I've only run out once (I was trying to do Vacaville-Berkeley-Vacaville, 90 miles, on a single charge--and I made 88 miles) and the Nissan Roadside Assistance took great care of me.

You can rent a LEAF from Enterprise Car Rental. Suggest you do that and try your commute in it before you make the financial commitment.

Also agree that all you need is access to a 120V outlet at work as a few hours of trickle charge would give you the margin you need.