Being a Nissan LEAF owner sounds pretty stressful...

[HXGuy]

I've been following this forum for the past couple months and what I find crazy from reading all these posts is how careful you guys have been with your cars and yet are still having problems (referring to the hot weather people), but even for the people in cooler weather, all the precautions and knowledge you have to have.

When you bought your cars, did the sales guy go over all these things about not charging to 100% all the time? Or not letting it sit at 100% or not QCing too often or are these items you learned about from the owner's manual or here on the forums? When I was planning on leasing a while back, I figured I would plug the car in every night to 100% so that I had the range in case I needed it the next day. Only after reading on here that it's not good to do that I learned you're not supposed to.

Maybe it's just me but I think it's nuts to have to be this careful driving your car. Imagine if ICE cars were like this and you had to monitor every little thing and be so careful. I really had no idea that these cars were this high maintenance, I thought you could pretty much drive them like a normal car except for the plugging in part. Being a Nissan LEAF owner sounds like it can be a pretty stressful experience.

 

[mwalsh]

I think it's just that we're quite obsessive. I dare say many owners who don't frequent this board are blissfully unaware of 90% of what is discussed here. Go to any car brand enthusiast site and you'll see the same kind of stuff (and I say that as a Mini, MGB, MBZ, and Ford Focus owner who frequents web forums for all), just with less of an environmental theme.

Edit: BTW, MGB owners seem to obsess over engine compression every bit as much as we obsess over range and/or fuel bars.

 

[HXGuy]

So then would you say that the 90% of LEAF owners out there are not following these rules of charging to 80% or the no charging to 100% and letting the car sit?

Basically, when you guys picked up your cars, did they go over these rules with you or did you have to read the owners manual to find out about them?

 

[mwalsh]

So then would you say that the 90% of LEAF owners out there are not following these rules of charging to 80% or the no charging to 100% and letting the car sit?

Basically, when you guys picked up your cars, did they go over these rules with you or did you have to read the owners manual to find out about them?

No, because I don't think we represent 10% of LEAF owners.

 

[adric22]

At times I find it excessive on here too. People talking about every mile of range and every kilowatt hour, all of the compromises they make, etc. The thing is, most of these people talking about stuff like that are pushing their car to the limits. Take a guy like me. I drive between 10 and 20 miles per day. I drive the Leaf however I want. I drive 85 miles per hour with the A/C or heater on and don't think twice about it. Even on longer trips up to 40 miles I'm pretty much the same way. Its just a car and I drive it. I get home and plug it in and go to bed. That is it for me.

However, I'm also interested to know what the limits are without me testing them myself, so I listen to what others have done.

And even when I used to own a Prius, I would visit Priuschat.com a lot and discuss many of the same topics about how to squeeze the last mile-per-gallon out of the car. Not that I'd always drive it that way, but it was interesting to know in case I wanted to.

I'd say the vast majority of Leaf owners do not come to this site and they just drive the car and don't put a lot of thought into it. In fact, I'm willing to bet there are people in Arizona that have lost a capacity bar and haven't even noticed or realized it yet because they don't even know what that little gauge is for.

 

[garsh]

Yep, not really that stressful. You just need to go into it knowing that you can't treat this like a regular ~300 mile range vehicle. If I treat it as a commuter car, I have no problems. But sometimes I like to test the limits a little bit just to see what else I can do.

When you bought your cars, did the sales guy go over all these things...

I don't know. I actually was reading this forum for over a year before getting my Leaf, so I felt more knowledgeable than any salesperson could have been. So I already knew about charging to 80% being preferred.

And it's not really that bad to charge to 100%. Just try not to leave it at 100% for too long, especially in hot weather.

 

[smkettner]

My delivery orientation at Fontana Nissan was very thorough to the point I started to cut it off. Lots of new and exciting stuff makes life fun. Or you just continue with an old boring gas burner. But then many car people obsess about any car they drive. Don't confuse the tech stuff posted here as being normal and necessary. Mostly we just drive. OK I mostly just drive. Some of this other stuff is over the top.

 

[HXGuy]

And it's not really that bad to charge to 100%. Just try not to leave it at 100% for too long, especially in hot weather.

I think that would have been my biggest issue.

I work from home in sales and sometimes I don't leave the house at all and other times I drive around 40-70 miles in one day depending on who I have to go see. In my mind, I would have plugged in the car in nightly and charged to 100% in case I had one of those 70 mile days as they are not that predictable. I do have a second car at my disposal (wife also works from home) which I planned to use if needed, but would of still wanted the LEAF ready to go with 100% charge at the start of every day.

 

[PaulScott]

I've sold about 210 LEAFs so far here in Los Angeles. I can assure you I go over everything with my customers, if they let me. Many times, customer's eyes glaze over about half way through, and some of them just don't want to spend the time, so I impart what I can to them.

I leased my LEAF (#198) in January 2011. I intend to buy it at the end of the lease term. I charge whenever and wherever, sometimes pulling the connector early if I know I don't need a full charge, but mostly just ignoring it.

I drove a RAV4 EV for almost 9 years and 91,000 miles. I never concerned myself with charging part way with that car and when I sold it, it was still running like the day I bought it with a full 120 mile range. I think my driving style protects the battery some. I hypermile all the time and rarely accelerate more than 20 kW.

It's not a car you HAVE to treat carefully, but if you want to, you'll probably get a slightly longer battery life.

 

[Stoaty]

Maybe it's just me but I think it's nuts to have to be this careful driving your car. Imagine if ICE cars were like this and you had to monitor every little thing and be so careful. I really had no idea that these cars were this high maintenance, I thought you could pretty much drive them like a normal car except for the plugging in part. Being a Nissan LEAF owner sounds like it can be a pretty stressful experience.

You can just drive the Leaf like a normal car if you want to do so. Most of us here are interested in the technology, and some want to drive as efficiently as possible and/or make the Leaf battery pack last as long as possible. Since Nissan isn't releasing any of the technical details of their battery pack testing, we are finding out about it (sometimes very unpleasantly) on our own. Imagine what ICE cars were like when they were first produced. It isn't realistic to expect a first generation EV to be without some wrinkles (can't run fan only when temp < 60 degrees F.) or even significant problems (Arizona heat effects on battery pack; not excusing Nissan though). The real surprise is that aside from the battery capacity issue and the fact that Nissan fudged the range by advertising 100 miles on the LA04 cycle (true, but misleading) the Leaf is more like a second generation EV than first generation. The only other thing it is missing is a true SOC meter instead of the half-assed fuel bars. However, with my Gid-o-meter, I now never even notice the guess-o-meter or the fuel bars and I have a very good idea of how much juice I have left.

 

[padamson1]

I've been following this forum for the past couple months and what I find crazy from reading all these posts is how careful you guys have been with your cars and yet are still having problems (referring to the hot weather people), but even for the people in cooler weather, all the precautions and knowledge you have to have.
[big snip]
Maybe it's just me but I think it's nuts to have to be this careful driving your car. Imagine if ICE cars were like this and you had to monitor every little thing and be so careful. I really had no idea that these cars were this high maintenance, I thought you could pretty much drive them like a normal car except for the plugging in part. Being a Nissan LEAF owner sounds like it can be a pretty stressful experience.

I really think it depends on what you're trying to use the car for and what your expectations are.

I went in with eyes wide open, made sure I had the cold weather package, and am perfectly satisfied. I also live in a temperate climate and I'm mostly using it solely for short range travel (< 80mi), so I've had no problems. The few times I need to travel more than 80mi, I can charge during the day, I'm lucky to have a (ripoff priced) charger at work so my only adjustment has been some advance planning.

It's new technology, not everybody anticipated how things were going to work (temperature issues, charger availability, etc). I think you're seeing the surprises of version 1.0, I fully expect version 2 to be better and easier to use.

When ICE cars first came out there were no gas stations so people drove around with gas cans strapped to their cars for distance travel. Spare tires and jacks weren't available. There were few tops so things were wet when it rained, cars got stuck, etc. The horse & buggy (with four wheel drive) with its known limitations worked a lot better at first...

 

[Herm]

Blink official reports show that in Phoenix, 60% owners charge always to 100%.. IIRC

 

[camasleaf]

... Being a Nissan LEAF owner sounds like it can be a pretty stressful experience.

Personally I am more stressed when I go to fill up the tank on my ICE car. Every time I am calculating how many miles the Leaf would go with the money I paid for gas. After that I try to twist numbers so that I can justifying buying another EV. Someday ... YES! Someday.

 

[TomT]

The biggest change for me was realizing that I couldn't drive the freeway speeds I'm used to with my ICE if I was going get the range I needed for my daily commute and not charge to 100 percent most all the time. I need to limit myself to about 62-63 mph...

You can just drive the Leaf like a normal car if you want to do so.

 

[GaslessInSeattle]

I have thought many times that much of what is posted here would be better suited to a private forum for data junkies. I do understand the value of an open forum like this but it does not surprise me that people that happen on to it get a totally skewed perspective of what it's like to own the car. Many in this group are devoted to nailing down as much objective data at every step of the way to help understand as much about this burgeoning technology as possible. most of it is well intended but it is by nature incredibly anal and off putting to someone who just wants to buy the car and drive it. This forum is not just about the Leaf, it's about a group of people with very high hopes about what this technology has to offer in terms of solutions to a myriad of the worlds problems, by nature, a rather intense crowd.

I can say with confidence that owning the Leaf can be a relatively stress free experience, it's a lot of fun to drive! At this point the only caution I would add would be with regard to areas of prolonged extreme heat.

I've been following this forum for the past couple months and what I find crazy from reading all these posts is how careful you guys have been with your cars and yet are still having problems (referring to the hot weather people), but even for the people in cooler weather, all the precautions and knowledge you have to have.

When you bought your cars, did the sales guy go over all these things about not charging to 100% all the time? Or not letting it sit at 100% or not QCing too often or are these items you learned about from the owner's manual or here on the forums? When I was planning on leasing a while back, I figured I would plug the car in every night to 100% so that I had the range in case I needed it the next day. Only after reading on here that it's not good to do that I learned you're not supposed to.

Maybe it's just me but I think it's nuts to have to be this careful driving your car. Imagine if ICE cars were like this and you had to monitor every little thing and be so careful. I really had no idea that these cars were this high maintenance, I thought you could pretty much drive them like a normal car except for the plugging in part. Being a Nissan LEAF owner sounds like it can be a pretty stressful experience.

 

[DANandNAN]

No, because I don't think we represent 10% of LEAF owners.

FWIW, I think there's more than 10% of owners here. There's 5,580 members on MNL, and 12,841 Leaf's sold in the U.S. Take 10% off the 5,580 for out of country owners, 25% off for non-owners and you still have about 30%. Even if you divide that in half there's still 15%. That's pretty impressive, but EV folks, for the most part, are tech. And, that's just folks that have registered, I bet tons of owners read threads but never registered.

 

[nosuchthing]

No stress at all. Curiousity, yes. That's why I'm here. Finding out what the others owner do, what they discovered, learn a thing of two (like how to change the cabin filter or what is the best aftermarket horn).

We plug it in at night, drive it all day, plug in in between if more miles are needed. Always 100% no timers, no BS. It's a car. And it needs no fretting over it like, when was the last oil change, and what not. Don't even have to warm it up, or "start" the engine, it's that stress-free simple.

In fact, Leaf has been the most stressless car I've ever owned. What you read here is all techies and curious Georges in between the regular owners occassionally piping in.

I've been saying this over and over to whomever wants to "listen". Just drive the damn car and don't worry about a thing. This battery will be swapped in 5 years or less for a better one and with double the capacity for less than 3 thousand bucks. That's what you'll pay for a starter in 2017. And they do go bad, usually right after the warranty expired.

So...wait for it...just drive the damn car!

 

[skippycoyote]

I haven't really had any stress with the car since the first weekend I owned it and didn't realize I couldn't charge at a Blink charger without being a member. My daily commute is about 25 miles. This still gives me plenty of range if I have to do a side trip. If we have to drive someplace that is out of my "comfort zone", we just take the other vehicle. My dealer was very thorough with me, and I read the 4 page Customer Information and Disclosure Form. There is some good info in the manual, but honestly most of it is about how to properly use your seatbelts. I had also been looking around at this forum before I leased my LEAF. I almost always charge to 80%, but I don't sweat it when I have to charge to 100%. One stress I don't have to deal with anymore is the realization that I only have 1/8 tank of gas left in the car and that I have to try to make that work until payday. I would not recommend the LEAF if you have a very long commute, or if it is your only vehicle (since you live in AZ, which has crappy public transportation). If you are concerned about the battery degradation, you might want to lease. That wasn't the reason why I leased, but I am sorta glad I did. I still plan on purchasing after the lease, but at least this way I know if things go horribly wrong, I can turn it in.

 

[garygid]

I have lots of unanswered questions,
but I love driving my LEAF.

 

[Valdemar]

Being a Nissan LEAF owner sounds like it can be a pretty stressful experience.

Not really, given your commute is predictable and is within normal range it is more of a routine actually. Apart from planning ahead when driving to unusual distant places about the only thing you have to worry about is to avoid leaving the car fully charged for long periods of time which can typically be dealt with by setting your charge timer to 80%. In comparison with my other ICE car I need to worry checking fluid levels regularly. If you need to charge to 100% daily just set your charging timer to complete charging as late as possible that works for your needs, this will minimize the time the car sits charged at 100%. QC-ing to 80% is perfectly safe - there is no significant battery temperature increase, QC is a non-issue for me anyway as there are virtually no L3 charges available in my area.