First Full Range Test of Nissan LEAF Yields 116.1 Mile

[cdub]

From Plug in Cars:

After today, I can tell you with unwavering certainty that the LEAF can obtain at least 100 miles of range in the real world—because Nissan let me loose in their baby to be the first automotive reporter on the planet to conduct a total range test, from a fully topped off battery to almost completely empty.

The chosen course took me from Nissan's North American headquarters in Nashville, Tenn., to the famous Jack Daniel's distillery and back—a total distance of 116.1 miles.

http://www.plugincars.com/nissan-le...gn=Feed:+PluginCars+(PluginCars.com+RSS+Feed)

YAY!

 

[SilverLeaf]

Wow! This is totally unexpected. 116 miles on a single charge in a REAL WORLD situation. I can't wait to get mine and put it through a similar test. I expect to do under 40 miles per day on most days, and I expect to do about 60 miles in a day every other week. I live in Arizona, so most days, the A/C will be blasting. I am pretty confident (even more so now) that this car will meet my every need). I don't believe I have traveled more than 70 miles on any day in the past three years.

 

[cdub]

He didn't go over 55 mph.

I'm wondering what the range will be when I'm cruising at 70 mph.

I shake my head whenever I see a Prius zoom past me here in LA going 75 or 80mph.

At least if I go 70 in my LEAF... I'll just be increasing my electric bill that day... and not giving money to the oil tycoons. (just the GWP tycoons...until I install my solar panels eventually)

 

[Gonewild]

Well I plan on driving to work 38 miles each way about 76 round trip or so. I will use the air sparingly if I have to get there and back with out a charge stop. I have talked to my work about pluging in but no firm word yet they said corporate is still looking in to what is coming from the government as a hand out is my guess. I will drive in Eco mode as well. I could use the air just one way most of the time on my way home it is cooler and I could have the windows open.

 

[cdub]

Most of my commute to work is downhill from the Foothills of LA. I guess I'll pop that her into ECO on the trip down to get the maximum regen so I'll be pretty charged up for the hike back.

 

[mwalsh]

I'm frankly amazed that Nissan let him take a car for what must have been 3 hours in the middle of their media review event. :shock:

 

[palmermd]

I shake my head whenever I see a Prius zoom past me here in LA going 75 or 80mph.

Would you rather see them go by at 80mph in a Hummer? At least they are speeding in a 1.5L efficient car.

 

[evnow]

I'm frankly amazed that Nissan let him take a car for what must have been 3 hours in the middle of their media review event. :shock:

Nissan has lots of cars around now. They are also conducting dealer training - Greg told me they had comparison drives of Leaf & Prius.

 

[cdub]

I shake my head whenever I see a Prius zoom past me here in LA going 75 or 80mph.

Would you rather see them go by at 80mph in a Hummer? At least they are speeding in a 1.5L efficient car.

Well no - of course. But they're not getting good mileage doing that.

 

[BruceBecker]

What speeds were you traveling? We live about 15mi. outside of town with mostly 65mph for that distance. What could we expect in mileage per charge? We would be happy with 70 but maybe it will be greater than that. Of course while in town we would average around 35 mph.

 

[mwalsh]

Nissan has lots of cars around now. They are also conducting dealer training - Greg told me they had comparison drives of Leaf & Prius.

Well, we'll see...they've only allocated 1.5 hours for test drives next Tuesday morning. It will be interesting to see how many people have accepted the invitation and how many cars they have to service them.

 

[IBELEAF]

delete

 

[cdub]

delete

?

 

[mwalsh]

delete

?

Posted to the wrong thread, I think.

 

[Coffee_Slurry]

I didn't drive aggressively and I did spend most of the time going five miles per hour under the posted speed limits, but we had the A/C on for much of the trip. It wasn't like I was driving like an obsessed hypermiler.

Okay, so maybe that last 15 miles—when it got a little tense—I did drive 10 miles under the posted speed limit and likely upset a few other drivers. (Sorry folks! It was all in the name of science.) But hell, I went 116.1 miles with room to spare.

Sounds like an obsessed hypermiler to me. Holding up traffic at 45 in a 55? Don't try that in SoCal.

 

[SanDust]

I've driven that route but only on the Interstate. Seems like he used the backroads which I've never done. The terrain is more rolling than what you'd see along the Left Coast. Forgetting the last 15 miles which were in a crippled mode, maybe 60-75 mile AER with freeway speeds (75 MPH) and 85-100 mile AER in City/Rural/Suburban driving when the battery is new?

He seems to have killed the idea that the battery holds more than 24 kWh.

 

[mwalsh]

All well and good, but I wonder if they'll let me have one for ~1 hour, so I can do a proper run at freeway speeds? I would also like to do a properly timed 0-60 run. It's not that I am really bothered by the results of either (well, so long as I can get at least 60 miles of range at 70mph), but these are both tests that need to be conducted.

 

[xtremeflyer]

He seems to have killed the idea that the battery holds more than 24 kWh.

Not necessarily.. He never went into turtle mode and the car still hasn't been driven until it dies and wont restart.. I want to see that "Full Range"

 

[garygid]

It is expexted that the LEAF's Total battery capacity is about 30 kWh, with only about 80% (24 kWh) "usable", to help avoid "abusing" the cells.

 

[mitch672]

my average MPG on my 17 mile commute to work, (including some 10-12 miles of highway at 65-70mpg) in my 2010 Prius runs around 47-50MPG, the 65-70 doesn't seem to affect it terribly. Of course this is the Southeast expressway in Boston (I93), you can't maintain that speed for very long on that road. The avergae is probably only 50mph taking into account the actual road conditions.