One month with my LEAF

[philipscoggins]

I just finished my first month with my 2012 SL LEAF & I am loving it more each new day!

I had 1919 miles on the odometer when I pulled out of the driveway this morning & thought, "man the 15k lease wouldn't have met my needs, glad I bought"

Today I put 5 gallons of gas into my '98 Accord with a bottle of stabilizer and put it into the workshop in the back and cancelled insurance. I only used it once this month and that was to strap a Christmas tree to the roof (too early to scratch up the LEAF) & I hope to not drive it again. I'll keep it for an emergency backup and turn my insurance on if I have to go a distance quickly...

I will get my first electricity bill in a few days, but my blink station tells me that it cost me $57 to drive all of those miles, which would be about $0.03/mile. Although I made use of the DCQC at my local Cracker Barrel about 8-10 times, which were free miles, so I guess it still comes out to $0.03/mile

Once I figured out how to reset the dash m/kw setting (about a week) I started resetting every morning to see how different things affected my range, so I don't have a good monthly average, but Carwings says I averaged 4.1m/kw. As I've had fewer people in my car showing them what pickup it had from traffic lights & settled into normal driving my m/kw went from an average of 3.1 to an average of 4.1 with a high of 5.2 on a nice sunny day. I've gone from 100% charging to 80% unless I've got a lot of driving planned for the day. I hit LBW twice, but I live in a small town and I was on my way home both times. Worried me the first time, but not the second.

I don't plan to freeze the kids this winter, so by the time I'd driven about 12 miles from home to schools to work I had a 2.9 average, but it's up to 4.0 with lunch time driving in the sun with no heater. The heater makes a big difference. Oh well.

I finally had someone come up to me in a parking lot last weekend and ask me if that was a LEAF & if I liked it. I took 15 minutes showing it to him and answering questions. He was visiting family and was just passing through. He drives a pickup truck that he said costs him $70 to fill up and that he was interested in the cost savings. I'm getting to be quite a salesman.

Overall I love my new car (yes it is just a car) and hope I get my rear seat cover on before my 5 & 6 year old sneak pretzels and grind them into the sensitive upholstery

Philip

 

[mkjayakumar]

Congrats on your new Leaf and great writeup.

 

[EdmondLeaf]

Great that you are very happy owner, wish Leaf can do 100 highway miles in the land where we have one L2 public charging station in 100 mile radius, and no plans for any QC. I think I need to go to TX or TN to see what QC looks like.

 

[ksnogas2112]

Awesome. Welcome to Team EV. Enjoy the grin.

 

[Caracalover]

Be sure to use the pre-heat option so the kids will stay warm, and the range won't be impacted as much.

Glad you are enjoying the car!

I look forward to doing a write up at my two year mark (Really? already? wow.) in just a little over 3 months time.

Enjoyed reading yours.

 

[mhigley]

Welcome to the EV world Philip. It sounds like you are going to like it here. Just wait until gas spikes again. That's when it gets really fun!

 

[philipscoggins]

Thanks guys, I want to give a big thanks to Downtown Nashville Nissan & Arisha, the first knowledgeable LEAF salesperson I've personally met. I made what I thought was a low ball offer and they came back with a deal about $50 cheaper?!? They made the purchase easy and a month later I can say that I can't find anything that they tried to "put one over on me". An honest car dealer? I tell everyone who acts interested to go speak with them about it.

I definitely use the preheat, but they are both in booster seats and thus they don't get any benefit from the rear seat heaters.

I also received my approval letter for my personalized tag. "NOGASEV" It should be arriving next month. My 14 year old said it was redundant, so this was my second choice, first choice was just NO GAS, but it was already taken.

This place is an invaluable resource & I want to thank all you guys who let me ask questions for 3 or 4 months before I finally went out and bought the car.

I know how lucky I am to have a great DCQC spread in TN! Also I'm one of the only ones using it right now, so even better.

And I look forward to my 2 year mark! I've been researching EV's for years and was planning a conversion, but Nissan made it just a little too convenient & luxurious.

And yes, I do have the EV grin while driving around town

Philip

 

[derkraut]

Great post, Mr. Scroggins; it looks as though you are enjoying the Leaf as much as I do. I logged 10.5K miles in my first 18 months. If we had more DCQC stations around here, I would be driving it a lot more.

 

[adric22]

I'm glad you like your Leaf. I'm approaching my 2 year anniversary with mine. I'm just as happy with it now as I was when I bought it. In fact, it seems like 2 years has flown by compared to the 14 months I spent on the waiting list to get one.

 

[planet4ever]

Once I figured out how to reset the dash m/kw setting (about a week) I started resetting every morning to see how different things affected my range, so I don't have a good monthly average, but Carwings says I averaged 4.1m/kw.

When you say Carwings I suspect you are referring to the website, but perhaps you mean the central console. In the beginning the website had wildly optimistic numbers, so I haven't paid any attention to it, though others say they believe Nissan has fixed that. If you don't know about the console counter, you should check it out. It is maintained and reset independently of the one on the dash. I reset the dash every time I plug in, and reset the console once a month or so.

"Zero Emission" button (physical button with blue logo, bottom button on the right side of the display)
Touch Energy Info
Touch Energy Economy
If you touch Reset, then you can see saved values for the last nine resets as a bar graph by touching History. Personally, I log the number and date before doing Reset, since there are no numbers associated with the bar graph.

Ray

 

[philipscoggins]

Thanks Ray, I was referring to the center console, but thought that was the same as Carwings, that everyone dismisses. Thanks for setting me straight. I also didn't realize it held 9 graphs from resets. Cool.

Taking my oldest to Nashville tomorrow (85 miles each way) to see Imax 3D of The Hobbit, I'll quick charge about halfway each way. $1.90 to drive 190 miles, Woohoo! Almost makes up for the outrageous Imax tickets :shock:

Philip