Bicster
Well-known member
There's nothing new here, so I'm starting a new thread. :twisted:
GM claims a 40-mile EV range for the Volt. Their engineers seem able to actually attain that figure on a regular basis. I don't know if GM uses LA-4 or not; Google couldn't answer that quickly enough so I stopped looking.
Anyway, let's say the Volt goes 40 miles on 8 kWh "in real life." Using the same numbers, it's plausible that the Leaf could manage 120 miles on 24 kWh... Both cars are expected to weigh around 3,500 lbs. Actually, some recent speculation has the Volt closer to 3,900 lbs. (I'm betting the Volt is a lot more than 3,500.)
The Mini-E has an LA-4 range of 150 miles on 28 kWh. The real life range of the Mini-E is closer to 100 miles. At 3,230 lbs, the E has a weight advantage. It has a lot more drag (Cd = 0.35) which would particularly impact freeway range.
Both the Mini-E and Volt have much higher motor output - around 150kW... there's some range-sapping potential there, if you lack discipline.
Putting all this together tells me that the Leaf ought to have little trouble getting a "real" 100 mile range, and it might even have close to 100 miles after 10 years.
I can always hope.
GM claims a 40-mile EV range for the Volt. Their engineers seem able to actually attain that figure on a regular basis. I don't know if GM uses LA-4 or not; Google couldn't answer that quickly enough so I stopped looking.
Anyway, let's say the Volt goes 40 miles on 8 kWh "in real life." Using the same numbers, it's plausible that the Leaf could manage 120 miles on 24 kWh... Both cars are expected to weigh around 3,500 lbs. Actually, some recent speculation has the Volt closer to 3,900 lbs. (I'm betting the Volt is a lot more than 3,500.)
The Mini-E has an LA-4 range of 150 miles on 28 kWh. The real life range of the Mini-E is closer to 100 miles. At 3,230 lbs, the E has a weight advantage. It has a lot more drag (Cd = 0.35) which would particularly impact freeway range.
Both the Mini-E and Volt have much higher motor output - around 150kW... there's some range-sapping potential there, if you lack discipline.
Putting all this together tells me that the Leaf ought to have little trouble getting a "real" 100 mile range, and it might even have close to 100 miles after 10 years.
I can always hope.