LONGEST COMMUTE FOR LEAFS????

Okay,
I'm going to throw this out as I think it will be ineteresting to see who has or is going to have the longest LEAF commute. I' m suppose to get my LEAF in March. My commute is going to be 125 miles round trip with 120 volt charging at work (10 hours). 30 miles or so at 50 to 55 mph up and down hills, a 20 mile section at 65 mph and then 12.5 miles at 45 to 55 mph.
Also I'm at about 1500 feet elevation and work at about 30 feet elevation (Foothills to the Central Valley).

Bassman said:

Okay,
I'm going to throw this out as I think it will be ineteresting to see who has or is going to have the longest LEAF commute. I' m suppose to get my LEAF in March. My commute is going to be 125 miles round trip with 120 volt charging at work (10 hours). 30 miles or so at 50 to 55 mph up and down hills, a 20 mile section at 65 mph and then 12.5 miles at 45 to 55 mph.
Also I'm at about 1500 feet elevation and work at about 30 feet elevation (Foothills to the Central Valley).

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The hills are going to KILL your range. You might try and rent a Leaf before you buy (or 'borrow' one) to make sure it'll work. I'm going to vote "too far" on this one and suggest that you're just asking for trouble.

There is a nice mix of up and down with some long gradual downhills for regen. I'll be using ECO mode and will be driving very conservatively to maximize range.

Bassman said:

There is a nice mix of up and down with some long gradual downhills for regen. I'll be using ECO mode and will be driving very conservatively to maximize range.

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The trip may or may not be doable coservatively and with ECO (which really isn't all that much better on highway drives)...but to make the trip without climate control may prove uncomfortable. I'll let someone else chime in here....I don't want to sound like a Debbie Downer.

10 hour 120V will get you some 40 miles. With highway travel you may get a max of 90 miles on full charge. So you may barely make it. But it will definitely be an adventure everyday. If you can somehow get a 240V charger setup at office, ofcourse you can do it.

Bassman said:

There is a nice mix of up and down with some long gradual downhills for regen. I'll be using ECO mode and will be driving very conservatively to maximize range.

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You need to talk to DaveinOlyWA. :?

Seriously though, you're going to be the poster child of range anxiety.
If you come out to your car to find it was unplugged/tripped-breaker after work, you're in for a long taxi ride.

Edit: Oops, I got the elevation change backwards, fixing ...

Going the 62 miles to work on 100% charge, considering the hills and elevation LOSS, might suggest using slower than 65 on the 20-mile fast leg, at least until you have done it a few times. But, seems quite reasonable.

Getting home with only a little over a half-charge ... will be a real challenge with the hills, especially with the elevation gain against you. Moderating the 65 mph speed is likely to be necessary.

Wind, rain, and an aging battery will ... make it harder.

So, a Plan B is to have some charging location(s) scouted out along your route (especially homeward bound).

Then, you will have a "fall forward" plan.

I do have a pigtail on my EVSE so worse comes to worse, I'll stop at a welding shop and plug in for 90 minutes. The first 10 miles or so is fairly level (200 feet or so of elevation change). The 65 mph zone is pretty much a gradual drop from 600 feet to 30feet elevation over the 20 miles. I may have to drive 55 to 60. I also may talk to work about a 240 outlet.

Your drive to work sounds easy enough.

And so will your drive home-once a level 3 charger is installed anywhere on your route.

I think Starbucks should install L3 chargers at all of their coffee shops. That would take care of most EV travelling for the continental US.

You should also consider likely battery degradation over the years (and ofcourse someway to reduce commute distance in the long run).

Bassman said:

There is a nice mix of up and down with some long gradual downhills for regen. I'll be using ECO mode and will be driving very conservatively to maximize range.

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Depending on the exact terrain profile (ie how close the bulk of that 1500ft downhill is to your house), the anticipated regen from that net altitude loss might not be as beneficial as you hope. What I mean is - you're going to have to charge to 100% at home to get enough nominal range to combine with your L1 charge to cover the distance...so when you leave the house, your regen may be quite limited at first - it can't put juice back into an already full battery. Charging to a slightly lower percentage and allowing the regen to work early in the morning drive might save you some pennies but it's not going to actually extend your range - you are going to get to work at a certain percentage either way, and it's coming home that is really going to eat up the kWh.

On the other hand, the net drop to work might leave you less depleted than you otherwise would be, giving you a head start toward the level you're going to need to get home. I agree with Jimmy that you should rent or borrow and try it out before you buy. You should also factor in the inevitable degradation of the battery over the years you anticipate owning the vehicle. My wife's commute is a net downhill, with a big hill right before home. We are getting far more favorable range-estimate behavior on the way to work than on the way home, but even the favorable estimate doesn't actually come true (meaning we're not going to actually get 100 miles out of a charge in this terrain).

I'd love to think you could make it just on your home L2 and work L1, but it's pretty clear your commute profile is more challenging than the LA4 EPA test profile, probably closer to something that would yield the 73 mile EPA sticker estimate. As others have pointed out, a more robust scenario would be to have L2 charging at/near work, and or a place to get a shot of L3 somewhere on the way home. You wouldn't need too much L3, so hopefully that would in turn mean relatively little thrashing of the battery even though you'd be doing it daily.

I ordered it with the L3 option so hopefully there will be some in Sacramento near where I work soon.

GroundLoop said:

Bassman said:

There is a nice mix of up and down with some long gradual downhills for regen. I'll be using ECO mode and will be driving very conservatively to maximize range.

Click to expand...

You need to talk to DaveinOlyWA. :?

Seriously though, you're going to be the poster child of range anxiety.
If you come out to your car to find it was unplugged/tripped-breaker after work, you're in for a long taxi ride.

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Luckily for me, my brother works in the same office, so I would just have him drive me home and leave the car to charge overnight at work.

Bassman said:

Luckily for me, my brother works in the same office, so I would just have him drive me home and leave the car to charge overnight at work.

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No problem then. But I might suggest that you carpool?

drees said:

Bassman said:

Luckily for me, my brother works in the same office, so I would just have him drive me home and leave the car to charge overnight at work.

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No problem then. But I might suggest that you carpool?

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But, who will drive Bassman back ? :lol:

Bassman said:

30 miles or so at 50 to 55 mph up and down hills, a 20 mile section at 65 mph and then 12.5 miles at 45 to 55 mph.
Also I'm at about 1500 feet elevation and work at about 30 feet elevation.

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As mentioned the hills will kill you. A Leaf fully loaded might be 1750 kg. You might go 1000 meters -- that would ordinarily be a lot elevation gain but you're looking at 500 meters even if you didn't have hills between home and work. And of course gravity will be gravity.

The math says that you'll use 4.75 kWh hill climbing each way. You'll get some of that back through regen but perhaps only 25%. In that case you're looking at using over 7 kWh just for hill climbing, which may be more than half what you'll get charging at work.

That means that sans hill climbing losses you'll need to go 120 miles on about 28 kWh, or almost 4.3 miles per kWh. That's borderline doable but throw in cold weather and bad weather and a couple of years of battery degradation and you may find yourself short of charge with some frequency.

A 240v charger at work would help a lot.

There is a level 2 charger at a nearby building but I thinks it's one of the older ones and hasn't been upgraded yet.

I'd take JD's advice and rent one first. Much easier to determine that it can make the commute and lose a hundred bucks for the rental than to buy it for $35K and it comes up short.

If it does'nt work for me. My wife will use it for her local flower shop. (10 miles away and rarely does she drive more than 50 miles on deliveries).