driving across New Hampshire in winter

Hello, Just joined the forum and am so relieved to already get some of my questions answered! But here's the big one for me:

I am a 77 year old woman who's been driving a 2019 Nissan Leaf Plus for the last three months. I fairly regularly drive from Brattleboro VT to Portland ME , 185 miles and am getting very nervous about whether I'm going to make it across New Hampshire in winter. My route takes me on route 9 to I 89, onto I 93, then route 101 to I 95. Right now I start out fully charged from home and stop at Hannafords supermarket in York ME to top up before finishing the trip up to Portland. The York stop is 136 miles into my trip and is the FIRST fast charger I encounter on my trip! In other words no fast chargers across what is a pretty major route through NH. Once in Maine I'm OK. The Nissan dealer in Saco, about 30 miles south of Portland, has a fast charger.

There is a Nissan dealer in Concord, about halfway across NH, but they only have a level 2 charger, as does the other dealer in the area in Manchester. This does not help me a lot on my long journey but I will have to stop there in winter and it will probably take me a few hours to charge up enough to continue my trip. I understand there are a lot of variables involved in how the range will be negatively affected in winter and I guess until I try it I won't know if I can make it across! ( I should add that there is a level 2 charger at the Keene NH Nissan dealer, which is 33 miles from my home, if I need it for the return trip.)

Any ideas? Thanks

First, the Big Question: did you get the All Weather Package? Nissan shouldn't allow Leafs without it to be sold in colder states, but they do, and to not have a heat pump or even heated seats and steering wheel is not good for Winter driving. (The SL comes with the package standard.)

If you have reliable fast charging at roughly the halfway point, and you have the heatpump and heated seats/wheel, then you should be ok. You may have to slow down a little in places if you drive faster than 60MPH. If you have a Leaf S Plus, you don't have the heat pump even with the cold weather package, and will have to turn down the heat.

If you look at the user options menus here, you can add a signature line. That is a great place to put what year/model Leaf you drive. That helps us answer questions about your car.

Mima77 said:

I am a 77 year old woman who's been driving a 2019 Nissan Leaf Plus for the last three months. I fairly regularly drive from Brattleboro VT to Portland ME , 185 miles and am getting very nervous about whether I'm going to make it across New Hampshire in winter. My route takes me on route 9 to I 89, onto I 93, then route 101 to I 95. Right now I start out fully charged from home and stop at Hannafords supermarket in York ME to top up before finishing the trip up to Portland.

Any ideas? Thanks

Click to expand...

https://www.plugshare.com/location/94807

I would reset your efficiency meter and see how you do when driving at highway speeds at 0F. If you can keep efficiency above 3.8 miles/kWh you should be fine, and extra safe with a top up.

WetEV, how does your eTron fare in Winter? Do you lose much off of the 200 mile range?

DougWantsALeaf said:

WetEV, how does your eTron fare in Winter? Do you lose much off of the 200 mile range?

Click to expand...

Don't really know yet, weather is not yet cold enough to see much difference.

I used to live in Maine and I probably wouldn't own a leaf if I still lived there.

What I do to keep my range up is slow down and don't use the heat very much.

Winter came early to new Mexico we have already had snow and winter like conditions for almost 3 weeks now. It snowed here before it snowed in maine this year.

What I'm going to do to preserve winter range along with my fingers and toes is install a diesel fired heater. The low setting burns 0.2L of fuel oil per hour and that should be plenty.

Pre-heat the battery and cabin before the trip
Use a seat heater to reduce cabin heating. If the car did not come with it installed, buy aftermarket.

WetEV said:

Mima77 said:

Any ideas? Thanks

Click to expand...

https://www.plugshare.com/location/94807

Click to expand...

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Mima77 said:

I fairly regularly drive from Brattleboro VT to Portland ME...
My route takes me on route 9 to I 89, onto I 93, then route 101 to I 95.

Click to expand...

You could take a different route and, along the way, have easier access to the quick charge EVSE (Level 3, Chademo plug) mentioned above in Bedford, NH:
https://www.plugshare.com/location/94807

The new route is only a bit longer (under approx 10 miles) and would take you from Rt 9 to Rt 101 (in Keene), off Rt 101 to the quick charge EVSE in Bedford (NH), back on to Rt 101, to I293, to I93, to Rt 101, then I95.

Also, keep your eye on the Walmart quick charge EVSE in Seabrook, NH:
https://www.plugshare.com/location/186825
The EVSE with the Chademo plug is not fully setup yet, but it would be a good alternative to the EVSE in York when it is up and running.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll look into changing my route.

We also have a Leaf Plus S, and I can not see how 136 miles is not doable with a full charge even using resistance heat. So far this winter, admittedly not at 0F, we have not seen less than 3.2 MKW and we keep the car warm. Since little of the miles acroos NH are high-speed, that will help also. Assuming a full battery at 60KW, 136 miles is only 2.26 MKW. Keep us informed!