JO2022 said:
The driving is mostly highway, at 70 mph... no more. Lots of traffic on the high way, so plenty of driving below 70 and braking. The car will be charged outside using level 2 and there are no plugs at work at the moment, not even for level 1 charging.
Traffic will actually save you range, it cuts down on air resistance and usually is slower due to, well, being traffic.
The outside level 2 means you can always pre-heat/pre-cool the car before you leave for your commute, that saves a lot of miles that the battery won't have to spend to do it while driving. Once the cabin is up/down to the temperature you want, it doesn't take near as much power to maintain it, provided you don't have extremes set for heating and cooling. At this point, plan for no charging to get back and forth, only using the QC if needed for some extra side trip.
I have been using Everlance to track all my driving and the reality is that the 160 miles happened twice in the last 2 months, so I used that figure because it is worst case. The average is probably more like 135 miles. Given all of this information, I think the Kona would give me a little assurance and piece of mind.
If you were driving a +180 mile round trip work, I would have said, don't do it. But nothing I read here would discourage me from driving a *plus* version Leaf for that lifestyle of commute and personal use. I already know the *plus* Leaf has an extra +25 miles of hidden range, so hot or cold weather can eat that, but I still get the range listed in the dash. As other's have mentioned, extreme weather where you have a foot or more of snow and slush to drive through will eat up the range, but unless you are driving back-roads the entire way to work and forced to drive through it, I would imagine that your state is much better at clearing the roads than my state (TN) is. I've driven my Leaf through a foot of snow and slush, it actually drives quite well provided the tires match it, but it does eat range because of pushing your way through it is the same range eating effect that air has.
As far as battery aging, living in a colder climate means you will suffer, much, much less of that. I can't find any examples of a +3 year old *plus* Leaf EV with severely degraded range due to battery aging. They have only been out for that long now, so what happens in 5 or 10 years, no one knows yet, but you can rest assured, you will get 3 years without any problems with the range.
I've been driving Leaf(s) for nearly 10 years now, so I know the limits of what it can and can not do, down to the extreme level of battery depletion with the help of LeafSpy to monitor the technical limitations of the EV. So personally, I wouldn't even sweat it for the conditions you are describing in regards to the Leaf being reliable and able to perform in the extreme winter conditions you will face in it. It is a car after all, not a pickup truck. It will always have the same limitations that any Car will have in winter driving, no matter Gas or Electric.