EatsShootsandLeafs said:
I only have a couple hundred miles on this, but it seems to me that EPA substantially underrates its mileage. EPA says 2.94 I think miles/kWh.
On my third gen Prius it was rated at 51/48 and I have to say I found it quite a challenge to get those numbers. It would require me driving very gently and was easy to get worse. In my Leaf so far, also driving very gently, I'm getting a consistent 4.2-4.3 kWh. That's 45% better mileage than EPA. I know it will be worse in the winter, but the Prius was worse in the winter, too (not to mention it, as with all ICE cars, suffers a serious hit in mileage during engine warm up for those first five min).
How are you measuring your 4.2-4.3 miles/kWh? The EPA number of 34 kWh/100 miles (2.94 miles/kWh) almost certainly is calculated "from the wall".
That's not to say that you aren't beating the EPA number, you are, but if you are using the mileage efficiency reading on the dash you are overestimating you mileage somewhat. How much depends on whether you do L1 or L2 charging and any pre-heating or pre-cooling.
Last I checked, at eight months, my cumulative mileage from the wall was 3.8 miles/kWh. That includes all of winter and part of summer. My monthly numbers from the wall:
January 3.23 miles/kWh
February 3.29
March 3.57
April 3.97
May 4.36
June 4.48
July 4.41
August 4.46
The weather (and pre-heating) effect is quite apparent. If I drove freeways—there aren't any within LEAF range here—I would expect my mileage numbers to be somewhat lower and closer to the EPA estimate. If I lived at sea level they would be sharply lower. If I lived in the flatlands they would be higher.