newly purchased e-plus impressions

[DaveinOlyWA]

Dave,

I just looked at the time stamps of the texts I sent my wife while waiting for the car to charge last weekend to get more exact timing. It took 43 minutes (+-30 seconds) for the car to go from 16% to about 78%. That comes out pretty close to exactly 53KW rate. So the slow down happened at that percent. What I don’t know is at what point the battery hit the high temp marker in the charge process.

The German video suggests that the temp limitation still kicks in.

Good to know. On the 40 kwh, the knee (point which current drops due to SOC) is ~ 63%. If its 75+% on 62 kwh, that would be a huge improvement making a trip of 350 miles quite easy with a single QC on a 100 KW station. As I age, my desire to cover 600-800 miles a day is all but gone. Did enough of that BS when I was a kid. Nowadays, 350-400 is all I want to do and frequently less. At the same time, my trips have gone from a single destination planning to "what can I do and see on the way?" and I can only ask myself why I didn't start doing this much earlier in life?

[DougWantsALeaf]

I hear you. We stated the run home at 2pm and was back home (north of Chicago) around 10:30. The 340 miles was enough for me for the day, and I felt pretty pooped the next morning)partially due to a large cup of late coffee). 400-500 is about all I would want to muster in a day, and barring charger outage, the car will do that just fine.

The extra top off (to be careful, but not strictly necessary) and stupid phone call with EA (though still worth almost $20 in free charging) cost us close to an hour in delay, but such is the price of venturing into the wild outside of larger cities.

Our next large run is to Minneapolis, which is 410 or so miles each way. May try to do it in one stop if we are bold. If nothing else to quiet all the complaining about the new Leaf. The line has been a good car with little to no maintenance (from experience with our 13).

I am hearing more and more horror stories about Tesla 3 repairs (time to repair and costs) as time continues and their supply chain has struggled to catch up-to the 30x scale they are expanding to cover. Given the hyperscaling they are doing, I think the other automakers only have a year or two left to really innovate, and maneuver but are profit trapped and market prevented from spending the needed capital to make the transition. For a while I though Nissan might compete, but not so sure 7 years on. Such is the way of the world.

I am keen to see if the little bit of taping (just for trips) will help us eek out another 5-10 miles a charge on the highway. Taping the grill helped quite a bit on the old leaf, especially on winter runs.

[DaveinOlyWA]

Well, I am in favor of any EV over any gasser. No option is perfect so we all have to weigh the needs and wants with each model. They all have strong points and weak points. As far as Tesla reliability goes, I am quite certain we are hearing a disproportionate group that are having the issues while 98% have none. Its always a gamble. I have had 4 LEAFs and 3 didn't need anything while my 2016 had to have a water pump, AC condenser lines and the charger replaced. But it was also THE best LEAF I had for usability and battery robustness. Knowing all that I know now, the only thing I would have changed is my location back in Jan 2018...

[DougWantsALeaf]

Ok, next college visit done. This one was a walk in the park. Near northern Chicago Suburb to Waukesha for a college visit and back.

Total mileage 176.5 miles
Leaving % battery 86%
Returning % battery 17%
Trip efficiency 4.7 miles kWh
Outside temp 80-91F
Tires at 44Lbs
Driver +1 passenger on the highway, and +2 for the around town (picked up grandma).

Battery stayed at midpoint temp during entire trip.

While majority of miles were on the freeway/tollway, we did have 25 or so miles touring the town. While we didn’t run air the entire trip, it was on for long sections.

Lots of construction on 94 north of IL border kept speeds often to 62-65. A bit faster south of the border.

I do drive
I really need to get leaf spy rolling again.

[DougWantsALeaf]

My son and I were rewatching the Thrifty 3 Leaf vs Tesla up a mountain and a thought came time mind. Well besides that I thought the Leaf did pretty well in that test.

Did the higher elevation reduce differences in aero drag, hence bringing closer together the characteristics of the cars?

[LeftieBiker]

I imagine that both drag and vehicle weight-related power and regen issues are affected by tests like that.