>putting the air on for a few minutes will cost about 1-2 miles per minute until the cabin cools down.
....
>Having a battery-powered air conditioner beats a gas-powered one hands down.
1-2 miles per min loss? Often I find it takes about 5+ min to cool my car down on a hot day, in a city like London you don't really want to wind the windows down either.
If I'm going to try and be environmentally friendly, and healthy, you know what, I'll cycle that 11 mile each way commute of yours (hell my current one is ~30miles a day).
I can't help but feel this is an attempt to justify a technology which simply isn't ready yet. The range of the leaf isn't enough to compete with a car, I wouldn't feel comfortable doing a 30mile each way commute unless I could guarantee a charging place at the other end. Now the model S on the other hand, that's a different story.
Well, that's 1-2 miles per minute if you don't run the A/C continuously. If you were to keep the cabin at a climate controlled temperature, the Leaf normally estimates ~10% reduction in range. I'm not sure how true that is because I've never needed to do it. A couple 1-minute blasts is plenty to get me home comfortably.
I do agree that the Leaf could benefit from more range, of course. Although it should be able to handle your commute in the summer without an extra charge. In the winter it would be a stretch, especially with the heater running.
The Tesla is an awesome car, if you can afford it.
I've had a Leaf since (I think?) April in Dallas, TX. So there's been very little time I _haven't_ run the car with the A/C on.
I could be proven wrong, but it doesn't feel anywhere near that bad. Also, it has to work a lot harder in 100F+ heat. It's a really good system, but it's also a relatively small cabin. Compared to my previous Jeep Grand Cherokee or Volvos it's performance isn't really noteworthy. It's definitely not worse, but I'd be hard pressed to claim it's substantially better either.
My commute to the office is 5 miles each way. So the Leaf is about perfect for me. I still take the 20+ mile trip (each way) downtown, or up to the suburbs to visit friends on weekends without any worries.
Another guy at the office who also has a Leaf has a 30 mile commute (each way), and he's also on the trickle charger. A few close calls early on, but he seemed to adjust to it pretty quick.
BTW, 60 miles round trip is pretty extraordinary for a commute. Even in the sprawling sub-sub-suburbs of TX. I'd guess that the Leaf would work fine for more people than not on a commuting basis. But that's just my gut.
The only frustrating thing I've run into is the high cost of DC Quick Charger subscriptions (none of the ones deployed around here are pay-by-the-minute, you have to be a member). I didn't drop a $200/month gas bill just to pay $80/month for a Quick Charger membership I'd only use once a month at best.
It might be worth it if there were any quick-chargers between Dallas and Houston so I could visit family in Galveston, but there's absolutely nothing, and even if the state gets around to putting Level2 chargers in at rest-stops, who's going to want to stop twice for 4 hours each at rest-stops along the way? That'd turn a 5 hour trip into 14.
So we take my wife's SUV instead. As a two-car family with a short commute the Leaf really isn't much of a compromise at all. I'm about to buy a Level2 charger for home, but it's not really necessary. It's more about once-in-a-blue-moon convenience of a very busy weekend and getting to leave the SUV in the driveway. Plus the 30a chargers are (I gather) a lot more efficient than the trickle charger.
> ... can't help but feel this is an attempt to justify a technology which simply isn't ready yet
Statistically speaking, such long commutes are unusual. However comments like this create the impression that an electric car with ~80 miles range is a toy. I think 80 mile range is plenty for a commuter car.
> If I'm going to try and be environmentally friendly, and healthy, you know what, I'll cycle that 11 mile each way commute of yours (hell my current one is ~30miles a day).
Oh, get over yourself. Some people like cars. I commute to work every day on a bike too, and you know what, my family _also_ owns a car. How am I going to get my 6-month-old to his doctor's appointment with a bike? That would need a bus or a cab. No thank you. Bike's aren't appropriate for everything, but this car will take care of everything you need it to as long as you don't leave the city with it. I don't really like leaving the city. But for the rare time I'd need to, I'm sure renting a Lexus with the gas savings would be acceptable.
I imagine it's the tree game. The Leaf builds a pine tree next to the speedometer, and you can complete up to 5 trees by driving as eco-friendly as possible. Then you can upload the trees you build through the car's internet connection to compete on a leaderboard with other Leaf owners.
I don't participate. I figure I'm already doing my part to save the environment, and the measly extra kWh I'd save in a month by driving like that isn't worth it. I'd rather have some fun. I do drive 55 on the beltline, but that's the speed limit. I'd only get to my destination a minute faster by going 60.
There's nothing about the car itself that limits driving normally. Even in ECO mode all of the acceleration is there. It's just farther up the accelerator.
The car is great, so you can blame driver ignorance and stupidity...
* Slow acceleration can use more energy than "normal" acceleration (engine efficiency).
* 45mph is a good speed in an EV (faster results in too much drag)
* 35mph gives relativly little more range than 45mph
Yeah, don't bother to wait until there's room to pass safely, just shove 'em off the road! Also don't worry about turning through their lane of travel, they can probably brake as effectively as a bicycle can't they?
It's the driver. The Leaf is a lot snappier than previous hatchbacks I've owned (a miserable Chevy Aveo, and a pretty decent Pontiac Vibe (aka Toyota Matrix)).
I'd peg it about the same as my wife's old Volvo S40 T5. The 0-40 is very spunky. Much more than your average car IMO. The only time it feels sluggish is highway (65mph+) passing, but even then not slow-er than your average non-turbo hatchback. Just back down to less thrilling levels.
He talks about a CVT which would be super cool especially in an EV but while Nissan does offer a CVT option for their other cars I don't think the Leaf comes with any such options.
What I meant was that in both cases there is essentially one gear, but I see you're point. CVT can be thought of as infinitely many gear ratios and the Leaf's is only one. I updated the article, so hopefully it's more clear.
I'm all for eletric cars and I find Tesla an amazing car, but I'll never understand why people buy cars like Nissan Leaf or Prius. They're ugly, slow and expensive. I feel like the only reason to buy them is just for the sake of having a "green" car.
The point is, everyone wishes they could buy one. It's the best reviewed car in history. Nobody in the non-tree hugging camp wants a Leaf even if they can afford it.
It's challenging to find an objective arbiter of taste on cars. I happen to like the look.
> slow
I presume you mean something like "doesn't have as much power (and thus less acceleration) as my preferred style of car".
That may well be true, but it's completely irrelevant to me how fast a car accelerates. Most of my time is spent at the speed limit (+8mph).
> and expensive
Well that is just ill informed. Prius consistently comes out on top (it's the cheapest) on total cost of ownership studies. And that's in the US, with its ridiculously low gas tax.
The relative cheapness of a Prius is much more obvious in cultures that don't abhor Pigovian taxation.
I'm willing to bet you've never driven a Leaf, and/or you're comparing it to all-out sports cars. You can get the Leaf S for US$21,300 after the federal rebate, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a higher performance car at that price.
For lots of people, considering the cost over five years after gas savings and incentives, the leaf actually works out the be the cheapest car available.
I bought a Leaf because it's much cheaper than the Jeep Grand Cherokee I had before (MSRP), and I spend a small fraction of the $200/month I was spending on gas to charge it up.
I thought it was ugly as well before, but it grows on you. Honestly I think it's more of a familiarity thing.
It's far from slow. It's faster than most hatchbacks in it's price range for city driving. You get a loaded Leaf for ~$27K (off the top of my head, after tax-credit). Anything faster is going to be in the same ball-park if not more (ie: VW GTi).
I bought it because it saved me several hundred dollars a month and I've always liked hatchbacks. After test-driving it I was pleasantly surprised at just how much fun it was.
Honestly I never considered it until a co-worker came back from a test-drive raving about it. Then I spent a few seconds thinking about it and realized it actually made some sense for my short commute.
But that can be the case for small hatchbacks as well. I traded from a Toyota 4Runner to a Fiat 500, and the Fiat was much cheaper (MSRP). I spend a small fraction of the $180/mo I was spending in gas (going from 15mpg to 35mpg). It's far from slow (even with only 101HP). I got it nearly fully-loaded for $18k (the only thing I don't have is the GPS built in). It's also super fun to drive. Obviously the 500 doesn't make sense for families (my SO and I have no plans for kids), but maybe the 500L would be a more apt comparison to a Leaf.
All in all, the Leaf seems like a very expensive and very average small hatchback. I'm not trying to detract from your experience, I catch a lot of flak for driving a Fiat and I know how it feels. The comparisons you're using, however, are far from unique to vehicles like the Leaf. I would love to drive an electric car, but a small efficient hatchback running on gasoline (though I wish it was diesel) just makes more sense to me given the realities of electric car ownership.
Nissan's been dropping the price on the LEAF. If you live in a state that provides ZEV rebates on top of the federal credit, you can get a LEAF down to ~18k. Same applies to the other city-car EVs (Spark EV and 500E).
I like the Fiat 500 a lot. That said, I think a 2-person vehicle is another category. My Dad drives a new-ish Ford Fiesta. It's a great little car. Especially for the price. It's not nearly as well equipped, nice or fast though.
That said, I have zero maintenance beyond replacing tires. Something I never thought about before seriously considering the Leaf. All in all "very expensive" seems like a great injustice to the Leaf. It's not competing against a 500 for my dollar. It's competing against VW's and Volvos. It comes out with a lower payment, zero maintenance expenses (no oil, and I've always used Mobil1 so that's $100 pop), no engine air filter, no transmission fluid, no accessory belts, and it's cheaper to "fill up" than even the most efficient small car, while being a lot more fun to drive than most (especially if the comparisons are narrowed to high-efficiency gas vehicles).
For me the Leaf doesn't compete with Fiestas and Aveos. It competes with Volvo C3's, VW Golfs, etc. It's got an average MSRP in that range and much lower cost of ownership.
Frankly, I just don't see mounting a serious argument on a cost basis (as long as the tax credits still apply at least) without having a big blind-spot for the European imports in the same category to be honest.
Looks are subjective. I think they're not ugly, not the prettiest cars either. As a motorcyclist all cars feel slow. Most people don't need a high-performance car. They might be expensive today, but you need to take into consideration lower usage costs.
I think it's interesting now that lease rates are getting into the neighborhood of being a financial win in certain situations. E.g. if you have a case where if you owned a SUV or truck as a gas vehicle getting say 15mpg, a electric lease is $200/mo, and gas were $3.90, the breakeven point on gas cost is around a one-way 20 mile daily commute (if my rough calcs are correct). So if you commute further than the breakeven point, an electric vehicle lease could be putting gas money in your pocket.
I have a 2007 prius, and that car is nothing like you describe.
- It's quick enough to merge onto any highway around Boston safely, without waiting at on-ramps. I don't notice it being slow, and my previous car was a BMW 330.
- it's more than big enough for my wife, 2 young kids and 90lb dog to take on a weekend trip (with all our stuff.)
- I drive it as hard as I can, and it consistently gets 42 mpg average in mixed city/highway. It's cheap as hell to run.
- It's really nice inside, with lots of gadgets that most cars didn't have 5 years ago (like auto-dimming mirrors, reverse cameras, bluetooth, etc)
- I bought it used, but new it was roughly the same price as a similarly sized and equipped (as in, not base model) conventional engined sedan.
I'll agree, it is sort of ugly, but the new ones are much nicer, and actually one of the nicer looking non-performance cars on the market, in my opinion.
You have to let the battery cool before charging it? Can't the charger just wait until the battery is cool? That kind of inconvenience would be a deal breaker for me. I'd make a mental note to go back into the garage in an hour, but ultimately I'd forget to charge it.
No, you can set the battery charge timer that's part of the car UI so that it charges at a specific time after you know it will be cool. Having said that, I used to charge immediately after driving, and it didn't cause any problems. Nissan just recommends it if you want to marginally improve your battery life, so I set my timer a half hour later.
That's ridiculous; the charger should be smart enough to not attempt to charge the battery if it's too hot. Even some old NiCd and NiMh chargers had that functionality.
At the very least it should inhibit the charge and offer you the opportunity to override that.
The on-board charger is that smart. If you're charging off of a 440V quick charger and the battery gets too hot, it will shut off, and the car will send you an email telling you what happened if you've added an email address in the car's settings.
In other cases with a 110V or 220V charger, it's highly unlikely that the battery will ever be too hot to charge unless it's 120F outside and you've been pushing the car hard.
Look, it really is a minor issue that never crossed my mind until I came across the recommendation in the manual recently. It probably will impact the battery's life only slightly, but it's easy to change the timer and start charging a bit later. It's certainly true that any heat a battery sees will contribute to its degradation, especially while charging because that also generates heat. I figured I'd pass along the recommendation as an additional way to take good care of the very expensive battery.
The charger can't distinguish a user who wants their car available as soon as reasonable from one who is done with their car for the night and is happy to wait an extra half hour for a tiny increase in battery life.
I don't ever do that. But mine's a lease, so I don't really care about the battery. I charge to 100% daily, and wasn't even aware of any "cool down" recommendation. Not that it'd matter with 95F evenings anyways.
I have a commute that's 50 miles each way. And I have 3-4 hours at the destination with possible access to a wall plug.
I've been wondering for a while if the Leaf would be feasible for this? It seems just a tad out of its stated range. But it would save a ton of gas money!
I don't own a Leaf, but I do own a Volt. Assuming rate of charging is comparable I'd say you'd be taking a risk if you only have a wall plug at your destination. I'd be a lot more comfortable if you had access to a 240v charging station for that 3-4 hour span.
Also I've run into more than a few wall plugs that weren't up to snuff according to my charging adapter so there's some risk there too.
I wouldn't recommend buying a Leaf for your situation unless you were able to rent / borrow one and do your commute with it for at least a few days (preferably in unfavorable temperatures if your climate has them) to be sure it'll work out.
The guy that I mentioned in the article that put 78,000 miles on his Leaf has a 65-mile each way commute, and that was in Washington state with cold winters. You might be able to do it, but you'll probably need a 220V charger at your destination to charge up completely for the drive home. The 2013 Leaf is more efficient so it would do better than my 2012, but it really depends on the climate and geography in your area and how fast you drive. You'll lose charge faster at 65+mph freeway speeds because of drag.
> Where the electric motor really delivers is in torque - 210 ft-lbs of it. And not only that, electric motors deliver the same torque over most of their speed range, starting at 0rpm.
Uh, no. Electric motors don't work that way. They produce their max torque at 0 rpm and it decreases from there. This is also the point where it generates the most heat and uses the most current.
>You step on the accelerator, and the car instantly goes. It's a combination of the torque in the electric motor and the CVT (continuously variable transmission).
No documentation I have found states it has a CVT. Most sources I've found say it has a single speed with a reduction of 7.94:1. -Edit- But the statement about the torque is very much true. It is a significant benefit of electrics over ICE.
Aside these, I'm looking forward to hearing how this car performs in the winter. I want to know if I can recommend this car to my mother back in Michigan.
> They produce their max torque at 0 rpm and it decreases from there.
That's true in an unregulated motor, but Nissan electronically regulates the motor so the torque isn't ridiculous at 0rpm. The torque curve ends up being flat over most of the range, and it seems to start falling off around 50mph. I haven't seen a plot, so that's just my impression. I can see how the wording is incorrect, so I modified it to refer specifically to the Leaf's motor.
> No documentation I have found states it has a CVT.
Basically, the motor controller limits the current below its maximum so the amount of torque output will remain constant until it drops below the current limit. There's an explanation of different current limiting methods here:
The Leaf's controller likely uses an active current limiting method, and there's a lot of advances in this technology right now. That's where a lot of the motor efficiency improvements are coming from.
Surprisingly, I can't find much good info on Wikipedia, but I'm probably not using the right search terms.
Loving my Leaf as well. It does suck when you're out and you want to go to another bar across town, but are not confident in the round trip, but that would be the case even if I have 10,000 mile range. At some point, knowing me, I am only going to have 9,985 miles left and want to go to the other side of town.
The thing I like most is the acceleration. I had a 300hp sports car before the Leaf and prefer the Leaf's acceleration much more. My ego does miss my last car though.
Great write-up on the LEAF. I recently leased a Chevy Spark EV, which is smaller and cheaper than the LEAF, with twice the torque. Unfortunately, only available in California and Oregon, but I'd strongly recommend it to anyone who can handle the size.
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>Having a battery-powered air conditioner beats a gas-powered one hands down.
1-2 miles per min loss? Often I find it takes about 5+ min to cool my car down on a hot day, in a city like London you don't really want to wind the windows down either.
If I'm going to try and be environmentally friendly, and healthy, you know what, I'll cycle that 11 mile each way commute of yours (hell my current one is ~30miles a day).
I can't help but feel this is an attempt to justify a technology which simply isn't ready yet. The range of the leaf isn't enough to compete with a car, I wouldn't feel comfortable doing a 30mile each way commute unless I could guarantee a charging place at the other end. Now the model S on the other hand, that's a different story.
I do agree that the Leaf could benefit from more range, of course. Although it should be able to handle your commute in the summer without an extra charge. In the winter it would be a stretch, especially with the heater running.
The Tesla is an awesome car, if you can afford it.
I could be proven wrong, but it doesn't feel anywhere near that bad. Also, it has to work a lot harder in 100F+ heat. It's a really good system, but it's also a relatively small cabin. Compared to my previous Jeep Grand Cherokee or Volvos it's performance isn't really noteworthy. It's definitely not worse, but I'd be hard pressed to claim it's substantially better either.
My commute to the office is 5 miles each way. So the Leaf is about perfect for me. I still take the 20+ mile trip (each way) downtown, or up to the suburbs to visit friends on weekends without any worries.
Another guy at the office who also has a Leaf has a 30 mile commute (each way), and he's also on the trickle charger. A few close calls early on, but he seemed to adjust to it pretty quick.
BTW, 60 miles round trip is pretty extraordinary for a commute. Even in the sprawling sub-sub-suburbs of TX. I'd guess that the Leaf would work fine for more people than not on a commuting basis. But that's just my gut.
The only frustrating thing I've run into is the high cost of DC Quick Charger subscriptions (none of the ones deployed around here are pay-by-the-minute, you have to be a member). I didn't drop a $200/month gas bill just to pay $80/month for a Quick Charger membership I'd only use once a month at best.
It might be worth it if there were any quick-chargers between Dallas and Houston so I could visit family in Galveston, but there's absolutely nothing, and even if the state gets around to putting Level2 chargers in at rest-stops, who's going to want to stop twice for 4 hours each at rest-stops along the way? That'd turn a 5 hour trip into 14.
So we take my wife's SUV instead. As a two-car family with a short commute the Leaf really isn't much of a compromise at all. I'm about to buy a Level2 charger for home, but it's not really necessary. It's more about once-in-a-blue-moon convenience of a very busy weekend and getting to leave the SUV in the driveway. Plus the 30a chargers are (I gather) a lot more efficient than the trickle charger.
Statistically speaking, such long commutes are unusual. However comments like this create the impression that an electric car with ~80 miles range is a toy. I think 80 mile range is plenty for a commuter car.
Only 15% of commuters have one-way commutes longer than 30 miles, according to http://www.statisticbrain.com/commute-statistics/.
Just my two cents.
Oh, get over yourself. Some people like cars. I commute to work every day on a bike too, and you know what, my family _also_ owns a car. How am I going to get my 6-month-old to his doctor's appointment with a bike? That would need a bus or a cab. No thank you. Bike's aren't appropriate for everything, but this car will take care of everything you need it to as long as you don't leave the city with it. I don't really like leaving the city. But for the rare time I'd need to, I'm sure renting a Lexus with the gas savings would be acceptable.
Cringed.
And they accelerate very slowly from traffic lights, clogging traffic behind them.
Does the car itself suck or is it the drivers or is it a UI bug in the car that encourages people to drive it like that.
I don't participate. I figure I'm already doing my part to save the environment, and the measly extra kWh I'd save in a month by driving like that isn't worth it. I'd rather have some fun. I do drive 55 on the beltline, but that's the speed limit. I'd only get to my destination a minute faster by going 60.
There's nothing about the car itself that limits driving normally. Even in ECO mode all of the acceleration is there. It's just farther up the accelerator.
* Slow acceleration can use more energy than "normal" acceleration (engine efficiency). * 45mph is a good speed in an EV (faster results in too much drag) * 35mph gives relativly little more range than 45mph
I'd peg it about the same as my wife's old Volvo S40 T5. The 0-40 is very spunky. Much more than your average car IMO. The only time it feels sluggish is highway (65mph+) passing, but even then not slow-er than your average non-turbo hatchback. Just back down to less thrilling levels.
Completely fixed vs continuously variable seem about as far apart as it gets in my mind.
So they can use renewable energy and their engines are energy efficient -but who cares?
It's challenging to find an objective arbiter of taste on cars. I happen to like the look.
> slow
I presume you mean something like "doesn't have as much power (and thus less acceleration) as my preferred style of car".
That may well be true, but it's completely irrelevant to me how fast a car accelerates. Most of my time is spent at the speed limit (+8mph).
> and expensive
Well that is just ill informed. Prius consistently comes out on top (it's the cheapest) on total cost of ownership studies. And that's in the US, with its ridiculously low gas tax.
The relative cheapness of a Prius is much more obvious in cultures that don't abhor Pigovian taxation.
I thought it was ugly as well before, but it grows on you. Honestly I think it's more of a familiarity thing.
It's far from slow. It's faster than most hatchbacks in it's price range for city driving. You get a loaded Leaf for ~$27K (off the top of my head, after tax-credit). Anything faster is going to be in the same ball-park if not more (ie: VW GTi).
I bought it because it saved me several hundred dollars a month and I've always liked hatchbacks. After test-driving it I was pleasantly surprised at just how much fun it was.
Honestly I never considered it until a co-worker came back from a test-drive raving about it. Then I spent a few seconds thinking about it and realized it actually made some sense for my short commute.
All in all, the Leaf seems like a very expensive and very average small hatchback. I'm not trying to detract from your experience, I catch a lot of flak for driving a Fiat and I know how it feels. The comparisons you're using, however, are far from unique to vehicles like the Leaf. I would love to drive an electric car, but a small efficient hatchback running on gasoline (though I wish it was diesel) just makes more sense to me given the realities of electric car ownership.
That said, I have zero maintenance beyond replacing tires. Something I never thought about before seriously considering the Leaf. All in all "very expensive" seems like a great injustice to the Leaf. It's not competing against a 500 for my dollar. It's competing against VW's and Volvos. It comes out with a lower payment, zero maintenance expenses (no oil, and I've always used Mobil1 so that's $100 pop), no engine air filter, no transmission fluid, no accessory belts, and it's cheaper to "fill up" than even the most efficient small car, while being a lot more fun to drive than most (especially if the comparisons are narrowed to high-efficiency gas vehicles).
For me the Leaf doesn't compete with Fiestas and Aveos. It competes with Volvo C3's, VW Golfs, etc. It's got an average MSRP in that range and much lower cost of ownership.
Frankly, I just don't see mounting a serious argument on a cost basis (as long as the tax credits still apply at least) without having a big blind-spot for the European imports in the same category to be honest.
Looks are subjective. I think they're not ugly, not the prettiest cars either. As a motorcyclist all cars feel slow. Most people don't need a high-performance car. They might be expensive today, but you need to take into consideration lower usage costs.
Ugly? They can't be uglier than, say, an FSO or a Dacia :) .
Slow? Many cars are slower than a Prius (I drive a Renault Twingo). See also http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130725164108AA...
Expensive? Yes. That's the dealbreaker for me, otherwise I'd buy one in a heartbeat.
- It's quick enough to merge onto any highway around Boston safely, without waiting at on-ramps. I don't notice it being slow, and my previous car was a BMW 330.
- it's more than big enough for my wife, 2 young kids and 90lb dog to take on a weekend trip (with all our stuff.)
- I drive it as hard as I can, and it consistently gets 42 mpg average in mixed city/highway. It's cheap as hell to run.
- It's really nice inside, with lots of gadgets that most cars didn't have 5 years ago (like auto-dimming mirrors, reverse cameras, bluetooth, etc)
- I bought it used, but new it was roughly the same price as a similarly sized and equipped (as in, not base model) conventional engined sedan.
I'll agree, it is sort of ugly, but the new ones are much nicer, and actually one of the nicer looking non-performance cars on the market, in my opinion.
At the very least it should inhibit the charge and offer you the opportunity to override that.
In other cases with a 110V or 220V charger, it's highly unlikely that the battery will ever be too hot to charge unless it's 120F outside and you've been pushing the car hard.
Look, it really is a minor issue that never crossed my mind until I came across the recommendation in the manual recently. It probably will impact the battery's life only slightly, but it's easy to change the timer and start charging a bit later. It's certainly true that any heat a battery sees will contribute to its degradation, especially while charging because that also generates heat. I figured I'd pass along the recommendation as an additional way to take good care of the very expensive battery.
I've been wondering for a while if the Leaf would be feasible for this? It seems just a tad out of its stated range. But it would save a ton of gas money!
Does anyone have any advice?
Also I've run into more than a few wall plugs that weren't up to snuff according to my charging adapter so there's some risk there too.
I wouldn't recommend buying a Leaf for your situation unless you were able to rent / borrow one and do your commute with it for at least a few days (preferably in unfavorable temperatures if your climate has them) to be sure it'll work out.
> Where the electric motor really delivers is in torque - 210 ft-lbs of it. And not only that, electric motors deliver the same torque over most of their speed range, starting at 0rpm.
Uh, no. Electric motors don't work that way. They produce their max torque at 0 rpm and it decreases from there. This is also the point where it generates the most heat and uses the most current.
>You step on the accelerator, and the car instantly goes. It's a combination of the torque in the electric motor and the CVT (continuously variable transmission).
No documentation I have found states it has a CVT. Most sources I've found say it has a single speed with a reduction of 7.94:1. -Edit- But the statement about the torque is very much true. It is a significant benefit of electrics over ICE.
Aside these, I'm looking forward to hearing how this car performs in the winter. I want to know if I can recommend this car to my mother back in Michigan.
That's true in an unregulated motor, but Nissan electronically regulates the motor so the torque isn't ridiculous at 0rpm. The torque curve ends up being flat over most of the range, and it seems to start falling off around 50mph. I haven't seen a plot, so that's just my impression. I can see how the wording is incorrect, so I modified it to refer specifically to the Leaf's motor.
> No documentation I have found states it has a CVT.
You're right. Fixed.
http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php/why-do-e...
Basically, the motor controller limits the current below its maximum so the amount of torque output will remain constant until it drops below the current limit. There's an explanation of different current limiting methods here:
http://homepage.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/step/current.html
The Leaf's controller likely uses an active current limiting method, and there's a lot of advances in this technology right now. That's where a lot of the motor efficiency improvements are coming from.
Surprisingly, I can't find much good info on Wikipedia, but I'm probably not using the right search terms.
The thing I like most is the acceleration. I had a 300hp sports car before the Leaf and prefer the Leaf's acceleration much more. My ego does miss my last car though.