TromboneAl
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2006
- Messages
- 12,880
Here's a quick report on our first two months with our Nissan LEAF, model S.
It's been great fun. We used to go to town (thirty miles away) only once a week, but now we're often finding excuses to go. We have enough juice to drive in, do errands, and drive home, but we almost always plug in somewhere.
There's something fun about charging and killing time. For example, we'll plug in at the free CalTrans charger, then go have coffee, lunch, and pick up some stuff.
The most fun is driving beyond your range--needing to get a charge if you want to make it home. Today we went on a 113-mile trip. We parked at a charging station in downtown Fortuna, walked through a big car show, then walked to a Starbucks three miles away. I did some writing and Lena knitted. After lunch, we drove to Ferndale to try a new charger, and visited some touristy shops.
The "range-remaining" "Guess-o-meter" is terrible because it bases its estimate on only the last mile or so of driving. So, if you're driving at thirty MPH, it might say you have fifty miles left, but when you get on the the feeway, all of a sudden you're down to twenty. Instead, I've created a cheat sheet that estimates range based on the state of charge and our standard efficiency (3.9 miles per kWh).
For fun, I pushed it to the limit on one trip, and it was not fun. A few miles from home the GOM threw up its hands and said "I don't know how much farther you can drive. You're on your own." That is, it displayed the miles remaining as "--." I'll never do that again.
We rarely have to charge at home during the day when the rate is higher, but we've done it a few times because it's still cheaper than buying gas.
We've only used the truck twice--once for a trip to Oregon and once when we both needed a car.
The car is really smooth and quiet--a pleasure to drive.
It's been great fun. We used to go to town (thirty miles away) only once a week, but now we're often finding excuses to go. We have enough juice to drive in, do errands, and drive home, but we almost always plug in somewhere.
There's something fun about charging and killing time. For example, we'll plug in at the free CalTrans charger, then go have coffee, lunch, and pick up some stuff.
The most fun is driving beyond your range--needing to get a charge if you want to make it home. Today we went on a 113-mile trip. We parked at a charging station in downtown Fortuna, walked through a big car show, then walked to a Starbucks three miles away. I did some writing and Lena knitted. After lunch, we drove to Ferndale to try a new charger, and visited some touristy shops.
The "range-remaining" "Guess-o-meter" is terrible because it bases its estimate on only the last mile or so of driving. So, if you're driving at thirty MPH, it might say you have fifty miles left, but when you get on the the feeway, all of a sudden you're down to twenty. Instead, I've created a cheat sheet that estimates range based on the state of charge and our standard efficiency (3.9 miles per kWh).
For fun, I pushed it to the limit on one trip, and it was not fun. A few miles from home the GOM threw up its hands and said "I don't know how much farther you can drive. You're on your own." That is, it displayed the miles remaining as "--." I'll never do that again.
We rarely have to charge at home during the day when the rate is higher, but we've done it a few times because it's still cheaper than buying gas.
We've only used the truck twice--once for a trip to Oregon and once when we both needed a car.
The car is really smooth and quiet--a pleasure to drive.
