Search results

On May 18th, 2011, I drove off the lot with the first new car I had ever purchased. Today, we're an all-EV household. The Leaf has been a great car. Like many other owners, we've had battery degradation and I wonder if Nissan was too slow to respond and squandered their first mover advantage...

Tesla Model 3 will have larger cells than the current Tesla vehicles and it will have about half the number of cells as the current Model S/X. <link>

As batteries get cheaper, the range extender could be a 40kWh battery pack. It does not have to be a generator. There is a case to be made for a range extender (battery, gen-set, or hybrid). There is a market for shorter range EVs. Even as the 200+ mile range EVs come out, there will be people...

My car is now 5 years old and there has been some range degradation (as expected). It would be nice it Nissan came out with a range extender that I could rent for the few times each year that I'd like to take my Leaf on a long trip. Especially as these batteries age, this would be nice to have...

My Leaf and I just had our 5 year anniversary http://buff.ly/1TRG4ek

Here is a story about exactly that <link>; battery improvements, HVAC improvements, weight reductions, more range...

Our Prius was totaled in Feb, so the Leaf has had to step up. Even with the range down to less than 58 miles (see the chart in the link), the Leaf is used for most of our trips. http://www.carswithcords.net/2016/05/leaf-repurposed.html

For a hot climate, it would have been better to get a 2015 or later; these have the "Lizard Battery". The heat will degrade the batteries. You can slow this some by not leaving battery as a high SOC in the heat. The pack should be in the middle third range any time it will be sitting in the...

Thanks Turbo3! I looked and missed it. Now I see it. :geek:

Right, thanks. My number was way off.

At my work, we have charging stations. One of them is acting weird. If a Leaf is plugged in, the charging session won't start. If a Volt plugs in, it works fine. After plugging my Leaf into this station, there was error light in the car. Is there any way to read the diagnostic code(s) with...

Thanks Ed. It's nice to see different long term owner perspectives. I think about 1200 Leafs were sold in 2011. I wonder, how many are still in their original owners hands? It seems like many of the people that were quick to jump in on a 2011 Leaf were also quick to jump to a newer vehicle...

That is an awesome deal. I hope you love it as much as I have.

US Army and Oregon Army National Guard 1988 - 1994, Desert Storm. After fighting for oil, I concluded that there has to be a better way for us to get from A to B.

Thanks Evoforce. These are great suggestions. Some apply to me and others don't. Rather than saving my responses for a write up in May, I'll share my initial thoughts/replies here. Fortunately for me, I have not experienced the rapid degradation problem (I live in Oregon). The weather here is...

My Leaf and I have been together nearly 5 years. I am thinking of writing up a 5 year ownership review. What issues would you like to see addressed or question would you have for such a write up?

For 2015, our PV system generated 5,600 kWh and my ~7,000 miles of Leaf driving used 2,200 kWh. Looks like it is time to buy a 2nd EV! We added more panels in 2015 (going from 4kW to 12kW), you can read about that here, if you're interested.

Thanks Reg

I'm going to agree w/ Nubo. They have no idea what I think. The loudest camps tend to be the "It'll never happen" and the "As soon as (pick your favorite next-tech) arrives everyone will be driving electric." There's a reasonable (quieter) majority that thinks battery chemistry improvements will...

Welcome to the club. You have the right plan using it as a commuter and errand mobile. This is where sub-100 mile range EVs shine and (unless you are a long haul trucker) this where most of us do most of our driving. That's low miles for a ~3 year old car and the batteries look like they were...