Having been a serious “car guy” since I was 2 years old, my journey to the Leaf came by way of a test drive in a Tesla P85D. Since birth, I’ve lusted over the typical supercars; Ferrai’s, Pagani’s, McLaren’s. I’ve had some great cars of my own and was always into tuning, tweaking, racing and getting the most out of my car. For decades I had a firm understanding of what a performance car was, until I drove the Tesla. That hour was mind-bending and immediately changed my outlook on what a fast everyday car was supposed to be. Electric power just makes sense and if I had the $120,000 I would have ordered one on the spot, but alas I am not quite that financially blessed yet.
Someday…
Fast forward a few months and I see that there are insane lease deals on new Leafs. Intrigued by the financial side of things I do a test drive and was very pleasantly surprised with the feel of the Leaf. The seamless and usable power and that lovely electric whine were all reminiscent of the Tesla, just dialed back to something that wouldn’t terrify my wife and kids. It was a small car, but also had room for my family of 4. It so happened that my current daily driver, a lovingly tuned BMW M3, was getting to the point in it’s life where things would naturally start to break, and I was not looking forward to the intense costs of that. My wife and I were also spending $250-300/month on gas and we will be able to cut that back to around $50, making the Leaf almost “free.”
So the decision was made. I sold my M3 to a local specialty dealer, went to Nissan and got a great lease deal on a 2015 Leaf S with the quick charge package.
From this:
To this (pic taken at one of the most picturesque fill-up stations around):
In less than a week I have completely fallen in love with the Leaf. I am reminded of when I was 16 and tried to come up with any stupid excuse to go run an errand. While not exactly an M3 in terms of handling, the overall feel and usability of the Leaf around town is amazing and it is a joy to drive. Making the little tree “grow” on the display is a source of endless amusement for my kids (and perhaps for me as well) and at those times when it’s the end of the day and range is not a concern, flooring it and hearing that electric whine induces non-stop giggles.
I installed a Clipper Creek LCS-25 and simply plug that into my existing dedicated dryer outlet, which works perfectly. ChargePoint stations are available all around my area and so far we have not come close to running the car down. Being able to plug in at night and know that your car is full every morning is simply awesome. My wife will primarily drive it, shuttling kids and doing errands and it is the perfect vehicle for that. We have a tuned Mazda 5 as well, so longer journeys are not an issue. All in all, even as a hardcore performance car fanatic I could not be happier. The 36 months lease is perfect, as I am confident that battery tech will be much improved in that timeframe and the Tesla I dream about will be more affordable.
The ICE backup:
Everyone that I’ve talked to has a (usually negative) mental picture of what an electric car is like, but once they ride in the Leaf their reaction is “THIS IS AWESOME I WANT ONE.” I suspect that in 5 years time it won’t be “weird” to have an EV, and when my kids are parents they will look on gas-powered cars with the same bemusement as we do on a steam-powered car from the 1900’s.
While not perfect, the Leaf is an amazing little vehicle and I’m pleased to be on the forefront of the EV wave.
