GaslessInSeattle
Well-known member
- Joined
- May 6, 2011
- Messages
- 1,566
I'm starting this as a simple general thread for those who want to share about the random day to day experience as they get to know the ins and outs of daily Leaf use. I'll approach it as a users blog.
here's what I've got so far. yesterday my wife and I got back from a vacation and finally had a chance to put some more miles on our Leaf. At first we figured the car would not be the family car, but more a single person second car for errands, we have a Hybrid Highlander for the two kids car seats and the required driver's leg room. Well, we've become so addicted to the experience of driving electric that today we decided to cram both car seats into the leaf and use it for everything to see if it could be our primary vehicle. This is no small feat for us, we are both 6'3". We were surprised to find that it was manageable to have both car seats and both of us in the car. It's a bit scrunched for us even with the seats back all the way, but the car seats fit in without having to move the seats up, so we went for it. We went out to breakfast in Freemont, visited a friend in West Seattle. I dropped off my wife in north Seattle for a cooking class and took the kids home to shoreline for naps, leaving the Leaf plugged in for 4 hours at home with the L1 trickle charger, then picked her up from the class, drove and got some take out and headed down to Golden Gardens to watch the sun set with the family, then headed home. When we got home there was 16 miles of range left, we began the day with 85. It was a coldish day, requiring heating and fan to defog the windshield, stereo and lights were on with wipers going most of the time. I didn't note the exact start odometer reading but we did get substantially less than the 85 mile range due to heavy power use. Having the car full of two adults and two children probably lowered the range as well.
My initial thought is wow, it kind of worked! We got to do what we wanted to and made it home with some spare change. I can see though that it's going to be tricky to truly rely on this as our primary around town car without having the L2 charger installed. As I've been watching the charging times recalibrate on the dash, it's sunk in a bit more that the difference between 120 and 240 is not times two, but rather closer to a multiple of three in terms of difference in time required for a full charge. Being spontaneous will be harder if we try and rely entirely on the L1 trickle charger. It also dawned on me that in this cold rainy climate (sorry Seattleites it does seem like climate change is sending us more rain and cold) that we will average a limited range due to heavy power usage for heating, lights and defrost/fan.
After dropping the family off at the house, I decided to run the battery down, like I've read about to get a first hand experience of what to expect if I get into a low battery situation unexpectedly, so I went back out on the highway for a bit and then drove circles around in the neighborhood as the range winded down. Eventually the low battery warning came on and it started ticking down the last 6 miles or so. With just under 3 miles it stopped listing the miles and sent out another audible warning that the car needed charging. After another hill or two, the turtle light came on and I barely made it up the last hill to get it back in the garage. It was an interesting experience. I made a mental note that the turtle function really can't be relied on to go up steep hills for long and that I really shouldn't rely on this mode to take me very far. The car is now charging up for a trip down to Olympia tomorrow afternoon, a 60 mile high speed journey down the freeway with an overnight at a friends house charging with the L1. I may have to take it by the local dealership for a top off on the L2 charger to have a comfortable "range cushion" before beginning the journey. I'll report back on the trip when I get back.
Kind Regards,
George
here's what I've got so far. yesterday my wife and I got back from a vacation and finally had a chance to put some more miles on our Leaf. At first we figured the car would not be the family car, but more a single person second car for errands, we have a Hybrid Highlander for the two kids car seats and the required driver's leg room. Well, we've become so addicted to the experience of driving electric that today we decided to cram both car seats into the leaf and use it for everything to see if it could be our primary vehicle. This is no small feat for us, we are both 6'3". We were surprised to find that it was manageable to have both car seats and both of us in the car. It's a bit scrunched for us even with the seats back all the way, but the car seats fit in without having to move the seats up, so we went for it. We went out to breakfast in Freemont, visited a friend in West Seattle. I dropped off my wife in north Seattle for a cooking class and took the kids home to shoreline for naps, leaving the Leaf plugged in for 4 hours at home with the L1 trickle charger, then picked her up from the class, drove and got some take out and headed down to Golden Gardens to watch the sun set with the family, then headed home. When we got home there was 16 miles of range left, we began the day with 85. It was a coldish day, requiring heating and fan to defog the windshield, stereo and lights were on with wipers going most of the time. I didn't note the exact start odometer reading but we did get substantially less than the 85 mile range due to heavy power use. Having the car full of two adults and two children probably lowered the range as well.
My initial thought is wow, it kind of worked! We got to do what we wanted to and made it home with some spare change. I can see though that it's going to be tricky to truly rely on this as our primary around town car without having the L2 charger installed. As I've been watching the charging times recalibrate on the dash, it's sunk in a bit more that the difference between 120 and 240 is not times two, but rather closer to a multiple of three in terms of difference in time required for a full charge. Being spontaneous will be harder if we try and rely entirely on the L1 trickle charger. It also dawned on me that in this cold rainy climate (sorry Seattleites it does seem like climate change is sending us more rain and cold) that we will average a limited range due to heavy power usage for heating, lights and defrost/fan.
After dropping the family off at the house, I decided to run the battery down, like I've read about to get a first hand experience of what to expect if I get into a low battery situation unexpectedly, so I went back out on the highway for a bit and then drove circles around in the neighborhood as the range winded down. Eventually the low battery warning came on and it started ticking down the last 6 miles or so. With just under 3 miles it stopped listing the miles and sent out another audible warning that the car needed charging. After another hill or two, the turtle light came on and I barely made it up the last hill to get it back in the garage. It was an interesting experience. I made a mental note that the turtle function really can't be relied on to go up steep hills for long and that I really shouldn't rely on this mode to take me very far. The car is now charging up for a trip down to Olympia tomorrow afternoon, a 60 mile high speed journey down the freeway with an overnight at a friends house charging with the L1. I may have to take it by the local dealership for a top off on the L2 charger to have a comfortable "range cushion" before beginning the journey. I'll report back on the trip when I get back.
Kind Regards,
George
