cwerdna
Well-known member
Not really on the 1st. Yes, on the latter.SageBrush said:Did the drop into 11 capacity bar territory make the car impractical for you, or did you decide you want more range than a LEAF provides ?cwerdna said:But yeah, I'm not too upset about the depreciation given what I paid for it.
My LEAF's battery capacity is not much different than your car but I think it will remain useful for us even at 8 bars. Of course it is our second car so it leads a very cosseted existence. Pretty much just errands and runs to the gym.
My commute's only about 13 miles each way and I have free L2 charging at work and could L1 charge at home, if needed but doing that too much at home == massive increase in electric bills due to Pacific Gouge & Extort. For commuting only, I could be down MANY more capacity bars and be ok.
With Leaf, I tended to use free public L2 charging on Fridays/weekends to get thru the weekend w/o charging at home, but the free public L2 I used now only has 2 handles for public use. The other 6 are for employees of that org now (set to restricted via ChargePoint, previously they had Clipper Creek EVSEs w/Liberty Access keypads and codes). Sometimes, if I was headed home from somewhere, work might be/be sorta be on the way home, so I might stop by there to charge for a bit.
I was keeping my 06 Prius as my "range extender" when my Leaf wasn't charged enough or wouldn't cut it for where I wanted to go. I got suddenly interested in Bolt when I became aware of heavy discounting (I think via FB groups, possibly Leaf ones). I looked at the 3, didn't know when for certain when the Leaf Plus would ship (knowing there's likely be little discounting at the beginning) and knew the Tesla and GM tax credit situation. So, I got w/the Bolt w/the goal of being down to a single EV and no more ICEVs (knowing full well it's not a great road trip vehicle). Prius was sold to my dad. Trying to sell Leaf since I don't really need it.
Now with Bolt on weekends, if I charge to at least 85% at work on Friday, I can easily make it thru the entire weekend w/o any additional charging (public or otherwise) unless I drive somewhere far (not typical). I've yet to charge my Bolt at home once yet. Judging by the Bolts on-board status telling me how far I've driven and how many kWh I've consumed since the last "full" (it's actually triggered when charge level hits the limiter I have set) charge, if I did that w/my 11 bar Leaf, I'd not have enough to make it to work on Monday w/o some extra juice somewhere (e.g. public charging, work, home).
If curious, here are some examples where Bolt was great but w/my '13 Leaf w/no CHAdeMO would've been an issue unless I charged over the weekend:
- Had to meet w/someone in Palo Alto. From home, it's about 30 miles each way, almost all highway. I'd have to fully charge Leaf at home first and when I arrive home, I'd need to charge again to make it thru the weekend and to work on Monday.
- Had to meet w/someone in Burlingame. It's 47 miles one way, almost all highway. That person wanted to meet there and there was no charging nearby. Leaf could make it there but I'd have needed to L2 charge somewhere for awhile to make it home. I'd have taken the Prius instead if I didn't have Bolt.