LEAF Traction in winter

Since I just got on the reservation list today I am fairly certain I will be able to get a WInter package by the time my LEAF arrives. However I am more concerned about the traction abilities in snow/ice. The high torque of the electric motor in my Prius causes the wheels to spin which instantly engages the traction control system and shuts the wheels down. This basically means I don't get to drive up hill without losing momentum.

Have any current LEAF owners tried to drive in slippery ice/snow conditions?

padamson1 said:

The high torque of the electric motor in my Prius causes the wheels to spin which instantly engages the traction control system and shuts the wheels down.

Click to expand...

Which model year is your Prius? The second generation Prius is known to have overaggressive traction control that locks up the wheels prematurely. Our third-generation Prius seems to do well on snow and ice, though we did replace the stock Yokohama tires with Kumho Solus KR21 all-season tires which were recommended by our mechanic for winter use (and we haven't noticed a drop in gas mileage).

Given either a Prius or a LEAF (for that matter any car), accelerating and braking as gently as possible should help. Using ECO mode while accelerating might be a good idea, though I'd be careful in the LEAF not to allow regen in ECO mode to slow you down too quickly and cause you to lose traction.

Also, unlike the Prius, the LEAF makes it very easy to turn off traction control (a button below and to the left of the steering wheel) in case you get stuck and need to (carefully) spin the tires a little. Having only recently taken delivery of our LEAF, we haven't yet had the opportunity to try this on snow/ice, though.

DaveinOlyWA posted a video some time back of him driving the LEAF in snow both with and without traction control enabled.

=Smidge=