Heading for Nashville (and a proper test drive).

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
mwalsh

mwalsh

Well-known member
Leaf Supporting Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2010
Messages
9,782
Location
Garden Grove, CA
Since I probably won't have time to check in tomorrow morning and tell you...I'm heading to Nashville tomorrow to take part in wave four of the Nissan Media Preview Event.

My test drive is on Tuesday morning and, even though it appears we're to be given a route book, I am rather hoping I can go "off the reservation". I'm further hoping that I won't have a Nissan "minder" riding with me. It's hard to say at this point what I'll encounter in the way restrictions, though it appears that Nissan is becoming a bit more confident in leaving automotive journalists and bloggers to their own devices.

I'm personally looking for a freeway speed run down the 65 between Nissan's Franklin HQ and Philadelphia - a 61 mile round-trip that would pretty much replicate my personal daily usage. Hard to say if I'll be allowed to keep the car for an hour though (although I'd like to remind Nissan that Nick Chambers got to keep one for what must have been something like 3 hours! :? ). If nothing else, I DEFINITELY want to do some freeway speed driving, to see what the progressive effect is on the power steering.

I'm further hoping to put this 0-60 thing to rest, once and for all. I'll have my trusty stopwatch with me, and am quite deft at putting power down without a bunch of wheel spin and other nonsense (though I've never done so with LRR tires). So, provided I have the battery power left, it should be fairly easy to get a number of runs that will give a good average.

Anything else (reasonable) anyone would still like to know at this point?

In the interests of full disclosure, I should mention that the trip is being almost entirely sponsored by Nissan - air, hotel, ground transportation, and most meals. Even some adult beverages, if my events program is to be believed!
 
Good luck to ya! Get some quality wheel time in.

But seriously, for 0-to-60, it seems like SOME journalist should have a pocket sensor on his toolbelt. A G-Tech, or a Passport G-Timer.. something more accurate than a stopwatch and the car's own speedometer? Your average high school tuner has one or two of these. Maybe borrow one?

If they won't let you go off-piste with the Leaf, maybe someone has connections with Lance Armstrong? Someone who would be trusted with his car, for a full charge...

Just seems weird that we're about a month away from first delivery, and it hasn't been given the instrumented once-over by the likes of Car & Driver.
 
Great to see you finally get an invitation.

Check the list of questions in the "questions" thread. May be take a printout and see what you can get out of them.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1516
 
mwalsh said:
Since I probably won't have time to check in tomorrow morning and tell you...I'm heading to Nashville tomorrow to take part in wave four of the Nissan Media Preview Event.

My test drive is on Tuesday morning and, even though it appears we're to be given a route book, I am rather hoping I can go "off the reservation". I'm further hoping that I won't have a Nissan "minder" riding with me. It's hard to say at this point what I'll encounter in the way restrictions, though it appears that Nissan is becoming a bit more confident in leaving automotive journalists and bloggers to their own devices.

I'm personally looking for a freeway speed run down the 65 between Nissan's Franklin HQ and Philadelphia - a 61 mile round-trip that would pretty much replicate my personal daily usage. Hard to say if I'll be allowed to keep the car for an hour though (although I'd like to remind Nissan that Nick Chambers got to keep one for what must have been something like 3 hours! :? ). If nothing else, I DEFINITELY want to do some freeway speed driving, to see what the progressive effect is on the power steering.

I'm further hoping to put this 0-60 thing to rest, once and for all. I'll have my trusty stopwatch with me, and am quite deft at putting power down without a bunch of wheel spin and other nonsense (though I've never done so with LRR tires). So, provided I have the battery power left, it should be fairly easy to get a number of runs that will give a good average.

Anything else (reasonable) anyone would still like to know at this point?

In the interests of full disclosure, I should mention that the trip is being almost entirely sponsored by Nissan - air, hotel, ground transportation, and most meals. Even some adult beverages, if my events program is to be believed!
Click to expand...


Congratulations!

We will certainly look forward to your commentary. You're after exactly what I would like to know...the performance on a regular interstate at interstate speeds (65 mph). It is not at all critical to my purchase decision, but it is the information that seems strangely missing to date. Of course, what is also interesting and what will be tested during a highway drive, will be the passing speeds between 40 to 65 mph and between 55 and 75 mph. Your impressions will be appreciated!
 
See if you can get a copy of the actual battery warranty. Also, check the kick plates....see if they have the 3D option since ware are still waiting to see what we paid for :shock: . Thanks!
 
Mwalsh, please ask how may Leafs are coming off the assembly line each week and how many will be delivered to US by April1, 2011. Thanks
 
Wow! Way to go on getting this invite!!

I'm still curious about interior dimensions. Ask them when they are going to update the LEAF website with these specs. Also, do they have any data they will share about how heat affects battery and/or range. They had LEAFs here in Arizona for a while during the summer, so they must have some data on this.

Thanks. Enjoy your longer drive. Us early adopters in Arizona feel a bit left out. No drives until December 10.
 
sjfotos said:
the performance on a regular interstate at interstate speeds (65 mph). It is not at all critical to my purchase decision, but it is the information that seems strangely missing to date.
Click to expand...
Yes, I'm interested also, as ~9 miles of 65 MPH turnpike is a part of my daily commute. Not that 9 miles will "break the bank", but I'd like to know how big of a range hit I'll be taking.
 
Can you measure the mileage for several speeds going at a steady rate on the flat. I'm most interested in 55, 60, 65, 70 but it would also interesting to see lower speeds. Not sure if its instrumentation will let you easily do this or if it averages over too much time. You should simply be able to watch the energy display on the center console that digitally shows the kW being consumed by the motor and separately by the climate system.
 
Having a bit of a chat with Mark Perry at dinner tonight and the subject of flat towing the LEAF behind a RV came up. Yes, you can flat tow the LEAF behind a RV, but there is no regenerative benefit for doing so (so the same would hold true for a tow truck). However, Mark says regenerative towing is something they're looking at. We didn't get into the specifics of how you set up the car to be towed.

I also heard (via another conversation) that we are still on-track for the December deliveries as far as Nissan is concerned, though they did concede it may be later in December than we've previously been informed.

That's all I have for you right now....more to follow from the Q&A period prior to test drives tomorrow.
 
All of these are great questions. If you have a driven an EV before then you know that it's all about the pack. Unless you have deep pockets, any EV builder knows this will all come down to the pack warranty. I would like some specifics here.
 
mwalsh said:
Having a bit of a chat with Mark Perry at dinner tonight and the subject of flat towing the LEAF behind a RV came up. Yes, you can flat tow the LEAF behind a RV, but there is no regenerative benefit for doing so (so the same would hold true for a tow truck). However, Mark says regenerative towing is something they're looking at. We didn't get into the specifics of how you set up the car to be towed.
Click to expand...

Well here's a "simple" way to regenerative tow with an RV:

1. Flat tow the LEAF on all uphill and flat terrains.
2. Unhook the LEAF and have someone else drive down the mountains in ECO mode. :)
 
I have some questions about range and nav that probably can't be answered until cars are delivered to some curious customers.

We've seen the range estimates in different driving conditions. Driving very fast uses more energy. Sitting in a traffic jam with the A/C on uses more energy. Excessive acceleration and braking uses more energy. So what if you need to go from point A to point B by either of two routes, city streets or freeway. On streets you'll drive slower (good) but will be stopping and accelerating at traffic lights (bad). On the freeway you can drive at a constant speed (good); it might be a little fast (bad); or keeping up with the flow of traffic might be very fast (very bad). So should you choose a city route of distance X or a freeway route of distance Y?

I read that the nav system will try to route you around traffic jams. Does it know the average speed on different routes (using aggregated telemetry from thousands of subscribers)? Or does it only know "significant" back ups on freeways from traffic sensors and regional traffic radio broadcasts? If it has more information, does it use it? I.e., in the point A to B scenario above the nav computer might well know the city street route would be bad because of heavy stop and go traffic and high outside temperature for A/C. Or it might know the freeway route would be bad because traffic in the slow lane is going 20mph over the posted speed limit, while traffic on the city street is moving at a steady and moderate speed.
 
I'll posting my full review a bit later today, to it's own new thread (with mod approval), but I wanted to quickly share this with you right now.....

One of my "big deals" was getting in a freeway run at speed. Well, I'm pleased to say that my co-pilot and I got between 3.9 and 4.6 miles per kWh from a 30 mile freeway run @ 70mph. This was with the AC running (fan on low) the entire time and was not in ECO mode. The 3.9 miles per kWh was even on a slight uphill grade with almost tornadic headwinds, which alone would translate into over 90 miles range for the full pack under the same conditions. I'm sure the EV old timers here would agree that's pretty darn good for an EV of the LEAF's size and weight!
 
mwalsh said:
I'll posting my full review a bit later today, to it's own new thread (with mod approval), but I wanted to quickly share this with you right now.....

One of my "big deals" was getting in a freeway run at speed. Well, I'm pleased to say that my co-pilot and I got between 3.9 and 4.6 miles per kWh from a 30 mile freeway run @ 70mph. This was with the AC running (fan on low) the entire time and was not in ECO mode. The 3.9 miles per kWh was even on a slight uphill grade with almost tornadic headwinds, which alone would translate into over 90 miles range for the full pack under the same conditions. I'm sure the EV old timers here would agree that's pretty darn good for an EV of the LEAF's size and weight!
Click to expand...


Well, from my perspective, your trip is already a great success! This was the kind of information I was most curious about. Thank you!
 

Similar threads

D
12v lead-acid battery near-death experience
Replies
0
Views
791
DanKegel
D
49thdiver
Stand alone OBC/PDModule EV system Can 2015 - SOLVED
11 12 13
Replies
244
Views
91K
49thdiver
49thdiver
A
2011–2015 Leaf as a secondary vehicle?
2 3
Replies
44
Views
19K
anthonystclair
A
F
New Owner - First EV = Leaf SL Plus
2
Replies
27
Views
7K
frontrangeleaf
F
M
2018 Nissan Leaf Test Drive
Replies
16
Views
5K
LeftieBiker
L

Latest posts

Back
Top