hanz64 said:
Yes, I will be parking it and charging it in a garage at home. Some of the driving in the area between Heber City and Kimball Junction will be on a highway where the speed limit is about 65 mph or so. However, as you say the speed limit is much lower in Park City proper. Our house sits on top of a mountain so you have to climb up to get back home. I suppose I need to reserve a certain charge to make that climb each day.
Yes, you will soon learn how many fuel bars it takes to make the climb home. Where I live it takes me two fuel bars to make the nine mile trip home from town, an elevation gain of 1000 feet.
The only time we would take the Leaf to Salt Lake City would be to get it serviced at the Nissan dealer there. And they would have a charging station so as long as I can climb the 3,000 feet or so from SLC to get back home with a full charge I guess I should be ok.
As you say, since you will be able to charge at the SLC dealer, getting home to the Park City area will be fairly simple. My trip home from the dealer here is
much more challenging.
So when you say that the GOM is utterly useless, does that apply to the number (miles) that is displayed, or does it apply to the the number of charge bars on the left that are displayed as well. I assumed that the charge bars just showed the percentage of the total full charge. I.e. if you have 6 out of 12 bars would that not mean that you have a 50% charge in the battery?
As
abasile said, I was just referring to the GOM; the fuel bars work fine and I use them to track how far I can go. Be aware that given the "hidden fuel bars", 50% charge is roughly five fuel bars, not six. Since your battery has declined in capacity, a greater portion of what's left is below the Low Battery Warning now, since it is a fixed number of "Gids", an approximation of the state of charge.
Also I would like to know why I could expect a better range at higher altitude? Does the lithium battery operate more efficiently at higher altitude?
Again, as
abasile said, thin air means reduced air density and decreased drag—fewer air molecules to push out of the way. Air density is logarithmic so the density is significantly lower as one increases in altitude. I long ago found that I get significantly higher gas mileage here in Colorado than when I drive down to sea level. The effect is even more pronounced with electric cars. If you look at the footnotes in
Tony Williams' Range Chart you will see that he estimates an increase in mileage of 1.5% for each 1000 feet of elevation gain, other things being equal.
The reason I mentioned it is that people who live at low elevations are often unaware of the reduced drag at high elevations. Here in Colorado we tend to take it for granted because
there are no low elevations here—the lowest is 3315 feet near the Kansas/Nebraska border. Utah is much the same.
I just looked at my average kilowatt hour mileage, and I am getting 4.8 miles/kWh. So I guess that is considered fairly good. So if you get about 4.0 miles/kWh in a mountainous terrain that is better than I was hoping for.
Here is a seasonal chart of my mileage:
The pink line is my dash meter mileage. But my speeds never exceed 60 mph because there are no freeways within LEAF range. Those who drive freeways can expect lower numbers at winter temperatures.
I am getting more and mor convinced that I should try to use the Leaf in Park City. It might not be the ultimate vehicle for that area, but as long as we have a second car (burning fossil fuels) then we will hopefully be ok.
I really appreciate all the feedback. This is a great community.
I think you will be fine with using the LEAF in Park City. Even when it snows!