60 mile commute - Am I pushing my luck with a used Leaf?

[Valdemar]

FWIW, I can still do my daily 60 miles daily on a single charge with ~35% down in capacity. LA traffic "patterns" do help to live with the decreased range Unlike the OP I have several options on my route to charge, including expensive but reliable L2 at work and a multitude of quick chargers if I need to charge. Given L1 at work was the only option and the single point of failure I wouldn't risk it.

 

[born2pdl]

+1 for a Volt, perfect for your commute. A few times a year stuff doesn't work out well. In the Leaf you're stuck. In the Volt you have backup.

 

[Woosie]

I think nothing of doing 55-60 miles per day with nothing but L1 charging at night. No problems at all, even with AC going full time.

Frankly, I don't see the issue, conserving my car type and year.

 

[DoobeeDude]

Seems like a no - brainer to me, too. Assuming you leave your house every day with a full charge, you will almost certainly leave work again in the evening with a nearly full charge (30 mi @ 3 mi / Kwh -- you can replenish that in 8 hrs on Lvl 1).

 

[tkdbrusco]

While I do think that you can do this commute no problem, I would caution that charging at work would always keep your car at a high state of charge (A no-no for battery life). If you leave the house with 100%, you'll get to work with about 70%, then if you charge at work (even on L1) you'll be near 100% when you leave, and back home at 70% again. This would consistently keep your car between the 70-100% range, which isn't good for the long term health of the battery. If you lease however, you may not care about this. To avoid it I would either not charge at work, or leave the house with 70% and plug in at work, getting you back to 70% or so before you come home, keeping the car outside of the high charge range.

 

[Sondy132001]

I appreciate all the responses. FWIW, I have a 60 mile round trip commute, so 30 miles each way.

Based on your comments it sound like it could be a reasonable proposition with at 2013 or newer Leaf SV or SL. But if I have to make a double commute to go home for a forgotten phone / computer / briefcase, which happens two or three times a year, it would clearly be problematic.

My original plan was to wait a couple of more years to save up for a Tesla Model 3 (or maybe an S) which would really be more practical for me. But rather than wait 2 years to go electric, my thought was to drive a low-cost Leaf for a couple of years until then. A Volt would really be the safer choice for now; however, the fact that it has a gas engine feels a bit like cheating. I'd rather go all electric than with a hybrid or range extending gas engine...

I have a 2012, I usually have about 20GOM's left when I get home, granite mine is between 32-40 miles roundtrip, depending on which route I take, 60 mile commute I would feel comfortable.

 

[DoobeeDude]

While I do think that you can do this commute no problem, I would caution that charging at work would always keep your car at a high state of charge (A no-no for battery life). If you leave the house with 100%, you'll get to work with about 70%, then if you charge at work (even on L1) you'll be near 100% when you leave, and back home at 70% again. This would consistently keep your car between the 70-100% range,

See? No brainer. The biggest problem you'll have is your car would be OVER--charged!!

 

[rocolema]

I've been doing the 60 mile commute in the DFW area with a 2012 Nissan Leaf for 3 years. After 1.5 years, I had to start 'topping' off at a charger near work. After 2 years, I had to turn it over to my wife who has a shorter commute. After 2.5 years, the battery dropped to 8 bars and I got a free 2015 battery on warranty and now I can make the 60 miles easily again.

 

[Valdemar]

Seems like a no - brainer to me, too. Assuming you leave your house every day with a full charge, you will almost certainly leave work again in the evening with a nearly full charge (30 mi @ 3 mi / Kwh -- you can replenish that in 8 hrs on Lvl 1).

It all boils down to how reliable work charging is. Is there an official permission to plug in in this case? Even if there is, they might change their mind later. Reasons can range from breaker tripping or someone being unhappy about others charging and complaining about it left and right. Then you're SOL with no other charging options.

 

[asinclair]

I would look into a Mercedes B-Class Electric. I drive 60 miles roundtrip and only use a little over half of the battery each day. That is on highway for the majority of the trip.

 

[RonDawg]

I have a 2012, I usually have about 20GOM's left when I get home, granite mine is between 32-40 miles roundtrip, depending on which route I take

Is that going 65 or 55? :lol:

 

[Sondy132001]

I have a 2012, I usually have about 20GOM's left when I get home, granite mine is between 32-40 miles roundtrip, depending on which route I take

Is that going 65 or 55? :lol:

65 Yes !

 

[minispeed]

I won't sell my regular car, so if a few days or weeks a year I can't drive the Leaf to work in the winter, I'm OK with that. But with battery degradation, will I be pushing my luck for rest of the year? I'm looking at getting a 2012 or 2013 SV or SL.

Let me know your thoughts or recommendations.

Is the reason you won't sell your regular car because you need it at times when the leaf won't do or is it because at times there is a need for 2 drivers to each have a car? If it's the first think of the volt as a combination of the 2 cars. For your daily drive as others have said it will work just like a leaf, drive 30 miles to work on electricity plug in at 120 8 hrs later you should be close to full and be able to drive 30 miles home on electricity. (with the exception of it being cold and the engine coming on for warm up, not sure what temp that's at).

You'll have a huge cost savings if you can drop down to just 1 car. You're annual gas use will probably come in at the same or less than if you kept 2 cars. Any trip that is 38-70 miles where you may have taken a leaf if the conditions were good then you'd burn some gas but any trip that is 70+ miles that you would have had to take the ice car you will save gas for the first 38 miles. At the end of the year you're fuel use with a volt won't be far off from a leaf + ICE car. Even if you burn a little more the cost savings vs insurance and maintenance for 2 cars over a few years will add up not to mention you get to sell your current ICE and use that money towards the used volt.

I would also guess that in 2-3 years volts will get a few thousand more for them than a used leaf.

 

[famelec]

I started this thread, so I thought I'd give an update...

In January I bought a 2013 S through Carvana.com which I thought was a great service. I'm very happy with the car.

I've been commuting in it most days, 30 miles each way plus about 5 miles for lunch, so 65 miles a day. At night I charge to 80% (L2 240 volts ), make the morning commute, plug in a work (110 volts - L1), and leave from work around 75% charged or so. No worries about range, speed, heater, etc. I often catch myself going 70 mph or more since it just doesn't feel like I'm going that fast. A perfect car for my personal situation.

I've also done the commute a few times without charging at work. There's some construction going on at work, so sometimes I can't park near the outlet. On those days I charge to 100% overnight, drive carefully (try not to go over 60 mph), and I make it home fine. I don't enjoy this, though, since I have to pay more attention to speed, heater use, etc. It makes the commute a bit of a chore. Today I made it home showing 16 miles left. Tomorrow I'll take my ICE car since I want to go to the gym in the morning which adds 10 miles to the commute... If I could never charge at work this would be a poor choice of a car.

I got the S, but with the L3 port upgrade (Chademo fast charger) that also comes with the faster 6.6 kW charger and small back-up camera. I wanted the L3 port upgrade since I figured it would help with resale value if I had to sell the car in the Dallas area, the nearest city where people actually drive electric cars. Not sure how important that really is for resale. I also thought that the 6.6 kW charger would be beneficial, but in retrospect I don't think I'd ever limited by the slower 3.3 kW charger. I supposed if I ever had to use a public charger the 6.6 might actually be nice. I don't need the heater a lot here in Texas but I wouldn't mind having the heat pump of the SL and SV.

One comment is that I've learned to pay no attention to the "miles remaining" indicator. It only increases range anxiety since often times you lose a couple of miles of range even though you've driven only one mile. It plays with your head... I pay attention mainly to the battery % indicator. I know that a one way commute will take anywhere between 40% and 60% of battery capacity depending on speed, wind, heater use, etc. If I leave work with 40% remaining I'll make it home (if I'm careful).

I hope this helps anyone looking at getting a Leaf!

 

[TimLee]

... If I could never charge at work this would be a poor choice of a car.
...

Thanks for the update.
LEAF is only a workable 60 mile range good choice IF you have reliable workplace charging.