Barrons' reporter runs Leaf flat in Manhattan

[JimSouCal]

What a fool.

Perhaps the WSJ is happy with the editorial result? I find that rag has a very certain agenda at times. Read the general tone of the how CO2 and climate is handled in their op ed pages. Practically criminal (actually, clearly immoral) what merits print in that category.

 

[SanDust]

Blaming reporters is counterproductive. Something is wrong because this scenario is repeating itself far too frequently. We've had two members here run out of juice in circumstances which are not all that different from what this reporter experienced. Are they stupid too? Combine hyped claims that the car will go 100 miles with a range estimator than gets revised downwards in a hurry right before the battery gives out and you have a recipe for stranded Leaf drivers.

Stop the 100 mile hype. Put more buffer in the range estimator. Add some more buffer at the bottom end. Make the range estimation more precise. Do something to address this problem. Don't ignore it, hoping it will go away. It won't. You can tell people they're stupid for running out of juice, but when, three miles from their destination, the dashboard tells them they have 8 miles of range left and the car dies after two, they and most other people are going to think your product is defective. And once people think you're product is defective it's very hard to change their minds.

 

[Stewy13]

Did anyone else notice that before you could watch the video you had to watch an ad about "greener oil pumps"?
Clearly there's an agenda here.
As for High Times, I'd trust them more than this reporter. Sure they might be "stoned" but that means they're willing to sit at a charger station and "fill up" while munching out. :lol:

 

[ERG4ALL]

They should have reporters sign the same document I've signed to 1)order the vehicle and 2)take delivery of the vehicle. That document spells out very clearly the expected mileage under a variety of driving styles and weather.

 

[EVDRIVER]

IMO Nissan should have put a bigger buffer at the bottom end and also used SOC that showed 0 at the close to dead mark. I have never run an EV dead nor a car in my life and all I ever used was SOC. The Nissan bar system is flat out dumb on the way they implemented but so are many people.

 

[GeorgeParrott]

I would agree with at least a couple of the points made by earlier posters on this thread:

1. The driver was in fantasy land thinking that "100 mile range" was a fixed quality with any EV.
2. She did NOT have to drive 65mph on the freeway and that could have saved her at least some further range.
3. NISSAN has FAILED on at least two aspects of driver feedback:
A. the chargepoint mapping should be updated at LEAST monthly, if not weekly (there have been ZERO updates since the LEAF introduction in
early December. IMHO, this is close to criminal negligence on NISSAN's part.
B. the energy remaining display and miles available display are both CLEARLY not accurate as the power drops in the last 20% of what is
available. There should be MUCH more accurate "state of charge" feedback available, particularly as the car goes into that last 20% of
potential range.

LEAF #320...and I HAD to find a L3 charger to get my car home from Petaluma to Sacramento. The L3 chargepoint in Vacaville is still NOT being displayed on the LEAF information screen and it has been in operation since LAST October, if not earlier !!!!
Volt #679...where I have NO "range anxiety."

 

[EVDRIVER]

I suggest every LEAF owner makes a firm complaint to Nissan about the charge database, that is a key and touted feature that should be updated at least monthly at a bare minimum, weekly in the first few months. It's one thing for CARWINGS to suck but at least the charge stations need to be updated.I wonder if that reporter has any oil stock or interests

 

[Spies]

The L3 chargepoint in Vacaville is still NOT being displayed on the LEAF information screen and it has been in operation since LAST October, if not earlier !!!!

I do not intend to take this off topic but are you saying the DC fast charger in Vacaville is now unlocked and open to the public 24/7? If it is I seriously missed the announcement.

 

[edatoakrun]

LEAF #320...and I HAD to find a L3 charger to get my car home from Petaluma to Sacramento. The L3 chargepoint in Vacaville is still NOT being displayed on the LEAF information screen and it has been in operation since LAST October, if not earlier !!!!
Volt #679...where I have NO "range anxiety."

If you have personally used this DC charging station, please consider starting or contributing toward a new thread, map, or database, with comments about any restricted access and costs, if any. So far as I have heard, this is still the only DC charger in in California, and it is not yet fully "public".

Can we please start an accurate inventory of available DC charge points by State or region? There are so few, just a list of all in every state, will be very useful for the near future.

And will moderators please maintain topic discipline for such a thread on this subject?

I just spent too much time searching among multiple old threads, for this basic info.

I appeal to all to avoid yet another off topic dead-end like this this:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1168&start=20

 

[walterbays]

I suggest every LEAF owner makes a firm complaint to Nissan about the charge database

That would do a lot to help. There will always be plenty of "reporters" with a political agenda that leads them to do anything necessary in order to "research" an entirely good story or an entirely bad story on LEAF. However there are also lots of reporters who really do attempt an unbiased review. (Remember there was even an unbiased report from a Fox News station.) For them, and for the vast majority of future LEAF owners who are not reading this forum, it would be better for the LEAF to do a better job watching out for them.

Nissan couldn't make LEAF idiot proof, and there are no shortage of idiots who will be reviewing the car, even idiots without a political agenda. But from the earliest news reports I had expected LEAF's navigation system would be much more advanced than it apparently is. I thought that if you always entered your destination in the NAV system then you almost couldn't run out of charge no matter how you drove. Once it saw you were in range trouble it would nag you to detour to a nearby charging station, offering to direct you there.

I wonder if the Barron's reporter has ever run out of gas in an ICE car with a back seat driver aboard. "You're low on gas, take the next exit! That was a gas station you missed, you idiot. Here's another exit coming up. There's a gas station just a mile down that road. Get off. Get off! You idiot, you missed it again!"

 

[Essiemme]

She looks like an infiltrated petrol company linked journalist.

They will only make VEs stronger

:mrgreen:

 

[tps]

You can tell people they're stupid for running out of juice, but when, three miles from their destination, the dashboard tells them they have 8 miles of range left and the car dies after two, they and most other people are going to think your product is defective.

The "fuel range" readout on the Chevy Malibu I'm driving until my LEAF comes is not much more accurate. It always estimates I'll get in the close to 400 miles after a fill up, and I always end up getting close to 300 miles. It said "47 miles" when I left home yesterday, only to switch to "low" (accompanied by the low fuel light) about 1 mile down the road. I haven't yet ran it dry, but I probably would if I went by the fuel range indicator.

I guess it would be prudent to pick up a little juice along the way if you'd otherwise be cutting it close, as they San Diego guys did at Temecula on their way back from Fontana.

 

[xRB]

The car did exactly as expected, however the reporter seemed to be trying to prove a point. Her point was that Nissan's car does not always live up to the hype which is 100 mile range, and an instrumentation system that should not ever allow you to run out of electricity. The car seemed to perform admirably for her. It gave her 80+ miles which is better than the EPA rating for the car in mixed use which is exactly what she was doing. The biggest issue was that the low battery warning system which started warning her about the low pack situation (with 20 miles left to go) did not direct her to the nearest charge point to insure she did not run out of electricity. It did not do this because the system was not updated. The reporter afterward found out that she passed a dozen charging locations, but the car could not direct her to stop in for a quick top-off. This could be a problem for anybody who thinks the car can go 100 miles and will direct them to a charge station if the battery is low (which is how the car is advertised). We all know better since the readers of this forum are far more well informed than the average public (and even most of the EV journalists). Communication from Nissan is important in this area. Advertise the car with the EPA range instead of the 100 mile range, but also say that if you drive gently you can easily get 100+ miles out of the car. Update the charge station maps very frequently for the early users so that we stay up to date with the rapid changes in infrastructure. As the infrastructure growth slows, so can the effort at updating the cars database. I don't have a car yet, but from all reports i've read, there is not a single charge point on the database that was generated from Nissan. The only ones are the ones that the users have sought out and inputted into their car themselves.

At the Nissan Leaf demo and drive event this weekend in Raleigh NC, Nissan's explainer and guide said repeatedly that the range was 100 miles or might be more. That range was explicit or implicit on a number of posters. So people there, and this reporter, are thinking in terms of 100 miles, not some reduced amount, and very understandably so.

 

[Train]

She looks like an infiltrated petrol company linked journalist.

Yeah, that's it. :roll:

 

[DownUnderLeaf]

She looks like an infiltrated petrol company linked journalist.
:mrgreen:

My initial thoughts were along the same lines!

 

[wcanl]

Wow - There will be a long road ahead before EVs are truly ready for the masses. And until then, "reports" like this will continue to pop up.

She probably went in with the belief that Leafs can go 100 miles on a charge. She stated the maps showed the trip would be 75 miles, but she drove 82 miles including a wrong turn that cost 2 miles.

As for the 65 MPH ordeal, what if all traffic is doing no less than 65 MPH? That can be common. And if you think Prius drivers were getting slammed for going slow in the commute lane, well, you get the picture.

And the comment about yeah, stinks to run out of gas .8 miles from station. Except you can dump in gas to get home.

These EVs may only be for the seriously commited. Most drivers just want to get from point A to B without too much cost and hassle. Climate issues are far from their mind because it doesn't really affect them now. Leaf is a start, but Prius PHV will likely outsell this thing in 2 years.

 

[wcanl]

The The reporter afterward found out that she passed a dozen charging locations, but the car could not direct her to stop in for a quick top-off.

What is a 'quick top off'? 12 mi chrg / hr. on 220V? Isn't that 1 mi charge / 5 minutes?

Fast charge? Do those exist?

 

[Stoaty]

Most drivers just want to get from point A to B without too much cost and hassle. Leaf is a start, but Prius PHV will likely outsell this thing in 2 years.

May very well be true. However, it really depends on your needs. I already have a Toyota Camry for a few long trips per year with several people and quite a bit of luggage, so a Nissan Leaf fits much better as a second car than either a Volt or plugin Prius. It doesn't make sense for me to buy another car that needs gasoline to run.

 

[wcanl]

It would be like me taking a gas car that says it can go "300 miles" on a tank of fuel, driving it as inefficiently as possible, getting a low fuel warning at 250 miles, then keep driving it until it completely stopped at about 275 miles. I would then create a video stating that it wasn't my fault that I didn't know where any gas stations were to refuel up at!

Personally this is typical of modern journalism... You have to "out hype" the other guy...

Yeah, sure. IMO, the reporter was fairly staightforward about what she was doing. The net effect is - you may not make a 75 mile trip in your Leaf.

Don't worry folks, the market and consumers will decide how many Leafs they want.

 

[wcanl]

I'd put half the blame on Nissan for not maintaining the charging database. You'd think it would be their highest non-manufacturing priority.

Even if she did get to a charging station, what would that really get her?

On level II, don't you only get about 1 mile of range per 5 minutes charge?