ElectricEddy said:
What was your Km/Kwh (M/Kwh) on your return trip back up the 300m to home?
My average is about 2.9 to 3.1 miles/kWh for all my driving all the year long. Going up the "hill" takes 5% to 10% of SOC usually. So if it is 2.4kW and it is about 1.8 miles or road, then that's 1.3 miles/kWh (2 km/kWh). I don't usually measure it because there's nothing I can do or would want to do to avoid it. On the way down the Leaf doesn't like charging much after it first starts. The Prius is great because it kills the battery up and then on the way down the mountain fully recharges it. The Leaf is stubborn and refuses to put full regen into a cold start pack for some reason even when the SOC is down at like 50%.
I only charge with L1 at home and at work. Sometimes a DCQC if I don't have time for an overnight charge and sometimes L2 charge at the movie theatre.
arnis said:
What tires does this PlowLeaf wear? How many mm left?
plowLeaf, along with all my vehicles except the sport cars, wear Michilin X-ICE 3 winter snow tires. They are not studded, but never have a problem on snow or ice in any of the vehicles. I rarely change them out seasonally, I rock them all year long for 2-3 years then buy a new set. They are between $130 and $280 per tire depending on the size. For example the Lexus RX450h takes the $280/tire version... The ones on there now are from this season, replaced the stock super bald crap tires in August 2015.
powersurge said:
I am sorry to see that people in subzero climates and mountains are actually buying these leafs.... The leaf is for temperate, flat environments....
Completely disagree. The Leaf is excellent in the mountains. You just have to know its limits. There is more to the world than flat temperate zones. I love how the car can be warmed up before I get there. Not for me, but so that the layer of thick ice can be loosened a bit so I can scrape it off in chunks instead of actually having to scrape.
dgpcolorado said:
In sunny Colorado the roads are clear and dry most of the time and plowing and sanding is quite prompt when it does snow (even the remote dirt road I live on is plowed quickly). The main problem I have is getting up my long steep driveway. I have to wait until I can get it shoveled and even then it is sometimes slick if the snow is warm. Then I use cable chains. Only need them a few times a winter.
Around here the city is big enough and with few enough plows it took 4 days before a plow even approached our neighbourhood and then did one single lane down the middle making things worse. Instead of an even pile of ice, snow, and slush, now there was a huge ridge just off to the side of the plow track that poor PlowLeaf shouldn't attempt to make it over. It was 2 days before anything but the major roads got plowed at all. The streets right off of the major roads (like highways) were not plowed.
dgpcolorado said:
One big factor that doesn't apply to many other places is altitude. The air is a lot thinner here so I get better miles/kWh (and ICE cars get much better mpg) than folks who live at low altitude. The lowest my LEAF has been since I got it home in 2011 has been about 5700 feet elevation and most of my driving is a lot higher than that.
Same here. The lowest my Leaf has been is Ft. Collins, right around 5000ft. Usually it sits around 6800ft at work, and almost 8000ft at home.
dgpcolorado said:
And, no, I don't use the heater, except for defrosting the windshield (for defogging I use unheated outside air). The steering wheel heater is plenty for me for comfort because I dress warmly in winter (I used to have a coworker in Boulder who wore shorts all year, not for me!). Below zero is unusual here during the day and if I am only in the car for forty-five minutes or so, the heater just isn't necessary. Especially on sunny days.
Rarely do I turn the heater on, and it is not a Leaf thing. If it is above freezing, I usually have a window down or cracked. I did a full year in shorts once just because I wanted to see if I could. Coldest was -28C/-17F in shorts and a t-shirt with sandals. Just like Hawaii lol.