Nissan Leaf test drive

[Richard]

Hunt Club Nissan had a special Leaf test drive event yesterday and I took one for a drive.

The power delivery is very smooth, consistent, and of course quiet. It has plenty of acceleration for a small car too, not as good as a V6 but better than a 4 cylinder. I didn't get a chance to drive it at highway speed though. I did make a quick corner and it stuck to the road; a 50/50 front to rear weight distribution and very low COG with the batteries down low make it handle quite well...

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[aweber]

The finale of Top Gear this year they drove the Nissan and another European version (forget the manufacturer)

They went 150 miles then had to wait 14 hours in some stupid little town to recharge. Not there yet IMHO. Hopefully somebody invents a "Mr Fusion"

 

[2Greys]

Also the side mirrors are modified as well and they had to come up with a special motor for the windshield wipers.

In Top Gear I think the other car was a Peugeot
The best part of the episode is when they realized the closest charging station was about 40k away and they had maybe half that in charge.
The surprising part was when they said that (this is coming from Nissan) you will get about 10 years from the battery but if you do the fast charge, the battery life drops to about 5 years. Which would be around $10k to replace. I think hybrids are more than adequate (throw a diesel in as icing on the cake).
The one caveat is that the electric cars are not really meant as a long distance car but more as a local commuter. They even pointed that out. However it's a lot of money to drop on a car just to save a couple of bucks at the gas station. That's the inherent problem with the full electrics. Their price point is too high as a second car. Now if you are someone who does city driving and never leaves the city then I guess as a primary car it would be ok. The one highlight out of this is you will start (actually I think some new houses are already coming with) seeing houses with 240V lines into the garage by default. Easy-peasy swap-over for welding

The finale of Top Gear this year they drove the Nissan and another European version (forget the manufacturer)

They went 150 miles then had to wait 14 hours in some stupid little town to recharge. Not there yet IMHO. Hopefully somebody invents a "Mr Fusion"

 

[Root Moose]

Yeah, as above. I think they are a neat technology but not quite there yet. Until the get the range to say... 300km per charge and have it be consistent (+/- 50 km) it will be more of a novelty than anything.

They make great city cars. But then, if you need a city car why aren't you taking public transport? If you are too posh to take public transport then you are probably waiting for the Audi, Aston, M-B, or whatever city car.

Putting aside that the whole city car concept doesn't scale in Canada or the U.S. for the most part...

If they come out with an electric XJ sized vehicle with a 600km range, 1 hour charge cycle, all the 4x4 toys and under $40k I'll be there with a cheque.

The range thing works against other cars too. The Tesla for example. If you "cane it" you are not going to get the range that is advertised. This happens with gas powered cars as well and depending on the performance level it can be ridiculous. I know at Calabogie most of the S2000s (built or stock) are doing about ~6 mpg at full song. (normal street mileage is ~25-30 mpg) Makes lapping days pretty expensive - burn almost two full tanks in eight 20 minute sessions.

I'm rambling... the point I wanted to make was that these electric cars get a rough ride over the mileage not being as advertised but then gas powered cars have the same issue but don't get raked over the coals about it.

One of the guys that autocrosses in our club has a Tesla. It's neat but I haven't paid much attention to him out there. It's kind of eerie how quiet it is. Needs a big ass stereo and one of those cigarette lighter doohickeys that plays V8 engine noises over the stereo as the RPMs increase. Assuming that there is still some kind of a RPM dependent noise generator on the lighter circuit...

 

[Richard]

Well it's a start. The first hybrids weren't economical either, people who bought them did so because they believed in consuming less fuel.

 

[Cochise]

The thing I always wondered about and never see mentioned is how long the charges last when it's 20 below zero and the heater is going full out.

 

[2Greys]

I can't recall exactly what I heard but there was a decrease in charge capacity but not horrible. But Richard is right though, if you wait until it is perfect, you will be waiting forever. They need to start somewhere and until they start nothing can be improved upon. I hope it works, although I still think we need more (bio-)diesels on the road.

 

[aweber]

Yah, but for 40K, I am not willing to be their guinea pig That extra 15k over the cost of a Golf buys a lot of diesel - and I don't have to spend another 10K on batteries in 5 years

Stick with the TDI Richard! :beer:

They either need a major breakthrough in battery technology or go Hydrogen....

 

[2Greys]

Problem with Hydrogen is it costs more to get it separated than the energy you get out of it. The only place I know where it has worked is in Iceland since they use Geothermal to split it and then their local bus system uses Hydrogen Fuel Cells. Well let me rephrase that. It was working untill the govt went bankrupt last year.

I still think hybrid using a diesel engine as a backup is the best solution. However my brother worked for Coke and drove their hybrid truck. Needless to say the only time they actually saw some fuel savings was when it was driving around empty otherwise the engine was always running. I don't think they would ever recoup the money spent for the extra hybrid technology in fuel savings.

 

[Richard]

The thing I always wondered about and never see mentioned is how long the charges last when it's 20 below zero and the heater is going full out.

Taken from:
http://www.nissanusa.com/leaf-electric-car/index#/leaf-electric-car/theBasicsRange/index
Winter, urban stop-and-go, traffic jam: 62 miles Speed: Average 15 mph
Temperature: 14 degrees
Climate control: On
Though the average speed is only 15 mph with stop-and-go traffic, the 14-degree temperature means the heater is doing a lot of work so you spend considerable time and energy heating your car rather than moving forward. Despite these conditions, it would still take more than 4 hours to run out of charge!

Not bad for having the electric heaters on.

 

[Richard]

Yah, but for 40K, I am not willing to be their guinea pig That extra 15k over the cost of a Golf buys a lot of diesel - and I don't have to spend another 10K on batteries in 5 years

Stick with the TDI Richard! :beer:

They either need a major breakthrough in battery technology or go Hydrogen....

If only North Americans would see the light of the new clean diesels, way better than any hybrid in overall impact to the environment in my opinion and more economical. The only problem though they don't recommend biodiesel in these new engines; I don't know if it's protecting their ass for the new electronic controls and particulate filters may not do well with bio.

 

[Dirk]

As I understand it biodiesel and the high pressures in the new current common rail injection systems don't work well together due to the higher viscosity as compared to fossil diesel.