USA: Nissan Leaf 2011 – The Good, Bad, and The Beautiful (Update2). by 4RVRiders.org

Summary:

I love this car. After the intial three weeks of getting used to the drving range in various situations,
I finally begin to enjoy the car without apprehension that I may end up stranded. I swear I would not get
another regular car, knowing that this car is almost perfect for me – daily commute and occasional errand
around town. In the process I save about $110/month on fuel expense when compared what I used to spent for
my previous regular car, a Honda Civic. Besides I don’t need to replace my timing belt, no emission/smog check,
no tune up, no oil chnage, etc.

Now let’s begin the good, bad, and the beautiful.

1. The Good
   1. No problem so far.
   2. Regen beeaking is working flawlessly
   3. Hardly had to use the brake to slow down the car on highway and local streets.
   4. Smart charging and iPhone app are working flawlessly
   5. Every passenger and driver appreciate the quiet and smooth ride
   6. Drives like a car, and it is super quiet and smooth at any speed
   7. Like all EV, no more emission test as there is no emission or muffler; no oil change or timing belt change.
   8. Car pool lane access saves me about 20 minutess a day of weekday commute.
2. The bad
   
   1. iphone app displays significantly lower mileage range than what is should be. In this case, the app shows
      42 miles range at 80% charge. If you check the mileage on the car console, you will get something like 80 miles, which is
      what it should be for my driving habits.

   2. iPhone app – should be full features – so it should be able to stop charging and set timer.
   3. Range – 90 miles on 100% charge and 70 miles on 80% charge – when most of the commute is freeway at about 62MPH.
3. The wonderful
   1. Fuel economy – save about $110 per month fuel cost.
   2. Luxury car at Honda Civic price, after federal tax credit and state rebate (California).

The following assessment are in additions to what was reported in April 2011.

1. Handling – Better than any cars I have driven in 30 years. Drive like a luxury car. In addition, it is quiet and
   smooth acceleration even at highway speed. It is fun to drive.

2. Fuel cost – fuel saving is about $1,385 a year.
3. Driving experience – drives like a car, but quiet and smooth acceleration
4. Overall rating – Luxury car at Honda Civic price.

1. Audio – good and integrated with your cell phone and navigation

2. CD – good
3. Navigation – very good driving direction and audio
4. Navigation display – very good
5. Driver console – bright, crisp and colorful.
6. Turn signals – audio click is audible, not too loud or soft
7. Range and battery indicators – once you get used to the what they mean, it is useful to gauge your driving range. It took me about 3 weeks to get comfortable and three months to be at ease in all conditions – hot day, cold day, hilly road, with air conditioning on, with windows open, highway speeds and city speeds, etc.
8. Seat fabrics – nice and plush
9. Trunk space – could be bigger, smaller than Civic trunk
10. Bluetooth for iPhone – well integrated into the audio system and navigation system.
11. Built-in garage opener – works fine once it is set up, but need to program both the car remote and garage opener.
12. Rear view mirror – no glare at night
13. Window tint – good
14. Headrests in the backseat are too tall, blocking the rear view.
15. Wind shield visors are too short by about 6 inches to block sunlight from the side.

1. Zero Emisson Emblem – looks nice
2. LED lights – good innovation and dos not affect range when in use
3. Paint – nice finish
4. Tires – good

1. Radiator for the battery – would be nice if it is not needed,
2. Lead Acid battery for the audio and lights – should be replaced with non-toxic battery
3. Solar spooler – good for trickle charge electronics

AC did not decrease range on hot days. Hot summer days (90′s F) in San Jose, CA will increase the mileage about 10%.
Turning on air conditioning or fan will decrease the mileage about 10%. So, on hot summer day with AC one, your mileage remains about 90 miles at 62MPH.

Having window cracked open did not seem to degrade range. I am hesitant to have windows wide open at highway speed. However, city driving gives me the
chance to open windows without concern about range degradation. If I am pushing the range limit of my travel plan, then I open and close
windows to optimize mileage and minimize the use of AC.

Leaf dealership shold encourage Leaf owners to charge at their dealer locations and provide free fast charging.
This is not only good public relationship and building brand loyalty, it also helps Leaf onwers feel more comfortable about range,
knowing there is always a dealer close by to save the day. Although I was
never stranded during the last three months, I was very anxious during the first 3 weeks. Dealer can even issue Nissan branded
credit card to Leaf owners, who can activate the charging at the dealer with a swipe of the card, 24 hours a day and
7 days week. The best place to charge EV is at home, but next best place is at dealer because it is win-win for Nissan and EV
owners. After hours charging could post some security issue, but could be worked out or mitigated with careful
planning by the dealer and EV owner.

eli>AAA plans to offer mobile fast charging.

When launched this summer, it will help reduce range anxiety
of new owners and prospects. I am glad I am a AAA member, knowing that I can call them one day to recharge my drained battery.

One night I forgot to connect the car to the charger. The next morning, my iPhone app did not send me
a text message that the charging has stopped. So I requested an update via the iPhone app, which showed that
the charger is not connected and that the battery is only 10% full, which was what it was after my commute yesterday.
I could have charged my car for 4 hours, then it will be enough to make the 58 miles commute. But that would mean I have
to wait 4 hours at home. If AAA is ready, then I could have called them for an 1/2 hout fast charge. That would delay
me for an hour, still alright as I can call my boss that I am an hour late to work. My coworkers may tease me about
that when they find out what happened, but I don’t mind. They would greet me in
the morning and asked “You haven’t forgotten to charge your car. Have you?”. I’d have replied, “OMG, I forgot. But I hitched
a ride instead”.

Because AAA has not rolled out the mobile charging yet, I drove my wife’s car instead, dropped her at work and
then drove to work. Of course, I could have charged the car for 1/2 hour or get another 10 miles on
the car and that will be enough for her short commute, 10 miles.

It could be the next best innovation since slice bread. Let’s say that Nissan, who is developming solar charging,
takes it one step further by integrating solar with wireless charging. Once signed up by a Leaf owner through either the iPone app
or web (CarWing), driver can simply pull up under the solar canopy, park and go shopping, while the battery is being
charged via wireless connection. During sunny day, any excess electricity will be sent back to the grid for credit (smart grid).
The canopy can be inetegrated with power grid, selling electricity to the utility at
peak rate. A win-win-win for dealer-Leaf owner-utility. I call this sustanable transportation at its best.

Hills impacts to range is small in a round trip. After driving the cars in various conditions – city streets, level highways, up and
down valleys and hills, I found out that uphill will decrease the range quicker. But on return trip, regen braking recovers
much of the loss. City driving should get you more than 100 miles, highway at 62mph should get you about 90.

Most folks are still not sure why they should get an EV. I am convinced that in a few years, they would want
to get one when they are aware of the benefits owning an EV, when it is more affordable and when more charging stations
are available. The prime spots for charging sites are home, work, school, hotel, retail outlets, and public parking such
as public garage, airport, etc.

On July 4th, fellow Leaf owners and I were part of the San Jose, California July 4th parade – 4 Leafs – two reds, one white
and one blue. The crowd were applauding us, clapping and giving giving thumbs up. There other EVs in the parage,
10 altogehter – two Converted EV (VW van, Honda Civic), one electric motorcyle, one electric tri-bike, and others.
Educating the public about EV will take time. By this time next year, I expect there will
be about a dozon choices for EV and that charging stations will be prominent on the freeway and retail in the USA (West Coast,
Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois, Michigan, etc.), Japan, UK, Australia, Canada, China and parts of Europe.

It is very useful and should emulate what native app on the car dashboard. The iPhone app should do the following tasks

1. Set timer 7 days a week,

2. Set charge level at 80% or 100%.
3. Stop charging.

After driving for three months, I have traveled about 5000 miles. My previous car was a 2001 Honda Civic Sedan EX – top of the line. Its MPG is about 38.
In San Francisco Bay Area, the average regular gas cost about $4. 5000 miles in 3 months would have cost me
about $526, or about $2,105/year. Looking at the past three months of electric utility bill, it went from $60 to $120 since I started charging the Leaf overnight at
home. In another words, I would be paying $720 on charging the Leaf for a year – a savng of $1385. I intend to keep this for at least 10 years. overall the
10 years period, I’ll be saving about $13,850. Best car investment I ever made for the last 30 years of driving.

Car pool lane access saves me about 20 minutes from my daily commute of 57 miles.

Bonus: No more tune up, smog inspection, oil change, timing belt repair, or radiator flush.

It can re-capture 30% kinetic energy during braking or slow down. ECO mode driving makes higher use of regen braking.
When you let go of the acclerator, the regen kicks in, slowing down the car.
By not tailgating and by anticipating traffics, most of my driving does not involve the use of brake. This will help
keep the brake repairs down.

For the first three weeks, I was a bit on the edge as I try to familiarize myself with the range limitation and various factors that
affect the range. Once I got the hang of it, I now no longer sweat it.

The factors that affect the range is speed, charge capacity obviously, ECO/DRIVE mode, agressive driving or eco drving, use of air condition or heater, open or close windows during driving.
In the city, I try to drive near 38mph if possible. on the freeway, I try to drive an aevage speed of 62mph. In California the legal freeay sppend limit
is 65mph. So, 62mph is my comfort zone, not too low fo the traffic, not too fast to drain the battery. ECO mode give you 10% range than DRIVE mode. So I always
drive in ECO mode. When I was trying to save money on gas when driving my Civic, I learned the habit of accelerate gradually and anticipate slow down I got
aveage 38mph on it. With a similar habit on the Leaf, I find that I hardly had to the brake, as the regen braking is slowing the down the car, capturing 30% of forward energy.
I expect my brake will last 3 times as long as my former Civic.

On a hot summer days at 90′s F, I use the AC. As soon as it is turned on, the range is decrease 10%. On the other hand, a pleasant surprise on the range. The range
actully increase about 10% on hot days. I believe ambient temperature of 90′s is optimized for the battery throughput, or that no cooler no battery heating or cooling is needed
at this temperature. So, range is not shotened on hot day when AC is on.

On warm days, I try to crack the window when traffic shlow downs or stop. I tried not crackng the windows when going at freeway
speed. Because I know wind resistance will shorten the range.

Eco mode give me 10% more range tha Drive mode. it helps in two ways – the acceleration is dampped a little, and regen braking hicks in stronger than drive mode.
For me, I never really had to use Drive mode except to demo to my passendgers the difference between the two. I find acceleration in ECO mode is as soog ad any sport car.
Even through the hils of Catro Valley on I-580, I can still drive at 65 mph if I wanted to in ECO mode. One thing intereting going uphll, the range will
drop quicker than on level road. Howerver, on downhill, the range will increasea, recuoperating much of the loss from going uphill.

The car is optimized to run at 38mph. At this speed, you can travel as much as 132 miles on a full charge.
On my daily commute of 58 miles, I found I can travel at an average of 62 mph and use about 70% of the battery capacity. According
to Nissan, I should charge to 80% capacity to optimize the life of the battery. So I now charge at 80& nightly for my daily commute.
On occasional days when I have to do side trips, then I may have to charge to 100% the previous night. In another words, I need
to plan my daily travel. With an iPhone calendar, I set reminder to charge either 80 or 100% the night before.

At 0 MPH there is no noticable idling. In fact, there is no engine to idle. But as soon
you as you let go of the break, motor kicks in like normal car does. Theorectically,
get stuck in traffic does not waste any fuel (electricity).

At 15MPH, car door locks lock automatically, if you have not locked your car. At 38MPH,
you can go as far as 132 miles on full charge. At 62MPH, 90 miles.

Your car console will flash warnings and audio will remind you that the battery is low.

Nissan recommends charging to 80% capacity if possible to extend battery life. For my daily round trip commute of 60 miles,
80% charge will have 10 miles to spare at the end of the commute. Nissan also recommends not to fast charge at 440V if
possible. Since I only charge at 220V at 80% nightly at home, I’m giving my battery best chance to have longer
useful life. However I do expect battery cost to go down in the years to come and that the battery may be resold
to utility for storage and peak usage.

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Original post at http://www.4evriders.org/2010/12/ev-and-plug-in-hybrid-2010-year-in-review-and-2011-predictions-by-4evriders-org/

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