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Leaf owner, range anxiety, rapid charger fail due to high temps

6K views 13 replies 11 participants last post by  bobdavisnpf 
#1 ·
This guy is a glutton for punishment, taking his Nissan Leaf on a 400+ mile journey.

http://youtu.be/JbRtMNcv_JE

- navigation problems requiring multiple reboots and ultimately a sim car pull
- nail biter in the 1st half of the trip draining the battery almost to nothing before getting to a charging station
- battery temp got too high so he couldn't rapid charge his car

The anxiety and all the mental calculations he had to do with changes in plans makes me so glad I own a volt.
 
#2 ·
I rarely haven any anxiety driving the Leaf but I would never ever ever take it 400 miles. Even a drive of 80 miles can be somewhat anxiety provoking since it requires a DC charge and I always fear that will become an adventure, though it never has once I got down the procedure for hooking up (it's a bit kludgy). But 400 miles? Wouldn't even think about it. On the other hand, driving around time within the range you know isn't a problem.

Plus some people love the challenge. They probably like pulling into the garage with 0 range left. Me? Not so much.
 
#3 · (Edited)
That is kind of interesting in a "glad I don't have to do that" sort of way, but it is also kind of eye opening in that just a little more range would make this sort of trip a lot less irritating. He has 80 usable so he doesn't want to go much more than 50-70 miles. If the BEV had even 120 miles of AER you could go half again as far and still have more in reserve. We all talk about 200 miles of AER as being the point when the BEV becomes a real world full utility vehicle, but even 150 miles would really make the LEAF/SparkEV/FFElectric a lot more flexible in the way their owners could use them. I didn't watch the whole video and I am just guessing how many miles his stages were. The Leaf GPS display is horrible, I couldn't tell much in the way of distance from what it was displaying, and Cornwall is an area I have been to several times.

I have made mpg runs in my gasser (350Z) 3 times at 62 miles an hour and it isn't terrible. I could definitely see taking a LEAF to the beach or to the mountains 200+ miles away if it had 150 miles of AER. Drive for almost 2 hours at 62 mph, break for lunch/recharge, drive another 2 hours, hit the beach, plug it in overnight. You wouldn't have a full charge the next day if you were charging at 120, but you wouldn't need a full charge for several days anyway.

80 miles of AER is ok for a city car, but even a little more range makes a BEV a lot more useful, especially in the winter.
 
#8 ·
If you didn't watch the whole video, at least jump to the last 2-4 minutes and see his happy demeanor change to worry, anxiety, and fear of not making it home. It speaks volumes.
 
#4 ·
The Leaf is an urban vehicle, owners attempting anything more are deluding themselves. But there will always be those few that will push the limits. Guess that's how we make progress.

But the only anixety I get with my Volt is "gas anixety". The fear of having to use some.
 
#5 ·
But the only anixety I get with my Volt is "gas anixety". The fear of having to use some.
I bet we all share that fear. On the plus side, it has helped me keep my miles within my lease's mileage allowance.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Not sure what's the point other than showing what the car isn't good at doing.

500 miles in my Volt by comparison wouldn't even qualify as an adventure. I've made it much further in 24 hours. Guy is a real diehard. Looks like the kids where getting a little bored with waiting for the car to charge. Add "Is it charged yet?" to the classic "Are we there yet?"
 
#10 ·
The question is, is it the fault of the car, or the fault of the infrastructure? If gas stations were rare, driving a Volt long distances might prove difficult if you had trouble making it to the next gas station. And for those who have never actually experienced a DC-fast charge, let me tell you, you'll realize right away that it is a game changer. If we had DC fast chargers on every street corner like we currently have gas stations, driving a Leaf (or similar EV) 400 miles would be nothing worth even discussing.

I do agree, however, that a bump to 125 miles for all electric vehicles doesn't sound like much (we're only talking 40 miles more than the current Leaf) but that would make a huge difference in the utility of the vehicle. Also, I'm very much in favor of PHEVs for the general public until we reach a level of infrastructure that people are comfortable in all-electric.
 
#11 · (Edited)
The farthest I want to drive in a day is about 400 miles. A one hour charging stop after 200 miles would work out fine. But they have to be somewhat prevalent out there. 45 kWh usable, 50 total, on board might work in the summertime for that. A 50KW CHAdeMO for that would work but that is only 150 charged miles per hour or less when factoring ramp-down. The mid range BEV needs about a 70KW charge rate to work for most long day trips. Yea, I know Tesla has their proprietary stuff. But their plan still does not address the common consumer.
 
#12 ·
Wow! That was an interesting adventure! I am assuming that he ran the numbers in his head and, technically, it made sense that it "should" work. The unexpected rose up and cause a lot of nail biting but it looks like he got lucky.

Would a Chevy Spark have been a better, a more perfect choice?
How about an Ampera..? He'd never have to really fret as he did continuously throughout the video. I wonder what his thoughts are on it! (?) Maybe his daily commute lays outside of the Ampera range so it wouldn't make sense to use... or even more poignant a question: did the cost of the Ampera not make sense? (if available.)

In my eyes, it doesn't matter if the Leaf had a 50 mile range or a 500 mile range... there would always be someone posting a video similar to this showcasing range anxiety.

In the end, It think Mr. Sampson did a unique service for those that are interested in BEV as a daily driver and occasional long distant mule. I'd throw money his way, for a Model 3 or Spark, if it was easy enough (hint! Anyone doing this type of thing make donations easy for people to support you)


One last thing! I find it (always!) amazing how the English language sounds when coming from the other side of the world. We don't speak like that. In fact, even the kid's responses and questions to their father or quite different than what we'd expect here in the states... it is fascinating. Any film or video coming from the UK should change their names to correspond with the Harry Potter movies.


one final note.. no, I wouldn't want to walk 10,000 miles either.. not all at once.
 
#13 ·
Those poor kids.

For me it's 200+ miles for a BEV. If less than that, forget it.
 
#14 ·
Leaf "household TCO" nearly doubles when you add in that spare ICE.

We have a lot of leaf leasers in WA due to sales tax break, but almost all of them keep their ICE due to range anxiety for anything over 40 miles away. Discussion groups at my company are just now starting to "get it" when I talk about "household MPG" being worse for the Leaf due to this; one even complained of the high "household TCO" of garaging an extra ICE (while continuing to scoff that Volt is a "just a Hybrid, same as an original Prius" because that's how WA State defines it).

When we go out to the Olympic coast, we see our last Leaf in a small city 70 miles out; after that, just Volts and the occasional Tesla.
 
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