Very harsh review on the Nissan LEAF.

[DonC]

On a typical day I can easily get at least 100 miles on my Leaf on a single charge.

Not disagreeing with you, but the fact is that I can't get 100 miles and I don't know anyone else who owns a Leaf who can. I have a friend who might have done it by avoiding the freeway and taking side roads once but that would not be a "typical day". Yes the mile estimator is worse than useless. It can show 103 miles and a mile or two later, going downhill at 30 MPH it shows 83 miles. But I'm talking about just the actual range.

I'm haven't been on CarWings for quite a while but when I last checked I was in at least the upper 30% on the efficiency chart (silver?) and I've never gotten anything remotely close to 100 miles on a charge. No doubt some people do. The leader of the efficiency race was supposedly getting 37 miles/kWh or something absurd. Not sure what he was doing but my guess was he was going downhill and flatbedding it or towing it back up.

EDIT: Here is the Carwings info: Regional Rank is 1722, down from 1200 until the last two months, probably because of more users, Gold, average energy economy is 4.7 miles/kWh. Energy economy was up for July/August/September. Now it's back where it started in May. (FYI there is no way I'm that efficient). I see that SteveM went 888 miles on a charge?

[DarkStar]

Can you please describe the temp and general location,

I think the high over the summer was around 95 degrees F here in Portland, the coldest it's been in the morning has been 33 degrees F.

types of roads and travel distances on them, your actual speeds,

I commute from Hillsboro, Oregon to West Linn, Oregon. Google shows my exact route as 29.2 miles to work, 24.5 to home and it is all surface roads and highways (max speed 45 MPH, average speed roughly 30 MPH). A GPS visualizer shows me starting at around 185 feet, going up to 275 feet half way through, down to 105 feet, and ending at 220 feet when I arrive at work.

exact climate control settings used,

I preheat/precool before leaving the house in the morning, no climate control used while driving.

and if you are being extra careful on your acceleration and braking techniques?

I'm not a very good hypermiler, though traffic usually supports slow acceleration. I'm pretty good at maximizing regenerative braking before engaging the physical brake pads though (or at least I'm very highly ranked on Nissan CARWINGS).

When I arrive home in the evening, I've never had less than 35 miles remaining (based on the route I described above). For those doing math however, you'll note that 29.2 + 24.5 + 35 = 88.7 miles, not 100. This is because Nissan's range estimator is based on the number of range bars (there are 12 total) remaining on the dashboard, not the usable state-of-charge (SOC) of the battery. The range estimator assumes that when the last bar is gone, you have 0 miles remaining when in actuality you have 16% SOC remaining, more than enough for me to get an extra 11.3 miles out of it.

The problem is that there is a "perception" of low range due to the method Nissan estimates range. They made those changes though to provide a more reasonable expectation to vehicle owners that aren't familiar with EVs. Overall, it's probably a good thing for early adoption by users unfamiliar with how EVs function, but eventually it will make more sense for users to have a SOC meter instead of an estimated miles gauge.

On another note, I spoke with a new Leaf owner last night (bought in August and had no EV experience). He told me that last week he took a trip with his wife from Portland, Oregon to Rockaway Beach, Oregon (87 miles, 55 MPH highways, staring at sea level, summit at 1,600 feet half-way there, ending up back at sea level). He said the last 10 miles were nervous since they had no bars remaining and zero miles remaining on the estimator, but definitely made the trip (and home again)!

[stephent]

Uh, have you ever actually driven 100 miles on a charge, or are you just going by the miles remaining and guessing how far you could have gone? Given the notorious inaccuracy of Nissan's range meter, so bad that Nissan owners have dubbed it the "guess-o-meter", I wouldn't go around claiming 100 mile range unless you actually physically accomplished it. I suppose at 45 MPH max, 30 mph average, no heat or AC it's probably doable.

[voltage692]

He said the last 10 miles were nervous since they had no bars remaining and zero miles remaining on the estimator, but definitely made the trip (and home again)!

Hey, what a rush that had to be! That's the kind of rush that I don't want to have. Jumping out on airplane, or racing cars, ok. Hoping my Leaf gets me home when it says empty and there's nowhere to charge? Nah.

[DonC]

Hey, what a rush that had to be! That's the kind of rush that I don't want to have. Jumping out on airplane, or racing cars, ok. Hoping my Leaf gets me home when it says empty and there's nowhere to charge? Nah.

This is all overblown IMO. I've had a Leaf for five or six months and I've never even thought about range. Why? Because if I think it's an issue I take a different car. There have been a few times where my wife needed to go 80 miles or more. Rather than taking back roads and worrying about the range she just took the Leaf, drove it 50 or 60 miles, switched it out for the Volt at the office, and drove the Volt another 35 miles.

I wouldn't suggest a BEV as someone's only car or as a second car if the range might be an issue. But for people with a 50 mile or less commute it shouldn't be.

Nissan could also do a much better job of getting the driver information. Right now the display is poor. The NY Times had an article explaining how a Leaf owner created a device that taps into the bus. Rather than looking at 12 bars you get much better granularity at 280 increments. The greater precision means as a driver you worry much less.