Does anyone here own one? A couple of family members now have them. I am curious how people who have had them for more than a year like them.
I do. I bought a 4 year old leaf. It has a 60 mile usable range. 75 if I milk it. It's perfect for my commute of 40 miles round trip. Comfortable. Great HVAC. Cheap. I paid 9k for it. Installed a level 2 charger in the carport. I've rotated the tires and changed the wipers in the 2 years and 20k miles I've owned it. Electricity is $0.12 per KWh here. It uses about 12KWh to drive to work and back (40miles). So that's $1.44 in electricity. Gas would be 1.3 gallons at 30mpg. At $2.50/gal the equivalent gas powered commute would be $3.30, or more than double the cost of electricity. It's nice not to worry about visiting the gas station. You just have to think about trip length before you set out. It becomes instinctive. Of course you can spend more on a car with more range. When I drive out of town I rent a car.
The level 2 charger is $600 from Amazon. Probably another$500 to have it installed if you know a guy. I wired it myself. It uses 6,000 watts. About the same as an electric stove. It can be throttled if your service won't handle it, but it really isn't that much of a load. You need 2 breaker slots free that are adjacent for 220 volts or you could add a sub panel but that can be pricey. 6,000 watts is about 20 miles added range per hour. The car has built in timers so if you get a discount for off peak rates, you can program it to charge at specific times. The hvac can also be programmed to come on at a scheduled time when plugged in. Car is toasty warm on cold mornings.
There are tax incentives for buying new cars. But used off lease they are cheap for the shorter range cars. Teslas are always pricey. There are also tax incentives for installing the charging station.
Just when I was singing the praises of Georgia's cheap car registration they do this. Anyway, if you only use the car for a daily, predictable commute (countless people fall into that category) or quick trips around town it would be very practical. I have a technical question - how much of a battery drain is sitting in gridlock? In other words obviously driving down the road at X amount of speed uses Y amount of energy. But when the car is idling or barely creeping what is the rate of battery drain? I'm thinking if on the way home if you got caught in epic gridlock with no option to take an alternate route home (maybe weather related or a huge pileup) would your car eventually run out of power leaving you dead in the water? This would be a rare occurrence, but is that still a valid concern?
Forgot to mention I love it. I'll never own another gas powered car. They seem primitive in comparison. The cheap leaf has about the same horsepower as a Corolla, but a lot more low end power. 0 to 45 is a lot of fun. Over that it's adequate. People complain about the tires not lasting, but they are constantly smoking them even with traction control. I have no problem competing in the commute.
The only drain sitting still is HVAC. Turn it off if you think you will be stuck for hours. It has heated seats and steering wheel to keep comfortable with little power drain It likes slow stop and go traffic. Gets the most range. Regenerative braking. The range lessens the faster you go. Driving 95mph its range drops 50%.
how is it at rapid acceleration? In other words when you have to shoot out into traffic quickly from a stop sign at a T-intersection onto a major road (zero to 45 MPH for example) can the car pull it off? That for me would make it a safe & effective commute car.
It's faster than most gas powered cars from a dead stop. Electric motor gives you full torque with no delay. No noise. No shifting. Just pushes you back in the seat. Above 50 it's about the same as Corolla. The newer leafs have even more power and range staring with the 2018 model.
VW makes an electric golf that's good. Range is about 80miles. Mini is also coming out with an electric. Lots of choices. More in the used market here due to less tax incentives.
I was at the dealer w/ my family member picking up their mudflaps. they told us that accelorating quickly does use more "miles" as they put it. I also asked if the vehicle needs to be off when charging, the answer is yes. It was definitely a different experience riding in an electric car. If I would have known about the heat I would have brought a lap blanket. steve2^4 thank you for your responses. I am glad it has worked out for you. I would love to get a new used car for that price! I would do the same-rent a car to travel. My commute has been less than 2 miles for the last couple of years. There isn't a charging system at the apartment that I live. I am actually also considering an electric bike or scooter just for the fun of it. My current vehicle has over 300k miles.
the economics of electrics aren't as compelling if you don't drive much or have your own charger, but on the other hand you won't have to charge often. Lot's of stores have free charging: go to whole foods, leave it plugged in. There are lots of networks for pay charging. chargepoint is big. They have an app for your phone which will find the closest charger and take you there. Tap your chargepoint card (or phone if it supports NFC) and plug it in. There needs to be more charging stations but you'll be surprised how many are lurking in parking lots. Or take it to a relative's and freeload. I'm not sure what heat/lap blankets are about. My 2015 leaf is warm by the time I hit the end of the street. there's no waiting for the engine to warm up. But that does shorten the range (using the heater) considerably. Maybe 20%. The "preheat" feature is the bee's knees. If you can leave it plugged in overnight (doesn't help apt dwellers). It also has toasty heated seats and steering wheel if you don't want to use the heater/need the range. What kind of electric did you ride in? Some electrics use heat-pump tech and might take longer to warm up. The leaf had it but it was disabled in recall due to exploding refrigerant lines (before I got it) so it just uses resistant heat.
I had a Chevy Bolt (not Volt) for work. It was pretty sweet (ohmygod the hill climbing performance!), except we had no home chargers at all (let alone 220V) so we spent a lot of time at DC fast chargers. The seat goes back far enough that I could work pretty comfortably on a laptop, fortunately (though if you're 6' or taller, you may have issues there). Range was good although you need to plan your route carefully for long trips. The app PlugShare helps. And yeah, going super fast can definitely cut down your range, especially with the A/C on. Driving from SF to LA on 101 took less time than driving from LA to SF on I-5, because despite the significantly higher average speed on the latter, I had to make an extra charging stop. For the Bolt, the battery charges fastest between 25% and 80%, so plan your stops carefully and you can keep them relatively short.
Electric bikes are sweet. If you want to carry stuff (groceries, kids) and have a place to store, the Urban Arrow Family is a great choice.
