Would a Leaf have the range?

[RosscoPCole]

I'm thinking about getting a new car and the Leaf has come onto my radar. The problem is I have a 60 mile round trip each day mainly on A roads and motorways. Would it be possible on one charge or am I being an optomist with the range of the car?
If you know Dorset and Hampshire I drive from the outskirts of Wimborne to Romsey using the A31 and M27.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/Romsey/Corfe+Mul...

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you

[JonnyO]

60 miles on 1 charge should be no problem

[c2mike]

In Winter with the heater on, motorway speeds...probably not

[gowmonster]

125 miles according to google assuming it's half as good, 62.5 miles should still make it.

[Biggles111]

We have a Leaf, whilst range drops in the winter 60 miles should be fine. 80 or so seems to be realistic for us, and we have a lot of hills.

[gangzoom]

Realistic range with heater on, lights etc is around 80 miles, so you should be fine.

Easiest thing to do is book a extended test drive with Nissan. They'll happily give you one for a few days.

[budfox]

Leaf owner here.

Simple answer is "yes".

Slightly more complicated answer is "yes, but under the worst conditions you'll need to drive at 55mph on the motorway".

Most of the time you'll manage the distance with plenty of range to spare.

[pboyall]

Your commute is the same mix and distance as mine and in the a new Tekna I have never been below 17 miles range when arriving home, that includes in the middle of winter with the heating on, "enjoying" the acceleration and keeping up in the BMW lane.

Now it is warmer I am seeing closer to 30 miles left in the car when I get home - although if I'm a bit enthusiastic on the back roads I can get that back down to 20 :-)

So you should have no problem in a new Leaf.

Just don't buy a pre 2013 one - they had the old-fashioned heater which destroyed your range and has led to lots of tales about not being able to get more than 50 miles. But what I also discovered was that the old Leafs (which had not battery percentage gauge) "hid" 10 miles range. You got to 0 and then found you could keep going for another ten miles anyway ...

The new ones on the other hand are dead accurate - when it says you can do 30 miles, you can do 30 miles. Not 31.

[budfox]

pboyall said:

The new ones on the other hand are dead accurate - when it says you can do 30 miles, you can do 30 miles. Not 31.

I can't agree with that. The range shown is based on an "...if you carry on using this much battery power..." estimate. Your car doesn't know how it's about to be driven, so the range shown can only ever be a best guess.

For example, if you had 30 miles showing and were about to climb a 30 mile long hill, you would get nowhere near the top. Depending on the gradient, and on the speed driven, you might not even make 10 miles.

[c2mike]

pboyall said:

Your commute is the same mix and distance as mine and in the a new Tekna I have never been below 17 miles range when arriving home, that includes in the middle of winter with the heating on, "enjoying" the acceleration and keeping up in the BMW lane.

Now it is warmer I am seeing closer to 30 miles left in the car when I get home - although if I'm a bit enthusiastic on the back roads I can get that back down to 20 :-)

So you should have no problem in a new Leaf.

Just don't buy a pre 2013 one - they had the old-fashioned heater which destroyed your range and has led to lots of tales about not being able to get more than 50 miles. But what I also discovered was that the old Leafs (which had not battery percentage gauge) "hid" 10 miles range. You got to 0 and then found you could keep going for another ten miles anyway ...

The new ones on the other hand are dead accurate - when it says you can do 30 miles, you can do 30 miles. Not 31.

I have an "old" Leaf - one of the first delivered in the UK. When delivered, the range software was wildly optimistic and zero really did mean zero (my wife can verify that through personal experience!). A couple of years ago the software was updated to be less optimistic (although it still assumes very slow driving), and apparently there is a "hidden" reserve as you say, but I'm too chicken to test it. Interesting that the new gen Leafs don't have this reserve - any real life experiences of driving past zero in a 2013/14 Leaf?

[Phunk]

Should be able to cope as long as you stick at 60 in the winter.

Worst comes to worst there is a rapid at Ringwood

[pboyall]

budfox said:

I can't agree with that. The range shown is based on an "...if you carry on using this much battery power..." estimate. Your car doesn't know how it's about to be driven, so the range shown can only ever be a best guess.

For example, if you had 30 miles showing and were about to climb a 30 mile long hill, you would get nowhere near the top. Depending on the gradient, and on the speed driven, you might not even make 10 miles.

Sorry, I meant that there is no "hidden" mileage below the 30. In a Gen1 Leaf, if it said 30 and you carried on driving as you had been on the same roads, then you would actually get 40. Whereas in the Gen2, you will run out at the 30. Yes, naturally if the conditions change the estimate is wrong, agreed.

Regarding the 2013/4 Leaf ... I haven't tried it but am assured that when it goes "---" you will run out very very soon afterwards.

[GreatGranny]

I did a similar commute when I had one for the 7 day test drive.

This was in winter and range was showing 89 miles when fully charged.

I managed to find a good compromise with heater on low so it didn't affect range too much.
Use the pre heater so got into a toasty warm car each morning.
I charged and parked for free near to my work.
Really enjoyed driving it, just need to convince the wife :-)

So the simple answer is yes :-)

[Don]

Another Leaf owner here. I do 30 miles a day and this uses about 35% of the battery. So you should definitely get 60 out of it. ... and with margin to spare. Mine's a November 2013 model with the percentage gauge etc.

[TransverseTight]

Phunk said:

Should be able to cope as long as you stick at 60 in the winter.

Worst comes to worst there is a rapid at Ringwood

+1 on that. Ringwood, Furlong Car park. Chargepoint genie. Website is awful. It's £4 to use it for 15 minutes and then 2.5 units per minute which is 25p as they charge 10p a unit. If you have an iphone you don't have to pay for the RFID card. Don't support android (obviously not looked at the sales figures!)

Might be Out of action at the mo (seems to be a common problem with 50kW units -as the power supply can't keep up). Though pricing is a bit high - you'll want to fill up in 15 minutes and get off it - if it works.

There's another at Romsey Rapids leisure centre.

You best bet is to try and get a 13A external socket at work. I've just swapped jobs and the new company has EV charging on IP65 13A sockets. The difference it makes is worth paying for the install yourself. Instead of driving like miss daisy and keeping an eye on the speed - you just floor it everywhere. You'll have a nearly full battery by lunch time. More than enough to go via the long way home.

[gangzoom]

Did my previous 35 mile commute (70 miles round trip) in the Leaf today...It's mainly A roads, but lots of hills wasn't sure how the battery would cope....Shouldn't have feared

[Don]

gangzoom said:

Did my previous 35 mile commute (70 miles round trip) in the Leaf today...It's mainly A roads, but lots of hills wasn't sure how the battery would cope....Shouldn't have feared

Great to see. I reckon mine would do about the same...but haven't been brave enough to try it yet! Good call!

[The Badger]

I do just over 70 miles a day. Either Nottingham to Lincoln and back or Nottingham to Chesterfield and back. Battery warning usually comes on as I roll onto my street. I managed to do this every day from April till December last year. After that I used the big petrol barge the Leaf helps me keep on the drive.

Back in the Leaf since March - and genuienly believe it's the best purchase I've ever made. The S Class wishes it was as smooth.

[RosscoPCole]

Thank you for all the advice and replies. From what you have said a 60 mile round trip should be no problem.
Next question is I see Leafs for sale that you lease the battery and others where it has been bought out. If I plan to keep the car for at least 5 years and do 15,000 miles a years what would be the best option?

[Fogey]

We got our Leaf last autumn, and my wife uses it for work, 35 miles away. Slightly more than half of this is on the motorway, the rest in town. She hates being cold, and has the climate control set at 22°C.

Even in the middle of winter when she was driving entirely in darkness it never had less than 10% charge left when she got home.

70 miles driving every day for 2p a mile...