Is my commute to far for a Nissan Leaf?
Discussion
Definitely too far for an early Leaf in winter, especially a second hand one a few years old. 50 miles would be a more viable limit with a bit to spare.
Later models can/do have larger batteries, more efficient drivetrains, more efficient heaters and the batteries don't degrade as much with age/charging cycles.
Later models can/do have larger batteries, more efficient drivetrains, more efficient heaters and the batteries don't degrade as much with age/charging cycles.
page3 said:
Dazed and Confused said:
Seems fairly common on EVs that the range won't be what you were hoping.
Depends on if you believe the official figures or real world ones. No different from MPG for a petrol/diesel car.Perfectly doable if you're willing to modify your driving style/pace.
I'm at the end of my 22kw Leaf 2 year lease and I've done 43k in that time. Weston-super-Mare to Swindon daily. Charge at home and then at the free unit at work. At times I've needed to borrow the local dealers Fast charger and i also used the Ecotricity network when it was free and when it wasn't I signed with domestic energy from them and got 52 charges 'free'.
Got stuck once when ran out of charge.
Literally just sat at 58 - 62mph all the way slipstreaming lorries. I was in the office later at times but my blood pressure was a lot lower and I no longer stressed about driving at pace or being late. Just took a lot more work calls hands free.
You can easily get 68 odd miles from a 22kw car with all the lights/utilities on. Just keep the speed down and don't accelerate/brake like a goon.
Tuan.
I'm at the end of my 22kw Leaf 2 year lease and I've done 43k in that time. Weston-super-Mare to Swindon daily. Charge at home and then at the free unit at work. At times I've needed to borrow the local dealers Fast charger and i also used the Ecotricity network when it was free and when it wasn't I signed with domestic energy from them and got 52 charges 'free'.
Got stuck once when ran out of charge.
Literally just sat at 58 - 62mph all the way slipstreaming lorries. I was in the office later at times but my blood pressure was a lot lower and I no longer stressed about driving at pace or being late. Just took a lot more work calls hands free.
You can easily get 68 odd miles from a 22kw car with all the lights/utilities on. Just keep the speed down and don't accelerate/brake like a goon.
Tuan.
Perfectly doable if you're willing to modify your driving style/pace.
I'm at the end of my 22kw Leaf 2 year lease and I've done 43k in that time. Weston-super-Mare to Swindon daily. Charge at home and then at the free unit at work. At times I've needed to borrow the local dealers Fast charger and i also used the Ecotricity network when it was free and when it wasn't I signed with domestic energy from them and got 52 charges 'free'.
Got stuck once when ran out of charge.
Literally just sat at 58 - 62mph all the way slipstreaming lorries. I was in the office later at times but my blood pressure was a lot lower and I no longer stressed about driving at pace or being late. Just took a lot more work calls hands free.
You can easily get 68 odd miles from a 22kw car with all the lights/utilities on. Just keep the speed down and don't accelerate/brake like a goon.
Tuan.
I'm at the end of my 22kw Leaf 2 year lease and I've done 43k in that time. Weston-super-Mare to Swindon daily. Charge at home and then at the free unit at work. At times I've needed to borrow the local dealers Fast charger and i also used the Ecotricity network when it was free and when it wasn't I signed with domestic energy from them and got 52 charges 'free'.
Got stuck once when ran out of charge.
Literally just sat at 58 - 62mph all the way slipstreaming lorries. I was in the office later at times but my blood pressure was a lot lower and I no longer stressed about driving at pace or being late. Just took a lot more work calls hands free.
You can easily get 68 odd miles from a 22kw car with all the lights/utilities on. Just keep the speed down and don't accelerate/brake like a goon.
Tuan.
GI Jnr said:
Perfectly doable if you're willing to modify your driving style/pace.
I'm at the end of my 22kw Leaf 2 year lease and I've done 43k in that time. Weston-super-Mare to Swindon daily. Charge at home and then at the free unit at work. At times I've needed to borrow the local dealers Fast charger and i also used the Ecotricity network when it was free and when it wasn't I signed with domestic energy from them and got 52 charges 'free'.
Got stuck once when ran out of charge.
Literally just sat at 58 - 62mph all the way slipstreaming lorries. I was in the office later at times but my blood pressure was a lot lower and I no longer stressed about driving at pace or being late. Just took a lot more work calls hands free.
You can easily get 68 odd miles from a 22kw car with all the lights/utilities on. Just keep the speed down and don't accelerate/brake like a goon.
Tuan.
Why not just buy a car that will do that without driving it like Miss Daisy?I'm at the end of my 22kw Leaf 2 year lease and I've done 43k in that time. Weston-super-Mare to Swindon daily. Charge at home and then at the free unit at work. At times I've needed to borrow the local dealers Fast charger and i also used the Ecotricity network when it was free and when it wasn't I signed with domestic energy from them and got 52 charges 'free'.
Got stuck once when ran out of charge.
Literally just sat at 58 - 62mph all the way slipstreaming lorries. I was in the office later at times but my blood pressure was a lot lower and I no longer stressed about driving at pace or being late. Just took a lot more work calls hands free.
You can easily get 68 odd miles from a 22kw car with all the lights/utilities on. Just keep the speed down and don't accelerate/brake like a goon.
Tuan.
Dazed and Confused said:
Why not just buy a car that will do that without driving it like Miss Daisy?
You have made it perfectly clear in the thread in general gassing that you don't like EV's for both rational and irrational reasons. Why don't you just move along and let people give helpful answers to questions? Realistically you'll be pushing it. We've just got a 2012 Leaf for the Mrs to bimble about in, I'd say on a motorway 50 miles is about your limit.
If your commute was a mixture of A and B roads you'd probably do it.
Range wise our Leaf tends to over state its range in motorways and understate it on smaller A and B roads. So it may well tell you it has 80 miles range but of you're heading down a motorway or dual carriageway that will drop. Quickly. Alarmingly so.
Unless you've got a charge point near work - won't need much of a charge to make the difference.
If your commute was a mixture of A and B roads you'd probably do it.
Range wise our Leaf tends to over state its range in motorways and understate it on smaller A and B roads. So it may well tell you it has 80 miles range but of you're heading down a motorway or dual carriageway that will drop. Quickly. Alarmingly so.
Unless you've got a charge point near work - won't need much of a charge to make the difference.
GI Jnr said:
Perfectly doable if you're willing to modify your driving style/pace.
I'm at the end of my 22kw Leaf 2 year lease and I've done 43k in that time. Weston-super-Mare to Swindon daily. Charge at home and then at the free unit at work. At times I've needed to borrow the local dealers Fast charger and i also used the Ecotricity network when it was free and when it wasn't I signed with domestic energy from them and got 52 charges 'free'.
Got stuck once when ran out of charge.
Literally just sat at 58 - 62mph all the way slipstreaming lorries. I was in the office later at times but my blood pressure was a lot lower and I no longer stressed about driving at pace or being late. Just took a lot more work calls hands free.
You can easily get 68 odd miles from a 22kw car with all the lights/utilities on. Just keep the speed down and don't accelerate/brake like a goon.
Tuan.
Bet it wasn’t as comfy as your old Phaeton though?I'm at the end of my 22kw Leaf 2 year lease and I've done 43k in that time. Weston-super-Mare to Swindon daily. Charge at home and then at the free unit at work. At times I've needed to borrow the local dealers Fast charger and i also used the Ecotricity network when it was free and when it wasn't I signed with domestic energy from them and got 52 charges 'free'.
Got stuck once when ran out of charge.
Literally just sat at 58 - 62mph all the way slipstreaming lorries. I was in the office later at times but my blood pressure was a lot lower and I no longer stressed about driving at pace or being late. Just took a lot more work calls hands free.
You can easily get 68 odd miles from a 22kw car with all the lights/utilities on. Just keep the speed down and don't accelerate/brake like a goon.
Tuan.
Dazed and Confused said:
Why not just buy a car that will do that without driving it like Miss Daisy?
I've done the commute for the past 12 years in all sorts - from a £300 Daewoo Matiz to an AMD fettled V10 VW Phaeton and everything in between.I bought it because a) I'm an early adopter, b) I wanted to see if an EV could cope with my user profile and c) I saved a bucketload of money in tax, diesel, insurance and maintenance over the last 24 months, allowing me to spend the cash on more important things.
Simples.
I quite like driving Miss Daisy thank you. I've done the high speed thing in on V6s to V8s to V10 to V12s and throw in a good few Vee Twins and Straight 6's... I no longer feel too much of an urge to hoon.
familyguy1 said:
@ SilverSixer which dealer in the TV area did you go to, out of interest ? I'm in the same area so would like to know which is a good/better dealer with knowledge of EV's.
TIA
Just to follow up on this one, I eventually got a 2015 24kwh Leaf from Motorline Nissan in Reading, 8k miles on the clock, on a 3-yr PCP at £153 a month. Well chuffed as I was spending £300 a month on diesel alone before, then there's VED also. 25 miles each way to work, and pootling round town at weekends. Perfect. Started the car this morning showing 90 miles range (100% charge), and got to work showing 67 miles left. Mix of town/B road/A road dual carriageway. Will get me home with ease. TIA
Dealer was pretty good and quite knowledgeable, but wasn't aware of a current offer to get a free home charger from Pod Point if you buy a car on Nissan Finance. Found out about it on an EV forum after ordering the car.
We have kept our diesel Merc E Class as reserve/back up/long journey car.
SilverSixer said:
Just to follow up on this one, I eventually got a 2015 24kwh Leaf from Motorline Nissan in Reading, 8k miles on the clock, on a 3-yr PCP at £153 a month. Well chuffed as I was spending £300 a month on diesel alone before, then there's VED also. 25 miles each way to work, and pootling round town at weekends. Perfect. Started the car this morning showing 90 miles range (100% charge), and got to work showing 67 miles left. Mix of town/B road/A road dual carriageway. Will get me home with ease.
Dealer was pretty good and quite knowledgeable, but wasn't aware of a current offer to get a free home charger from Pod Point if you buy a car on Nissan Finance. Found out about it on an EV forum after ordering the car.
We have kept our diesel Merc E Class as reserve/back up/long journey car.
did you have a particularly uneconomical diesel or is the weekend pootling around incurring a lot of miles? I ask as 300 quids worth of diesel is about 57 gallons at 1,15 a litre. 6 days a week at 50 miles a day is about 1300 miles a month = 22 MPG!Dealer was pretty good and quite knowledgeable, but wasn't aware of a current offer to get a free home charger from Pod Point if you buy a car on Nissan Finance. Found out about it on an EV forum after ordering the car.
We have kept our diesel Merc E Class as reserve/back up/long journey car.
Jag_NE said:
SilverSixer said:
Just to follow up on this one, I eventually got a 2015 24kwh Leaf from Motorline Nissan in Reading, 8k miles on the clock, on a 3-yr PCP at £153 a month. Well chuffed as I was spending £300 a month on diesel alone before, then there's VED also. 25 miles each way to work, and pootling round town at weekends. Perfect. Started the car this morning showing 90 miles range (100% charge), and got to work showing 67 miles left. Mix of town/B road/A road dual carriageway. Will get me home with ease.
Dealer was pretty good and quite knowledgeable, but wasn't aware of a current offer to get a free home charger from Pod Point if you buy a car on Nissan Finance. Found out about it on an EV forum after ordering the car.
We have kept our diesel Merc E Class as reserve/back up/long journey car.
did you have a particularly uneconomical diesel or is the weekend pootling around incurring a lot of miles? I ask as 300 quids worth of diesel is about 57 gallons at 1,15 a litre. 6 days a week at 50 miles a day is about 1300 miles a month = 22 MPG!Dealer was pretty good and quite knowledgeable, but wasn't aware of a current offer to get a free home charger from Pod Point if you buy a car on Nissan Finance. Found out about it on an EV forum after ordering the car.
We have kept our diesel Merc E Class as reserve/back up/long journey car.
So £153 a month for a nearly new car with hardly any fuel costs (about £25 a month electricity I estimate) and no VED is a fair saving on monthly cash flow when you take out the £300 on fuel. And I'm in a car which probably won't break down (my Merc is a 2005, the traded car was a 2006), and won't need any expenditure on servicing (included in the PCP) and no maintenance (warranty). I will of course need the odd tank of diesel for the Merc second car but I now only have one car with servicing/VED costs rather than two.
I'm pretty confident I'm up financially, which was the whole point of the exercise for me, not any eco concerns - that's just a happy side effect in my case. And I'm in a much newer car - 2015 opposed to 2006. Also, the outgoing car failed its MOT before trade in on emissions..........it was on its last legs and I needed to replace it. And, I like the Leaf.
SilverSixer said:
Well my financial records were showing a rough £300 a month averaged out on diesel and petrol (the car we traded in for the Leaf was a petrol only getting 20mpg, but most miles were done in our E320 CDI, which gets about 33mpg on our usual routine, which is a lot of town driving).
So £153 a month for a nearly new car with hardly any fuel costs (about £25 a month electricity I estimate) and no VED is a fair saving on monthly cash flow when you take out the £300 on fuel. And I'm in a car which probably won't break down (my Merc is a 2005, the traded car was a 2006), and won't need any expenditure on servicing (included in the PCP) and no maintenance (warranty). I will of course need the odd tank of diesel for the Merc second car but I now only have one car with servicing/VED costs rather than two.
I'm pretty confident I'm up financially, which was the whole point of the exercise for me, not any eco concerns - that's just a happy side effect in my case. And I'm in a much newer car - 2015 opposed to 2006. Also, the outgoing car failed its MOT before trade in on emissions..........it was on its last legs and I needed to replace it. And, I like the Leaf.
I think you probably have a whiff of man maths in there but at the end of the day if you are happy that's all that matters.So £153 a month for a nearly new car with hardly any fuel costs (about £25 a month electricity I estimate) and no VED is a fair saving on monthly cash flow when you take out the £300 on fuel. And I'm in a car which probably won't break down (my Merc is a 2005, the traded car was a 2006), and won't need any expenditure on servicing (included in the PCP) and no maintenance (warranty). I will of course need the odd tank of diesel for the Merc second car but I now only have one car with servicing/VED costs rather than two.
I'm pretty confident I'm up financially, which was the whole point of the exercise for me, not any eco concerns - that's just a happy side effect in my case. And I'm in a much newer car - 2015 opposed to 2006. Also, the outgoing car failed its MOT before trade in on emissions..........it was on its last legs and I needed to replace it. And, I like the Leaf.
Jag_NE said:
SilverSixer said:
Well my financial records were showing a rough £300 a month averaged out on diesel and petrol (the car we traded in for the Leaf was a petrol only getting 20mpg, but most miles were done in our E320 CDI, which gets about 33mpg on our usual routine, which is a lot of town driving).
So £153 a month for a nearly new car with hardly any fuel costs (about £25 a month electricity I estimate) and no VED is a fair saving on monthly cash flow when you take out the £300 on fuel. And I'm in a car which probably won't break down (my Merc is a 2005, the traded car was a 2006), and won't need any expenditure on servicing (included in the PCP) and no maintenance (warranty). I will of course need the odd tank of diesel for the Merc second car but I now only have one car with servicing/VED costs rather than two.
I'm pretty confident I'm up financially, which was the whole point of the exercise for me, not any eco concerns - that's just a happy side effect in my case. And I'm in a much newer car - 2015 opposed to 2006. Also, the outgoing car failed its MOT before trade in on emissions..........it was on its last legs and I needed to replace it. And, I like the Leaf.
I think you probably have a whiff of man maths in there but at the end of the day if you are happy that's all that matters.So £153 a month for a nearly new car with hardly any fuel costs (about £25 a month electricity I estimate) and no VED is a fair saving on monthly cash flow when you take out the £300 on fuel. And I'm in a car which probably won't break down (my Merc is a 2005, the traded car was a 2006), and won't need any expenditure on servicing (included in the PCP) and no maintenance (warranty). I will of course need the odd tank of diesel for the Merc second car but I now only have one car with servicing/VED costs rather than two.
I'm pretty confident I'm up financially, which was the whole point of the exercise for me, not any eco concerns - that's just a happy side effect in my case. And I'm in a much newer car - 2015 opposed to 2006. Also, the outgoing car failed its MOT before trade in on emissions..........it was on its last legs and I needed to replace it. And, I like the Leaf.
I realise it isn't for everyone, but it works for me. I usually budget on an £800 credit card bill every month (I do all discretionary spending on a CC to get Avios and pay in full every month), and this month's spending hasn't hit £400 yet. I haven't been near a petrol station since sometime in August...........
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