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Changing from Diesel Leon to a Leaf or Kona?

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1K views 11 replies 6 participants last post by  HandyAndy 
#1 ·
Hi, I’m new to EV but am really keen to change.
I currently have a 2l Leon diesel, great car but boring and not many toys. I love gadgets and have a 70 miles round trip commute which is 10miles of dual carriageway and 60 miles of slow a road.
I currently get 46mpg, but feel electric would be a better way to go.
The toys I want are adaptive cruise, leather, heated seats, Android auto, so whether it’s Leaf or Kona I’m looking at the top spec.
I also do longer journeys at weekends, say 120 round trip.
Please help!
Thanks.
Pete
 
#7 ·
... My leaf 30 can probably do real 120 miles and if there's a CHAdoMo enroute it would be easy peasy ...
Dave, you sound uncertain re range! Is this 120 miles a summer, or winter one? What sort of speed are you going at? Are you able to do a 120 mile trip in winter and be 100% certain you're not going to run out of power (knowing that you're 100% able to charge at the end, so don't need to keep any safety-reserve) ?
 
#5 ·
Kona or Niro 64kWhs. Nothing else is close to the range. 300 miles is probably the minimum a long distance diesel owner is going to find suitable really.

The top level cars have all the gubbins on as well. It's best to have twice the range you actually need as then there is always plenty left to allow for winter, diversions and then any reduction in battery capacity if you keep the car for a long time.
 
#6 ·
Your 120 mile trip, let's say in winter, will use rather more leccy than in summer. So if you want to do this journey without any charging en-route, you'll be looking for a car with nominal 160 mile summer range, or better. And expect the unexpected, e.g. accident causes 10-mile detour, that kind of thing. You could look at Hyundai Ioniq, has a nice streamlined body so manages super efficiency & would cover your range no probs. Leaf has aerodynamics of a brick, so best not to drive those at over 70 or the electrons simply evaporate !!! Ioniq only has about 34 kWh battery, but manages to get 150 mile range, so one of those would be ok for you I think, as it manages to match the 40 kWh EVs elsewhere for range.

We don't really know how well most of these EVs look after their batteries - after 3 years at 20k you've done a fair mileage. Current Leaf model doesn't do much temperature management of the battery, and previous models have shown some battery degradation, so again that's another reason to go for larger battery. On that basis the 64 kWh Kona would absolutely cover your journeys, possibly twice over, but delivery on EVs can be rather a long wait. Or you may get lucky and a cancellation means your car arrives in a month or two rather than 10 or 11. It's all a bit hit-and-miss at the moment.

I believe the Kona & Ioniq have what's called active battery management, i.e. the battery temperature is properly controlled for max battery life. So it gets heated up when too cold, and cooled down when too hot, done by the complex air-con systems these cars have. Leaf doesn't make any effort to cool the battery, sadly. It's expected the forthcoming 60 kWh Leaf will have active battery management - they'll have dropped a major clanger if not!

Of course you'll be checking boot size, number of seats, ISOfix, most of these EVs cannot tow even a small trailer and carrying bicycles can be problematic if no towbar attach available, & no roof-rack system supported, etc.
 
#9 ·
The weather hasn't really got cold enough to get the worst range figures yet. The indicator I use is to take NEDC and halve it. That's winter range more or less.

Zoe40 is 250 miles so 125 winter. Soul original was 132 miles so winter was 66. Wet weather and head winds also drive range down as well.

You want an all weather and all year car that can do it with plenty of charge left over. This is is the most relaxing way of doing it.

You also need a plan B of what to do if your home charger doesn't work for some reason so you start the day with whatever battery you had from the day before. I don't think everyone plans for this. Your home charger can go wrong or a charge timer can fail. You always need a plan B.
 
#10 ·
I would think the Leaf 40 should be capable of more than 120 in winter (based on me asking the same question of owners a month or so ago). Also, the range on that car will be dependent on you not going over 60mph for long stretches of the journey.

The Korean 64kWh cars are going to have bags or range to spare, but will come with limited numbers or long lead times.

The 60kWh Leaf is likely to be launched in November and will be available in greater numbers- if only because its built here. I also think the Leaf will have the biggest boot.
 
#12 ·
Ampera has split screen rear view, which I thought I'd hate when I got the car. But in practice I don't notice it - I have the rear view mirror set so the top section fills most of that, and it's high enough, and the "wing" low enough, that I can see everything behind me just fine. Occasionally I might use the lower section when my head's turned round for reversing, but that's about it tbh. And the reversing camera shows me the really important low-down stuff anyway. So I'm now not bothered whether it's got split views or not at the back!
 
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