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Picked up my brand new Nissan Leaf nConnecta last week, and here’s a breakdown of how it’s been for me initially.
I’ve been driving a Mercedes diesel since 2015, an old-style A Class a180, then a more sporty B Class b180, so I’ve been used to cars with a decent amount of power, but not a huge amount in the way of features. Mercedes have always been a great company to deal with - sterling customer service, reliability of the cars - and good follow-up care.
However, I’ve gone from driving 350+ miles per week (two kids = lots of clubs/sports, plus commuting and other general driving) down to about 120 miles per week, if that. My daily commute is a 20mile round trip, and I decided to go for an electric car - both as a means of getting into the EV life, but also to reduce operating costs - and, as a bit of a treat to myself.
After a lot of consideration and research, I decided to go for the Leaf, partly because of the various grants and deals on offer, but also because a work colleague has owned two, and highly recommended them. He’s now a Tesla 3 owner - and took me for a test drive last week - but it was out of my price range, and beyond my needs. I’ll consider one in future. I went for a test drive in an e+ Tekna, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It feels like a decent-sized car - not unlike a Ford Focus. And due to design changes in the 2018/19 models, it no longer looks like the kind of vehicle a pensioner would own. It looks modern, stylish and “young”. I opted for black pearlescent paint, which looks cool - especially with the nConnecta blue trim.
So, I signed up for a PCP deal, and the Leaf arrived last week. After signing all the paperwork, we set up my phone (touchscreen Apple CarPlay is truly fantastic and responsive), adjusted all the mirrors and my seat, and once I’d been given a decent familiarisation session with the sales rep, I headed home.
I have to say, I really love this car. It’s taking me the usual breaking-in period to become comfortable with my new driving position and the various controls etc - but that’s all perfectly normal for a new car.
The first thing I’ve noticed is that you really don’t anticipate how powerful this car can be - especially when moving off, overtaking and negotiating urban obstacles, such as parked cars or traffic calming measures. It’s a really nifty, nippy car with smooth manoeuvrability and control. A few times, I’ve put the foot down and heard the wheels screeching or struggling to keep up with the torque - but I suspect that may have been as much to do with wet surfaces than anything. It’s a comfortable drive, and often, drivers in more powerful ICE cars are left wondering how on Earth your Leaf manages to leave them standing at traffic lights or a roundabout.
The car had a full charge when I left the dealership, and my journey home (approx 10miles - roughly the same as one leg of my daily commute) seemed to use up about 12% of the charge. Admittedly, I had the heating blasting and gave it a proper run-in to 70mph and beyond to try it out.
I signed up for a Nissan Connected Services account on my Mac (the dealer advised me not to do it on my I phone), but the verification email didn’t appear until the following morning. I had a spot of trouble getting the pairing verification code from the car (it’s not terribly obvious where to get it from), but when the email came in and I logged in, then verified my VIN, I left it to do its thing. It took a couple of attempts to connect - but pretty soon the services started verifying in the app, and in all, it took about 24 hours for all of them to appear. The next morning, I remotely set the climate before I left for work - and the car was warm and toasty in the cold, frosty morning. Before I got this car, I said to my wife that if only two things worked - CarPlay and remote climate control - I’d be happy. They both work really well, so far - so I’m happy. Remote climate can be slow to send to the car from the app, so I’ve been giving it about 10mins advance setup to make sure. I’ll monitor it as I go to reduce the time and conserve energy.
I don’t have my home charge point installed yet (it’s coming soon - I’ll update on that later), so I’ve definitely experienced what I’ve heard being referred to as “charging anxiety”. By the time I’d driven to and from work for two days, I was down to about 40%, and I knew I’d need to think about charging pretty soon.
I live in Scotland, so had ordered my ChargePoint Scotland card weeks ago, and I took a friend out for a bite to eat with the intention of charging up. By the time we arrived at the vacant charging spot in Glasgow city centre, I was down to about 23%. It was a fairly painless process setting up the charge - a 22kw type 2 - and we went for a bite to eat. I was able to monitor the charging remotely on my phone, and managed to get it up to about 30% by the time we were heading home. Unfortunately, the journey home knocked another 10% off the charge, back to 20%, and I was getting worried - so I stopped at a local service station near my home and used an Instavolt CHaDeMo to fire it up to 50% in about 10mins for £2.74. The following day, I hopped along to the Glasgow Transport Museum (5mins drive from my place of work) and charged up to 70% on a Fast Charger in about 20mins. I’m reassured now, that while I’m waiting on my charge point being installed, I can comfortably charge up for free (or very little cost) at local chargers.
I’m getting into the habit of using the ePedal in slow-moving rush hour traffic, and sticking on eco mode in urban traffic where the speed limit is 20mph. Every little bit helps to conserve energy. I’m also getting used to not going mad with the heating if it’s not needed - I have the heat pack with my car, so the steering wheel heats up too, which is a treat - but I’m noticing a significant drop-off in charge when I overdo it a bit.
A few negatives are that I haven’t quite figured out how to use the lane warning controls, or the cruise control - they don’t seem terribly straightforward to activate and use, but I’ll study the manual a get into it. Another thing that’s taking a while to get used to is the change of size/shape of the car - and the general visibility, especially for parking. The all-round camera and parking sensors help with this, but I think the sensors are a bit too over-cautious, and I’m often pulling up while reversing when I probably don’t actually need to.
I reckon my charging anxiety will vanish when I have my charge point installed at home - and, it would seem that I probably only need to charge twice per week for normal commuting; once on a Sunday night, and then again on a Weds or Thu night to see me to the weekend. I may even factor in just charging at a free fast-charger once per week to reduce costs at home.
In all, I’m loving this car. It’s a smooth ride. It’s comfortable - with loads of premium features - and it feels more like a mid-range car than an EV. I’m looking forward to getting to know it better, and settling in to EV life.
I’ll update on my home charger installation when it’s done.
I’ve been driving a Mercedes diesel since 2015, an old-style A Class a180, then a more sporty B Class b180, so I’ve been used to cars with a decent amount of power, but not a huge amount in the way of features. Mercedes have always been a great company to deal with - sterling customer service, reliability of the cars - and good follow-up care.
However, I’ve gone from driving 350+ miles per week (two kids = lots of clubs/sports, plus commuting and other general driving) down to about 120 miles per week, if that. My daily commute is a 20mile round trip, and I decided to go for an electric car - both as a means of getting into the EV life, but also to reduce operating costs - and, as a bit of a treat to myself.
After a lot of consideration and research, I decided to go for the Leaf, partly because of the various grants and deals on offer, but also because a work colleague has owned two, and highly recommended them. He’s now a Tesla 3 owner - and took me for a test drive last week - but it was out of my price range, and beyond my needs. I’ll consider one in future. I went for a test drive in an e+ Tekna, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It feels like a decent-sized car - not unlike a Ford Focus. And due to design changes in the 2018/19 models, it no longer looks like the kind of vehicle a pensioner would own. It looks modern, stylish and “young”. I opted for black pearlescent paint, which looks cool - especially with the nConnecta blue trim.
So, I signed up for a PCP deal, and the Leaf arrived last week. After signing all the paperwork, we set up my phone (touchscreen Apple CarPlay is truly fantastic and responsive), adjusted all the mirrors and my seat, and once I’d been given a decent familiarisation session with the sales rep, I headed home.
I have to say, I really love this car. It’s taking me the usual breaking-in period to become comfortable with my new driving position and the various controls etc - but that’s all perfectly normal for a new car.
The first thing I’ve noticed is that you really don’t anticipate how powerful this car can be - especially when moving off, overtaking and negotiating urban obstacles, such as parked cars or traffic calming measures. It’s a really nifty, nippy car with smooth manoeuvrability and control. A few times, I’ve put the foot down and heard the wheels screeching or struggling to keep up with the torque - but I suspect that may have been as much to do with wet surfaces than anything. It’s a comfortable drive, and often, drivers in more powerful ICE cars are left wondering how on Earth your Leaf manages to leave them standing at traffic lights or a roundabout.
The car had a full charge when I left the dealership, and my journey home (approx 10miles - roughly the same as one leg of my daily commute) seemed to use up about 12% of the charge. Admittedly, I had the heating blasting and gave it a proper run-in to 70mph and beyond to try it out.
I signed up for a Nissan Connected Services account on my Mac (the dealer advised me not to do it on my I phone), but the verification email didn’t appear until the following morning. I had a spot of trouble getting the pairing verification code from the car (it’s not terribly obvious where to get it from), but when the email came in and I logged in, then verified my VIN, I left it to do its thing. It took a couple of attempts to connect - but pretty soon the services started verifying in the app, and in all, it took about 24 hours for all of them to appear. The next morning, I remotely set the climate before I left for work - and the car was warm and toasty in the cold, frosty morning. Before I got this car, I said to my wife that if only two things worked - CarPlay and remote climate control - I’d be happy. They both work really well, so far - so I’m happy. Remote climate can be slow to send to the car from the app, so I’ve been giving it about 10mins advance setup to make sure. I’ll monitor it as I go to reduce the time and conserve energy.
I don’t have my home charge point installed yet (it’s coming soon - I’ll update on that later), so I’ve definitely experienced what I’ve heard being referred to as “charging anxiety”. By the time I’d driven to and from work for two days, I was down to about 40%, and I knew I’d need to think about charging pretty soon.
I live in Scotland, so had ordered my ChargePoint Scotland card weeks ago, and I took a friend out for a bite to eat with the intention of charging up. By the time we arrived at the vacant charging spot in Glasgow city centre, I was down to about 23%. It was a fairly painless process setting up the charge - a 22kw type 2 - and we went for a bite to eat. I was able to monitor the charging remotely on my phone, and managed to get it up to about 30% by the time we were heading home. Unfortunately, the journey home knocked another 10% off the charge, back to 20%, and I was getting worried - so I stopped at a local service station near my home and used an Instavolt CHaDeMo to fire it up to 50% in about 10mins for £2.74. The following day, I hopped along to the Glasgow Transport Museum (5mins drive from my place of work) and charged up to 70% on a Fast Charger in about 20mins. I’m reassured now, that while I’m waiting on my charge point being installed, I can comfortably charge up for free (or very little cost) at local chargers.
I’m getting into the habit of using the ePedal in slow-moving rush hour traffic, and sticking on eco mode in urban traffic where the speed limit is 20mph. Every little bit helps to conserve energy. I’m also getting used to not going mad with the heating if it’s not needed - I have the heat pack with my car, so the steering wheel heats up too, which is a treat - but I’m noticing a significant drop-off in charge when I overdo it a bit.
A few negatives are that I haven’t quite figured out how to use the lane warning controls, or the cruise control - they don’t seem terribly straightforward to activate and use, but I’ll study the manual a get into it. Another thing that’s taking a while to get used to is the change of size/shape of the car - and the general visibility, especially for parking. The all-round camera and parking sensors help with this, but I think the sensors are a bit too over-cautious, and I’m often pulling up while reversing when I probably don’t actually need to.
I reckon my charging anxiety will vanish when I have my charge point installed at home - and, it would seem that I probably only need to charge twice per week for normal commuting; once on a Sunday night, and then again on a Weds or Thu night to see me to the weekend. I may even factor in just charging at a free fast-charger once per week to reduce costs at home.
In all, I’m loving this car. It’s a smooth ride. It’s comfortable - with loads of premium features - and it feels more like a mid-range car than an EV. I’m looking forward to getting to know it better, and settling in to EV life.
I’ll update on my home charger installation when it’s done.
