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Perhaps I might not buy another Leaf in the future :(

7K views 82 replies 33 participants last post by  Bilgy_no1 
#1 ·
As some of you may know I will have had my Leaf (Evie!) 4 weeks on Saturday. Last Saturday I wanted to go and see a friend some miles away from me in Guildford. Her place is 36 miles from mine, according to the sat nav so I thought I'd be able to do it without charging. I was going to be stuck for time on arrival and no possibility of charging at hers because she only has on street parking. It was also going to be after midnight when I did the return journey.

I drove carefully, took the 'Eco' route on the planner and didn't have the heating on other than very short occasional bursts to keep the screen clear so I could see. No amount of having the windows open seemed to achieve this. I arrived with 50% left in my batteries and supposedly 47 miles. Bearing in mind that I'd done 36 careful miles to get there I was slightly worried by this but figured there would be a charger fairly close somewhere, so we went off to our do in her car and I decided to search for a charger on returning. BIG mistake. I drove to the first location thinking I'd get a quick blast to find that I couldn't access the charger. Then I didn't want to trust that there was a charger at the Little Chef at Ripley on the A3 because I'd been told by someone at Polar that most of them have been removed. Locally to me this has been true. I had no decent internet signal on my phone to load any of the apps and the car sat nav didn't have the new chargers at Chobham on the M25 listed so I wasn't sure how far away they were or in what direction.

End result was I crawled home through some nightmarishly nasty lanes at 30mph or less with no heating, wiping the screen to see and getting in the way of every other road user who came up behind me wondering why the hell I was out driving at that time of night if I was scared to go faster than 30. I knew full well that if I ran out of battery I had no mobile signal whatsoever to get help. It was cold, foggy and raining and I was on my own. I can honestly say I hated the car and the lack of infrastructure to support it at that point. I was still 16 miles out when the low battery warning light came on and by the time I arrived home (thankfully) I had 7 miles left in the 'tank' and only 4% charge. Not to mention I was stiff and sore from the absolute terror of being stuck miles from anywhere with no phone signal and dead car.

Clearly I should have planned for a backup charger but surely 72 miles in a brand new Gen 2 Leaf should be possible under those circumstances? I started with the Guessometer saying 95 so it's not like I'm driving like a bat out of hell or anything. I guess another question is where are the Guildford chargers? I've looked again since getting home and there really doesn't seem to be anything available between me near Worthing and my friend at Guildford :(

On the plus side though the car decided it had a range of 109 miles after a full charge the next morning! Yeah right!
 
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#53 ·
Keep faith. I would say 72 miles is achievable. It takes a while to get a feel for your car and work out exactly how she responds in certain conditions. I find pre heating/cooling makes a big difference to range especially first 20%. I drove from Great Bentley in Essex yesterday to Southend. Distance of 51 miles and arrived with 51% remaining. This included following a handy lorry on A12 which makes huge difference. I did not risk a return journey without charging and was able to use street charger in Southend.

I have also recently travelled from Essex to Glasgow in my Leaf which you can read about on forum. Only one sticky moment.

Once you accept that the worst that can happen is you run out and have to ring for help then nerves calm down and you can adopt a 'so what' attitude. Maybe a delay in arrival but you'll get there. I had the satisfaction of a road trip covering 1100 miles. Took me a bit longer than in my previous ICE but I actually arrived far more relaxed.

My daily commute is only a 20 mile round trip but I also travel to Chelmsford on a regular basis which is 64 miles return. Very rare I arrive back home with less than 30% and often nearer 40%.

Overtime you'll get the feel for these longer runs and can anticipate in advance any unusual usage.

During my Scorland trip I experienced low temperatures but careful driving meant range did not appear to be impacted.

The problems you've experienced are to be executed after only 4 weeks of ownership but hang in there and you'll grow in confidence.

As I have discovered pre planning re potential charging is essential.


Welcome to the world of Leaf.
 
#59 ·
Keep faith. I would say 72 miles is achievable. It takes a while to get a feel for your car and work out exactly how she responds in certain conditions. I find pre heating/cooling makes a big difference to range especially first 20%. I drove from Great Bentley in Essex yesterday to Southend. Distance of 51 miles and arrived with 51% remaining. This included following a handy lorry on A12 which makes huge difference. I did not risk a return journey without charging and was able to use street charger in Southend.

I have also recently travelled from Essex to Glasgow in my Leaf which you can read about on forum. Only one sticky moment.

Once you accept that the worst that can happen is you run out and have to ring for help then nerves calm down and you can adopt a 'so what' attitude. Maybe a delay in arrival but you'll get there. I had the satisfaction of a road trip covering 1100 miles. Took me a bit longer than in my previous ICE but I actually arrived far more relaxed.

My daily commute is only a 20 mile round trip but I also travel to Chelmsford on a regular basis which is 64 miles return. Very rare I arrive back home with less than 30% and often nearer 40%.

Overtime you'll get the feel for these longer runs and can anticipate in advance any unusual usage.

During my Scorland trip I experienced low temperatures but careful driving meant range did not appear to be impacted.

The problems you've experienced are to be executed after only 4 weeks of ownership but hang in there and you'll grow in confidence.

As I have discovered pre planning re potential charging is essential.


Welcome to the world of Leaf.
Thanks Phil, and I agree with you. However my nerves on that journey came more from knowing that I would have possibly needed to walk a mile or two down a cold, wet and foggy lane to get any kind of mobile signal to call for the help I needed. Had I had a decent mobile signal it wouldn't have felt anywhere near so bad. Embarrassed perhaps but not terrified!

On a post script to the technical note about differing electrical supplies, surely if that were a risk something official would have been said about it? I can park on my parents' drive plugged into their supply via EVSE and be able to touch the car and a lamppost, and I'm thinking there's also a sign too but can't for the life of me think which one!
 
#56 ·
Yeah -- I've never seen worse than 75 miles of real range, but we collected our car in March. I'm not sure what a cold December and January would do.

Even 80 miles of real range is a bit scary if you have to do 75 miles. Getting awfully close to turtle. I don't plan a new route without a 15% to 20% reserve. Maybe I'm being too cautious. On the other hand Debbie would be more than a little annoyed if we had to call for recovery.
 
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#60 ·
How does it work for you Phil? I assume you have to be there to provide the key to potential users? That's my main concern, I'd love to be able to list my charger but we are so rarely in that it would be really hit and miss as to whether or not it would actually be of any use to anyone.
 
#66 ·
Much like Edd, I just leave mine available. Although I can monitor my electricity remotely. Things may change when the criminal fraternity cottons on, however, it's not like they can quickly steal a couple of jerry cans of electricity and leg it :)

I suspect that some of the dissonance may be the backgrounds of EV owners. Early adopters perhaps came from "hyper-miling" their previous cars and hence extracted maximum range with coasting/pulsing/whatever. Newer owners have come from a regular car driving history or in "Biker Chick's" case I suspect perhaps even what one might call "spirited" driving :) So range will be different with the different style, and if you burn it all up on the way out you can't get it back on the return leg.

I have a tendency to "make progress" where able. As the Audi S4 I followed found the other day. Yesterday my outward leg had unknown charging so I set off with 100% and arrived with 45 miles in the GOM (just over 50% used). Return leg, where I knew I had range + charging at destination, I set off with 96% and arrived home with just over 20% and probably teetering on "Low battery". Ahem.

It is a shame that new drivers are having unpleasant experiences like this - if Nissan could let the cars "share" charging locations with each other then things would be better. I don't have "range anxiety" - I know how far I can drive. I have "charge anxiety" - will I be able to charge at the listed station or will it be out of order/wrong card/blocked/not accessible.

Biker Chick may want to obtain an inductive coupler + aerial for her phone to boost the signal range. Just like the bad old days before our "modern" mobile phone network ...
 
#67 ·
Things may change when the criminal fraternity cottons on, however, it's not like they can quickly steal a couple of jerry cans of electricity and leg it
They would need an EV and J1772 connection to get anything out of it... so I am not at all worried!
 
#70 ·
I have mine unlocked as using key every time I wanted to charge was a nuisance. You'd have to be a EV geek to spot it and know what it was for so I am reasonably happy that anyone needing to use it would be in dire straights and would have the courtesy to give me a call. The nearest rapid or 32 amp charger is approx 10 miles so they would probably need about an hour of charge
 
#71 ·
Sorry it was so stressful. But you DID do the journey home. And with 5 miles in reserve.

And without using petrol! Saving yourself over a tenner :)

Depends on how you feel about risk. And accept there are different issues for a woman on her own. But I would see 100% charge as100% available to use. If you had the journey to do again you know you CAN do it. Even in the worst of conditions. Perhaps you would drive a little more slowly on the way out if conditions bad making the return less painful. Wonder also if the outward journey was more uphill. You used 43 % coming back to drive 37 + miles, though given you drove more slowly.


Your next EV will have greater range :) Meanwhile by buying a Leaf you have helped EV's continue to progress.
 
#72 ·
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#82 ·
I had a very similar experience on Boxing Day last year. The very first time I had a round trip of 70 miles.

I thought the car would do the entire trip without needing a charge, on the way home I have to turn off the heating wiping the windscreen and end up crawling home. It's a rite of passage we all have to go through.

Almost a year on and I'm much wiser about my driving and where I need to charge and how often.

Important thing is I still love my Leaf[emoji3]
 
#83 · (Edited)
OK... It seems I may have been too optimistic... After this week's storm, the temperature has dropped and it has been raining. That and the wind has taken it's toll on my range. Today and yesterday I found myself needing to get a quick charge where I had expected to make it without charging.

Still, the total range would still have been more than 70 miles. More like 85 miles instead of 95-100 miles when it was warm and relatively windless.

Edit:
So, today the wind has eased, no more rain, but still in the lower teens. Range is back up to 95-100 miles.
 
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