There have been a few threads about electric vehicles recently and it is a technology I have been following. My oresent car is a 3 litre BMW diesel with a manual gearbox and as an inline 6 cylinder it just purrs along effortlessly, giving about 38 to 40 mpg on a long run (dropping to about 32 round town)
So with Nissan offering a 4 day extended test drive on the Leaf....
I picked it up last Tuesday, 30Kwh battery top of the range (Tekna). Interior pleasant enough - instruments a bit fussy, but that's not really important. If I was buying, Id probably go for the Acenta 30Kwh - losing leather heated seats and steering wheel - which I don't particularly need- but keeping the enhanced regenerative breaking, reversing camera and the EV telematics system, which gives advanced control over charging etc. (but then it is 'only' £400 more )
First impressions were how unremarkable it felt. Im not sure what I expected, but apart from the lack of engine noise I wouldnt have been obvious that this wasn't an IC powered car. I initially drove it in Eco mode which limits the torque to the motor, but gives very acceptable acceleration, the eco switch is on the sterring whel - pressing that and the acceleration is quite impressive. It was very easy to exceed standard speed limits as the audible cues from the engine noise are missing, but that just takes a bit of getting used to.
In practise most of my driving has been in eco mode, just switching back to normal at junctions when I need to pull away in a hurry.
Most of my trips have been local, and I haven't needed to fast charge it. I have had it on charge during the day to benefit from the solar cells on the roof of my house.
Range does take a mindset adjustment - in my own car I start thinking about refuelling if I have less than 80 miles range showing. With the Leaf, I was doing journeys with 40 or 50 miles range showing on the charge state.
I hace been quite impressed with it and I shall be sorry to see it go, but I don't think Ill be buying one just yet, for the following reasons:
Cost - still expensive to buy, and there is the question of battery life and the replacement cost. Personal lease plansare all very well, but you either have to find a lump sum at the end or hand the car back and then find the deposit for another, which tends to hide to true cost.
Range - this has been less of a problem than I thought, for local journeys, but it does limit spontaneous travel. Any journey of up 100 miles round trip really needs a full charge at the start, and then a charge period at the end, any trip over that requires a charging stop and adding 45 minutes to the journey time.
Charging infrastructure - not sufficiently developed yet - my nearest fast charge point is about 6 miles away - 12 mile round trip which is 10% of the range. Charge points I do on regular long trips are few and far between and would need careful planning.
Next generation - the Leaf 32 is expected soon with an expected doubling of the battery capacity to 60Kwh, giving a range of about 200 miles- which is somewhat more realistic. The crunch will be the cost.
It would make a great second car for local journeys, or for commuting to and from a fixed place of work (especially if that workplace provided charging points) but for me, I would need to have a re-think in travel, either making more use of public transport or hiring an IC car for long trips - neither of which solve the spontaneous travel issue.
But overall I was very impressed with it and I certainly haven't ruled out purchasing in the future, but for me, the technology isn't quite there yet.
I shall be sorry to see it go.