I vowed to update the experience of owning and driving my Leaf in a post shortly after I bought it. So here goes:
It has been a joy!
Daily Experience
I plug it to an existing wall outlet in my garage in when I get home every evening with its included 120 volt charging cord and it’s fully charged in the morning. Having forgotten to plug it in 4 times since I’ve had it, I’ve taken the charging cord to work and charged it there. I wake up in the morning to a fully charged battery. The heater or air conditioner has been on for 10 minutes, so the interior is cooled or heated to whatever temperature at which I have it set. There’s a programmable timer to allow the heating/cooling to come on for ten minutes before I get in. Being programmable by the day, I can set it to come on weekdays and not on weekends. And, it only comes on when the Leaf is plugged in, so it doesn’t drain the battery. This is standard on all of the trim packages.
My drive is quiet (except the music from my thumb drive that plays through car’s stereo via the USB port). The Leaf’s acceleration off the line is staggering to me (0-60 in ~7.7 seconds, I think). I’ve always driven 4 cylinder cars and trucks or work vans, so that’s like a rocket to me. The steering is also like no other vehicle that I’ve driven. It’s called speed adaptive steering, I think. The great steering, couple with the low center of gravity, since the batteries are below the floorboard, make for a wonderful handling experience.
Battery Life
My battery has proven to be long-lived. I have 40,000+ miles on a 7 year old car (remember it is a 2015 that I bought in 2017), and I have lost one bar on the battery meter. It comes down to a loss of about 6 miles per charge. When I first got it, the guess-o-meter estimated between 93-95 miles on a full charge. It’s now showing between 87 and 89 miles every morning. I’ll take that. To its credit, the guess-o-meter has erred on the side of caution. On one occasion, I drove for 10 miles with it showing 0 miles left. That’s bad for the battery, but it beat being stranded.
The “Bad” Part
Now for the bad part of owning and driving the Leaf. When I bought it, I was told that it had a heat pump heater, which uses less power. That proved not to be true. Using the air conditioner lowers the range somewhat, but using the heat lowers it substantially more. I would guess 7-10%. I’m not sure because I rarely use the heater. The Leaf has heated seats and a heated steering wheel. That, combined with the preheated car, make for a comfortable ride without the heat on 95% of mornings. I am more likely to use the heat on the way home for some reason. I do use the air on the way home in the summer, but still have a full charge from the 120 volt charger in the morning. When I visit my mom after work, I have to stop by the Nissan dealer halfway there to use their quick charger for 10-15 minutes. She lives 40 miles from work and 40 miles from my house, so with the total trip from home to work to her house back home, it’s just out of the range of one charge on my battery. And getting home at 9:30 or 10:00 PM with a fully depleted battery would not allow the 120 volt charger to fully charge the Leaf overnight. Okay, that’s all the bad!
Summary
All in all, I LOVE THE LEAF! – my wife says to an unhealthy extent. She loves it too, just not the level that I do. With a MPGE (miles per gallon equivalent) of 107, I fell good about driving it, regardless of the above-mentioned great deal that it was. I’ve reserved an electric Ford Lightning, but it was reservation number 120,000, so it doesn’t look like I’ll get one this year. So, I’ll keep my 2006 Chevy Colorado for hauling lumber and towing our sailboat. I’m hoping for better luck next year on the Lightning.