classic33
Leg End Member
There speaks the boy racer.This is true, but it how it gets to 70 is the fun bit
EV Owners Thread
- Thread starter icowden
- Start date
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I'm having an interesting time with my hire car whilst my ID4 is being fixed (allegedly - it's taken them 2 months of messing about so far).
The hire car is a Nissan Leaf.
What's notable is that for a car that is around £15 to £20k cheaper than an ID4, the tech is in many ways *better*. For example the adaptive cruise control actively steers the car when it can read the road markings rather than the ID4s ping pong style of guidance. I also like the front and back parking cameras and the combined overhead camera view, the ID4 is limited to a rear camera. The leaf has seat heating in the rea and my passengers say it is comfier although it often seems to get too warm despite the aircon settings. It also has a funky self dimming rear view mirror.
The main let-down is the battery. The leaf only has a range of 150 miles and that is VERY variable. As a case in point my wife paid for the family to go on a narrow boating holiday in Chirk / Llangollen. Total distance 180 miles. We had therefore to plan a stop - no problem, the BP Pulse Gigahub at the NEC is (I thought) well placed at 113 miles from home and then 82 miles from there to our Premier Inn (we were driving up the day before the hire) which had a destination charger (a good one too).
All went well, until I noticed that the range was dramatically shrinking and by the time we had 30 miles to go the margin between predicted range and distance was down to about 7 miles. Sweating slightly I moved to the left hand lane and stuck to 60mph which helped quite a lot. We decided to stop early at a motorway service station - big mistake. There was a space, but the charger where the space was was CCS only - the leaf I discovered needed a CHAdeMO connector. There was only one machine with a CHAdeMO which had a hybrid Mercedes plugged into it so the lazy git could park nearer the door.
We decided to keep going - we did make it to the NEC but with about 4% left in the battery. The roadworks around Birmingham helped.
Second leg was easy with the car delivering the predicted 150 mile range due to the roadworks and much slower A roads.
My second shocker was a few days ago when I hadn't been bothered to charge. The car had about 60 miles left of range. I knew I had to go to Virginia water (11 miles) then to claygate (12 miles) then dashwood close (8 miles) then home (7 miles) - so a total of 38 miles. Of course, I made a mistake coming back from claygate and ended up using the motorway which really didn't help - adding 6 miles on. But by the time I was 2 miles from home the car had clicked onto 1%. Could I do 2 miles at 20mph with 1% battery - that was the question. In the end, I opted to do one mile to the Travelodge and stretch a charging cable over the Merc parked in the EV bay and charge for 5 minutes on a really crap charger. That boosted me to 3% for the final mile.
Lesson learned is that the Leaf does NOT LIKE MOTORWAYS.
The hire car is a Nissan Leaf.
What's notable is that for a car that is around £15 to £20k cheaper than an ID4, the tech is in many ways *better*. For example the adaptive cruise control actively steers the car when it can read the road markings rather than the ID4s ping pong style of guidance. I also like the front and back parking cameras and the combined overhead camera view, the ID4 is limited to a rear camera. The leaf has seat heating in the rea and my passengers say it is comfier although it often seems to get too warm despite the aircon settings. It also has a funky self dimming rear view mirror.
The main let-down is the battery. The leaf only has a range of 150 miles and that is VERY variable. As a case in point my wife paid for the family to go on a narrow boating holiday in Chirk / Llangollen. Total distance 180 miles. We had therefore to plan a stop - no problem, the BP Pulse Gigahub at the NEC is (I thought) well placed at 113 miles from home and then 82 miles from there to our Premier Inn (we were driving up the day before the hire) which had a destination charger (a good one too).
All went well, until I noticed that the range was dramatically shrinking and by the time we had 30 miles to go the margin between predicted range and distance was down to about 7 miles. Sweating slightly I moved to the left hand lane and stuck to 60mph which helped quite a lot. We decided to stop early at a motorway service station - big mistake. There was a space, but the charger where the space was was CCS only - the leaf I discovered needed a CHAdeMO connector. There was only one machine with a CHAdeMO which had a hybrid Mercedes plugged into it so the lazy git could park nearer the door.
We decided to keep going - we did make it to the NEC but with about 4% left in the battery. The roadworks around Birmingham helped.
Second leg was easy with the car delivering the predicted 150 mile range due to the roadworks and much slower A roads.
My second shocker was a few days ago when I hadn't been bothered to charge. The car had about 60 miles left of range. I knew I had to go to Virginia water (11 miles) then to claygate (12 miles) then dashwood close (8 miles) then home (7 miles) - so a total of 38 miles. Of course, I made a mistake coming back from claygate and ended up using the motorway which really didn't help - adding 6 miles on. But by the time I was 2 miles from home the car had clicked onto 1%. Could I do 2 miles at 20mph with 1% battery - that was the question. In the end, I opted to do one mile to the Travelodge and stretch a charging cable over the Merc parked in the EV bay and charge for 5 minutes on a really crap charger. That boosted me to 3% for the final mile.
Lesson learned is that the Leaf does NOT LIKE MOTORWAYS.
dicko
Guru
- Location
- Derbyshire
That’s a very interesting tale. Years ago when I was thinking EV it was a toss up between a Leaf or a Clio, the Leaf was always my favourite choice as range doesn’t matter to us as the longest trip would be to see Mrs relatives about 70 miles away where two chargers are situated 100 meters from our destination.
Our first Leaf was the 40kW version.
I concur the features are very good for a 'lower priced' EV. The lane keeping autosteer I would say, as good as Tesla.
The range aspect again, it's horses for courses, great commuter car upto 100 miles (40kW) I upgraded our Leaf to the 62kW version easily 200mile range car, even in winter.
The battery management is it's Achilles heel with no active heat to get those advertised range numbers Nissan proclaim.
We've pretty much given our Leaf to our daughter whose fiance uses it to commute with upto 200 miles 3 days a week.
Yes, correct holding 60-65mph gives you correct predicted range.
I recommended user to use Ionity/Instavolt network, which has been faultless for him on business trips.
Chademo is restricted in availablity compared to CCS. There is an adapter from a Chinese firm (pricey £1200) to get CCS access.
We have driven our Leaf with zero range for more than 10 miles, so there is a bit left(like fuel tanks saying empty)
I might keep an eye out for a late model 62kW Leaf because they are excellent workhorses, roomy hatchback
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Imagine going from Leicester to Cardiff in the original 24kWh version (60 miles or so max range on the M-ways), back in 2015 when the only EV chargers around were Ecotricity ones, which had a reliability of around 50%.
When people worry about ‘range anxiety’ in 2024 for a brand new EV…….oh how I chuckle to my self
Absolutely, and it's perfect for that sort of driving. But 115 miles was pushing it!
I should have also added that on the leg from home to Birmingham it was absolutely caning it down with rain. I think this was part of the reason why the range suffered so much. On the return journey we didn't have an issue.
Beebo
Firm and Fruity
- Location
- Hexleybeef
My car is being delivered 2 months early!
But I haven’t got the home charger sorted yet. How feasible is it to use a domestic supply for a few weeks if i’m only averaging 50-80 miles a day?
But I haven’t got the home charger sorted yet. How feasible is it to use a domestic supply for a few weeks if i’m only averaging 50-80 miles a day?
Which car?
You should get 3-4miles per kWh for most EVs, I would guess. We get about 4 with our Kona.
I think you will be fine 👍
Some ball-park numbers on why:
A 3-pin plug (aka ‘Granny Charging’) should give you around 2.3-2.5kW every hour, so if you are plugged in for a minimum of 8 hours, you should get around 20kWh into your battery….giving you 60-80 miles 🤷♂️
I imagine many nights you might get 10+hours plugged in, & get more miles than you need.
If you have to use an extension cable, use a good quality one fully unwound for fire safety 😉
Jameshow
Veteran
Only 50-80 miles a day that is alot of miles??
I'd say pretty feasible. As mike said - most of the time you'll be able to granny charge enough to replace most of what was lost. Have a look around your usual destinations and you'll probably find a 22kwh or 50kwh+ charger you can use if you are running low. Tesco is often a good place.
My neighbour has bought himself a Tesla 3 Performance and discovered that his terraced house has a tied electricity supply. He has been happily charging from a mains extension lead for about 8 weeks now.
dicko
Guru
- Location
- Derbyshire
Here in Derby, behind the ‘Wendy’s’ burger bar on the Normanton Rd (just off inner ring road) there is a whole load of InstaVolt chargers standing ready and nobody seems to use them. Just so you EV boys know.
Time Waster
Veteran
I recently bit watched an ev conversion car show on TV. It made me wonder how feasible it is to increase range on EVs? ICEs traditionally got molded by those into that sort of thing. People converting vans to campers often chipped their vans from 115 or 125bhp up to 140 to 160bhp depending on make and model. Can you do something for EVs?
