23rd
#ElectricCar — Nissan Leaf Test Drive
Driving the Nissan Leaf is a little like the world of 2015 dropping by for a spot of tea: a lot like 2011 but with a few pleasant improvements.
These are the comments I wrote last March when I took part in Nissan’s “Drive Electric” event in Washington, DC. Nissan sets up a mobile version of a test center and showroom all wrapped up into a smallish suburban parking lot. Taking a tour of the Nissan marketing machine one learns about the Leaf’s range (about 100 miles), the charging options (three of them), and the relative cost of ownership.
The few dozen Leafs (Leaves?) were all charged up and ready to go. Sign the insurance form and here we go!
The most unexpected attribute of the Leaf is its complete silence. Without engine noise and with the air conditioning off, the car makes no discernible noise. The cabin is super quiet. Who needs a big honkin’ stereo amp if there’s no engine noise to overcome? That faint rolling sound in the background? That’s the sound of tires hitting pavement—outside—from other cars.
Push the accelerator (calling it the gas seems so 20th Century), and the speed climbs smoothly, very aggressively.
That’s what 100 percent torque off the line will get you: really spritely acceleration.
The brakes felt to me, a little spongy somehow. The regenerative braking had two distinct brake feels in the pedal. There’s the usual power braking feel, which was very responsive, but also another sense of resistance. Not bad, but certainly different than most cars I’ve driven lately. (Ed.—My own Nissan Leaf doesn’t suffer from this issue. I guess the individual car I test drove had this problem. My own car’s brakes feel just like regular brakes).
Once you get past the electronic distractions, the driving experience of the Leaf is unremarkable. Which is to say that Nissan hit its mark in crafting a refreshingly familiar look and feel to some very foreign drive train technology. Of course, some of the conventions of 100-plus years of internal combustion engines fall by the wayside.
The Leaf’s handling seems exactly what you would expect it to be—a high-minded compact-to-midsize car. Fit and finish is on par with other high-end Nissan models with all the options maxed out. My neighbor has a newish Murano, the styling and features in the Leaf are clearly from the same engineers.
This car isn’t for everyone. There is no public infrastructure readily available to charge this thing for long trips on the East Coast, and just a glimmer of hope in California. The 480-volt DC “Level 3” charging system purports to bring the Leaf to 80 percent capacity in about 30 minutes. For the time being, Nissan discourages using the Level 3 charge more than once a day.
So realistically, a long range trip isn’t in the cards, even if you carefully constructed a trip to take advantage of every conceivable Level 3 charging station. Even if they conveniently existed every 100 miles on interstate highways. Which they don’t. Yet.
For the vast majority of your in-town and commuting chores, 100 miles, I’ve found is more than adequate.
The Leaf is a great commuting car. An around town car. My commute, at about 70 miles roundtrip, is right in the Leaf’s sweet spot of cost savings against my former, 23 miles-per-gallon internal combustion vehicle.
All of this makes you step away from the experience asking yourself some fundamental questions about driving.There’s no gas station trips, but there is the diligence necessary to always always always plug the car in at night. Thankfully, the Leaf will send me an email if I’m parked at home and it’s not plugged in. It’s kinda smart that way.
For more than a century, owning a car meant that you could (not that you would, but could if you really had the whim) decide at a moment’s notice to up and drive across the country. But you never have, probably.
The value proposition of the Leaf asks that question more squarely—if you don’t need the ‘feature’ of driving cross country maybe it makes sense not to buy that feature if you have the choice.
You might save some money and gain some other benefits in the process.
I’ve been told that I am, probably, approximately the third person in Maryland who owns a Leaf. I haven’t seen another on the roads. And, selfishly, I enjoy a certain amount of smug satisfaction that I am polluting less than every other driver I encounter on the way to and from work each day.
And that’s worth something, too.
Sugar in your tea?
This is the third in a series on the state of electric vehicles in 2011.
« Part 1 of the Electric Car Series: “On the Bleeding Edge”
« Part 2 of the Electric Car Series: “A Recent History”
Part 4 of the Electric Car Series: “Charged Up” »
Part 5 of the Electric Car Series: “Mindfulness” »
Part 6 of the Electric Car Series: “Difficult Conversations” »
Part 7 of the Electric Car Series: “Secret Message: Like Really Cheap Gas” »
Part 8 of the Electric Car Series: “Getting Legislative” »
