"After spending a few days with the Nissan Leaf and using it for all of our family errands I can easily imagine driving an electric car every day. Indeed, I’m almost certain my next car will run on batteries instead of gasoline — as long as I can choose something other than a Leaf.
It isn’t that the Leaf isn’t a nice piece of work. It is. It runs and rides smoothly and is fun to drive. But I want a good-looking car, and I think Nissan could have made the Leaf sexier instead of trying to out-weird the Toyota Prius hybrid’s styling. Chevrolet did a much better job with its attractive Volt, but that car is more of a plug-in hybrid than an electric car. If I go electric, I sure don’t want to haul around a gas engine to extend my range.
Speaking of range, the gauge in out Leaf test car that told us roughly how far the car could go went as high as 120 miles after a fresh recharge, which was better than expected. The number was based on our driving style on previous trips.
One thing electric cars teach many drivers is how to drive more efficiently. You learn that coasting down hills, working the throttle as smoothly as possible and generally slowing down pay off. With practice you can quickly forget about the 80- to 100-mile range estimates that Nissan and other car makers quote for the Leaf and other current electric models.
Yes, the same techniques will significantly boost the fuel economy of your conventional gas car as well. But the sense of urgency is more intense when conserving power could be the difference between reaching your destination or being stranded. Some call it range anxiety, but for other s it is a challenge that makes driving more exciting and engaging than it has been since the early days of the horseless carriage.
Electric cars are in the early days of their latest incarnation, and they have their best shot yet at mass-market appeal. Increasing their range to, say, 200 to 250 per charge would do the trick for many consumers who have longer commutes or want a bigger margin of safety in winter driving, when extreme cold can roughly half the batteries’ range.
Cutting charging time would be an absolute necessity for long-distance road trips. Family getaways from New Jersey to the Berkshires, Cape Cod or Bar Harbor, Maine would be easy if high-voltage fast-charging stations were available along the way.
But for our typical day of commuting of around-town driving, just plugging the Leaf into that 120-volt outlet in the garage was fine. Plug it in after work and it is fully charged by morning. For many potential converts to electric cars, this could be the strongest selling point. When it comes to driving, many people don’t want any new hassles, like having to sign up online or join a social network to order a vehicle. They want to go to the dealer, buy the car off the lot and plug it into the wall.
Besides, I think people worry too much about range anxiety and the need to drive great distances. A friend recently said he couldn’t possibly buy and electric car.
“How would I get to my country house,” he asked, referring to an upstate New York place about 150 miles away.
“You’d take your other car,” I said. After all, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, nearly every household has at least two."
Em: http://blogs.wsj.com/drivers-seat/2011/ ... slideshow/