"Having had the opportunity to drive the Nissan LEAF in April around the roads of Milton Keynes, I know that the LEAF is an entirely sensible, perfectly drivable small family car – which is of course the biggest compliment you can lay at the feet of the clever people at Nissan. The first production 100% electric car which can easily accommodate four adults and still have room to breathe, there’s a lot resting on the LEAF, including the massive $4.5bn already invested by the Japanese carmaker in the cutting edge technology under the bonnet.However, being handed the keys to a shiny car and heading out for an hour to then hand the keys back is a world away from actually living with the car over an extended period of time. Therefore, we jumped at the chance to use a Nissan LEAF over a week – including the August Bank Holiday. Here’s how we found living with it.
Day 1 – Tuesday 23 August
The car arrives – on a trailer towed by a Nissan Navara pick-up! That is to be expected, as there’s precious few public charging points in the whole of the North West. How else was it going to arrive?
After a quick demonstration on how to use the supplied 6-metre long recharging cable we are left alone – the LEAF and I. It isn’t long until I’m joined by several colleagues curious to know about how it drives? What noise does it make? Will it get me to London? Strange isn’t it? How much does it cost? Is it REALLY just electric powered?
Having answered most questions thrown at me, it isn’t long until I’m making the first ‘official’ journey to the shops for lunch – from the future to humdrum in the blink of an eye.
The first major outing is a trip to Manchester Airport and back, a 20-mile round trip, taking in a couple of busy urban centres, a nice stretch of empty dual carriageway and finally the roundabout madness at the airport. Happily, the automatic ‘gearbox’ of the LEAF comes into its own when sitting in traffic, while it was also more than happy to whittle through the miles at 70mph on an empty stretch of dual carriageway.
Day 2 – Wednesday 24 August
Today the LEAF is being subjected to the life of a commute car, by a colleague. The travel into work on the quiet August roads is uneventful or so I’m told. There’s still plenty of battery power left according to the dashboard after the 20-mile round trip but I hook it up to the mains just in case. There’s an important journey required later – a trip to the maternity ward for a tour of the facilities. What this second day has confirmed is that the LEAF is a very competent C-segment car that just so happens not to run on petrol or diesel. Did I feel smug driving past petrol stations? Yes I did.
Day 3 – Thursday 25 August
There was more commuting in the LEAF today but with the added bonus of a chance to put my foot down as I headed out onto the motorway later on. The car does away with the need of conventional gears, instead you get a choice of reverse, park, and two forward options (Drive and Eco).
Put your foot down and the LEAF will enthusiastically accelerate and because there are no gears to cycle through there is no lag, just lots of lovely torque. Anyone familiar with a CVT automatic gearbox will be right at home. Any unflattering milk float comparisons can be killed off right now – the car can shift.
Day 4 – Friday 26 August
Much of the afternoon is spent driving around leafy Stockport locations taking a few amateur videos of the LEAF. If you’ve seen the LEAF up close you can’t help but notice those very distinctive headlights. There is a perfectly good reason for them too. Not just a designer’s creative flourish the headlamps help deflect air from hitting the wing mirrors. During early testing it was found that a lot of wind noise was being generated by the mirrors – these elaborate headlights were the clever solution. Nissan also had to source an alternative motor for the windscreen wipers as their normal one was just too noisy. It is only when there’s no engine noise that challenges like these present themselves. And it is the lack of noise which is one of the strangest sensations when behind the wheel the first time. At low speeds it is whisper quiet, only when building up speed do wind and road noise become noticeable.
Day 5 – Saturday 27 August
The LEAF spent the day helping us do the usual Saturday tasks of shopping and meeting up with friends. It also highlighted another area where the car excels – it is remarkably easy to manoeuvre, with a tight turning circle and light steering, which makes it easy to park up. There’s also plenty of room in the boot for shopping. The LEAF was designed from the wheels up as an electric car, so Nissan haven’t needed to store the car’s large batteries in the rear, instead they are hidden below the cabin. This all means that there’s 330 litres of volume to play around with. With no public charging points in the whole of Greater Manchester there is no opportunity to recharge the car as we shop away.
Day 6 – Sunday 28 August
With the range of the vehicle yet to be troubled, so called ‘range anxiety’ had yet to materialise, however that would change today. Having been unable to hook the car up to the mains overnight, thanks to ‘our’ parking spot having been taken by a neighbour the LEAF had a projected range of 68 miles. More than enough for a 42 mile journey – or so I thought. Not being in a rush, we set off at a leisurely pace, even more so as I was trying out the eco-mode, which really cuts back on the throttle unless you floor it but does give additional range. Halfway into our trip it suddenly dawned on me that I was showing signs of ‘range anxiety’, the projected range had dropped 20 miles yet I had driven barely ten. Slipping the car into cruise control to 65mph we continued, however the projected range continued to alarmingly fall quicker than the miles we were racking up. With a 7 month pregnant partner in the passenger seat and no fast charge station within 80 miles (according to the onboard information) we turned back without reaching our destination.
The return leg was spent trying not to go above 55mph on the motorway and hoping that the battery wouldn’t drop into the red zone. Thankfully neither happened and we made it back home with two bars and 15 miles of projected range remaining. Our faith in the LEAF had been shaken. There are a few issues about the journey however which help to explain the problems we faced. Firstly, we almost got to our destination and it is likely (in hindsight) that we would have made it there and back with the amount of charge we had left, we just suffered with anxiety and turned back – but it was a close call and something we felt we could not risk. Secondly, the car didn’t have a full charge when we set off, textbook error and one which almost proved costly. Thirdly, I believe living with a LEAF over a longer period would enable the driver to take the projected range display with a pinch of salt – better knowledge of the distances you can travel in it between top ups and judging the power bars would help in appeasing anxiety. And fourthly, recharging infrastructure is desperately needed to allow electric-power to blossom in Greater Manchester. Our week with the LEAF felt like we were effectively driving with a bungee cord tied to the non-existent tailpipe as other than home and work there was nowhere we could be sure of topping up.
Day 7 – Monday 29 August
Being a UK bank holiday, the seaside was calling. So we ended up ditching the LEAF in favour of a conventional powered car. And this serves to highlight that for most people there will be a requirement to have an alternative means to travel longer distances – whether this is through owning more than one car or perhaps a flexible car share arrangement does not really matter. What did matter was that this wasn’t a journey suitable for the electric car.
Conclusion
The first time I drove the LEAF was back in April and came away hugely enthusiastic about the car. Now after spending a week in its company (and with one potentially sticky moment) there is still much to admire about this electric car. What Nissan has achieved is creating a technologically advanced car which behaves like a conventional automatic car. Ignoring the obvious pricing issue – it is very expensive in comparison to other small family cars – the LEAF is great for the urban commute. A breeze to drive, highly manoeuvrable, and quick off the mark I can’t think of a better car to shuttle you 20 miles a day to get to work and back. As an alternative to a one-car family’s current car however the LEAF does fall short. Our attempt at a 42 mile roundtrip highlighted issues with the projected range display, watching it quickly tick down on a motorway isn’t very reassuring.
A further challenge facing the whole industry is accurate and reliable information. Having lived with the LEAF for a week I believe there is a requirement for a central organisation to be held responsible for documenting and making public all freely-available charging points in the country – and keeping it up-to-date. The technology is there but it needs to be managed and lead by the Government, otherwise the significant investment by carmakers and charging point installers will be hamstrung from the start.
The ultimate question I had at the start of the week was: Would I buy a Nissan LEAF? My answer at the end of the week was a caveat-laden yes. If price was not an important consideration in choosing a car, then the LEAF is the perfect commuting/short distance car, making it a fantastic addition to a two car family."
Em: http://www.thegreencarwebsite.co.uk/blo ... ssan-leaf/