I discovered that even three-and-a-half hours of charging at a public charging station — I found a grand total of one charging station in all of South Metro Denver, at the new Element eco-hotel in Lone Tree, near Park Meadows Mall — only got me an extra 21 miles of range.
This came after using the LEAF for a few days and learning that, while Nissan claims the automobile will go up to 138 miles on a charge, in real-world, non-winter, non-pass-crossing conditions, that number is somewhere closer to 75. An all-new EPA window sticker says it gets the equivalent of 99 mpg and can go about 73 miles per charge.
And thinking about it, 70-something miles of range is the point on most cars where the “low fuel” light comes on and you anxiously begin to wonder if you’ll be able to make it to Fairplay or Craig to fuel up.
That anxiety, a whole new technology-induced issue called “range anxiety,” is the major issue with an all-electric vehicle, and LEAF, as wonderful and almost completely normal a car it is in all other aspects, suffers dearly.
…But (and yes, there are a lot of buts with the LEAF), while the 75 mile range I had when I first received the full-charged car slowly disappeared during urban, low-speed driving, it drastically evaporated when I ran the car at 75 mpg down to Castle Rock.
…Alternately, you can use the supplied power cord to simply plug the LEAF into a household 110-volt outlet, but it takes 21 hours to fully charge. LEAF owners will have their garages wired for the same 240-volt charger I found at the hotel, and this will recharge the car in about seven hours. As mentioned, even three-plus hours on one of these chargers only got me about a quarter of a virtual tank extra.
A high-volt, industrial quick-charging port is also available (you flip open a flap on the car’s nose to find these various ports) and suggests the entire car can be recharged in just 30 minutes, but I don’t know if these chargers exist anywhere in Colorado.
What you’re left with is a wonderful vehicle that’s the absolute cutting edge of technology but suffers from some issues of practicality, especially if you live in Summit County. You cannot drive the car to Grand Junction, ever; if you drive it to the Front Range, you’ll need to charge it at friend’s house (or search down those still-elusive charging stations, including a few in Boulder or one at the Hyatt Regency). Cold weather also reduces the total range to about 65 miles; it’s front-wheel drive so it would probably be OK in the snow.
Maybe Ed Begley will give them a ride home at 2am lol
http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com/2011/10/real-stars-and-their-cars.html
A few years ago, there was a company in CA (where else?) that was showing a prototype of a two seat electric car. This was long before Tesla Motors… AC Propulsion I think it was… Anyway, they has this trailer with a gas driven generator on board for extending the range. Some sort of special hitch made it much easier to drive than a regular trailer. Leave it a home for local stuff, hook up the trailer for range…. I haven’t heard anything about these folk recently, but then again I haven’t looked. 😉
It’s like going back in time …
For example, a trip from Colorado Springs to Denver would be a multi-day affair: at least two days from your garage to your destination in the Denver Metro area. Another day or two, if you conduct business or go shopping. Then, another two days to get back home.
This is
Sorry, the unfinished thought should read:
This is worse than nuts, worse than impractical, worse than ill-considered. It’s “trash-heap ready.”
I wonder if this guy’s Leaf included the ”battery warmer.”
If the battery warmer is included AND it only gets ~ 65 miles range with one YIKES!
That’s bad!
I can go 65 miles on just a day of errands!
Remember last January when DC was snowed in?
Thousands of drivers sat in traffic in their cars for 6 hours!
Think if they had a substantial portion of them in electric cars like the Leaf!
I think the Leaf is one car company’s way of pulling a Solyndra: getting Obama Money for a useless product no one will really want.
Wall St. Jurnal. Reporting on a meeting with a top oil exec. When it was Mr. Hamm’s turn to talk briefly with President Obama, “I told him of the revolution in the oil and gas industry and how we have the capacity to produce enough oil to enable America to replace OPEC. I wanted to make sure he knew about this.” The president’s reaction? “He turned to me and said, ‘Oil and gas will be important for the next few years. But we need to go on to green and alternative energy. [Energy] Secretary [Steven] Chu has assured me that within five years, we can have a battery developed that will make a car with the equivalent of 130 miles per gallon.’” My comment. There is no fixing for stupid, progs, with environmental worshiping advisers. Or maybe it is just friends that want to make a ton of money on the green movement. Does this community organizer have a clue that petroleum is used to make a large portion of the products world wide? Products that support the health an welfare of all people, including the third world.