30 kW Nissan Leaf

NigeWick
NigeWick Posts: 2,714 Forumite
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I'm thinking of buying a 30kW Nissan Leaf in my efforts to be a bit more green and save on road tax and fuel costs. I do however have a bit of "range anxiety." I know the official figure is 155 miles but I am sure that's total twaddle.

I occasionally drive 120 miles to visit our daughter and I was wondering if any members here can give me a realistic everyday range, especially for motorway driving at 70mph.
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Comments

  • agrinnall
    agrinnall Posts: 23,344 Forumite
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    This review suggested around 90 miles was realistic, but that was commuting in traffic over 4 days, so you would hope that a single motorway trip would get you further.

    http://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/nissan/leaf/tekna-5dr-auto/first-drive-0

    Maybe have a look at the posts on here too.

    https://speakev.com/threads/real-world-30-kwh-leaf-range-statistics.14901/
  • Nasqueron
    Nasqueron Posts: 8,780 Forumite
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    Go on youtube for "electric leaf man", he's got a lot of stuff about it

    VED bands will change soon anyway so if you did consider a newer one, do it sooner rather than later
  • agrinnall
    agrinnall Posts: 23,344 Forumite
    First Post Combo Breaker
    Nasqueron wrote: »

    VED bands will change soon anyway so if you did consider a newer one, do it sooner rather than later

    Alternatively, wait until 2018 when the 60kW Leaf will be here with a significantly bigger range, and it will be £0 VED still.
  • ElefantEd
    ElefantEd Posts: 1,189 Forumite
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    We've got a 20kW Leaf. Reliable range for normal driving (ie 70mph dual carriageways, 60mph other national speed limit roads) is 85 miles. So you should be getting 120 or so, realistically, for a 30kw Leaf. Note that driving at 70 does use up a lot more juice than driving at 60. If there's a charging point half way (as there are at most motorway service stations) then you could always stop for a coffee and get a boost to avoid anxiety!
  • DoaM
    DoaM Posts: 11,863 Forumite
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    Why would a 30kW model give more range than a 20kW model? Does the higher power model come with a larger (capacity) battery? If it comes with the same battery then arguably the range could be less. :)
  • BeenThroughItAll
    BeenThroughItAll Posts: 5,018 Forumite
    DoaM wrote: »
    Why would a 30kW model give more range than a 20kW model? Does the higher power model come with a larger (capacity) battery? If it comes with the same battery then arguably the range could be less. :)

    This is the result of confusion between kW and kWH. The OP (as I suspect you already know) is actually referring to a Leaf with a 30kWH battery pack.


    The Leaf's motor is actually an 80kW unit.
  • onomatopoeia99
    onomatopoeia99 Posts: 6,957 Forumite
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    BeenThroughItAll wrote: »
    This is the result of confusion between kW and kWH. The OP (as I suspect you already know) is actually referring to a Leaf with a 30kWH battery pack.


    The Leaf's motor is actually an 80kW unit.

    I was reading this topic and knowing no more about the Leaf than it's electric was wondering the same thing - engine power tends to get quoted in kW quite a bit these days rather than bhp, so it's not an unreasonable question.

    I guessed it was kW hours, which makes much more sense. To be honest, I'd just buy a small petrol engined car in the useage scenario outlined. I could get comfortably over 50mpg on the motorway from my old 1960s technology Imp with the Solex lawnmower carburettor they left the factory with, had I retrofitted something better (an SU) 60mpg would have been possible. Modern cars must be able to do considerably better than that, given there's been 50 years of progress in the meantime.
    Proud member of the wokerati, though I don't eat tofu.Home is where my books are.Solar PV 5.2kWp system, SE facing, >1% shading, installed March 2019.Mortgage free July 2023
  • facade
    facade Posts: 7,016 Forumite
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    onomatopoeia99 wrote: »
    Modern cars must be able to do considerably better than that, given there's been 50 years of progress in the meantime.

    "Modern" cars are 50% bigger, twice the weight, and have engines strangled by "emission controls", so they don't. :o

    I never got less than 40mpg out of my Olden Days Mini, and my Fiat Uno did around 46. When I replaced it with a "modern" Corsa, I was lucky if I could get 42 over the same journey.
    I want to go back to The Olden Days, when every single thing that I can think of was better.....

    (except air quality and Medical Science ;))
  • Stageshoot
    Stageshoot Posts: 592 Forumite
    edited 13 October 2016 at 5:43PM
    We have been looking at the Leaf and had the 30kw on extended test drive for a week

    Our main working days are 80-90 mile drives, even with the bigger battery we got very very close to empty, and that is before the weather really gets cold.

    It was very stressful, and in the end we made a compromise and bought the BMW i3 with Rex, It is the smaller 22kw battery version but still gets us 80miles easily on battery but has the 2 Gallon fuel tank and onboard 670cc generator to add an extra 100miles (More if you are prepared to stop and fill up every 100 miles)

    Have hardly used the petrol, but the stress relief by having it there as a backup is immense.

    If you are going to be driving on the limits of range I would suggest you try the i3 befor commiting to a leaf

    And personally I think its a better built car.

    IMG_1256.JPG

    Also I found the Leaf tended to over estimate its range a bit with the last 20 or so miles being chopped off quicker as it compensated.

    Whereas the i3 always seem to underestimate. For example as its sitting my my drive now fully charge near Mansfield the portal says it will run out of charge at Milton Keynes, whereas I know from regular journeys it will not be out of Battery till just outside Luton.

    range.jpg
    Over 100k miles of Electric Motoring and rising,
  • ElefantEd
    ElefantEd Posts: 1,189 Forumite
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    We've always found our Leaf to be reasonably good at estimating the range left, but it's only a guide, and is based on how you've driven for the last 15 miles (I think - something like that anyway). Range depends very heavily on driving style, if you anticipate well, use the regen breaking then you'll do better. Rain and cold weather does reduce range, buy about 5%. We've had ours for 2 years, done over 50k miles in it and are very impressed. It seems well engineered and nice to drive. But it wouldn't be for everyone, or for all circumstances. However, with a 30kwh battery you'd only need to recharge once en-route to do 120 miles, at worst (assuming you can charge at both ends).

    Personally I am very much looking forward to the 200 mile range version, which would be awesome!
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