30 kW Nissan Leaf

Strider590 · 13 October 2016 at 11:37PM

Or you could just be green by not buying a new car, given that in order to build said car, it's carbon footprint is greater than your current car since it was new. For example transporting the lithium for the battery, from China on giant cargo ships that do 5 miles to a gallon of crude oil.

If you want to be green, stop raping the planets resources to build yet more junk. Buying stuff you don't need, with money you don't have, to impress people you don't know, consumerism is the greatest threat to the planet and using the environment as an excuse for it? just ridiculous.

Gloomendoom · 13 October 2016 at 11:53PM

Strider590 wrote: »

Or you could just be green by not buying a new car, given that in order to build said car, it's carbon footprint is greater than your current car since it was new. For example transporting the lithium for the battery, from China on giant cargo ships that do 5 miles to a gallon of crude oil.

I use a similar argument when people question the green credentials of my 60 year old car.

Strider590 · 14 October 2016 at 12:21AM

Gloomendoom wrote: »

I use a similar argument when people question the green credentials of my 60 year old car.

Well, yes exactly.

It riles me up when people bang on about the environment like this, they're basically making socially acceptable excuses for their 1st world extravagant spending.
They probably also do things like jumping out of planes for social media attention charity.

By all means, if you want a car, just go out and buy one, don't make excuses, if you earned the money, that's yours to spend as you please, regardless of what anyone else might think of you..... But then if you break free from that, from the whole concept of doing stuff to impress everyone else, then you probably won't want a new car anyway.

gzoom · 14 October 2016 at 6:37AM

NigeWick wrote: »

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.

We have had our 24kWh Leaf now for 18 months, we love it, but even a 30kWh Leaf might struggle b to cover 120miles at 70mph in winter+rain, 100 maybe.

The Leaf was/is designed to be a city car, at M-way speeds of 70mph its not very efficient. A Tesla Model S desipte been much heavier than a Leaf and alot quicker actually uses less energy to travel at 70mph due to been more aerodynamic.

Nissan is due to announce the next generation Leaf at the Consumer Electronics Show in Jan 2017, the next Leaf should be able to manage over 150 miles at 70mph.

http://insideevs.com/nissan-ceo-carlos-ghosn-something-share-will-open-ces-january/

The range of any EV is decided by efficiency which is measured in miles covered per kWh, and number of kWh the battery can store. My Leaf will do 3.5 miles per kWh in winter. Though it has a 24kWh battery only 20kWh is usable due to inherent safety buffers built into the battery. So in winter it has a max range of 70 miles, but you really don't want to run it to 0%, so realistically I rarely so any trips longer than 60-65 miles in winter.

In summer your get 10-15% better range but unless you plan on never using the car in winter its always best to work on if an EV will fit with you travel needs in worsr case situations.

The next gen Leaf is rumoures to have a 60kWh battery, so you can see just how much extra range is coming very soon. Over in the US you can already buy a Leaf sized EV with a 60kWh battery that has a real life range of over 200 miles in ideal conditions, but sadly the car is not available in RHD markets.

If you don't want to wait, Tesla already sell EVs with a 60kWh battery, but the starting price is now £55k, and that doesn't include leather seats which is a £2.5k extra!! If you really have cash to burn Tesla have just announced a 100kWh car, at 3 miles per kWh thats a real life range of 300 miles, and it does 0-60 in around 2.6 seconds... Sadly the cost is very much in the category of 'If you have to ask how much, you cannot afford it'

.

Gloomendoom · 14 October 2016 at 8:13AM

How do you get home though?

AnotherJoe · 14 October 2016 at 8:32AM

Gloomendoom wrote: »

How do you get home though?

I'll take a wild guess that OPs daughter has electricity at home.

OP I suggest you wait a year or so when there will be many more BEVs with range approaching 200 miles which gives you a good buffer. I'm planning to wait 2-3 years and will then buy a BEV.

BeenThroughItAll · 14 October 2016 at 9:32AM

Strider590 wrote: »

Or you could just be green by not buying a new car, given that in order to build said car, it's carbon footprint is greater than your current car since it was new. For example transporting the lithium for the battery, from China on giant cargo ships that do 5 miles to a gallon of crude oil.

If you want to be green, stop raping the planets resources to build yet more junk. Buying stuff you don't need, with money you don't have, to impress people you don't know, consumerism is the greatest threat to the planet and using the environment as an excuse for it? just ridiculous.

I think you'll find 'giant cargo ships' do a lot less than 5mpg. A typical large container ship will cruise at something like 15-17kt or around 20MPH. Burning somewhere in the region of 1500gph, that means each mile burns something like 75 gallons of fuel, so they're actually achieving a more realistic 0.0133mpg.

I'm surprised with your theoretical degree in theoretical physics you didn't know that.

NigeWick · 14 October 2016 at 9:38AM

Thanks for all the replies. I've now looked at the sites suggested and have decided that the 30 kW HOUR battery Leaf is for me. Checking charging stations between where I live and where I want to go I have found there are sufficient for me to safely get anywhere in England. I fully understand this will mean more stops as in three instead of one going to Devon and two instead of one going to the Lake District but at my age I will not object to the extra comfort breaks.

Note to self, when the new vehicle is bought, change electricity provider to Ecotricity to take advantage of free charging.

Stageshoot · 14 October 2016 at 9:56AM

NigeWick wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies. I've now looked at the sites suggested and have decided that the 30 kW HOUR battery Leaf is for me. Checking charging stations between where I live and where I want to go I have found there are sufficient for me to safely get anywhere in England. I fully understand this will mean more stops as in three instead of one going to Devon and two instead of one going to the Lake District but at my age I will not object to the extra comfort breaks.

Note to self, when the new vehicle is bought, change electricity provider to Ecotricity to take advantage of free charging.

Enjoy the Leaf..

BEWARE OF ECOTRICITY T&Cs.. Fair Use of 52 Free Charges per year. (1 per week) after the 1 free per week you pay the normal £6 per charge.

I was about to change to them as my supplier but in the end it worked out cheaper sticking with Eon and stumping up for the Motoway charging when needed.

Buzby · 14 October 2016 at 12:07PM

My Electricity at home is from EDF and is cheaper than that offered by Ecotricity, even if I charged once per were 'free'. Don't be swayed by this, think of it only as a possible benefit.

30 kW Nissan Leaf

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