30 kW Nissan Leaf

gzoom

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Half an hour?! I hope it doesn't take that long for the heating to work in an electric car or I'll be changing my mind about buying one !

The heater on the Leaf is really efficient, your get proper hot-air within 30 seconds of turning the heater on regardless of outside temp. It's much much quicker than the heating system in any conventional car.

I use my phone to pre-warm the car when I'm starting to get my soaks/coat on before leaving the house. Last year in the few days we had frost been able to pre-warm the car was fab, whilst everyone else on the road was busy faffing with scraper/sprays/hot water with gloves on in the freezing cold. I just walked out of the house, got into a pre-warmed/deforested car and off I go.

gzoom

ElefantEd wrote: »

Yeah, I concur, we nearly always charge to 100%, and leave it plugged in once its charged (I didn't even know that was supposed to be an issue).

In theory battery degradation is worst when the battery is left either 100% charged or total discharged for long periods of time. But in practice I doubt a 10hr period at 100% charge makes hardly any difference to increase degradation, I have been naught in the past before and left the car plugged in for 3 days without touching it (lazy). But our Leaf is going back to Nissan soon, so longterm battery health doesn't concern me.

AnotherJoe

gzoom wrote: »

I just walked out of the house, got into a pre-warmed/deforested car and off I go.

I know what you mean, those damn tree trunks aggravate the hell out of me in my ICE car.

almillar

No detectable loss of range

Range is secondary, and indeed, as you say, you've probably got more efficient at driving. Range is calculated by how you drive, and is only an estimate. What you should be measuring is the actual battery capacity. You can do this on Zoe and Leaf with a Bluetooth dongle (£12), an Android phone, and CanZE (Zoe) or Leafspy (Leaf). That will tell you the SOH (State of Health) of your battery.
For the Zoe at least, it's displayed as a percentage. My car had 105% SOH at the start - they sell you the car with more than the advertised 22kWh to allow for the degradation that happens at the start. This number does fluctuate, and can even go back up depending on what mood the car is in.

Half an hour?! I hope it doesn't take that long for the heating to work in an electric car or I'll be changing my mind about buying one !

Let's be in no doubt - half of the energy of a petrol/diesel is heat, so you get an easy by-product to heat the cabin, once the engine is up to temperature. An electric car can't do this of course, and 'making' heat needs a lot of electric. Zoe and newer Leafs (I think) have a heat exchanger system that's relatively efficient, and my car (Zoe) gives me heat at least as fast as a lot of my petrol cars. I remember my 1995 325i was particularly bad at providing hot air, because there was so much space in the engine bay, and it had that viscous cooling fan that always ran.
Anyway, in the winter it's definitely a good idea to have an electric car plugged in so that you can start it heating before you're in, and you can drive off with a full battery - heating will impact on range - and when it's cold, range is down already just because of the battery's chemistry not working so well.

ElefantEd

We put it to come on half an hour (or it might be 20 minutes, I've forgotten) so that if we need to go a bit earlier, we don't have to reset the timer. It only takes 5 or 10 mins to get the car up to a comfy temperature - quicker than an ICE where although the heat is a waste product of the engine, it takes a while to generate any.

Although heating the car obviously does take some energy, I would have thought it was relatively small compared with that needed to get half a ton of metal and plastic moving. For us the range reduction in winter compared with summer is 5-10% (to be more exact, the car uses perhaps 5% more on a longish journey in the winter than in the summer). Wind and rain seem to make more difference than the outside temperature though.

Stageshoot

The BMW i3 is similar with the preheating you can use an iPhone app or the Amazon Echo device to preset the car to preheat on a whim on a regular schedule.

Being honest with the i3 a 10min preheat and then turn heat off and use heated seats on low keeps things toastie and does not affect the range that much.

The plus point with the BMW Batteries are they are cellular which means if you get a duff cell it can be replaced without junking the entire battery to keep the cost down although with an 8 year 100000 mile warranty I doubt its something many owners are going to face for a while

Find the app is brilliant for checking on the car and preheating it. Also getting an Alert text if anyone tries to tamper with the car or charge lead while its parked.

almillar

Although heating the car obviously does take some energy, I would have thought it was relatively small compared with that needed to get half a ton of metal and plastic moving.

Correct, although it's still significant.

For us the range reduction in winter compared with summer is 5-10% (to be more exact, the car uses perhaps 5% more on a longish journey in the winter than in the summer). Wind and rain seem to make more difference than the outside temperature though.

Not my experience. I never pre-heat though. I can go roughly 150% as far in summer as in winter (on a year's experience). Obviously my battery has to heat my car up, whereas your house's electric has done yours. I don't find wind and rain make much of a difference, but it depends what you're using. Wipers (One simple motor) and lights won't use much, but you may be using the rear window demister (BAD!) and the air con to prevent steaming up - that is where the extra energy will go.

Find the app is brilliant for checking on the car and preheating it

The BMW app seems to be the best of the mainstream ones (as in excluding Tesla) but most electric cars do have varying qualities of app. Renault have been trying to charge extra for some of the facilities but that won't last.

Richard53

buglawton wrote: »

How many fossil fuel cars have a timer that warms the car in advance of your morning commute?

Man up!

Gloomendoom

buglawton wrote: »

How many fossil fuel cars have a timer that warms the car in advance of your morning commute?

Ours does. Admittedly, it does involve a fan heater perched on the central armrest.

Richard53

Gloomendoom wrote: »

Ours does. Admittedly, it does involve a fan heater perched on the central armrest.

I do this in the depths of winter. After ten minutes, the car is like a sauna and the windows are all clear. A bit of a faff, but well worth it.