Driving the Nissan LEAF, one week in

I went ahead and purchased a new, 2011 Nissan LEAF exactly one week ago and so far we have driven the car about 311 miles for roughly $5 worth of electricity. I'll describe a few impressions, some tweeks I have already made to the car (to improve its range and personalize it a bit I replaced most of the lights that were not already LED lights with aftermarket LED lights, realistically giving me an extra mile or two of range when driving at night with headlights on... also tinted windows to help the car stay cooler in the summer and reduce need for AC), and what seems to be different about driving an electric car, for me... but first, a little more background.

My last post described test driving the car late last year and ended with a promise to post about the Ecotality charger. I'll add photos about that soon, promise. Let's pick up from where I left off... By the time 2011 started, i was anxious for news on when I might get to pick up my LEAF... February was first estimate, but that quickly got pushed back to April. Then... tragedy struck Japan on a monumental scale. Obviously, this forced a change to many things and while making efforts to help relieve the suffering in Japan, I finalized my resolve to purchase a LEAF - it would help Japan's economy, and the world's economy, to recover (ever so slightly I know).

June, I get word that my LEAF will be ready by late June/early July and I set up an appointment to get the 240 volt Ecotality Blink charger installed in my garage about three weeks before my LEAF arrives. Cost of charger (to me) = $0 Why? because I agreed to participate in the largest ever electric vehicle data gathering "experiment" undertaken. So to Dept. of Energy paid approximately $1,000 for my charger to be installed and until 12/31/12, I share data about my charging habits with the DOE. Now I am helping lead the effort to get more of these chargers installed around the area so drivers of electric vehicles have more places to charge up. The same grant from the Dept. of Energy will subsidize the installation of thousands of charging stations across the country, meant to be the establishment of a necessary toe hold for EV charging infrastructure. Some might question whether their tax dollars should be going to something like this... but how is this domestic project that provides jobs to American manufactures and electricians (among others), that is the first step toward lessening our dependence on oil, that helps us keep up with the huge global push for the development of electrified 4 wheel transportation, not a good investment of tax payer money? Assuredly, it is a better application of funds than a fighter plane this grant could otherwise (help) pay for, or a couple of tanks, we use to fight wars to protect our access to oil. Granted, this project won't get us off oil any time soon, but we have to start somewhere and this is the most serious effort we have put forth to date.

The car... the Nissan LEAF, other than some very odd looks and design elements that are all about aerodynamics and less about style (I think of a catfish from the front, and a bat from the rear), is a pretty ordinary looking 4 door hatchback from the outside. But look closer and you see a whole lot of difference. I already mentioned the incredible amount of data and technology that accumulates and displays it inside this car (most cars others might compare the LEAF too don't have this kind of technology in them, not without choosing the highest end/most expensive trims and option packages anyway, which by the way would make those cars more or less equal in price to the LEAF after factoring in its discount... or MORE expensive if you are comparing the LEAF to the highest end Toyota Prius). What's different? The way the car feels is the most dramatic difference for me. But it isn't actually dramatic, the difference in feeling, it is rather profoundly subtle. On the freeway at speed, you'd hardly know the difference between driving in the LEAF and say a Honda Civic. But notice... no hum and vibration from a combustion engine... just the whine of what sounds like a far off jet engine just spooling up as you cruise at lower speeds. And when you are, just cruising around the neighborhood... that is when you can really feel the differences in the car, how quiet it is inside, how the instant you press on the accelerator, the car just responds (no RPM's to consider, just instant, effortless power). And more than this... no gas. Maybe it is just me, but I hear the exhaust notes of the gas powered cars around me more now, I even tend to smell the exhaust a little more, because I know, whether I am thinking of it or not, that I am getting from point a to point b without burning gasoline.

First day I drove the car to work, a coworker says "rev it up!" and I think, you simply can't do that. This is the other profound difference... sit down in the car, turn it on with push of start button, and then you wait for the car to idle... but it doesn't. You remember, it's an electric car, it DOESN'T idle, ever. You put it in gear, you expect a transmission "thunk", it doesn't happen (just an electronic switching sound). The car just starts to glide forward when you put it in gear (or back, depending) and you keep on waiting for that combustion engine to vibrate and hum, but it just never does. And this makes you very happy, indeed.