To find out if I could successfully adapt to the plug-in lifestyle I spend four weeks Living with a Nissan Leaf writes Geraldine Herbert and discovered quite a bit along the way
1) Charging is easier than you might think. Instantly living with a Leaf adds a new dimension to my evening – plugging in my Leaf. It takes over night to charge but by the end of week the Nissan Leaf and I are in a nice little routine.
2) The range on many electric cars is now perfectly usable so its “infrastructure” anxiety that is more of an issue, the fear of arriving at charge points to find them broken, in use or occupied by fully charged EVs.
3) Electric-cars, like people, are happiest when temperatures are up, switching the heating has an unfortunate side-effect as I discover on my first morning, immediately the range indicator plummets from 166 to 143 kms.
4) Its important to observe “Charge point etiquette” rules include never parking your car at a charging point if you are not going to plug your car in and unplug and remove your car when your car is charged, do not block access for other Electric car drivers.
5) When planning a long journey you need to work out optimal stops for charging and some back up alternatives.
6) Based on night rate electricity an overnight full charge will cost about €2, I charged it virtually every night over the four weeks, though some nights for only a couple of hours and it cost less than €30 for the entire time.
7) Silence is golden, electric cars are super refined and hushed quiet on the road.
8) Hills need to be managed, going up can use up a lot of range, but you also regenerate a lot when coming back down again.
9) The best is yet to come, on the way are a host of really exciting EVs including the I-pace from Jaguar, Tesla’s Model 3, Mercedes Generation EQ and Porsche’s Mission E Concept.
For more information check out Nissan.ie Nissan Ireland Facebook page or follow them on twitter here.
Geraldine Herbert
24th November 2016
