Overnight test on the leaf, long term capacity question.

njburke

njburke wrote: »

We were about a week or 10 days waiting for our charger to be installed and then fixed so that it would work. So we used the naas Tesco charger most evenings around 8 or 9pm.
I know the monread road is dreadful at peak commute times. I think in 8 or 10 charges we only came across 3 other leaf owners either ahead or behind us in the queue. Anyone we met that was genuinely pleasant and keen to chat about leaf.

As a tip, if I were coming from city centre towards that charger at evening peak I would,
Come off at junction 8, cross N7, past Johnstown garden centre heading for sallins, left in sallins,cross N7 , left at r'bout and into Tesco. Should knock 10-15 minutes of the journey. The Montreal road is effectively a one way street at from 5~6.30 pm midweek.

Thanks for the tip hopefully I won't be driving in Peak traffic for a while yet !

njburke

I received a Nissan grannycharger yesterday from a guy in the UK, bought it for performing really and the fact that we're planning a trip as far as Middleton the week after next,

Other than all good with car. Mrs forgot to charge one night soon after we got back from holidays. No big deal to zap it at Tesco on her way in to work the following morning.

I bet now Niall you won't go back to petrol or diesel as your main car again ?

It is handy having a fast charger close by, if I forgot to charge Carlow is 10 K in the wrong direction would really put me out on the way to Dublin. So I always try remember to plug in. Being a bank weekend I've to make a mental not to plug in for work tomorrow because I forget I've to work sometimes when most are off.

It will be interesting to see how you get on on your trip to Middleton !

njburke

To me,the main car is still the 13 year old diesel 75, we went to limerick to collect a dog on Friday in it. We're not putting the dogs in the leaf, one smelly car with hair on the rooflining is enough.

One thing i should do is get into the habit of taking the leaf on any of the short runs I do, ie nipping to the shops etc, and avoid all those cold starts in the diesel.

I'll let you know how we get on with a long run in the leaf. My elder brother took a spin in it yestetday, they are looking at replacing the second car.I could see the cogs turning when I went through the economics of it.

njburke

njburke wrote: »

To me,the main car is still the 13 year old diesel 75, we went to limerick to collect a dog on Friday in it. We're not putting the dogs in the leaf, one smelly car with hair on the rooflining is enough.

One thing i should do is get into the habit of taking the leaf on any of the short runs I do, ie nipping to the shops etc, and avoid all those cold starts in the diesel.

I'll let you know how we get on with a long run in the leaf. My elder brother took a spin in it yestetday, they are looking at replacing the second car.I could see the cogs turning when I went through the economics of it.

We take the diesel too on the really odd long trip, and to keep miles off the Leaf for the PCP unfortunately for me I'm doing too many commuting miles to enjoy driving it for much else. 9,500 miles since Mid January the leaf is still doing the most mileage !

It shouldn't take your Brother long to wok out the savings V the equivalent ICE car. If the Leaf costs the same as the equivalent diesel new or 2nd hand then the Leaf or equivalent EV is a no brainer in my opinion because it's holding it's value really well and usually highly equipped and the battery is holding up pretty well for the late 2013+ leaf in general it's not doing too bad for the 11-late 13.

The savings on petrol/diesel for me are tremendous especially considering the 6-10 Kwh I suck out of the Naas fast charger daily when on shift.

I was paying about 220 Pm in the prius for petrol and my leccy bill has gone up about 45 PM including charging at peak hours when I come off night shift, that's a saving of 175 PM. It would cost me more for leccy only I get about 6-10 kwh free from the fast charger after each shift.

400 a year motor tax in the Prius, 120 in the Leaf saving 280 a year or roughly 23 PM.

That saves 198 PM over the Prius, so the PCP is 540 PM for 25K Kms per year. So it really only costs me 342PM to pay for and run the Leaf over the Prius and this is not including savings on maintenance, the Prius needed oil and filter every 15,000 Kms the Leaf needs an inspection every 50,000 Kms or once a year whichever comes first and beware of dealers sticking up 15,000 Km service intervals this is dishonest and wrong and I still have not mentioned it to my dealer yet , but I will !!!

My calculations also include depreciation because on PCP you pay depreciation + interest, so my calculations include both in fact if I can keep withing reasonable limits on the mileage allowance I may even have more value in the car because PCP GFV is calculated at the rock bottom price they expect to get for the car because they want to make sure not to loose money so you usually have some money left towards the deposit on the new car, time will tell.

njburke

Hi all,
Right, after 39 months I'm in a better position to answer my own question. The leaf has just turn over 61,000 KM and is still showing 11 bars capacity. The range typically show 150KM after a nights charge. It's charging history is almost always overnight with the 6KW charger. I never bothered to set it to the 80% capacity.
It has done the 80km return commute in typical rush hour traffic, followed by the usually short runs in the evening to football practice etc. We did a couple of long journeys of Naas to cork or Spanish point otherwise very few long hall trips. We've never been stranded out of power, close once or twice but no incidents.
We've had it serviced every year, new parts are two sets of wiper blades,one set of Michelin cross climate tyres (at 55000).
It's still on the same brake pads, which we will change soon.
My wife still loves it,no regrets so far. We had a discussion about trading it in against a new 2018 but in end couldn't justify the spend as the 2015 meets all our needs still. So we're going to stick with it for the next few years.