I took the Leaf for its longest round trip today without charging at my destination, 22 miles each way. Now, technically, we know that the Leaf has a range of 120 miles on a full charge, so obviously it could make the round trip with no issue. But logical thinking like that is not how the ‘range anxiety’ mind works!

With range anxiety, a driver feels, in her gut, that the car will grind to a halt in the middle of the highway and she’ll be trapped with no help of rescue, because it’s not like roadside assistance travels with mobile lithium battery chargers. So frankly, her electric vehicle will simply become part of the roadway and she’ll lose all her money and never have a car to drive ever again.

I am pleased to report that after 12 days of driving, I have already become quite trusting of the car’s ability to get me from Point A to Point B and back again without being on a full charge at all times. In fact, today the car was down to 50% charge for the first time, and I may not even plug it in tonight! OK, I probably will but only after 9 pm, and only if it stops raining.

Thus far we plug in about every other day. I definitely don’t bother to charge if the car is at 80% charged or greater, maybe not even at 70%. I would definitely plug in at 60% or less. I’ll have to look back at this in a few months to see if I have lowered my threshold.

As noted in the post “Leaf-ing Around Chicago,” we made the decision to buy a Nissan Leaf relatively quickly.  Nissan offered a $10,000 discount off the MSRP of a new Leaf, promoted by ComEd, our local utility, but only for the month of June 2017.  That was a big incentive, but June was really busy, so we didn’t get to the dealer until the end of the month, but in time for the discount.  I don’t mind telling you what we paid because I think it’s important for people to know that these vehicles can be affordable, and hopefully this great discount will be repeated.  With the discount and our trade-in (a perfectly nice Honda Civic Hybrid), plus taxes and fees, our total price was $20K.  We will get the $7,500 tax credit as well, which really brings the cost to $12,500.  You can’t even get a Toyota Yaris or a Honda Fit for that price!

There is also the total cost of ownership to consider.  With an all-electric vehicle, there are no oil changes, no emissions checks, and no exhaust system upkeep.  I remember bursting into tears when a mechanic told me what it would cost to replace the catalytic converter on my first car, so it’s quite a comfort knowing I won’t have to face that again.

Yes, I have read about older model Leafs having expensive problems, but as of now I’m not worried about that for two reasons: (1) the battery on the 2017 SV has 20% greater capacity than the 2012 models which are pooping out around now.  Assuming we don’t drive like maniacs, this car’s battery should maintain optimal performance longer.  (2) I tend to retire vehicles before they reach 100,000 miles.  In my experience, repairs get expensive at 80,000 miles, and they’re unreasonable at 100,000, so whether it’s a gas car or electric, I’m in a new car before this point.

There are more reasons to love utility rebates.  Please visit our project portfolio to read about a study we conducted that showed the serious job creation/retention generated by investing in energy efficient technology.  

Update: Nissan has extended the $10K discount through September 30, 2017!  We had to contact multiple dealers to find the model we wanted, so if you’re seriously considering a Leaf, start searching dealer before the last few days of the deal.

We’ve only been driving the Leaf for five days, but so far it is very enjoyable. Here are a few first impressions:

Interior Space: The inside feels really spacious, especially compared to the Chevy Volts I have been in which felt dark and compacted. The Leaf has high head clearance and good elbow room between the seats. The driver is definitely positioned higher than our previous car, a Honda Civic Hybrid, which is preferable for visibility.

Bells & Whistles: I’m still getting to know the on-board display, and I identify as “not app-tastic” which means I have an aversion to apps and touch-screen functions that require more than two pokes. I was pleased with myself for figuring out the navigation system on the first try, but then it took me a lot of screen-stabbing to figure out how to end the trip and have the nice lady stop telling me where to turn. My travelling companion tried to connect my phone to the Bluetooth system, and finally gave up after 10 minutes. Later in the day we figured out that the car has to be stationary to connect the phone via Bluetooth.  I understand the safety objective, but I think detecting a phone quickly would be a better safety feature, and if it really can’t connect when the car is in motion, there should be a screen message saying so.

A word about ports: there aren’t enough. There is only one USB port, we’d like to see at least two in the front, two in the back for passengers would be great. There is also an audio-out port, what a waste of space. Do you know anyone who carries a male-to-male connecting cord for their 2005 iPod Shuffle? Me neither.

Giddy-Up: Today was our first drive on the highway, and the pick-up was great. In an electric car, there is no jolt as when a conventional vehicle jumps from one gear to the next; in the Leaf, the acceleration is very smooth. We reached cruising speed easily and with no fear of being the slow-poke at any time.

Gear Shift: The little gear shift fits perfectly well in one’s hand, but I do have a serious bone to pick with the designers for making Reverse a forward motion and Drive the backward motion. I remember driving various friends’ VW Jettas back in the day, and I know Reverse was also a left-forward motion on those manual transmission cars, and I didn’t like it then either. I’ll let you know when I get used to it, if ever.

Noises: I always give a little ‘toot-toot’ for pedestrian safety when exiting my alley. I am pleased to report that the horn sounds like a normal car, unlike the Honda Civic Hybrid which sounded like a dog’s chew toy; it was (almost) too embarrassing to use. Also because the car is so quiet, Nissan added a back-up beep when the car is in Reverse. It is a very polite beep, and the tone is unusual enough that it will make people look up and wonder what is making the noise, which is the point.