20 Months!!

20 months ago today, i took delivery of my Nissan LEAF.  my LEAF has taken my over 21,500 miles and still retains 98.9% of its original range according to my GID meter which measured a 278 yesterday morning (full capacity is 281)

I have to say this car has done everything I have wanted and more.  People I talk to always want more range but that means a heavier and more expensive battery pack.  During the Summer I can get 85 miles on a charge which is enough to cover 95% of my needs.  When I need to go farther, I have to plan to boost my pack with a public charge and there are many here but the real value is the DCFC (Direct Current Fast Charge) which gives you 80% capacity in 30 minutes which is ok if you have 30 minutes!

I usually dont have the patience for that but use the DCFC stations all the time but only for 8-12 minutes.  The station charges faster when the pack is lower so i can get 40 miles of range in 11 minutes because the first Kwh comes in at just over 75 seconds each.  So if i pull in "about" (calculator handy!) 8.88 Kwh and getting about 4.5 miles per Kwh that is 40 miles of range in 11 minutes.



After the SOC on the pack reaches about 65% then the rate slows way down. the first few times i used the QC,  i tracked how long it took each Kwh to get in and found that a 80% charge (which stops around 80% on an AV)  might put in 10-11 Kwh but the last few Kwh were taking 3-5 minutes meaning my time was not being well used especially if I was doing nothing but waiting to charge!

Now being able to do this means having stations no more than 25-30 miles apart and right now I only have that going South.  need it going west and north and already have preliminary info that will be happening soon going North.  so cant wait!