My bestie who happens to own a Nissan Leaf has gone to New York City for a few days. Unfortunately for him and his lovely wife, they had to be at the Vancouver airport at the ungodly hour of 0600. It is difficult at the best of times to get a ride to YVR but for 0600? Impossible.
Unless you say to a guy who is very curious about electric vehicles, “If you give me a ride to the airport you can borrow my Leaf for the week!” So I set my alarm clock for the ungodly hour and got up in time to drive my bestie and his blushing bride from Burnaby to YVR.
We left North Burnaby with a full charge on the batteries. The distance guessimator said we had 160 km of range “in the tank”. After dropping my friends off at YVR I returned via highway 91, the East West connector to Coquitlam. I helped get my kids up and ready for school and then I returned to my classroom in New West.
Then I went home, got my kids and went took them swimming in Coquitlam’s Town Centre pool. The guessimator says I have 80 km of range still in the tank. Another guessimator device on the dash says the Leaf has 48% of the battery charge left. That in itself is interesting because when I got home from work and picked up the girls, it said I had 43% charge. Coming dòwn Mariner Drive added 5% more range to the battery!
As for the feeling of driving the Leaf, I really can’t tell that I’m driving an EV other than when I’m going down steep hills and I can feel the regenerative braking holding the car back. Other than that, it feels no different than any other car that I have driven.
This evening I am going to a meeting in a building where there is a level 2 charger. I can get approximately 40 km of charge in an hour giving me lots of charge for tomorrow and the next day.
I’ll update the Leaf experience tomorrow.