Twenty thousand kilometres driven in eight months. You'd say normal mileage. But that's a lot of mileage on a company electric car. The second-generation Nissan Leaf is part of our DEVINN fleet, alongside both internal combustion and CNG vehicles.
Twenty thousand kilometres driven in eight months. You'd say normal mileage. But that's a lot of mileage on a company electric car. The second-generation Nissan Leaf is part of our DEVINN fleet, alongside both internal combustion and CNG vehicles.
At speed about the vehicle
The second-generation NissanLeaf has a base battery with a total capacity of 40 kWh, the usable capacity is approximately 38 kWh. The WLTP range is 285 km, NEFZ range is 378 km, engine power is 110kW.
Our vehicle is in N-CONNECTA medium trim, with heated front and rear seats, heated steering wheel, panoramic parking system, parking sensors and cameras, adaptive cruise control, climate control and vehicle tracking via mobile phone app, heat pump and more. The purchase price of the model is CZK 850,000, of which CZK 270,000 was a European subsidy.
The Leaf is relatively large, noticeably larger than the competing e-Golf, the driving dynamics are more than sufficient (0-100 km/h in 7.9s), thanks to the low centre of gravity and favourable weight distribution between the front and rear axles, you can negotiate corners even at a brisker pace with confidence, on the other hand, the weight of two tonnes is noticeable, no sporting performance takes place. The interior workmanship and ergonomics of the controls are not at the level of European carmakers, but they are not among the worst.
How to live with an electric car and the differences compared to a vehicle with an internal combustion engine
Of course, the rangeper charge is lower than in vehicles with an internal combustion engine, but on the other hand, we have several VW Golf vehicles with CNG drive in our company and with these we need to go to the filling station approximately every 400 km, with the Leaf we come to the company, connect the cable and we don't have to go anywhere. So ultimately, charging can take less time than refuelling.
Summer city/extra-city range (20:80) at a brisker pace is about 250 km, in winter about 200 km depending on the ambient temperature. We would like to note here that range is largely affected by battery temperature, higher temperature means more range, using heating or air conditioning will affect range less.
ChargingLeaf and energy management
The Leafis charged either by DC current (with a CHAdeMO standard fast charger) at up to 50kW, or from a socket/wallet using a 7.2kW (1x32A) single-phase on-board charger.
A single-phase charger carries disadvantages, especially when charging at home. While with the Leaf's single-phase 7.2kW charger you need a minimum of a 3x40A main house circuit breaker, with a two-phase, equally powerful charger, you'd get by with a 3x20A circuit breaker.The size of the circuit breaker will then affect your monthly electricity bill. For the record, the usual main house circuit breaker for a detached house is 3x25 or 3x32A.
The maximum charging power for DC charging is 50 kW, but due to the voltage of the battery we can reach a maximum of 46kW at most charging stations.The big negative of the Leaf is the reduction of charging power at about 55% charge, which increases the total charging time for DC chargers. We assume this is due to the relatively high internal resistance of the battery cells used.
A good "gadget" for home charging is a charging timer. You can set what time to turn the charging on and off, so you only use electricity in a lower price tariff. In addition, you can choose to use this timer only for home charging, which the Leaf recognises by the home address in the navigation.
Further praise goes to Nissan for automatically adding chargers to navigation maps. Any place you use for charging is automatically added by the Leaf as a charging point in the navigation, so you can easily add charging points to non-public charging stations that aren't on the maps.
The battery is actively cooled by air, during a quick charge on a hot summer day it is possible to reach such a temperature of the battery that during the subsequent fast driving the power of the drive is limited, then during the next drive the battery is cooled only very reluctantly and to reach full power again requires either very light driving with minimal acceleration or a complete stop. It should be added that we only managed to warm the battery in this way once, when the ambient air temperature was over 35°C.
Unlike the competition, the Leaf can't glide. It always recuperates at least a little when the accelerator is released and slows down. It should be more energy efficient to 'glide', as there is no loss in converting mechanical energy into electrical energy.
Heating and air conditioning is provided by a heat pump/air-conditioning compressor, with additional electric heating at sub-zero temperatures. The cabin temperature is therefore not dependent on the engine running and temperature. This means that the vehicle heats or cools almost immediately after starting. In addition, you can set a timer for the heating and air conditioning, or use a smartphone app to remotely switch on the cabin heating or cooling. When the vehicle is connected to the charger, no battery capacity is consumed for cooling or heating the cabin.
Cost of operation and wear and tear of the car
The cost ofoperation depends of course on the price of electricity. It costs us an average of fifty crowns for every hundred kilometres. Further savings are made on servicing, no oil or air filter changes, no wiring. Thanks to regenerative braking, the brakes should last considerably longer than in conventional cars. Whether the purchase will be worthwhile will depend on the life of the battery, ours has twenty thousand kilometres and so far we have not observed any signs of ageing associated with a reduction in range.
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