Nissan Leaf - 100% Electric car

[BrianG]

yeah, 440v might be a little tough unless people specifically have their house wired that way. 220v would be much more common; probably 95% more common. Even 110v @ 8 hours isn't bad really.

You could probably get away with charging for "free" at work for now since it won't be very common. If more people get vehicles like this, I can see offices starting to have charging ports outside at parking places; kinda like the old style drive-in movie speakers. Of course, I'm sure they'd find a way to charge you for the convenience.

The naysayers will argue that this isn't really a "green" vehicle since the electricity used to charge it ultimately comes from burning fossil fuels in most cases. But it is more efficient to have one giant "engine" generating the power that to have an engine in each car. Would be easier to control emissions too.

I'm wondering how the cabin will be heated in winter. Electric heat is "expensive" in terms of power requirements, and it HAS to eat into the mileage. Speaking of that, I wonder what the base mileage is for winter vs summer.

Personally, I'd like to see an option for more capacity for people who feel 100 miles is not quite enough. Heck, even a manual bank-switching scheme would work. Even if double the capacity is not feasible (but it does look like there is plenty of room in the trunk), a "reserve" bank would be nice. Kinda like on some larger pickups where you flip a switch to swap between two gas tanks; my old employer had an F-450 (IIRC) box truck that had this.

[zeropointbug]

Originally Posted by BrianG

The naysayers will argue that this isn't really a "green" vehicle since the electricity used to charge it ultimately comes from burning fossil fuels in most cases. But it is more efficient to have one giant "engine" generating the power that to have an engine in each car. Would be easier to control emissions too.
Exactly right Brian, criticism EV's have always been the 'relocated emissions' tactic, when in reality is FAR cleaner. Clean coal burning power plants are really that good.


I'm wondering how the cabin will be heated in winter. Electric heat is "expensive" in terms of power requirements, and it HAS to eat into the mileage. Speaking of that, I wonder what the base mileage is for winter vs summer.
This is an inherent issue with EV's, and will require maybe a propane heat exchanger. This is what I will be doing with my Toyota truck, as our winters can pretty cold, consistently -20 C, and lows of -35 C.


Personally, I'd like to see an option for more capacity for people who feel 100 miles is not quite enough. Heck, even a manual bank-switching scheme would work. Even if double the capacity is not feasible (but it does look like there is plenty of room in the trunk), a "reserve" bank would be nice. Kinda like on some larger pickups where you flip a switch to swap between two gas tanks; my old employer had an F-450 (IIRC) box truck that had this.
THey usually build an artificial reserve bank into the main pack, just software programming really.

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[nitrostarter]

Originally Posted by BrianG

yeah, 440v might be a little tough unless people specifically have their house wired that way. 220v would be much more common; probably 95% more common. Even 110v @ 8 hours isn't bad really.

Yeah, a typical household is home at least 8hours or more at night, not just 8 hours of sleep time.


I'm wondering how the cabin will be heated in winter. Electric heat is "expensive" in terms of power requirements, and it HAS to eat into the mileage. Speaking of that, I wonder what the base mileage is for winter vs summer.

This was my concern and thoughts for every EV that comes out. No more circulating antifreeze. I know a small space heater can eat some power. I'm sure an electric heater would kill the mileage, or maybe thats why they only rate it at 100 miles per charge...
I also wonder about weight of the passengers and cargo and how it affects the mileage rating....

It looks good on paper so far. I do agree that more aerodynamics would help all around tho.