Re: Nissan Leaf
 

Does it have a heater? - and if so I wonder how having the heater on affects the range, assuming needing something like at least 1kw to make an impression on a winters morning.

Re: Nissan Leaf
 

Yup, has aircon and yes it can affect the range, I heard as much as 20%. but it has a scheduler to allow it to get up/down to temp before you set off in the morning, so it just needs to maintain it. Doesn't help though when it's been sat in the sun all day though, will need to counteract that.

Re: Nissan Leaf
 

Actually that sounds pretty good - program car to be toasty and defrosted ready for morning commute

Re: Nissan Leaf
 

Well our car don't even do 100 a week, so any one got a spare £25k.

Re: Nissan Leaf
 

I can't help but feel the Batteries in these cars will wear out like the ones in your iPods, Laptops and TV remote and eventually will be doing 50 total before needing a good longer charger after a matter of Years and I bet changing these will not be a simple local garage think at this point so as it stands I feel like technology like this is a great idea I just hope they actually come up with long term solutions and not temporary hot topic answers. Essentially most of our Electric is still from fossil fuels too.

Thats my rather poorly written opinion on this but I will say the car isn't ugly so atleast it has that going for it

Re: Nissan Leaf
 

Morning All,
I'm glad I posted this yesterday, some interesting debate and points raised. I'm unlikely to be in the market for a leaf in all honesty, I don't fit the demographic as I live rurally. I do about the same mileage as is required but that said, the demographic is quite a niche one at this stage. People who can afford to spend £25k on a car, don't do more than 100 mile journeys very often, are clued up enough to find their own charging points and who will drive it economically. Essentially I'd say this small group is covered by the term "Enthusiasts" it will be made up of people who are interested in it, whether it be for its eco friendlyness or its technological appeal, those early adopters willing to pay for it.

The hardly cheap Prius sold by the bucketload when launched as it was THE green credential car to be seen in. Some people will buy into it because its interesting and they have enough money not to worry about doing so. It isn't a mass market suitable car, despite what Nissan may be saying. It's just available to the mass market, which in itself is a first. Mitsubishi and Peugeot are hot on their heels with an impending release of an EV each but as alluded to by YellowMonkeyBoy, they are hardly good looking. The Leaf is just different enough to not look like everything else but not different enough to look out of place I think (of course this is all IMHO and you are welcome to disagree)

Apologies for the length of the post but I've slept on it and pondered a lot before drifting into sleep.

Batteries are definitely an issue, I suspect YMB is right once more with the fact that they won't hold up to the 10 year life touted by Nissan but they are also slightly different than your laptop and phone in that because its a bigger device and bigger investment, you will treat it differently. How many out there can vouch for never leaving their phone on charge all night every night or charging their devices before they are due "just to make sure"? In terms of planning to charge and adapting our journeys it is more of an electrical appliance than a car but because it is a car in size and mentally for maintenance, I think we will treat the batteries better. I would if I owned one and I shamelessly confess I'm awful to my handheld gadgets.

One last note re the charging and aircon. The leaf isn't a micra with an enginectomy and bodykit, because the leaf was designed as an electric car from the beginning it has some intelligent features. The charging only happens when you tell it to, plugging it in doesn't make it charge on its own. So you have two options. Set it on a schedule to take advantage of the modern equivalent of Economy 7 electric tariffs and get a full charge for less than £2 (Nissan quote £1.30 but I'll treat that with the pinch of salt it deserves) or you plug it in and manually set it charging so you can actively manage it.
The same goes for the air conditioning, as rightly pointed out, heating or cooling requires a lot of energy, something which is limited to what you can bring along in the Leaf. As mentioned you can schedule the heating/cooling to get the car to what temperature you would like, so that if you always set off at 08:30 and you would like your car at 19c it will use the charging lead and mains electric to be there ready for you without discharging your battery to get it to that temperature. Also, you can remotely control this feature, so if you don't have it set on a schedule but you wake up and its brass monkeys outside you can set it from your PC/iPhone and let your car get to temperature (without having it unlocked or and engine running) while you have your breakfast.

Anyway, enough gushing from me. If you have a vague interest I'd say get yourself to a garage and give one a go, even if it is just to see what one feels like as in my case. I bet you will be impressed.

Re: Nissan Leaf
 

I just took a look at the chevy volt and as a concept it is good however I didn't realise the electric range was 37miles. Although actually that would still save me money 90% of the time.

I really want a car manufacturer to make a car with a small diesel engine and an electric drive too.
The electric part would be charged by outlets on the wall, regenerative braking and also from the diesel engine.
Heres how I see it working:

Acceleration would be done solely by the electric part of the car.
Constant speed would be handled by the diesel engine, when this is happening the battery for the electric motor would be charged.

Therefore the electric motor will always be charged and ready to accelerate the car.

As another observation I believe if electric cars are to be successful they need easily removable fuel cells. Essentially petrol stations will swap the batteries out giving you a full battery again. Unless energy storage gets to the point where you can get 400miles to an 8 hour charge I think at the minute it's the only way to make electric cars viable.

Re: Nissan Leaf
 

It's quite a specific thing for cells to develop a memory, half of the knackered cells in electronics are just knackered from age or damaged by deep discharge etc.
Even the "well known" NiCd memory turns out to be based on one report of a battery on a satellite which was very exactly charged and recharged over a fixed range, a full cycle of the battery apparently left it without any memory effects.
But with price of these batteries, which I'd imagine is a fair chunk of the whole car, I reckon chargers will be more advanced.


Regarding temperature, it's one advantage of a conventional vehicle that the heat is recovered where it would otherwise be wasted. Very little impact on the total efficiency though.


Have a read of this
http://backyardmetalcasting.com/foru...er=asc&start=0

Re: Nissan Leaf
 

Oooh, now thats an interesting thread. (and forum, damn you YC for giving me ideas) I did a quick scan of the first few pics and thought that motor didn't look big enough for a car so maybe a small cart or a bike was gonna be done but nope I was wrong. One of my other ponderings overnight was... I wonder if YC could give a curvy the EV treatment :D
Will read the rest of that thread though and see what happens first.

Re: Nissan Leaf
 

I think a bike would struggle to have enough batteries packaged in there for reasonable range and speed.
That's going on using lead acids, like Anon. I've actually got access to hundreds of them, but like I say, packaging, what does 100Ah weigh, 35-40kg? It's a hell of a mass to lug about.

If I had to electrify something I would only do it to a kawasaki, curvy does not deserve that treatment :-P