I wanted to see what the maximum range I could get from my Nissan Leaf today. I have driven 80 miles on a full charge in a previous test but I ended that drive with some miles to spare and as I need to do legs of about 85 miles between fast charges on some of my future trips I wanted to get some idea how easy 85 miles would be. So I decided to charge the car to 100% overnight and then drive the car until “turtle” mode kicked in. I didn’t want to go much beyond turtle mode as I didn’t want to run totally out of charge.
So I drove on A-roads for as far as I could aiming to get back to my house with about 10 miles of estimate range. Once back I drove on roads nearby my house at as close to 30 mph until turtle mode kicked in and then I just drove the few hundred yards back to my house.
How far did I go? 95.6 miles.
Some other interesting observations…
- Charged to 100% at 16A overnight
- Speed was all under 55 mph and mostly between 40 and 50 mph.
- A/C and heater off
- Temperature 10 deg C
- Traffic very light
- Just me in the car
- Very careful eco-driving style
- Distance to “—” estimated range… 88.2 miles
- Distance after “—” to turtle symbol… 7.4 miles
- State of Charge bars remaining at end of test – None!
I feel that 85 miles should be possible…
- if the traffic is light,
- if the speed is kept to 50 mph max,
- if the temperature overnight is 10 deg C or greater
- if you are happy having absolutely no reserve at all (don’t miss your exit, hope for no diversions etc)
How far would I be happy driving on normal trips? I am not happy not having any reserve and so I am never planning any legs between charges greater that 80 miles and then only under the conditions above. If it is a colder day, heavy traffic, on motorway or fast dual carriageway or if I have more than just myself in the car then I will reduce that down accordingly.
So my 85 miles looks a bit optimistic. I will be stopping en-route for a 1 hr slow charge to make sure I think.