ok so when looking at car I was going to lease I booked test drives for several models, mostly hybrids, but I also booked in to test the leaf.
To be honest I'd made my mind up before booking the test drive but it figured, it's a week of a free car and no fuel costs so why not see what's like.
Now my driving habits are well suited to the phev as my normal commute is 30 miles or less a day, with the twice a weekend, once a month trip to pick up my daughter from Devon and return to the Midlands. So once a month I put about 700 miles on in a weekend.
I realised that that would fudge the figures a bit but if I did a motorway stop every 60 miles or so , then I could still cut my fuel bill by a third if not half on that trip.
So I figured doing that trip in an electric car would be great. The leaf has a recorded range of 124 miles realistically more like 100 add in motorway charging to 80% make it 80 miles.
So I thought perfect, I'd drive to Devon, charge twice on the rapid charger after the initial home charge and I'd get there no issues.
And the plan seemed to work well, drove down from Birmingham, topped up at Michael woods ( I was getting a bit twitchy,as I only had 10 miles left when I got there) had coffee,rapid charged then headed off and planned to charge at j27 before making the trip down the North Devon link road and back. I had a reported 85 miles range after rapid charging and j27 was something like 65-70 miles away. But even with the spare mileage, no climate control on and driving like I had miss daisy, I got there with about 1 mile to spare.
So again rapid charged at j27 and had a range of 85 miles, but soon after leaving this dropped to 72, but it's 38 miles each way. Now there's no rapid charger at my destination in Barnstaple, but there are a few fast chargers. So picked up my daughter and proceeded to go to Nissan and plug in to top up my mileage enough to get me back to j27.
I had 38 miles when I got to Nissan waited about 20 minutes and had 45 miles reported range. I figured if I drive sensibly that would be ok. However I drove for about 5 miles and my range was just dropping off and I had 19 miles remaining. The next charger was 28 miles away, so I turned back and found a charger, waited about two hours and had a range of 55 miles.
It was now much later about 8pm and it had turned colder, I drove off for the 38 mile journey and saw the miles fall away. I wasn't going to turn back so hoped the braking would help me out. It soon became apparent I wasn't going to make j27. It was now getting on and I needed to get home which was at least another 3 hours away. I decided to aim for a charger 10 miles short of j27, it was one at a best western and was only a fast charger. I got there again with only 1-2 miles on the range.
The hotel kindly let me charge at no cost as I only wanted enough to get me to the rapid charger. A coffee and 40 minutes later I had 17 miles range. I eventually got to the charger.
I then stopped three more times before getting back home as the heater was eating up my range. The most I ever got was 85 miles after charge.
A journey that should have taken at most 8-9 hours if you add in 30 minute charging stops took me over 14. With a real worry of getting stranded.
So the moral of the story. I'm glad I ordered a hybrid. The fact that I can if I want keep going when the battery dies, or turn on the heating and not worry I won't make it home, makes up for the added fuel cost, which will still be cheaper than using my 12 year old Audi A3 tdi.
We don't yet have a suitable charging network or reliable enough batteries to make electric your only option, unless you only make small trips or have access to enough rapid chargers to get you out of trouble.
To be honest I'd made my mind up before booking the test drive but it figured, it's a week of a free car and no fuel costs so why not see what's like.
Now my driving habits are well suited to the phev as my normal commute is 30 miles or less a day, with the twice a weekend, once a month trip to pick up my daughter from Devon and return to the Midlands. So once a month I put about 700 miles on in a weekend.
I realised that that would fudge the figures a bit but if I did a motorway stop every 60 miles or so , then I could still cut my fuel bill by a third if not half on that trip.
So I figured doing that trip in an electric car would be great. The leaf has a recorded range of 124 miles realistically more like 100 add in motorway charging to 80% make it 80 miles.
So I thought perfect, I'd drive to Devon, charge twice on the rapid charger after the initial home charge and I'd get there no issues.
And the plan seemed to work well, drove down from Birmingham, topped up at Michael woods ( I was getting a bit twitchy,as I only had 10 miles left when I got there) had coffee,rapid charged then headed off and planned to charge at j27 before making the trip down the North Devon link road and back. I had a reported 85 miles range after rapid charging and j27 was something like 65-70 miles away. But even with the spare mileage, no climate control on and driving like I had miss daisy, I got there with about 1 mile to spare.
So again rapid charged at j27 and had a range of 85 miles, but soon after leaving this dropped to 72, but it's 38 miles each way. Now there's no rapid charger at my destination in Barnstaple, but there are a few fast chargers. So picked up my daughter and proceeded to go to Nissan and plug in to top up my mileage enough to get me back to j27.
I had 38 miles when I got to Nissan waited about 20 minutes and had 45 miles reported range. I figured if I drive sensibly that would be ok. However I drove for about 5 miles and my range was just dropping off and I had 19 miles remaining. The next charger was 28 miles away, so I turned back and found a charger, waited about two hours and had a range of 55 miles.
It was now much later about 8pm and it had turned colder, I drove off for the 38 mile journey and saw the miles fall away. I wasn't going to turn back so hoped the braking would help me out. It soon became apparent I wasn't going to make j27. It was now getting on and I needed to get home which was at least another 3 hours away. I decided to aim for a charger 10 miles short of j27, it was one at a best western and was only a fast charger. I got there again with only 1-2 miles on the range.
The hotel kindly let me charge at no cost as I only wanted enough to get me to the rapid charger. A coffee and 40 minutes later I had 17 miles range. I eventually got to the charger.
I then stopped three more times before getting back home as the heater was eating up my range. The most I ever got was 85 miles after charge.
A journey that should have taken at most 8-9 hours if you add in 30 minute charging stops took me over 14. With a real worry of getting stranded.
So the moral of the story. I'm glad I ordered a hybrid. The fact that I can if I want keep going when the battery dies, or turn on the heating and not worry I won't make it home, makes up for the added fuel cost, which will still be cheaper than using my 12 year old Audi A3 tdi.
We don't yet have a suitable charging network or reliable enough batteries to make electric your only option, unless you only make small trips or have access to enough rapid chargers to get you out of trouble.