Driving ... Unplugged
Andrew Mccredie goes electric for a long- term test drive of the 2012 Nissan Leaf
Andrew Mccredie begins a long- term test drive of the all- electric Nissan Leaf today. Over the course of the next six months, The Vancouver Sun journalist will write about living in Vancouver with an electric car. He’ll chronicle the ups and the downs, the good and the bad about going electric in his column Driving ... Unplugged each week in the Sun’s Driving section. He’s also writing a Driving ... Unplugged blog at www. vancouver sun. com/ driving-unplugged. We encourage readers, the skeptics and converts alike, to participate with questions, comments and observations throughout the six- month test drive.
Big Oil, it’s been nice knowing you.
It’s still hasn’t really sunk in that the only times over the course of the next half- year that I’ll be stopping at a gas station is to fill up on sodas and snacks or to relieve myself of said sodas.
Nissan Canada has handed over the key — well, key fob anyway — to me to a brand new 2012 Nissan Leaf for the expressed purpose of experiencing what owning and operating a zero emission, all- electric vehicle in Vancouver is like.
Many automotive journalists in Canada have driven the Leaf, though at the most for a week, many for half that time, meaning all you’ve read about the all- electric five- door are very limited impressions. Indeed, many of those test drives entailed not enough distance to even require plugging in the car to recharge its Lithiumion batteries.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should say I am a big advocate of electricpowered vehicles, and believe vehicles like the Leaf are the leading edge of technologies that will be around for a very long time.
Unlike many of my colleagues, who deride both the relatively high price ($ 38,395 base before government rebates) and the relatively short range of the current crop of electric vehicles available in Canadian showrooms, I believe for the right person living in the right place with the right commute and lifestyle, all- electrics like the Leaf are perfect fits.
And in terms of the environment, these zero- emission vehicles are just what the upper atmosphere ordered.
Now that I’ve taken delivery of my Ignition Red Nissan Leaf — the 2012 model is also available in Glacier Pearl, Blue Ocean, Airstream and Ebony — my first impressions are that it appears to be very much like the typical front- wheel drive vehicles plying my North Vancouver neighbourhood.
Resembling most every mid- size five- door hatchback on the market, albeit with somewhat radical front headlight arrays, the 2012 Nissan Leaf seats five adults with cargo room in the back to spare.
The Leaf is powered by a Lithiumion battery housed in the floor composed of 48 modules that powers an 80- kw AC synchronous motor that generates 107 horsepower and 207 lbs.- ft of torque. According to Nissan, the full- charge range of the Leaf is 160 kilometres and when out of power can be charged up to 80 per cent of its full capacity in approximately 26 minutes when equipped with a quick charge port and using a DC fast charger. Using a 220- volt outlet ( like the one a clothes dryer uses), it’s said to take seven hours, and with a 120- volt outlet — the kind I will be using initially — about 16 hours.
There are also heated seats, heated steering wheel, navigation system, satellite radio, Bluetooth hands- free phone adaptability, power windows, locks and mirrors, airbags all over the place, ABS brakes and computerassisted traction control.
But it is very unlike my neighbours’ rides, what with its portable charge cable, dual charging ports hidden in a hatch in its nose and a roof- mounted photovoltaic solar panel. And of course, there’s no gas tank. During the long- term test I also plan to lend the Leaf out to colleagues at The Vancouver Sun, friends and neighbours to get their impressions of the vehicle and how it fits their specific vehicle demands. Do I have reservations about driving the Leaf for the next six months?
Sure. I worry about getting somewhere and realizing I don’t have enough juice to get back to where I came from. That so- called ‘ range anxiety’ thing.
But as the saying goes, it’s the journey not the destination that counts, so I hope you’ll enjoy sitting in the passenger seat over the course of the next half- year to experience living with an electric vehicle.
I think you’ll get a charge out of it.