Review of the Nissan Leaf
2011 Nissan Leaf: Pros and Cons of living with an electric car
Excerpt:
And you definitely want to heat or cool the car while it's plugged in. That's because your driving range drops by at least 10 miles the instant you turn on the heater. Of course, the range goes up if you turn the heater off. So I found myself turning on the heat long enough to warm up my toes, then switching it off. I was able to extend my driving range somewhat, but my toes never got very warm.
A word about the heater. It works reasonably well, but not all that great. In my experience it seemed to take longer to warm up than a conventional car, and never got as hot. Nissan will have heated seats and a heated steering wheel as part of a cold weather package, but they're not available yet. Heated seats are a more efficient way to get warm and shouldn't affect your driving range as much.
Comment: Not sure if I see it working well in Minnesota
Won't work in Minnesota, or really in any place where it gets really hot in August. Say, like.....anywhere between Florida and Canada, I guess. This is the downside of having a fuel source that is about 10 times less "energy dense" as gasoline.
ReplyDeleteYou might make things work if you made the top of the vehicle into a big solar panel, at least for southern states where you don't get a lot of snow.