The Wilted Leaf - Ghosts of Taxis past! 29/01/2024

[dome]

1 hour ago, hairnet said:

hubcaps

ya coulda been in the cafe/pub/bed longer ken

 

This is the answer.

@hairnet isn't is stupid as he sounds.

Or looks

Or as best testing would indicate 😘

[hairnet]

even fife M8 ™️ woulda bought yon roundy things 

[Lord Sterling]

2 hours ago, hairnet said:

hubcaps

ya coulda been in the cafe/pub/bed longer ken

Aye, I agree wi' daat. But 320touring nae went hubcaps fae hes car.

[Lord Sterling]

1 hour ago, dome said:

This is the answer.

@hairnet isn't is stupid as he sounds.

Or looks

Or as best testing would indicate 😘

Have you met him?

I have....

🤣

[somewhatfoolish]

Hubcaps add unsprung weight, because racecar.

[hairnet]

15 minutes ago, Lord Sterling said:

Have you met him?

I have....

🤣

🔨

[dome]

13 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

Have you met him?

I have....

🤣

I have, a long time ago. I've nearly recovered now.

[320touring]

Like most places, it has dun a balticness here over the last couple of days! 

On the plus side, the preconditioning (essentially being able to set the heater from the app) means the burd has had a defrosted and toasty car when she has needed it. This means brownie points.

On the negative, it means worse miles/kWh as using the heater more (and the last charge was the burd driving - she's a good 5-10mph faster on motorway than I am in it).  Still, 3.9m/kWh ain't the worst.

The last couple of days have been highs of 1 degree, so it was time to see how it will do with charging when cold l.

My prediction is it takes a bit longer, and is 'full' at a lower state of charge.

Aye that's chilly...

 

A wee look on leafspy shows something interesting*

The main pack is just above ambient - almost too small a margin to matter. Will be interesting too see what it's at when it finished charging.

Also worthy of note is the 12v battery voltage in the bottom left. That's not great considering the car was used yesterday.

These don't charge like a normal (,say up to early 2000s) ICE car - it's not always chucking a full 14.2v or whatever at it.

It's a well known issue on Leafs that the 12v being weak causes most of the glitches/issues the car reports.

I have a spare here charged and may also order one up from Tayna, as they ain't expensive.

[rainagain]

Is it the Nissan app you use and do you have to pay for it? 

[320touring]

22 minutes ago, rainagain said:

Is it the Nissan app you use and do you have to pay for it? 

It is indeed and no I dont

[320touring]

Was -3 when the car finished charging (about 5 mins ago)

As predicted, it's about 1.5kwh down on the highest charge level I've seen.

I've left it plugged in so I can precondition if I need to use it tomorrow 

[320touring]

Bit of a disappointing week here. Both the Burd and I have been encumbered with a horrific cold - I'm about 85% now, and that's been 9 days.

Such illness meant that we were unfortunately unable to go on the first "roadtrip" that was planned for yesterday - a 300ish mile round trip to sunny Alston for a friend's 40th.

This was a blessing in disguise as the m74 and M6 seemed pretty jumped with the weather.

We've hardly been over the threshold this week, but I did get a chance to sort a small cold weather test on Thursday:

This was dootering round town in the dark. Pretty pleased with that and content that the 12v battery obviously got a boost whilst the car was charging - it started fine.

I'll still buy a new one on payday I think.

Today we made it out for coffee and cake before doing some food shopping - saw a bit of an improvement in economy in the warmer weather..

TL:DR

Was ill, couldn't roadtrip, however cold weather economy seems fine.

[320touring]

We're 6 months and 3222 miles into this shindig now... How is it going?

It was bought on the assumption of doing on average 20 miles a day ...

Looks like we got that on the nose!

In energy consumption it's doing 4.79miles/kWh

To put that in context,  at 22p per kWh I'd need 21 kWh to do 100 miles, at a cost of £4.62

In the Octavia at £1.359/L that buys 3.4L (0.75gallons) of diesel, so it'd need to do 133mpg to have the same cost per 100 miles.

So it's damn cheap🤣

But what's it like to live with?

Things I like

Preconditioning - so you can heat the car prior to leaving, no scraping or waiting to defog.

Great sized boot

Very easy and simple to drive - it's really just like the burd says "a train where you have the controls".

Very reliable, and confidence inspiring for normal use. It just WILL start.

It's pretty quick in the traffic light GP - consistent good launches🤣

Looks ok too now that the steelies have been tidied.

No need to queue for fuel, just plug in at home.

Not having to find £60 at the end of the month for fuel - a full charge is £4.60ish.

The silence and decent stereo.

 

Things I don't like

The Speedo significantly overreads - 57 is 51mph.

Those damn a pillars - driving the Corsa made me realise just how bad they are.

Still not a fan of having to plan spontaneity, but we are both getting better at preparing.

The lack of engagement is still telling on a nice back road, but tbh it spends most of its time doing mundane town/motorway work, and it's an ideal tool for it

It's made a lot of cars sound pretty loud, and not at all entertaining . You realise just how LOUD traffic is now, when walking along the street.

 

Would I recommend it?

Yep. Deffo. Ideal an car for not stupid money.

If you're not as tight as me, £149 a month would see you in one on a 3 year lease deal.

[320touring]

The last charge for the Leaf has seen an absolutely paltry performance - 3.2m/kWh.

That's cos it's been so cold, preconditioning has been extensive and it's taking a hammering mainly doing short run work.

 

[320touring]

Got into the Leaf on Christmas, relaxed as it was nice to have a reliable modern vehicle to make the pilgrimage to the parents.

I was greeted by this:

To avoid running late, I drove over - the car was last used on Monday and it had dropped 15psi (all tyres were at 40psi cold), so I knew the leak was not rapid. Economy was down on the usual for that route

Got to the parents, explained the situation and stuck air into it up to 35 psi.

It was still at the same when I came out 8hrs later.

Got home fine.

 

I may investigate over the next few days. It's due an MOT in Jan so may hold off doing much on the tyres front until I can get it in and see how it does..

[320touring]

Because my LEAF is a BASE spec Visia (only sold for the first 6 months of the MK2 LEAF in the UK), I don't get the benefit of a heat pump.

Instead, I have to use something akin to the automotive equivalent of the 3 bar electric fire your gran used to have🤣

This isn't particularly efficient, so I try to use pre- conditioning (heating the car before leaving, whilst it is still on the charger)  to get a comfortable temperature for most journeys. This works well on most of the short trips we do, and is ok even at lower temperatures.

However, the heat doesn't last on longer runs, and it's been -6 Celsius here..

Today was an opportunity to conduct an experiment..

A know, regular route, where the car usually does 4.5m/kWh without the heating on.

This was in November, 10 degrees, no heating.

Today, it was -2 when we set off, and -1 when we got to the half way point.

The strategy of choice was to run the heater at 16 degrees continuously and see what impact it had..

It wasn't looking super rosy when we got to our walk, but the journey was comfy and warm...

However, it recovered slightly on the way home.

The actual usage was 3.2m/kWh using leafspy.

It's not the worst, but with an old, tired battery I think it'll probably get worse as the state of charge drops lower..

What I'd like to know is:

1. Does the resistive heater burn electricity at a constant rate - i.e. does the temp setting just blend outside air in to achieve lower values /, or does the heater consume more power then hotter you ask for?

2. What do we think is the best strategy for keeping the cabin above ambient/windows clear etc without eating up all the electricity?

[320touring]

Was out for a stoat today with @jaypee @blackboilersuit and @sdkrc

Up in sunny Callander - well, not sunny but at least it was dry..

It also included some proper good shite spots

As I had to drop off @sdkrc, I took the opperchancity to stock up on electrons at a big rapid charge site on the outskirts of Stirling. The chargers were all Osprey, and we're as good as they usually are!

It was pretty busy, and had a wheen of CHADEMO stations, so worth noting for future northward escapades.

The charger was totally simple to set up, taking about 15secs to authorise, and charged/disconnected with no issues

[320touring]

This is now in the capable hands of @Dave_Q  who I am sure will provide an update re his plans for the beautiful beast!

My last rapid charge photo - taken in Sunny Abington - at a charge place Scotland site that worked with no issues.

We exited at 20:50 with 136055 miles on it - just under 4100 miles since June.

 

[320touring]

So how was it to own?

Well. It's a high mileage ex taxi with the worst of the mainstream EV drive lines and battery..

It's been pretty much fucking FLAWLESS!

Seriously. No new noises, no bangs/clunks/rattles beyond what I got it with. No blown exhausts, no oil leaks, no timings belt roulette.

 

It's been ace and whet our appetite for an EV as the daily beater.

If you have a need for a runabout/short hop car, you could do a lot worse. An old LEAF can be a great solution.

 

So what does it cost?

A goodly question.

 

I've written previously about the cost of entry to EV ownership being pretty high for the range available - you can go much further on a tank of fuel in a £750 petrol or derv car! 

However, if you have a need for a short trip car, then an older EV could make perfect sense.

This is our average use of the LEAF over the last 7 months. We bought it on the premise of doing 20 miles a day.

Buying a used EV is capital intensive, but you could lease a brand new version of my LEAF for £150 a month. That may be manageable depending on how your funds are.

What it does get you is access to cheap running costs.

We did 4081 miles, using mainly home charging at 22/24p per kWh.

The economy varied a fair bit - at its best in warm weather at lower speeds, and at worst in -6 with the heater on doing motorway runs

All in all, that's some pretty good numbers, and I was quite pleased at the economy.

 

We charged about 90% at home, the rest a mix of fast (40p/kWh) and rapid (79p/kWh).

I did get one free charge at a mates when staying over on Colonsay.

In our ownership it needed £9.89 worth of new wipers (fronts and a rear)

£50 for an MOT

And nothing more for maintenance.

7p per mile for fuel and maintenance is pretty fucking cheap.

The Octavia I had would have to do 124.99mpg to cover the same miles for the same fuel cost...

(£215.06 total spend on fuel giving 148.41L (32.65 gallons), assuming £1.449/L - price at my local station)

[loserone]

@New POD this lad is putting your skills with the sheets to shame man

[320touring]

Someone likes this. .

[320touring]

@Dave_Q has not yet had time to get Nissan to move the app subscription over to him, so every time the Leaf gets charged, I get a notification when finished!

It's good to know it's still doing a shift🤣

Based on the number of alerts, it must think it's a taxi again😍

[Dave_Q]

For sale here if anyone is keen: