It has been suggested on numerous occasions that the average driver does no more than 80 miles per day and therefore with many mass-market electric vehicles able to accommodate 100 mile journeys per full charge is there a need to push the envelope yet further?
The fact is that the new Nissan Leaf, to be launched in 2013, is rumoured to be able to accommodate up to 150 miles per charge. The reality is that while the average driver will do nowhere near 150 miles per day it is useful to have the additional mileage in the bank in case there are few electric charging points available on your journeys.
Changes to the Nissan Leaf include aerodynamic improvements, engine efficiency improvements as well as reducing energy consumption within the vehicle. It is highly likely that other electric car manufacturers will follow the path of Nissan and issue new and improved versions of their own award-winning and ever popular electric vehicles.
Should we “push the envelope?” Absolutely! Always! What could be the harm in always trying to be better? As for 150 miles a day, say rather 100 miles per charge. There is a big difference. This week past my wife drove 30 miles in the morning, came home and pluggedin. I got up (I’m working the evening shift) and drove 35 miles to work. I plugged in for a trickle charge at work and at the end of the day drove 35 miles home. Plugged in at home for 2 hours while I had dinner and we were on the road again to get groceries and errands. Drove 25 miles to the grocer that also has a charging station (free) shopped for about 1 hour and came out to a 92% charhe. Drove another 37 miles on errands and finally came home never having dropped below 40% charge.That’s well over 150 with no probem whatsoever. As more public chargers come online it will only get easier!
The official guidance on the Nissan Leaf 2013 is 124 miles per full charge which is still impressive even if less than the rumoured 140-150 range which appeared on the interenet a while back.
I’ve owned 7 Nissans, and they are a good brand usually very reliable. 124 miles blows away every company in terms of electric range other than Tesla right now. Impressive for the cost as well. I know you can get one for around mid 20’s too so that’s the price point everyone is looking for. Unfortinately, for the US market, if they made it look more like a “normal” car ie: sedan they would sell more
