30 kWh Nissan LEAF Extended Test Drive

We have mentioned the new “go further” Nissan LEAF previously on the V2G blog, and now thanks to JFE Nissan in Exeter we have the chance to test the new 30 kWh battery pack equipped 2016 LEAF for ourselves. According to the Nissan UK web site:

Every full charge will give you a range of up to 155 miles.

I don’t know about you, but we’d like to check that claim for ourselves! At the very start of our test the odometer on the bright white LEAF we were borrowing read 6 miles as we collected it earlier today, and had advanced to 11 miles by the time we got back to base:

We had intended returning from Exeter to the wilds of the Haldon Hills via a main road. However before we left the Marsh Barton trading estate we consulted the LEAF’s handy traffic news feed, which revealed this:

According to Radio Devon “a caravan’s been abandoned in the inside lane on Telegraph Hill”! Hence we took the scenic route through some narrow Devon country lanes, and ended up with 20 miles worth of range left in the traction battery pack, according to the LEAF’s dashboard at least:

Having previously had some trouble using the rapid charger at Exeter Services, and having to avoid the motorway for other reasons on this occasion, we were in the perfect position to test the LEAF’s 13 amp “Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment” charging lead. We plugged it in at 18:30, and by 22:30 tonight the dashboard told us this:

More from us tomorrow on our Spring 2016 LEAF test, but for now we leave you with the inimitable Robert Llewellyn’s take on the new LEAF:

À bientôt, as I believe they say in France.

1 thought on “30 kWh Nissan LEAF Extended Test Drive

  1. Having charged our loan Nissan LEAF overnight, this morning the dashboard reveals the following:

    A full “tank” gives us a predicted range of 117 miles, based on the 11 miles the car has travelled in its short life, half of which involved climbing 2/3 of the way the the top of Great Haldon. More on this subject after a longer road test.

    Another thing we discovered last night, when considering potentially “smart charging” the LEAF, is that the NissanConnect EV app that we hoped would allow us to remotely control that function of our electric vehicle has been disabled for the last few weeks. According to the BBC:

    Nissan has suspended the functions of an app that could have been used to hack its Leaf electric cars.

    The action follows the revelation that a flaw with the software meant that an attacker could run down the battery of a target’s car and see data about its recent journeys.

    Troy Hunt discovered that anyone can control the heating and air conditioning systems of a stranger’s Leaf by sending it commands via a web browser because the car’s companion app was not configured to verify the owner’s identity.

    This evening we’ll see if we can manually program the car to recharge itself in the small hours of tomorrow morning. In the meantime here’s Troy Hunt’s video explaining how he managed to warm up the interior of a Nissan LEAF on the other side of the planet:

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