One big part of the answer to this question is another question – what are your driving habits?
Many of us find ourselves making several short trips per day. Get the kids to school first thing in the morning. Go to work. Run out at lunch and perhaps incorporate some errands. And reverse the order in the afternoon. This is ideal for the LEAF. Especially if you have an EV friendly employer that will install a charger (or chargers) at work. In this instance, if you are uncertain of your total mileage, you can leave your car on the EVSE while you are working and squeeze a few more miles into “the tank” before heading home for the day. You will likely find that you only need a short time on the EVSE to gain a full charge. If it happens that your co-workers also join the EV bandwagon, you will be notified on your smartphone when charging is complete and you can move your car so your co-worker can plug in.
If you live in one of the five LEAF initial launch zones (Seattle, Portland, San Diego, Phoenix/Tucson, Tennessee), you will find an infrastructure being put into place prior to you taking delivery of your LEAF. In all initial launch areas, over 1,000 public EVSE locations have been determined (generally) with about 60 of these to be Level 3 stations. Installation will begin in San Diego in October. Other areas will not be far behind. Certainly not all EVSE locations will be operational by December when the first LEAFs hit the street, but it is a certainty that every Nissan store will have at least one Level 2 station in these markets. I would think that they may be willing to make them available to customers as a customer service. I would also imagine that many if not most of these Level 2 stations will be in malls, near restaurants, and perhaps in some of the “big box” store parking lots, encouraging customers to charge up while shopping or getting a bite to eat. The EV Project has already gone on record as saying that the Level 3 stations will have freeway friendly access. They haven’t asked for my opinion, but if it were me, I would put those stations in fast food parking lots as they are generally convenient to freeways and typically their customers don’t stay for over 30 minutes or so.
But what about those of you that are interested in a long distance commuter. You have a drive of 30-50 miles one way, and don’t really know if the LEAF is right for you. This situation is much more dependent on the public infrastructure. Certainly LEAF ownership is doable. But, it will require some thought, and some planning. Knowing where the Level 3 chargers for me would be most important. Level 2 is nice, but I really would not want to hang around waiting for my vehicle to charge, perhaps for hours. But 30 minutes? I could grab some coffee – have a snack – catch up on some reading… and know that I could get home easily. For this driver, the Level 3 availability becomes a significant factor in making the decision. At least for me. Here the question really starts to become “How strongly am I committed to this decision?” Because once you make the choice, you will live with it for as long as you own the LEAF.
Next time, we will talk about cost of ownership, and how the LEAF compares to your current vehicle.