15 months old

I received the electricity bill for this quarter and my energy usage this winter has dropped again (I didn't use the heater very much as Brisbane does not get very cold). It cost $326 to travel 7800km. My average for 100km has dropped over this period to $4.12 (from $4.20), not too shabby.

The days have warmed up again (warmer spring than normal), so I now have 110-130km range from an 80% charge, up from winter range of 100-120km. I still can't tell if I have lost any range (don't have a GID meter, but I gather it has lost something).

Someone asked me recently what I love about the leaf

• Regen (I love how the leaf holds speed down hills - police love hills for speed traps).
• Sensitive throttle (I like being able to manoeuvre without the car lurching).
• Quiet (I can pass bikes and hear the chains rattling).
• Cool (Even on 34 degree Celsius day, I can cruise along with the windows down. No heat radiating from the engine bay).

One thing that I would love would be able to display non english characters on the AUX menu. Sometimes I listen to asian pop (jpop / kpop / mpop / ipop) and the characters are missing from the song titles.

This week I am going to visit the Brisbane branch of the Australian Electric Vehicle Association to see what is happening. Hopefully something good.

Still saving to purchase a fast charger for the Gold Coast. Only have $3500 of $40,000, but better than nothing :)

30,000kms

30,000km's and running fine. Had the 30k service and battery check, everything is fine.
The trip to the Motorfest was good. Heaps of people visited my leaf and had a good look.
On the whole, most people were interested and I spoke with many people. There were a few nasty comments, but you get that anywhere I guess.

1 Year old

My leaf is one year old today! I have travelled over 27,000 kms and had heaps of fun doing it.
I have used about $1,060 in electricity (approx 4,100 KWh).
Recently the electricity went from 26 cents/KWh to almost 30 cents/KWh, so now it is about $4.20 for 100km (used to be about $3.80).

I have not done much exploring in the leaf due to work on weekends, but I hope to purchase some chargers in November for Gold Coast and North Lakes / Redcliffe, which will extend my range. Just need to find spots that property owners will allow installation.

Tomorrow I am going to the motorfest (car show at Eagle Farm Racecourse, Brisbane). I hope to introduce lots of people to the leaf.

Driven 20,000 kms already!

I was on my way to work when I noticed I was at 20,000 kms. I pulled over and took a picture of the dash. Battery is still good and I have not lost any capacity bars.

I took my leaf to have a service and they lubricated my door locks etc, replaced my air filter and filled up my windscreen wiper bottle. I also got them to rotate and balance my tyres. So very happy to not be polluting the environment with used Oil and Oil Filters.

My electricity costs for 20,000 kms were $795 and servicing costs were $305, so that is about $5.50 for each 100km (plus purchase costs).

Leaf Roads

I have slowly been working out which roads are nice to my battery and which are not.
Below are a few I travel a lot.

Brisbane City to Capalaba (Redlands)

Good - Wynnum, Manly and New Cleveland Roads
60-70km/h speed limit, medium hills

Bad - Old Cleveland and Finucane Roads
60-80km/h speed limit, very steep hills.
Can loose 20km+ at camp hill and chandler.

Brisbane City to Bethania (Logan)

Good - Logan and Kingston Roads
60-80km/h speed limit, mainly medium hills with
 two steeper hills between eight mile plains and springwood.

Bad - Freeway and Logan Lea Road
60-100km/h speed limit, you have to climb three hills from
slacks creek to mt gravatt (inbound).  If I do use the freeway,
 I enter/exit at Logan road (mt gravatt) to avoid hills at 100km/h.

Bethania (Logan) to Southport Beach

Good - Side roads of M1
60-80km/h speed limit. There is a path parallel to the M1
 mainly on the ocean side. At the end of siganto drive (movie world) you have
to cross under the M1 to helensvale. From there it is a nice drive to southport.
I can do a return trip on 80% charge (air con off).

Bad - M1
110km/h speed limit. Will eat your battery up fast.
The only charging station near southport is not open on the weekend :(

Leaf 6 months later

It has been six months since I purchased my leaf. I have done about 16,000 kms and love driving it every day. I have used approximately $630 in electricity, plus an $88 service.

I have also moved house from the Redlands (East of Brisbane) to Logan (South of Brisbane). This made the daily commute from 52km return trip to 80km return trip (to work).

Luckily, due to Logan being closer to the Gold Coast, I can now travel to the beach and back without needing a charge, hurray!!

Also, When I moved, I had my charger installed with a separate meter, so I can record the power usage (previously I was using the boot charger and an inline meter). I attached a wireless monitor to the meter to make it easier to see the usage. 

Hill Starts with an electric brake

I went to dinner one night and a had to park on a really steep hill. When I walked back to my car, someone had parked really close to the back of my car (you could not walk between the two).

Every time I tried to release the hand brake (e-brake) and press on the accelerator, the car would refuse (and show this instruction).

I definitely did not want to press the brake, as I would roll backwards when I moved my foot to the accelerator.

Hill starts were not explained to me when I purchased the car (nor did I think to ask).

Many times I had stopped on steep hills and ramps and used the accelerator to stop and start again, but I had never performed a hill start.

By chance, I still had my foot on the accelerator when I pressed the park brake (e-brake) button again and away I went (so simple, maybe I should read the manual).

-- Update --

Turns out you don't need to press the button, the car will release it by itself :)