New guy from Quebec

[goog1986]

Hello everyone, I have been lurking for the past few months and finally decided to join your community.

My girlfriend and I had to get rid of our aging/head gasket chewing/rusty '03 Subaru Outback as well as get out of a way too expensive lease on an always broken/water pump serial killer '13 MINI Cooper Clubman. At first, we had no idea what cars to get. We wanted a fun car and a regular car, so we were looking at the Fiesta ST, Golf GTI, Subaru WRX, ect. One day, we changed our minds drastically and decided we wanted an electric car.

The Nissan Leaf, being the only fully electric car that doesn't have a 3-5 months waiting list, was our pick and we went to our local Nissan dealer to test drive one and get a quote. At that point, we haven't even considered the Micra. It's only when we mentioned to our saleswoman that we needed a 2nd car but didn't have a huge budget that she suggested we give the Micra a try. Long story short, we ended up getting a 2015 Leaf SV and a 2015 Micra SV and got rid of our aging and/or unreliable cars.

We've had the Micra (a.k.a. Judy) for 4 months now and the best way to describe it is "surprisingly good" (in french we say that we are "agréablement surpris"). We never thought we would've liked it that much! It's got everything we need (A/C, cruise control, manual transmission, cheap on gas, iPhone connectivity) for a price that I couldn't even believe and the fact that it is such a light car, the performance are adequate (similar to the MINI) and the car is quite "tossable" around corners.

Anyway, that's my story. And now, some pictures!

Pictures from the day we bought it:



A cool shot that I took in Mirabel:


Judy and GLaDOS in the driveway:

[Pete]

Welcome to the forum. Will GLADoS kick Judy's butt in a drag race?

[Howie]

LOL! GLADoS!

You monster.

[MetroMPG]

Bienvenue, goog1986!

Wow, une Micra et une Leaf? Felicitations! I was wondering if a member would get a Leaf.

I love driving electric -- such a cool experience. For ~6 years I drove my home-made $1000 EV in my small city. It was hilarious junk compared to a Leaf, but I still chose it more often than a gas car if the trip was short (the range was only ~30 - 35 km in warm weather, and the car was super slow).

Which do you prefer driving? Both are enjoyable in very different ways.

[MetroMPG]

GLADoS

Sad to say I don't get the reference.

[goog1986]

Welcome to the forum. Will GLADoS kick Judy's butt in a drag race?

On paper, they have roughly the same 0-100 km/h times. However, thanks to immediate torque, the Leaf is REALLY quick off the line. On the 0-50ish km/h, the Leaf has no problem getting ahead of a BMW... then, past 50, it gets eaten alive! In a drag race, I think the Leaf would win against the Micra, but it would be interesting to try, you know, for science.

LOL! GLADoS!

You monster.

Since you got the reference, I have cake for you!

Bienvenue, goog1986!

Which do you prefer driving? Both are enjoyable in very different ways.

At first, I thought the Leaf would be our second car because of all the preconceived ideas I had about electric cars (mainly regarding the range). However, range anxiety completely disappeared after a few days and, my girlfriend and I are using the Leaf a lot more than the Micra. Personally, I would say that, overall, I prefer the Leaf. Its much more comfortable, it has a lot of cool graphs to look at on the infotainment screen and it cost next to nothing to drive (last month, I did about 2000 km and it cost me less than 30$ of electricity). But, I am a car guy, and sometimes I really need to drive a fun manual car and the Micra fits the bill perfectly and for a fraction of the cost of a MINI Cooper! But yeah, like you said, both cars are enjoyable in very different ways!

Sad to say I don't get the reference.

It's from a video game called "Portal". GLaDOS is the evil AI/robot that forces you to solve puzzles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLaDOS

[Howie]

The cake is a lie!

*escapes into the wall with a tin of beans*

[dani3d]

Looking forward to see how many KM the leaf will do this winter at -25C... I was going to buy an electric Smart to go to work but it seem to be problematic to recharge an electric car here in Quebec if it sleep outside and if there is no way to recharge it at work, so I went with the Micra instead. Electric is fine during most of the year but I wonder what you will get with it this winter.

[Howie]

Im not 100% on this, but knowing a bit about lithium batteries, they do loose some ability to provide power when cold. The leaf does have heat in the pack to counter this, but that power comes from the batteries. You will still loose some power, but not as much as you might think. But there are other draws in the winter.. IE: Heater, winshield washer, traction control, etc.

My neighbour is fortunate enough to have a leaf. Ironic because there is only one charging station in the area- his house. XD But he noticed when it was -30, his range dropped to around 50-60km per charge, and the recharge time was much longer- Still acceptable for most people and it wouldn't be a dealbreaker for me personally.

This guy here https://canadianleaf.wordpress.com/ Runs a cool blog about his leaf and lives somewhere in quebec. A lot of it is technical jargon, but his post on 17 Feb 2014 is really good about how it handles in the cold.

[goog1986]

Range is not a big issue for me.

The Leaf is plugged at home and we do between 40 and 60 km per day for our commute (I say "we" because my girlfriend and I switch cars during the week). From what I've learn from other Leaf owners is that range will drop to around 80 km (50-60 km if you own an older model) on very cold days (-25 and below).

Because the heater is the most power consuming feature, I intend to buy a 240V charger for the winter so that I can preheat the car in the morning and still leave with a full battery. The Leaf also has heated seats and a heated steering wheel, it is recommended to use those and only use the heater if these 2 can't keep you warm. Since 2013, Nissan added a heat pump that uses a lot less energy than the resistance heater and help increase range on colder days (you can visit this link if you are interested to see the difference between the heat pump and resistance heating).

There are so many topics to discuss regarding the Leaf, I could go on and on and on... You can also visit these websites if you want to learn more about the Leaf, or EVs in general:
- My Nissan Leaf Forum
- Association des véhicules électriques du Québec (AVÉQ)
- Inside EVs (an interesting blog with all the latest news regarding EVs)
- Clean Technica (another blog about EVs)