60,000 KM

Today I passed 60,000 kilometres and lost my second capacity bar (complete coincidence).
I have not really noticed anything out of the ordinary. Will have to take it in for a 60k service (I think they do the brake fluid replacement this service).

My tyres (original) still look good, so maybe I will get another 10 - 20k out of them.

Hopefully I find a home for my old chargepoint station soon. It has been harder than I thought to find good spot with a car park open all hours and has something to do and they don't mind taking a car space (and hopefully no vandalism).

Currently I am using the 2.4KW brick (staying at a friends house), so the KW per 100KM has risen.

Friendly Email confirming my loss of battery capacity

Click over the 60k on the way to work this morning

Summary screen (different looking as the application had an IOS 7 makeover)

Currently I am using the 2.4KW brick, so using more energy than normal

Yes you can!

If you think your Nissan LEAF cannot make it somewhere, give it a try, you will be very surprised.
Recently I have been traveling a bit and found that I can go much further than I had ever tried before.

On the weekend I travelled from Waterford to Caloundra and back twice. I used roads that went through Chermside, Strathpine, Petrie, Burpengary, Caboolture and Landsborough (Australia Zoo).

Travelling to Caloundra, I had to use a charger at Moorooka, but I think this is due to the hills I have to climb in Logan. I needed about 45 minutes of charge (leave with 10 bars of power).

I made it home on two occasions using a 100% charge (travelling 132km). Previously I had used the motorway and tried to stay between 80km/h and 90km/h, but it used too much energy and I had to charge at Moorooka to make it home.

In the future there may be a charging station near Burpengary, which I hope will make it easier to travel between Brisbane and Sunshine Coast.

Map of the roads I used to travel between Caloundra to Waterford

50,000km and still going

Woo, have done 50,000 km in my Nissan LEAF and still going happily. I have not had any mechanical repairs and my tyres are looking good.

Fuel costs are low, only $1960 of electricty. My old Toyota Corolla would have used $5512 ($3552 more) of petrol (7.5litres/100km @ $1.47/litre). I don't use petrol anymore so I don't have records. I used ACCC Petrol Pricing and QLD Gov Stats Office to estimate an average of $1.47 / litre (for Brisbane).

Service costs were $820, higher than I expected. A Toyota Corolla is $650 (this comparison is due to previously owning Toyota Corolla's). I suspect that could change after the Toyota capped service pricing expires at 60,000 km (Nissan's expires at 120,000 km).

I don't include the purchase price in my cost calculations. It was costed when I bought it and did not weigh heavily into my purchase decision. I find when looking at the differences between various cars, I ignore / justify the price, using other measurements (like features/safety etc.), only using price as a guideline.

If the purchase price of the car is the most important factor to you (i.e. keeping it to a minimum), then you are not going to purchase a new car. So perhaps wait for 2nd hand LEAFs (ex lease) from 2015 - 2016 onwards. They should be cheaper than a new petrol car and still have more than 80% battery left.

When I purchased the LEAF, I was thinking about

• Do I like the look of the car? - YES
• Does it drive well? - YES, very fun
• Is it comfortable to drive? - VERY, low noise and lot of headroom
• What extras does it come with / can purchase? - Almost everything was standard
• How reliable is it? - UNKNOWN - but I am hoping more than a petrol car
• What is special about the car? - High Safety Score, Reduced impact on the environment
• Can I afford it without pushing financial security? (i.e. did I have 25% income left after paying bills) - YES
• Does it cost more / less to run than my current car? - Much Less

My main reason for purchasing was because it drove really well (much nicer than previous cars I had owned). I also loved that you only need three things to make it go

1. Sun
2. Solar Panel
3. Battery

Also, I have put my home charger on PlugShare. If you install the application on your phone (iPhone / Android), then my charger should appear on the map. It is handy if you are on your way to / from the Gold Coast and need some juice (Is in my garage, so ring / SMS me if you need it [number is in the app]. I can leave the cord hanging outside if I am not home).

Pulled over on the side of the road to take a picture of the dashboard

KW/h per 100 km (falling as this summer had very few hot days)

Price per 100 km (there was a 4c per KW/h price rise half way along)

Summary of the running costs (excluding car repayments)

Bridgestone tyres still have lots of tread

Lost Capacity Bar

On the 7 of November 2013 I lost my first capacity bar.

I had noticed that I could only get about 110km from a 80% charge (down from 120km).
But I had not noticed the missing capacity bar on the car display (it is hard to see the border of the display, as it is black on black).

In January 2014, I needed to travel to Redcliffe (approx. 134km round trip). So I filled to 100%. That is when I noticed the capacity bar was missing.

I went looking through the charge notification emails from Nissan and found it had reported it three months earlier (I should check them more often).

I had a 40k service performed in November and they did a battery report, but again, I didn't see it. The bar is definitely missing. For some reason, I assumed the bars on the report would disappear from the left to right, but they are the opposite. I am not sure why the service centre didn't tell me, but I guess they thought I would know already.