A year with my electric car

10 October 2022

On October 2, 2021, I took a train across the state to Kansas City to pick up the 2022 Nissan LEAF SL-Plus I’d just leased. I then drove it 250 miles home to St. Louis. (I blogged about the car buying (and selling) experience at the time.)

I literally hadn’t owned a new car since 2005. And this car felt newer than new because it has technology I hadn’t experienced before. The trip home became a bit rocky when I discovered that the charger in Defiance, Missouri, that I had scoped out was out of order. Since it was getting dark, I took a room in a hotel in Columbia and headed out the next morning to a charging station in Kingdom City that was, thankfully, operable. (The car dealership, Dream Nissan, paid all my travel expenses!)

In the first month of ownership, until the electrician could get the proper electricity added to my garage, I charged at an EVGO station at my bank, just a mile from my house. Once I had the electricity in my garage and the charging cable that came with the car installed, I was in heaven. It’s like having a gas station in my garage. All I have to do is remember to look at my battery charge level when I pull into the garage and decide whether I need to plug it in. Depending on how much I’m driving, I plug in usually about once a week.

Do I recommend getting an electric car? For me people like me, absolutely. Almost all my driving is local. The range on my car is about 240 miles on a full charge. There are very few places I go that I can’t get to and from without charging. I have one client just out of range and I take my husband’s Honda Accord when I work with her.

I have had to use a rapid charger outside my home just once in the eleven months since my in-garage charging station was installed. And that was because I forgot to charge the night before. Rapid charges are harder on battery longevity, so I’m glad I’m able to do my charging at home.

On the one-year anniversary of being an EV enthusiast, I thought I’d share the things I love about my Nissan LEAF:

It’s quiet.
It’s zippy—it accelerates very quickly, so merging onto the interstate is a breeze.
With zero emissions, it’s good for the environment.
It has most of the modern technology I like in a car, including Apple CarPlay, heated seats and heated steering wheel
The safety features are terrific.
A hatchback, it’s roomy enough for me to carry the things I need.
It’s the most compact car I’ve owned since my 1998 Honda Civic and it’s easy to fit into my small city garage.
It’s just plain fun to drive!

There are a few things I don’t love about the car:

I’m not comfortable taking it on long trips (because of range anxiety), when I would really enjoy driving it
It requires USB connection to the phone in order to connect to CarPlay (but I took care of that buying this bluetooth adapter).
Sometimes when my phone is plugged into the USB cable, the audio when talking on the phone is unbearably crackly. That’s a known bug, I think. And the bluetooth adapter (above) has taken care of the problem.

I wasn’t nervous about driving an electric car because my friend and podcast co-host, Shannon Wilkinson has a 2021 Nissan LEAF and heartily recommended it. I learned long ago that I can’t go wrong taking Shannon’s recommendations (hence, the podcast). And then her husband, Mike, told me about the bluetooth adapter that took away my least favorite thing about the car.

If you’ve been toying with the idea of getting an electric car and were hesitating due to the lack of charging infrastructure (which I sure hope will be getting better), I urge you to think about having a charging station installed in your garage, if possible. It’s not a prerequisite, though. Shannon and Mike don’t have garage and get by without one. Also, think about how much you actually drive. For daily commutes it might be just what you need.

Tagged with: car decisions, electric cars