Friday, May 25, 2018

Trying out a Nissan Leaf

Our electric company here in the mountains is very progressive and offers pure electric cars for the members of the co-op to try out and realize the electric car driving experience.

We stopped in today to see if we might try out one of their vehicles and were offered the keys to a Nissan Leaf. This was quite the pleasant experience.

We met Sherry who introduced herself and showed the features of the car including the novel gear shift and how to plug in to charge the car. This is a pure electric vehicle with no gasoline engine backup. It has a range of 75 miles in very cold weather to over 100 miles in more temperate temperatures. The range is also helped when the battery charges when going downhill, a feature especially useful here in the mountains.

We drove to downtown Gunnison and plugged into the charger and went and had a nice lunch and came back to find we had added 24 miles of range. We traveled all over town shopping and found Nissan did an especially nice job of placing the batteries to allow good storage space inside the car.

The torque of the electric motor makes for snappy acceleration and also contributes to the car being very quiet when running around town. There is a slight beeping noise the car makes when backing up to alert pedestrians due to it being so quiet. The AC system worked especially well.

A tip of the hat to Gunnison County Electric Association for their innovative approach to getting the electric and hybrid electric car experience out to their members!


Busy times at the electric car charger

Great license plate on their Ford Fusion Energi






You can learn more about the various electric vehicle chargers in the Gunnison, CO area at this link:
http://www.gcea.coop/content/electric-vehicle-charging-stations

To learn more about electric vehicle education and test drives check out this link:
http://www.gcea.coop/content/environmental-benefit-projects-and-programs

Used Nissan Leafs can be quite economical to purchase. This link to a buyers guide lists the various models, features and options of various model years:
https://insideevs.com/used-nissan-leaf-buying-guide/

2 comments:

  1. I would like to drive one—I like a “peppy” car. What a progressive company and how wonderful that you could take advantage of their offerings.

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  2. Sean just kept saying "they let anyone take the car for free?" It is a very cool idea on how to get people the try something new. I hope people take advantage of it.

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