We have made it to Denver, and Electra, my 2012 Nissan Leaf, couldn't be happier. But it appears the higher altitude is messing with her range. (See my previous post about Leaf Math.) Let me explain.
We arrived in Denver on April 19 via our Prius through Texas, and Electra arrived on April 20 via a truck transport. She only had 13 miles range on her, so immediately I plugged her into Denver's power grid. By Monday, she was charged up and ready to go. My husband borrowed Electra on Monday to go to work, and she did just fine. On Tuesday, we were going to do a trial run of Electra's range in Denver. We woke up to a blanket of snow. and snow. and snow. and snow.
My daughter's school is only 19 miles from the hotel, or roundtrip 38 miles. I figured I'd take her to school, return to the hotel to work, charge Electra enough to do the afternoon round trip, and pick my dauther up as well. So much for plans! Electra, my daughter and I loaded up and headed to school. We inched our way to the interstate, where are 19 mile trip took over 90 minutes in the snow. Electra's seats were warm, the defroster was running, and the steering wheel was toasty. I dropped Kelly off at school with 22 miles of range left off an original 92.
I didn't think I'd make it back to the hotel, so my escape plan was to get to my husband's office and swap cars with him. Since Electra gobbled up so much range in the snow, I knew she wouldn't be able to get charged up enough in six hours for me to complete the round trip again. I swapped cars with my husband, picked up my daughter later that day, and my husband made it home with Electra that evening with 1 mile left.
I plugged Electra in to charge over night. I could see her from my hotel window, and I noticed that her first blue light was staying on for a very long time. I thought perhaps the amps at the hotel were lower, or perhaps she charged slower in the cold. I couldn't quite figure out why she didn't seem to be charging her normal way. But I went to bed, thinking everything would be fine in the morning.
The next day, the snow had stopped, it was still cold, and the roads were clear. Thinking that my original plan to drive my daughter both ways to school, while charging Electra mid day would work, we went down to Electra to start our commute. Strangely, her one blue light was still blinking. I opened the door and uncovered the problem. I had left Electra on overnight, and she was charging while "running!"
Need less to say, she did not have a full charge, and again, my husband and I automagically re-engineered our commute to get our daughter and him back and forth to school and work. Laughing about the fact that I had left Electra running all night, I soon realized I had a giant problem. I had no understanding of her range in Denver and what I could plan.
Here's the dilemma: the one snow day's travels had totally altered her range meter. We had run at 3-4 mph in the snow with the heat on, so when her range showed the next day, it only showed 60. Then, when I ran her all night, I had a range of 39. How could I plan a day of 76 miles with no idea of her range? But the good news was this. I trusted Electra, and I knew she could get me back and forth as I had planned, and I just had to blindly ignore her range meter until it worked itself out.
And it did. So, the Mile High City seems to have freaked Electra and me out, but now, we're doing okay. It does appear that Electra gets more range here--less air conditioning, lower speeds, more regeneration because of a lot of surface roads--whatever the reason, we're happy. Very happy. And the commute is going smoothingly. Let's hope the weather stays beautiful so our construction crew can finish up our house early!
