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I'm too lazy to read through all the replies, so someone may have pointed it out before, but having poor performance in a hot climate is not a "design flaw". It's a natural side effect of the chemistry of all batteries. Haven't you ever put some batteries in the freezer to eke out the last bit of charge when your remote dies and it's too late to go to the grocery store?
The problem is likely Nissan's air cooling system used for the Leaf's battery. Tesla CEO Elon Musk even predicted that Nissan's cooling system would fail the Leaf at some point back in August of 2010.
Musk said that Nissan's Leaf employed a cheaper air cooling system that would make its battery temperatures jump "all over the place," where cold temperatures would degrade the battery while hot temperatures would shut it down. Tesla, on the other hand, uses a high-end liquid heating/cooling thermal management solution.
Of course I don't see anybody running out and buying Teslas instead of the Leaf, but if you give it another couple of years I'm sure Nissan's engineers will have come up with a better solution to the battery issue.
Last edited by evaofnc; 07-31-2012 at 08:02 AM..
Reason: a
We're about to buy a house here soon (finally) and we will have one of those (or similar) in the garage.
I have friends who built at a Toll Brothers development over in Durham off the Tobacco Trail (name is escaping me)... those were one of the builder options.
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Of course I don't see anybody running out and buying Teslas instead of the Leaf, but if you give it another couple of years I'm sure Nissan's engineers will have come up with a better solution to the battery issue.
Yeah... this is why I'm a big advocate of leasing new tech instead of buying it.
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I'm too lazy to read through all the replies, so someone may have pointed it out before, but having poor performance in a hot climate is not a "design flaw". It's a natural side effect of the chemistry of all batteries. Haven't you ever put some batteries in the freezer to eke out the last bit of charge when your remote dies and it's too late to go to the grocery store?
Hehehe... yep. I said that earlier. The part about heat and batteries, not the batteries in the freezer. I may try that sometime.
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We're about to buy a house here soon (finally) and we will have one of those (or similar) in the garage.
I have friends who built at a Toll Brothers development over in Durham off the Tobacco Trail (name is escaping me)... those were one of the builder options.
Never too early to future-proof. Two of the three bays in our garage under construction have boxes and conduit for future 220 service. We only ran a 60 amp line from the house to the garage but have an empty conduit in our yard if we need to bump up the electrical in the future to support the 220, and to support future solar panels on the south side of the garage.
Never too early to future-proof. Two of the three bays in our garage under construction have boxes and conduit for future 220 service. We only ran a 60 amp line from the house to the garage but have an empty conduit in our yard if we need to bump up the electrical in the future to support the 220, and to support future solar panels on the south side of the garage.
Yes! All great ideas. We are big fans of going ahead and planning for these things. It's easier than having to run it later.
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When in doubt, check it out: FAQ
We're about to buy a house here soon (finally) and we will have one of those (or similar) in the garage.
I have friends who built at a Toll Brothers development over in Durham off the Tobacco Trail (name is escaping me)... those were one of the builder options.
We installed one when we leased our Volt It was super easy.
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pegotty
New minivans are still only getting 17mpg (I'm talking city driving which is typical for me).
Which minivans? We have a 2011 Toyota Sienna. We regularly average 20-21 miles per gallon for 'around town' driving." When we get on the highway, we are up to 23-24 miles per gallon average, usually with 5 people and several suitcases.
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