A Day In The Life Of A Two Nissan LEAF Family

Charging Both LEAFs

Pushing the range of our Nissan LEAFs into the EV Badlands is one of my most beloved of passions. However, I do have a family. A family with two all-electric Nissan LEAFs. A day in the life of our household is more about cross-town errands than cross-country epics. With over 50,000 of combined miles on our two LEAFs in less than two years, it really is the daily grind, not the occasional EVenture, that our cars do the heavy lifting. This is what it is like to be an all-EV family on a typical Saturday. Yes, the logistics are different than when we had our ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles… *Editor’s Note: This post appears of Steve’s blog.  Check it out by clicking here.

MORNING PLANNING

Perhaps the most important thing that we did to make life manageable with two EVs was to install a second EVSE (electric vehicle supply equipment–aka “charger”) in our garage. On weekends, it is especially useful to charge both LEAFs simultaneously to 100% if the day is looking to be a busy one.

YOUR CAR, MY CAR

My wife has her car, the black 2013 LEAF. Mine is the white 2012 LEAF. Yes, she gets the nicer of the two (leather, shiny wheels, yadda yadda yadda), but we end up swapping cars quite often. The reason for the spousal exchange is that the 2013 LEAF has a 6.6kWh onboard charger, while the 2012 only charges at about 3.6kW per hour. Therefore, if there is any anticipated Level 2 (240v) charging needed during the day, the 2013 LEAF will be driven on that trip.

To the YMCA for Swimming Lessons

Looking ahead to the afternoon, I had an upcoming 90-mile trip and would be Level 2 charging at the halfway point. Those logistics meant that I needed to first take our kids to the Y in my 2012 LEAF and my wife would take her 2013 LEAF the short distance to a Relay For Life event in late morning hours.

Car Swap Time

After swimming lessons, the kids and I swapped LEAFs for our afternoon trip to go have some fun. We picked up my stepfather in the black 2013 LEAF and drove about 45 miles to one of his job sites so he could take the little dudes for some joyriding in a 40,000 pound CAT front loader.

The Anti-EV: Burns Six Gallons of Fuel Every Hour and Operates at 106db!

BE PREPARED

Aside from having ample charging available home, it is critically important for us to be able to charge our EVs from various power supplies when EVSE infrastructure is not available. We have a portable EVSE that is capable of charging up to 240v and 20 amps. This equates to a 4.8kW charge. While it doesn’t max out the Level 2 charging capability of our 2013 LEAF, it is still good for about 19 miles of added driving range for every hour of charging.

Guerilla EV Charging!

THE PLEASURE & PAIN

Our typical Saturday of errands and activities had us traveling a combined 135 miles between our two Nissan LEAFs. Clearly there is a bit of “pain” in relying on two sub-100 mile range EVs to completely fulfill transportation duties. For us, though, the pleasures of EV ownership far outweigh the logistical challenges. The financial savings are remarkable. The 135-mile travel day would have cost $20.25 if we had a medium-sized ICE family sedan. Instead, we paid south of $4.00 for electricity (actually, less than that because 4kWh were charged for free). The gas vs. electricity comparison of costs is even better when probing a bit deeper to the realities of the two “fuels.” Gasoline prices fluctuate. The cost of electricity is stable. Being the typical family that we are, having stability in our monthly budget is very important in getting through each month. Driving electric vehicles takes out one of those budgetary items that always seemed to hammer us with a budget-busting rise in gas prices at the worst of times. While the fuel savings is our immediate gratification for driving Nissan LEAFs, another “pleasure” that I have come to realize with driving our EVs is actually more of a long-term investment. Our children, ages six and three, are growing up with “energy usage, energy efficiency, and energy costs” as a part of their lexicon. That is truly what the world needs: a whole generation that has an understanding of the global impact of personal energy usage.