IF my piece on the Nissan Kicks about a month and a half ago, extolled the vehicle being a cure to range anxiety, this review of a well-used Nissan LEAF proved that overcoming range anxiety, means maximizing the distance per charge and getting ready with a plan of action when needed.
Range anxiety was created by the battery electric vehicle.
J.D. Powers defines it as what “a driver feels when the battery charge is low, and the usual sources of electricity are unavailable. It sparks a fear of getting stranded somewhere, which adds time, inconvenience, and stress to a journey.”
I’ve read so many articles by my colleagues in media and some selected content creators (Caco Tirona of Autodeal makes a solid case about it) but no one has tried to ever experience that scary, overwhelming unknown called range anxiety. On my part I had driven the LEAF to near death (of its battery) and lived (without the need for a tow truck or a burly men to push the car to safety) to tell the tale.
The Nissan LEAF
The Nissan LEAF (which by the way means Leading, Environmentally-friendly, Affordable, Family car) is a compact 5-door hatchback battery electric car (BEV). The name is an acronym and thus cannot be spelled as Leaf. Its plural is also LEAFs not LEAVES. I just had to get that note in. Nissan’s global communications and brand teams will be very happy I did.
Underneath the shapely exterior, the LEAF sits on the ZE1 platform. The first generation LEAF (which looks like a tree frog) uses the shorter ZE0 platform. The ZE1 uses a torsion beam axle rear, also with coil springs in the rear. Independent MacPherson struts with coil springs are found upfront.
It is a C-size compact measuring in at 4,490 mm long, 1,788 mm wide, and 1,540 mm tall with a 2,700 mm wheelbase. Tipping the scale between 1,557 kg to 1,568 kg (depending on the variant) and clears the asphalt at 155 mm. And as you will find out later, it has a 5-passenger seating capacity but mostly for normal (meaning fit and healthy, or not so tall) individuals.
Under the car lies (literally) and bank of Laminated Lithium-ion (LLioN) batteries that produce 40 kWh of power to run the motor. LLioN batteries feature a high energy density and reliable recharging capabilities. From a full charge, the LEAF has an expected range of 311 km (when new).
Fancy mechanicals connect the a 110-kW electric motor that delivers 148 hp and 320 Nm of torque to a single-speed reduction gear transmission which is basically balances out the power and makes the sliding R-N-D selector that also plays a part in the energy regeneration process.
Stopping the LEAF is done with a standard hydraulic system with ventilated front brakes and solid discs in the rear. Braking is supplemented regenerative using same motor it processes kinetic energy by resisting the forward motion of the vehicle. Doing so reverses its use from motor to power generator and puts that energy back into the battery while slowing down the car. Nissan calls the technology e-Pedal.
I need to repeat this because some content creators say it is the transmission that helps slow down the vehicle. That is incorrect. It is the motor.
To charge the LEAF there are two ports up front, a 6.6 kW on-board charger for Type 2 AC charging, and a rapid 50 kW DC port. Note that even when you are at a station with a rated output above 6.6 kW, the EV can only take up to 6.6 kW maximum.
The LEAF stands on16-inch alloy wheels and 205/55 series tires, a perfect combination that has a minimal footprint that reduces road friction but keeps the car stable.
Testing range anxiety
The objectives for this test drive: (1) challenge myself to push the limits of the LEAF, (2) overcome range anxiety by prudent driving and (3) find already built solutions (dealers, gasoline stations with charging facilities, malls, etc.) or (4) a good Samaritan who has an outlet and will charge the EV.
I must say, whole affair turned out pretty well, mainly because of regenerative braking, Google Maps and the kind hearts of those who offered an electrical outlet. On day three of my adventure I had the added bonus of having five of the best people in the beat with me on the ride to Manila.
Day one: Battery degradation
Day one with the Nissan LEAF was a nice getting to know you.
The test unit had over 14,000 kilometers on the odometer and the battery tops up only up to 278 kilometers with the charging indicators (on both the car and the portable charger) reading 100 percent. This indicates normal battery degradation over the 2 years it has been used. Using New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) measurement, the range of the LEAF is 311 kilometers on one full charge.
Should this bother owners? Not at all. Let’s do the math. 311 kms. — 278 kms. = 33 kilometers or a 10 percent degradation over 2 years (or 14,000 kilometers.) If the rate of degradation is constant over 8 years (the warranty of the battery) this means an estimated drop of about 40 percent at the end warranty cycle.
Battery degradation however, isn’t linear.
The higher the batteries are discharged (and charged), the lower the battery capacity. For a test unit like this–having run the distance it has–may be an high use case. For this reason, I am not categorically saying that the LEAF’s degradation rate is constant. I made confirmation with former colleagues from Nissan now based in New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia and Japan and indeed the rates are very different. Apparently, it is affected also by temperature, and charging quality. As the charge and discharge curves of the batteries are exponential, the result is that degradation is never linear.
Day two: The beach, an outlet for anxiety
Unisan Sands Beach resort is about 112 kilometers from San Pablo. Day two of my LEAF-y adventure was a drive to the resort. Again, an attempt to experience real range anxiety. I figured that I would only use a maximum of 265 kilometers of juice (estimations with all the uphill roads going back) giving me 13 kilometers more power to get home. It didn’t work that way.
What was supposed to be a 2-hour 12-minute trip became a 2-hour and 56-minute detour. I didn’t factor in road constructions and a bus-versus-tricycle road crash that caused the delay and subsequent detour.
By the time I reached Unisan Sands, I only had 120 kilometers on the battery meter. Scary thoughts of getting stranded along the Atimonan zigzags (the most power-hungry part of the trip). I was ready and brought the portable charging unit and my 35 amps 20 foot. 30-amp rated power extension.
The management at Unisan Sands gladly allowed to plug into an open 30 amp socket and when I offered them some money after a four-hour charge, they refused, amazed at a car that didn’t need a gas pump. (Side story here is that in this part of the world the distance between gasoline stations also give locals ‘fossil-fuel’ range anxiety.)
Day Three: Stories from BRC
On day three, I drove to the Batangas Racing Circuit (BRC) to attend Great Wall Motors’ test drive event. Though the day before I had a minor shot of range anxiety, for this trip I decided that I wanted the real thing.
With only 252 kilometers distance available, I left for BRC which is a mere 43.5 kilometers via the Tiaong-Rosario-Lipa road. I decided on two things: first, not to bring the charger (oops, honey I forgot the charger) and second that I planned out who would pick up and where I would park in case I do run out of power. I also plotted the two nearest Nissan dealers who could give me a charge in case the worst happened.
The day didn’t start well, that morning repairs on the PNR tracks (the San Pablo-Lucena train now makes regular trips) caused a slight 14-minute delay and Waze told me take another route. That route–which ran behind BRC, instead of approaching it from the Rosario-Lipa road, ducked into a myriad of back roads, adding 4 kilometers to the trip meter but 22 minutes to the ETA.
The result was power dropping to 188 kilometers instead of my expected 208 kilometers, which was enough to take me to the day’s evening event in Okada. I did get some regeneration (set to ‘B’ mode) which recovered an estimated 12 kilometers since the first day. Not enough though. Regenerative braking works lesser in long distance drives, versus city driving when the brakes are used more often.
Day Three: Le French exit
I had first offered a ride to Randolph de Leon of jamedeakin.ph when he told me he was heading to Manila to attend the dinner party to launch the new brand Jetour.
Later, the offer extended one of to the two giants of the motoring beat, Ronnie Trinidad, who said he needed to rush back to Manila. I was across the table from Alfredo Mendoza and I could not resist not offering it to my brother-in-arms. I figured that with the additional three men, I ‘d have enough muscle to ably push the LEAF’s 1567 kilograms if I ran out of power.
Then at the last moment, Manila Times’ Alain Geronimo overhearing our early French exit from the GWM’s media test drive, asked if could joined the group headed for Okada. I didn’t give it a second thought, after all the LEAF could sit five, right?
Occupying every inch of the Nissan’s rear seats, Alain complained that he could not sit properly in the middle because of a central tunnel cutting across the floor. “What?!” I told him. What is a central tunnel doing there? Should it not be just a flat floor?
Apparently not. And it wasn’t a central tunnel, it was simply a bulge on the floor where part of the lithium battery connectors are found. Checking with friends at Nissan engineering, I was told the ‘minimal bulge’ was for electricals running back and forth through the vehicle. I am sure, Nissan engineers will find away to reroute the cables for a flatter floor in the next version.
Day Three: Now the heavy lifting
By estimates, our combined weight may total at least (sorry boys, not to judge) over 400 kilos. That’s the equivalent of 8 sacks of rice or 16 pieces of luggage for international travel.
We left BRC fully laden with me at the wheel.
The traffic was already slow exiting BRC, Waze had us take the Lipa-South Luzon Arterial Road (STAR) instead of my original plan of exiting via Rosario and taking the open Calabarzon highway. The traffic at Lipa City was particularly bad on that day, and it seems the gods were conniving to slow us down going to Okada.
By the time we exited STAR tollway, We had used up 56 kilometers of power and re-generated about 8 kilometers. Heavy traffic and our weight exacted a penalty on range. Once the aircon is turned on, about 5 to 7 kilometers range is taken away from the charging bar.
Driving down STAR I had to drive judiciously, and find as much opportunity to regenerate power. There were two long opportunities were we were able to recover about 4 to 5 kms worth of power, the Lipa to Malvar stretch (a 12 percent grade downhill) and the Sto Tomas to just before Calamba (a less steeper ascent).
When we reached Petron Km. 42 North for a bathroom break after nearly an hour in traffic. Ronnie and I switched places and he took over the wheel because I felt he was so cramped in the back.
When I took over his place, I did feel cramped because now there were three horizontally large guys instead of two plump and one tall one. In his Facebook page, Alain sveltely described himself as “some fat car nut.” This is the reason we gave him the monicker “Kompressor” (which is turbocharger in German), but meant because he compressed us at the back.
By this time we had only 145 kilometers charge. We arrive at Okada at 7:20pm after being on the road for 2 hours and 15 minutes travelling 101 kilometers but using up the equivalent of 108 kilometers charge, recovering only about 5. This left me with 90 kilometers to travel back home–88 kilometers away, and at night.
Thinking about it now, it wasn’t the cold ice tea or the Jetour Ice Cream that gave me the shivers. It was the though of my mileage miscalculation.
Day Three: The Gateway to heaven
When Alfred, Ronnie and Alain got into the car, the plan was to go to Alabang where I’d drop the gentlemen off and proceed to Alabang and top up there. But the locations for the charging stations and the kinds of plugs they have was quite convoluted.
We (I include them, because little did they know, their purpose in being here was to push if we ran out or juice), made the decision to wing it at Nissan Gateway Manila Bay one of five dealerships with slower wall chargers.
We drove down to the dealership and lo! and behold! It has a charging station in the back.
Nissan Gateway Manila Bay wall charger added another 18 kilometers of power. We had to wait about 2 hours to get the additional distance.
EV antagonists complain about charging time. But any time can be made into quality time.
Ronnie, Alfred, Alain and I spent those two hours talking with vigor about future plans, with sadness about the present situations, gleaming with hope about our own selves and with distress at what the political and economic condition is. We vicariously discussed the latest about who’s who in the industry we are in, confidently predicted how electric vehicles will soon be the norm and with cautious optimism about how the Chinese brands are overwhelming the local and global market.
We also chatted about how Alain would bring us back pasalubongs after his trip to Barcelona with his mom. Something that didn’t happen. We let Alain go via a Grab car and after 2 hours of quality banter, I had enough charge to confidently take me home.
This is the first time Gateway Motors saved by sanity by reversing a range anxiety attack.
Day four: Rekkeviddeangst
Day four starts as soon as I drop Ronnie and Alfred at Alabang where they parked their cars. I was confident of getting home after the recharge at Nissan Manila Bay because I had 108 kilometers on the power meter.
I had overcome rekkeviddeangst, Norwegian for range anxiety (thank you Tita Marita Tribdino-Gvjusland) which means the same but when pronounced properly sounds more threatening and pressuring.
Any and every kind of EV from a two wheel scooter to a e-motorcycle and an electric car creates some form of anxiety once the charge bar becomes red, hits below the 50 percent mark or when heavy traffic starts chewing into the vertical bars of power.
The same is for the Weltmeister W5 I tested earlier or the series of Teslas I drove in New York. In fact, even internal combustion drivers have range anxiety, especially those who live in the provinces–which is why there is the ‘bote-bote’ for motorcyclists.
I drove at the edge of the speed limits, 80 kms per hour most of the time to get home faster. I also took the longer Los Baños route. At around km. 76 exiting Bay, Laguna the power meter (see that nice icon with a pump and an outlet?) told me I had 10 percent left–20 kilometers of driving. At 20 kms to zero the warning box appeared (photo above) with a beep to politely remind me to gas up, err…charge up.
To my mind however, I was already in the safe zone and drove home comfortably.
Day five: A charge and a nap
I arrived at around 1 am and plugged in the LEAF at around 1:15am. I scheduled my trip back to Manila the next day at 2:00 pm and expected to have at least 50 percent power available from the 11 hour charging.
I had about 144 kms worth of battery power leaving the house enroute to Katipunan, 88 kilometers away. I though The Ateneo was friendly to EVs, having EV jeepneys and quite a concentration of LEAFs and Kicks, and I was not wrong. They would have, at the same spot as the e-jeepney charging station, offered me a 30 amp plug, had I not refused the offer because, I failed to load up the bag that contained the portable charger. (It was a practice for a senior moment.)
Not to worry. I had plan B. And her name is Cora Ortega, sales manager of Nissan Gateway Pasong Tamo (aka Nissan Mantrade). The dealership is one of two locations that had a fast DC charger, capable of filling up to 80 percent power, in 40 minutes.
I had to make sure that Nissan Mantrade would allow the charging. Nissan LEAF owners have a card to access the fast DC chargers which I had none. The guard was the one who opened up the charging station and plugged the car into the system. It was fast and flawless.
The guard at Nissan Mantrade gladly assisted me.
Forty minutes was a lot of time. Ludi and my daughter Laura were with me. I had just picked her up from the University dorm and it was a chance to catch up on school and have a refreshing 15-minute power nap.
This was the second time Nissan Gateway rescued by sanity.
Day Six: Round and round
I was failing at getting the full effects of range anxiety, maybe because I was doing things right. So on day six, I decided that it was time to abandon all my preparations and go full on to run the LEAF until it discharged completely.
The route was unplanned. I just went to familiar destinations following connecting roads from San Pablo up Nagcarlan around Liliw back around Magdalena down into Sta. Cruz then though the towns of Victoria and Pila, left turn into Calauan exit back to Los Banos then Bay drive up to via the Makiling-Banahaw road into Alaminos then back to San Pablo.
Total distance was only 129 kms but took up 133 kms from the vehicle possibly because half of it was steep uphills and zigzags. However, an estimated 16 kms (over 10% of the actual distance) of power was recovered from the many downhills and zigzags requiring a lot of braking. There isn’t much opportunity for regenerative braking though the streets are narrow and require more accurate, actual braking.
This is the Nissan LEAF’s e-pedal in action.
There was a second run this time to the Quezon province side. This went all the way to my mother-in-law’s hometown in Sariaya for tamales. I drove down the ‘Calabarzon’ highway, recently (within the last 10 years) which was the connecting road prepared for the SLEX extension to Tayabas, Quezon (not Lucena City, as some bloggers keep saying).
I also moved back and forth inside San Pablo running errands in the summer heat with the aircon on zapping power from the car–as the motor that run the compressor draws power from the same lithium ion battery pack.
Pump up the volume: a short history
In the 1930s, ICE vehicles were filled up using a hand pump, a funnel and a spout. It took about 5 to 15 minutes to fill up because gasoline was hand pumped from a drum, into a steel measuring container and funnelled into the petrol tank of the vehicle.
In the 50s there were the gravity tanks, which functioned the same way as the manual filling described above. A hand operated pump moved fuel from the storage tank into the either a glass bottle or a clear cylinder at the top of the pump. This measured the fuel. As soon as the desired amount is reached, the fuel is emptied into the tank via a hose
The centrifugal pump for aircraft fuelling and re-fuelling was wartime technology adapted for use in vehicles. Flowmeters were used to measure amount of fuel used and these were later mated to mechanical calculators that showed the price of fuel per gallon or liter.
I talk about his here because what EVs are experiencing now, is almost the same as what the ICE engines had in the past. Although the waiting times aren’t as long, the process is the same. Just consider, three years ago the average quick charging time from zero to 80 percent is 2 hours. Today it is 40 minutes. If you follow that trend, a DC charger may, in the future complete a charge in maybe 10 minutes.
Is range anxiety now a myth?
‘Range anxiety’ was first used in reporter Richard Acello in a report about the GM EV1 that appeared in the San Diego Business Journal. In the article GM EV1 owners shared their “anxiousness” every time they drove their cars, that the “batteries would run out” and they would not make it to their destinations.
The GM EV1 had two variants–a lead acid battery powered one that did only 74 miles (119 kms) and a nickel metal hydride variant that did 150 miles (241 kms). These numbers however were adjusted using EPA standard procedures in 2019 and revised mileage for the lead—acid: 55 miles (89 km) and for the NiMH: 105 miles (169 km).
This now explains why GM EV1 owners experienced range anxiety. They really never knew the distance their cars would bring them. The difference in the expectation (as expressed in the power gauge) and the result was never the same.
Range anxiety and lack of charging infrastructure remains to be the biggest psychological and physical barriers to the widespread use of EVs, respectively. The lack of charging infrastructure causes the anxiousness, which can be overcome with diligence, planning and prudent driving–same requirements if one was driving an ICE vehicle.
With the battery technology, charging equipment and reduced charging time, power management systems and regenerative braking,
This will never happen with the Nissan LEAF. The way the vehicle manages and reports power always gives the driver a chance to stop or slow down, make decisions on recharging and even apply power saving ways to maximize their trips.
The Nissan LEAF came in dire straits
Former Nissan Philippine president Atsushi Najima is a visionary who took a huge risk bringing in the Nissan LEAF in the middle of the pandemic. Launched in May 2021, with only 3 dealerships with charging stations and a market not yet accustomed to electric vehicles, the LEAF came in via a livestream launch.
Not many latched on to the LEAF at first still believing in mostly conspiracy theories about batteries and unwelcome thoughts about not really achieving zero-carbon because coal and bunker fuel powers the generations stations that charge the vehicle.
The risk Nissan took with the LEAF also opened the door wide to the acceptance of EVs. BYD in the Philippines actually takes the crown for being the first for full EVs, but Nissan takes the win for a modest infrastructure and technology that supports EV first intenders. Today, I estimate there should be nearly 30 LEAFs in the country.
Post test-drive conclusions
It took a while to write this test drive story because I had to wait for the electric bill to arrive. In our compound we have four meter installations, one of which feeds directly to my home office. This is also where I tapped a permanent installation of a 60-amp line with a standard multi-prong socket to accommodate all versions of plugs without the need for an adapter.
(Note: never use adapters and an extension with a rating of less than 20 amps for portable EV chargers. There is a huge risk of fire when cables heat up and plugs melt.)
In the six days I spent with the vehicle, I spent only an additional P1,845. on electricity. Even if you add the power that Nissan Gateway Manila Bay and Makati provided (which I saved) P1,845 is just half a tank of gasoline. But that covered the distance of 828 kilometers (in total 1050 kms, subtracting the 80 percent or 222 kms from the DC charger) in days I had the vehicle. That’s only P2.22 per kilometer.
P2.22 per kilometer multiplied by the 313 claimed range is on P694 per full “tank.” In ICE engine terms that is 11 liters of 95 RON gasoline, not even 1/4 of a 50-liter gasoline tank.
Nissan price drop
An important footnote to this story. Executive Order No.12 caused massive disruptions in the electric vehicle industry, cutting down import duties on 4-wheel electric vehicles to zero from 30 percent. The move cut down the Nissan LEAF’s price from P2.798M to P1.998M. The new retail price became effective last April 21, 2023.
