Posts Tagged by events

Yesterday, my family and I headed out to Soldier Field for the Nissan LEAF’s Drive Electric Tour, where I was able to test drive the 100% electric Nissan LEAF and learn a lot of great information about it.

Starting at about $35,200 plus a tax credit of $7500, the Nissan LEAF is the first affordable 100% electric car. It runs off a rechargeable battery, which means no gas! Here’s a video of one of the product specialists at the Drive Electric Tour giving more information about the battery:

She mentioned that a fully charged battery goes up to 100 miles. An electric car is not meant for road trips or long commutes, but it’s a great city car. In fact, the battery partially recharges every time it comes to a stop, so if you are in a lot of stop and go traffic, which we have a lot of in Chicago, the battery may actually go further. One product specialist said that he has seen the car go as far as 120 miles and as little as 60 miles on one fully charged battery depending on what type of driving is done.

By the end of this year, the Chicago area plans on having 250-500 recharging stations at not only gas stations, but also stores and restaurants so you can charge up your electric car while you’re either shopping or dining. The picture shown to the right is a recharging station that I saw inside the parking garage of Soldier Field right near the elevators, so it’s preferred parking much like having a handicapped spot.

The funnest part of the Drive Electric Tour was being able to drive the Nissan LEAF! I loved being able to experience some of the car’s features:

• Turns on with the push of a button
• Back-up camera that shows you where the car will go as you turn the wheel
• Monitor that shows you how much battery is being use and how many miles you have left on the battery
• Extremely quiet and smooth ride
• Fast acceleration (compared to my Honda CR-V)
• No feeling of the gears shifting since there is no transmission (again, a smooth ride!)
• “Eco-drive” mode to use less battery (I did feel some resistance in the mode, where it did not accelerate as fast and I had to press harder on the gas to make it go)
• Great turning radius, similar to any compact car (I found this out when I almost missed the entrance back into the parking lot and had to make a sharp turn, hehe)

I was lucky enough to be able to drive with one of the product specialists, who was extremely knowledgeable about the car, so I got to ask him some questions, including those my friends and family had when they found out I was going to test drive the Nissan LEAF.

Q: How fast can the Nissan LEAF go?
A: 90 mph, but I’ve seen it go 95.

Q: What kind of maintenance is required for the Nissan LEAF.
A: Every year, the battery needs to be checked at a Nissan dealership. And similar to a gas-powered car, the brake fluid needs to be maintained and the tires need to be rotated.

Q: Do you foresee Nissan coming out with an electric car that can go further than 100 miles in the future?
A: Nissan is always trying to find ways to make things better, so we are hoping to be able to accomplish that in the future.

Q: What happens if you’re driving and the car runs out of battery?
A: It will give you a warning when it gets close to running out of battery. Then, everything that is not needed for the car to run, such as the radio, air conditioner, etc. will shut off. If you still have not reached your destination, the car will slow down to conserve energy.

I thought it was interesting that when I started driving the Nissan LEAF, the monitor showed 60 miles left on the battery, but after driving about 5 miles, the battery had 62 miles left since it was city driving and I hit a number of stop signs.

Lastly, if you live in the Chicago area or anywhere else with similar climate, you are probably wondering how it does in the winter. The Nissan LEAF is front-wheel drive and the battery can run normally in temperatures as low as -20 degrees. They say it handles similar to any other front-wheel drive compact car in the snow.

If you would like more information about the 100% electric Nissan LEAF, head over to their website. There are still more stops on the Drive Electric Tour, so if you are not in the Chicago area, make sure to check out their tour schedule to see if you can participate and test-drive a Nissan LEAF too!

*I am not being compensated in any way for this review and all of my opinions are my own and true.

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