The LEAF Has Fallen - Hello BlueOrca!

I got the call from the Nissan dealer yesterday, weeks earlier than expected, that our new blue baby had arrived from Japan and was ready to be picked up.

After lining up a fat check, 24 hours later the whole family was in attendance to pick up our new toy. It became very clear this was going to be Barbara's car, as the main "driver" and local to the Vallejo dealership.

Much paperwork later, the kids and Barbara accelerated onto 80 Westbound with me behind in Cujo.

60 mph start in the first lane seemed prudent. Before the bridge, the blue box moved to the 2nd, then 3rd lane and 70 mph. What was Barb doing? I hoped the mileage was awesome or something and any "range anxiety" went away. Turns out Barb has no such anxiety, the reading of 48 miles remaining once we got home did not sink in that that was not enough for a round trip at that pace (it had said 101).

The car is just a car, very normal, polished, product, no hackery anywhere detected so far. The leaf is rather tall, due to surprising ground clearance and lon g doors - the batteries are mounted in a platform under the passenger comparment. The car looks big, and seems big against the small house and tiny driveway.

The 120v trickle charger, despite the warnings, seems to be doing okay with an extension cord. I'll have our electrician check out the wiring, maybe add a new
plug near the box until we can get the quick charger installed.

Integrating the web interface (the car is connected via at&t data) working was the last step, made difficult only because I had multiple accounts in the Nissan system (again, its a hobby of mine).


Owning 3 cars and an electric motorcycle is a bit much. The Honda was only worth $4K trade-in, so we'll keep it around, and the Porsche is clearly too near and dear, but the motorcycle is a complete anachronism. The Leaf is like a wave washing over anything cool I'd hope to achieve in the EV space - they did it, the car is really impressive. Watching it roll with traffic effortlessly, and having it all just work so well, so far is very impressive. Any issue with styling doesn't seem to matter in the face of the result, thoughts of spare parting it to electrify the Porsche just fools talk.

1 electric motorcycle conversion for sale, cheap!