Our All-Electric 2012 Nissan Leaf Car

We leased an all-electric Nissan Leaf SL in early 2012. We had first had a charging station installed that runs off our home's electricity; from a fully depleted battery, it takes about 7 hours to charge. We're finding already that a number of (free to use!) public chargers are becoming available - one just plugs in! Quick chargers are supposed to also be coming; it takes about 30 minutes with one of these to get the car 80% charged. One can even plug in to a standard outlet - it then takes about 20 hours to fully charge the car. The car goes about 100 miles on a charge. It has lots of neat features! We have it set up to bring the car up to climate control at a set time that we are likely to need to use it each day - it works as long as it is charging, and draws power from the charger so that one can get into a warmed/cooled car without using the car's battery. It has a solar panel to charge the second standard battery just like other cars have - this battery controls typical things like radio, lights, etc. (the main battery drives the electric motor). We love the satellite radio and GPS, and ability to monitor all sorts of information (e.g., power consumption, closeness to a public charging station, how much further one could likely go without cimate control turned on, etc.) on the car's display - and remotely via a smart phone or over the internet on a computer. The car is very simple and essentially just a motor connected to the wheels, so it has fast pickup - much better performance than typical gas cars. Similarly, it has minimal maintenance - no oil or trasmission fluid to change! We love the smoothness and quietness of the drive. Professional prints may be purchased directly from this gallery. All photographs here copyright ©2012 by Dilip Barman of Vibrant Memories Photography. All rights reserved.