Running a Leaf (when you own the battery)
Running the Leaf between the 10th August 2017 to the 9th August 2018
If we’re talking about power consumption, we need to discuss the Leaf. How much is it costing us to run, bearing in mind we are now funding every mile from our home electricity supply?
| Month | Distance travelled
(miles) |
Energy economy
(m/kW) |
Power consumption
(kWh) |
CO2 (kg) | Cost at £0.1507 per unit | Cost per mile |
| July | 251.5 | 4.2 | 59.7 | 70 | £9.00 | £0.04 |
| June | 200 | 4.2 | 47.6 | 55 | £7.17 | £0.04 |
| May | 260.4 | 4.2 | 61.5 | 72 | £9.27 | £0.04 |
| April | 146.2 | 4 | 36.8 | 40 | £5.55 | £0.04 |
| March | 388.1 | 4.2 | 92.8 | 107 | £13.98 | £0.04 |
| February | 395.4 | 3.9 | 103 | 109 | £15.52 | £0.04 |
| January | 413.4 | 3.9 | 106.5 | 114 | £16.05 | £0.04 |
| December | 353.2 | 3.6 | 97.2 | 98 | £14.65 | £0.04 |
| November | 348.3 | 4 | 87.7 | 96 | £13.22 | £0.04 |
| October | 375.8 | 4.4 | 84.9 | 104 | £12.79 | £0.03 |
| September | 303.9 | 4.4 | 68.9 | 84 | £10.38 | £0.03 |
| August | 198.9 | 4.3 | 45.5 | 55 | £6.86 | £0.03 |
At 15.07p a kWh, being more efficient makes a difference to our pence per mile.
There doesn’t seem to be much we can do to reduce our costs below 3p a mile without dramatically changing our “Energy economy”, where as doing 4.4 kWmiles or using our solar panels to charge the car. We do reasonably and often earn a “Platinum” badge from Nissan during the winter months but fail to regularly get above 5miles/kW (although I did that today 🙂 ).
We generate about a third of what we use: we live in East Anglia, not one of the really flat bits, but there’s not a huge gradient on my normal journey to work.
The majority of my journeys are to work: 14 mile round trip for 56p or £2.80 for the week. I work 47 weeks a year, that means I spend £131.60 on my annual commute.
Getting 5.2 miles/kW
Concentrating on smoothness, planned acceleration and no sudden braking mean 5.2miles/kW is achievable. I was lucky with the traffic – we live in blue light central with ambulances coming from the hospital along the main routes pretty much throughout the day. Many drivers stop to allow them past. I would get that as a great to do if it weren’t for all the traffic islands dotted about the A1214: if a driver doesn’t pay attention and remove themselves completely from the carriageway, the poor ambulance is not helped at all but stuck fast like the rest of us.
You need traffic islands to help pedestrians cross busy roads so there must be a better way for the traffic to work in these situations. If you’re able to do the speed limit, isn’t the ambulance better off moving with the rest of the traffic?
The other option to getting more out of the Leaf could be to see if we could make use of Ovo’s offer as per this article. Having just got out of a leasing agreement, not sure I’d want to sign up for another!
Posted: August 12th, 2018 under Driving off the grid.