“So how much for a new battery?” That’s a question I get surprisingly often. No one asks me how much a new gas tank for my gas car would cost. Both store energy until the car’s engine needs it. I think the question comes from the fact that everyone has replaced batteries before. Batteries in toys, cell phones, laptops, etc. are replaced regularly. So, people tend to expect to have to replace the batteries in electric vehicles (EVs). Even worse, the lithium-ion batteries like those in the ever popular cell phones, laptops, tablets and EVs like our Leaf can be quite costly.

The batteries in an EV last longer than those in less expensive consumer products because of the systems put in place to protect them. The battery in our Leaf is expected to last 10-12 years. Nissan guarantees it against defectives for eight years. I’m happy to get ten years of life from a car so those figures work for me. I’m planning to replace the battery in our Leaf as often as I plan to replace the gas tank in our Camry – never.

So is that it? Not quite.

The amount of charge which a lithium-ion battery can hold gradually drops over years of use. Yup, they are not perfect. That means that the range of our Leaf will also gradually drop each year. “How fast is gradually?” you might well ask. It depends.

Nissan has a second warranty on the battery which provides some protection against this drop in capacity. They will replace the battery if it drops below 65.5% of its original capacity before five years of use (before eight years for the 2016 Leaf). That may not sound great. Even worse is that some Leaf owners have already experienced this level of battery degradation, especially those in very warm climates. That said, I doubt that many Canadian owners of a new Leaf, especially those in cooler climes like the Maritimes, will have to worry about this.

The batteries of all EVs will fade over time but the actual amount will be far less for our Leaf than that implied by Nissan’s warranty. Here’s why:

Canada is colder. Heat is the number one enemy of battery life. Most of the early Leaf battery failures and capacity losses happened in hot places like Arizona. Most of the time the temperature an EV battery has to endure in Canada is pretty benign except during summer heat waves. We do experience a temporary drop in range during our frigid winter days but, as a bonus, that winter chill also helps preserve the long-term capacity of the battery.

Few fill-ups. Keeping a battery fully charged or close to fully charged for an extended period can speed up battery capacity loss. We avoid this by normally waiting until night-time to charge and even then only charging the Leaf up to only 60-70%. That’s plenty of power for a day’s running around.

Driving style. Lee and I are pretty laid back drivers, for the most part. Slow starts, gradual stops and safe highway speeds. All of these reduce stress on the battery, and on the driver too!

The battery in our Leaf is currently at 94% after 18 months. Only a 6% loss makes me feel pretty optimistic since battery capacity loss typically starts fast then slows. Of course, eventually the capacity will drop so much that the Leaf won’t be able to comfortably make the trip from New Maryland to Saint John. That will be sad but the majority of our driving which is around town will remain unaffected. As mentioned above, we currently only charge the battery to 60-70%. Even a battery with only 60-70% of its capacity left will be quite fine for us. Based on our current experience, I’m expecting it will remain above 80% after 10 years of use in Fredericton. I’ll update you on the progress of our battery’s health/capacity as time goes on.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the current generation of the Leaf (2011-2016) relies on air cooling of the battery. Other EV manufacturers (Tesla, GM, Kia, etc), which started producing cars after the Leaf came out, use more effective methods based on liquid cooling. I anticipate that the next generation Leaf, which is expected in 2018, will also use liquid cooling for its battery. All of these EVs should do a much better job of retaining of battery capacity.

Finally, I know that we’ll have replaced our gas car with a 300+ km range EV long before we can’t get to Saint John in the Leaf. Remember my prediction for an affordable long range EV by June 2018? I’m still banking on it.

What’s it like driving the electric Leaf?

In a previous post I talked about why we like driving the Leaf.  But what if you got to jump into the driver’s seat of an electric car? Would you be able to drive it? Would it be as confusing as a fighter jet?

There are a few things which would be unfamiliar but you’d get the hang of them in no time.  Here’s a primer so you can be confident on your first drive. My pictures and examples are, of course, based on the Leaf but once you understand these you’ll be able to quickly figure them out on other EVs.

Charging

If you’re going to drive then first you need to fuel up.  In the EV world that means charging.  Here is the charger on the wall of our garage.

You can kinda see towards the bottom of the picture how it’s plugged into a 50 amp NEMA 14-50 outlet (e.g. like a stove outlet) which we had an electrician install.  The charger has no buttons or controls but has a few lights to indicate whether it has power, is in use or has a basic problem (it never has).  We also have a portable 110 volt trickle charger which came with the Leaf. Just like the wall mounted charger it has no controls, it just needs to be plugged in.

Both chargers use the standard J1772 plug (pictured) to connect to the car. Most North American EVs use the same plug.  Very easy to use, push it into the car’s charging port until it clicks;  to remove press and hold the release button with your thumb and pull.

Here is the charging outlet in the nose of the Leaf.

The cover pops open just like the fuel tank cover on your gas car.  There are actually two outlets under the cover.  The orange covered one on the right is for the J1772 plug.  This gets used 99% of the time. The outlet on the left is for a CHADeMO plug which is used for fast charging (80% charge in less than 30 minutes).  There are only two CHADeMO fast chargers in Atlantic Canada at this point so we rarely get to use this outlet.

All of the charging connections are “smart”.  The charging power is not turned on until the car tells the charger that it’s ready to charge.  The car actually has a conversation with the charger after the plug is plugged in and before the charger sends power down the cord to the car.  The car tells the charger whether it wants to charge and, if so, how much power to send. When the plug is removed from the car the conversation gets cut off so the charger automatically turns off the power.  Very safe!

The Dashboard

The dashboard has lots of information but no matter what I’m driving I primarily want to know two pieces of information: how fast I’m going and how much fuel I have left.  The speed is displayed in digits in the center of the top area, currently showing 0 k/h.  (Sorry for the fuzzy picture.  The display is actually very sharp and clear.)

The amount of charge remaining is displayed on the right side in blue horizontal bars. When I snapped this picture eight of the twelve blue bars were lit so the battery is about two thirds full.

Of course, as a seasoned driver you may want to know a bit more about what’s going on. Here are some of the more interesting tidbits which are displayed in the above photo.

• Battery Temperature.  A gas car shows you the temperature of the motor.  The Leaf display shows you the temperature of the battery in horizontal blue bars at the left side. The battery heats up when it is used and when it is charged.  If used heavily or charged quickly it can heat up a lot.  The car is smart enough to prevent heat from causing damage but it’s best to keep your battery in a moderate heat range (3-6 bars) if you can.

• Power Indicator.  The power indicator is a series of circles running from left to right: four green then one white then nine blue.  The quicker you accelerate the more blue circles become highlighted. The faster you slow down using regenerative braking the more green circles get highlighted. So it’s a visual reminder of how much charge you’re burning through by stomping the accelerator and how much charge you’re restoring when you slow down.  It can be handy when you’re trying to drive conservatively to increase your mileage.

• Charge Level.  In addition to the charge indicator on the right side the driver can also see the percent charge left on the battery. Basically the lower the charge the more interested you are in exactly how much is left.  The center of the display currently shows the battery is at 65% (although it’s hard to read due to picture quality).

• Range Projection.  In a short range car it’s nice to know how many more kilometers you can drive before you run out of charge. The car uses the mileage of your last five trips and the amount of charge remaining to display an estimate of the remaining range on the right side next to the charge indicator bars.  It’s currently at 86 km.  It can be useful but best to take this number with a grain of salt.  Some Leaf drivers call this the Guess-o-meter.

The Controls

Steering wheel, accelerator pedal, brake pedal, etc., the basics are all what you’d expect with one minor exception:  the stick shift. All of the other stick shifts I’ve used stayed in the spot where I moved them.

This one moves back to the same upright position every time you use it.  It initially feels a little weird so check out the shifting before you start driving.  It feels natural to us now but I’m still not sure why Nissan chose this design.

Regenerative Braking

Once you’re on the road, the smooth, quiet acceleration will take no getting used to at all. It’s immediate, consistent and predictable. The one thing which did take some practice to use well was regenerative braking.

When you remove your foot from the accelerator pedal of a gas car with an automatic transmission, the car slows down because you’re feeding less gas into the engine.  When you do this in an EV, it slows down because it’s using the forward motion to charge the battery a bit.  So a gas car uses less gas when slowing down but the Leaf actually recovers energy and puts it back into the battery!

So what does this have to do with driving the Leaf? So far we’re in “Drive” and it’s just feels like slowing down in a gas car. There is another gear in the Leaf called “B”. Not sure B stands for (Best? Bad-ass?) but it works just like Drive except when you release the accelerator pedal the you slow down much more quickly than in Drive.

After using “B” for awhile, we discovered that we were doing much of our braking without using the brake pedal. It’s a little hard to describe but having to move you foot to the brake pedal so much less is similar to the relief you get from using cruise control on a long highway drive: doesn’t seem like much on paper but I don’t want to drive a car without cruise control either.

Clear as mud? Well, experience it by test driving an EV or ask a friend to let you try out theirs. It’s a great feature.  In addition to making the Leaf even more fun to drive, it extends the range of the Leaf and extends the life of the brake pads for several years! I hope you try it.

Experience it

So now you know what you need to know to drive an electric car. Piece of cake. Get out and try one. As I’ve said before, once you go electric you’ll never go back!

So what would it take to go totally electric? We have our EV, our Leaf, but we still have our gas Camry for those longer road trips. Going “totally electric” means no longing owning, leasing or needing to rent a gas car.

Most of our driving is around town for which the Leaf is great.  For us to sell the Camry we’d need to be able to drive to Halifax, PEI, and Kitchener-Waterloo with the same or better convenience, cost and speed that the Camry provides.  Yes, we’d want to go other places too but chances are if those are doable then so is any other place we’d want to drive.

The Car

To do the job an electric car must have a range of at 300-400 km.  That would allow us to drive for 3-4 hours at the speed limit on any major highway.  For us that’s plenty since we tend to want to stop for stretch/coffee/washroom breaks that often.  The car also needs to able to recharge quickly, 15-30 minutes tops.  Our current stops take about 10-20 minutes so I’m allowing a little leeway here.

What electric car could do this?  Nothing in my price range today but it’s coming.

Recently, GM took the wraps off the production ready version of their new electric car, the GM Bolt. This fully electric car has a 320 km range, is expected to ship in early 2017 and is slated to sell for US$37,000 before incentives.  The Bolt uses a fast charge connector called CCS which has a top charge rate of 40-60 kilowatts (kW).  That’s pretty fast but you’d probably still need to charge for an hour to do another 3 hours of highway driving.

The next generation Nissan Leaf is expected to be ready in late 2017. It will have at least the range of the Bolt and use the CHAdeMO fast charge connector which has a top charge rate of 60 kW.  Assuming the Leaf still sells for it’s current price of about Cdn$35,000 it will compete well with the Bolt but, just like the Bolt, is unlikely to have a fast enough charge rate to get us back on the highway after 1/2 hour.

Tesla Motors is a new (12 year old) car manufacturer which only makes electric cars. Their current flagship is the US$85,000+ Model S which has proven very popular with the luxury car crowd.  It has a range of over 400 km and using a Tesla supercharger (120 kW) can be recharged enough in 30 minutes to go another 270 km.  Not bad but but way too expensive for us.

The car in which I’m most interested is the one coming next from Tesla: the Model 3. Tesla’s “affordable car” is expected to have a price tag of US$35,000, a range of 300-400 km and access to Tesla’s supercharger network.  The Tesla supercharger network is a big advantage since it can charge at twice the top speed of the other chargers. Tesla is planning a big unveiling of the Model 3 this March so I’m expecting to learn more details then.  The Model 3 is expected to start shipping in early 2018.

The Chargers

Most public chargers in North America are Level 2 chargers (see explanation of charger levels in an earlier post).  They are “destination” chargers because at just 6-20 kW they are intended to be used only at the end of your trip.  They are almost everywhere but just way too slow when you’re in the middle of a highway trip.

There are about 70 Level 3 chargers in Canada.  These chargers have the CHAdeMO connector used by our Leaf and a few also provide the CCS connector to be used by the GM Bolt.  About 35 are in Quebec, a couple in Nova Scotia and four more near Toronto. At 40-60 kW these are much faster than the Level 2 chargers.  Unfortunately there are some large stretches of highway between Montreal – Toronto and Fredericton – Quebec City with none installed and none announced.

The Tesla supercharger, at 120 kW, is the only charger currently able to meet our need for speed.  Not only are they super fast but because of Tesla’s planning they are also strategically located.  Tesla has already installed over 500 supercharger stations each of which has at least six superchargers.  Those already installed in eastern Canada are placed such that you supercharge from Quebec City to Toronto to Detroit.  Tesla also announced plans to install stations at Quebec City, Rivière-du-Loup and Woodstock by the end of 2016.  That means by the time the Model 3 comes along we’ll be able to supercharge all the way from Fredericton to Kitchener-Waterloo.

So the supercharger network will soon take care of the longest drive we’re likely to take. What about the Maritimes?  Most trips we’re likely to make in the Maritimes are not going to take six hours of driving.  We tend to visit Halifax (4.5 hour drive) and PEI (3.5 hours).  A 15-30 minute stop at one of the existing Level 2 or Level 3 chargers, both of which a Model 3 can also use, would be sufficient to get all of the way. That said, supercharger stations at some of the more central locations such as Moncton and Truro would be nice. Hey, while we’re wishing let’s put one at Port Hastings too so we can more easily visit Cape Breton too.

The Cost

As I mentioned in a previous post (“Are we Saving Money Yet?”) there are many aspects to the cost and cost savings of an electric car other than the fuel.  That said, I find it difficult to picture spending more than Cdn$40,000 on a car, any car, which is just for personal transport.  The one factor that could change that limit would be government incentives.  Many countries and some Canadian provinces already offer incentives to encourage the grow of a technology which can fight climate change.  Given that the federal government now recognizes climate change there is some hope they may follow suit soon.

Level 3 charging is commonly priced at $10 per hour and prorated for a partial hour. Use of Tesla superchargers is free to owners of one of Tesla’s luxury cars such as the Model S.  It is widely expected that supercharging will come at a price for the Model 3 owners but Tesla has yet to announce it.  I’m expecting that Tesla will price supercharging similarly to Level 3 charging.   That means at highway stops we’ll pay for power at double the household electricity rate.  A premium to household electricity rate for sure but still way cheaper than gas.

The When

Crystal ball time.  I’m predicting by June 2018 the car, the charging infrastructure, and the costs will all align such that we can move completely off gas.  Any wagers?

Next post:  In the driver’s seat

We do most of our Leaf charging at home.  There’s no need to use any other charger when we’re just driving around town.  When we drive further afield I make sure I know the location of the chargers on our route.  There are a lot of public chargers in Canada but not near as many chargers as there are gas stations.  I wish!  If fact, if there was a fast charger at each gas station tomorrow then our (gas) Camry would be on Kijiji the day after.  But for now I need to carefully plan where and when we’ll charge while travelling.  So how do we find chargers?

Plugshare

www.plugshare.com contains a detailed map of electric vehicle (EV) chargers.  Both the website and the smartphone app are pretty awesome – you can find public chargers almost anywhere in the world. It’s “open sourced” which means that everyone contributes to keeping it up to date, kind of like www.wikipedia.org.  I’ve only added one charger to the Plugshare map myself but there are over a hundred chargers in the Maritimes and the number keeps growing.

In addition to helping you find chargers, Plugshare also tells you all about each charger:  level (see charger levels/types in my last post), availability, cost, special details for using it, how many chargers are at that location, and which are currently working.  Each time a Plugshare user stops at a public charger they post an update on plugshare: when they started charging, how long they’ll be there, and, at the end, whether they had any problems.  This is strictly voluntary but many EV drivers are very supportive of this process.  It means that when the tables are turned then they’ll be able to find a charger because of others doing the same thing.

EV charging service providers also have their own online services to help you find, use and, in some cases, pay for their chargers.  I registered with one such vendor, VERnetwork (www.reseauver.com), which has a handful of chargers in the Maritimes including two chargers in downtown Saint John.  Useful but the best place to start is Plugshare.

Power is Everywhere

Plugshare is great but don’t forget that every regular household electrical outlet can be a place to charge.  Our Leaf, just like every EV, has a cable which allows it to charge from a regular outlet.  Of course, if the up side is that these outlets are everywhere then the downside is that charging from one is very slow.  That said, here are some examples of when we used them to charge and were quite happy to do so.

Halifax Trip

When we drove the Leaf to Halifax last summer I knew from Plugshare that there were level 2 chargers all along the way but very few in Halifax-Dartmouth.  Instead we plugged into the outside outlets at the homes of family and friends while we were visiting.  Yes, we asked first!  I also ensured that the hotel we booked had an outside outlet we could use.  Hotels are increasingly keen to be seen as supporting clean tech such as electric cars.  They were very happy to make an outlet available from which we charged each night. In the end we drove around in Halifax-Dartmouth for three days and only charged from regular outlets with the exception of a couple of hours of level 2 charging at the library.

Return Trip from Saint John

Last week we went to Saint John for an overnight stay.  The one way trip to Saint John is near the outer limit of the Leaf’s single charge range but it’s normally quite straightforward.  I’ve done it several times but never in winter.  The temperature was hovering around 0C so I knew that there would be less power in the battery than in the summer.  No problem.  We’d just take it easy – driving slower extends range.

On the way to Saint John it was tight but we made it fine on one charge.  The return trip was a different matter.  As we crested Petersville Hill at the midpoint of the trip a twigging doubt flowered into the full realization that we didn’t have enough power in the battery to make it all of the way home.

We kept going and pondered the possibilities.  There are no public chargers between Saint John and New Maryland so that was not going to happen.  Go as far as we can and call CAA for a tow? Nope. We pulled into a gas station / restaurant, plugged into an outside outlet and went inside to have a leisurely lunch.  After about an hour we unplugged and drove the rest of the way home.  There is power everywhere!  If that station had had a level 2 charger we would have been gone in 15 minutes. Level 3 charger?  3 minutes.

Afterwards, at home, I realized that I had not allowed for the effect of parking the Leaf outside during a cold -10C night.  The Leaf normally overnights in our garage. The next time we stay in Saint John I’ll park the Leaf in a more sheltered spot like the underground parking at Market Square. Problem solved!

Growing into the Future

Plugshare is great.  I rely on it heavily when planning out of town trips in the Leaf.  Still, the best laid plans can fall through so it’s good to know the ubiquitous 110 volt outlet can be used in a pinch.

That said, it’s not hard to picture the demise of Plugshare when public chargers become as common as or more common than gas stations.  Ikea, St Hubert, Marriott hotels, Best Western hotels, Amsterdam Inn, and MacDonald’s are just a few examples of the companies which are installing EV chargers to attract customers. We even have a local Irving gas station which has two EV chargers installed.

Over the next couple of years the next generation of electric cars will appear with their 300+ km range and, I expect, the growth in public chargers will accelerate.  It will be interesting to see how people’s perspective on the act of going somewhere just to get fuel for their car changes when there’s “fuel” everywhere you park.

Next – Countdown to no-gas or When to sell the (gas) Camry?

Many people will not buy an electric car if it means they also need a gas car for long trips. So far in this blog I have focused on what we have experienced in our own electric car – a 2014 Leaf. For this post I’m going to take a brief detour to describe the changes coming in the next couple of years which will allow almost everyone to replace their gas car with an electric one.

State of the Art

The current state of the art in street legal pure electric cars is the Tesla Model S.  A buyer can choose from various package levels to have a 460 km range and up to 500 horsepower.  Like any electric car you can charge it at home but when you’re on a road trip a Tesla supercharger will give the Model S a 240 km charge in just 30 minutes.  The Model S only recently started production (in 2012) but already outperforms gas car premium brands which have been building and tweaking their cars for decades.  The only problem with the Model S, for me anyway, is the price:  $100,000 – $150,000. Yikes!

Better Batteries for Affordable Range

The most expensive component of an electric car is the traction battery.  Car manufacturers and their partners are investing billions to improve battery technology.  The objective is to drive the cost down while improving capacity and charging speed so that electric cars can compete with gas cars on price and range. Improvements in alternative battery technologies, such as sodium-ion, are being announced on an increasingly frequent basis.  Those improvements are good but in the short term the most significant impact will be made based on economies of scale.

For example, Tesla, the manufacturer of the world’s best electric car, is currently building a huge $5 billion factory in Nevada to reduce the cost of batteries simply by increasing the volume of production. The plant is expected to start battery production in late 2016.  Tesla plans to start producing a new less expensive model, the “Model 3”, by the end of 2017.  The Model 3 is an electric car with a 320+ km range and affordable $35,000 US price tag.  Expect to see at least two other models, the new Chevrolet Bolt and the 2017/8 Nissan Leaf, compete with that range and price point.

“Affordable?” you say.  That’s still $35,000 US!  True, and the exchange rate between Canadian and US dollars kind of sucks for us right now.  Hopefully that won’t last.  On the positive side, some provinces already have attractive incentives for buying an electric car (e.g. $8,500 rebate in Ontario). Incentive programs are likely to spread to other provinces now that the federal government is finally committed to help address climate change.

More Chargers

To be able to tackle a long trip in an electric car you need to have a long range battery but you also need to be able to find fast chargers along your route. Not just chargers but a fast chargers. Chargers come in different flavours:

• Normal / Regular / Level 2  (3 – 20 kw) Most public chargers are this type. Takes over 3 hours to fully charge the Leaf when it’s close to empty.

• Trickle (1.2 kw)  A typical household 110 volt outlet.  Takes over 15 hours to fully charge the Leaf battery from almost empty.

• Fast / Level 3  (32 kw)  About 50 in Canada so far.  Takes less than 30 minutes to charge the Leaf from almost empty to 80%.

• Super (120 kw)  Tesla’s premium charging system.  About 15 in Canada so far.  A 30 minute super charge gives a Tesla Model S sedan enough power to go 270 km.

Having access to fast charging or super charging along the way will obviously make a big difference on lengthy trips. For example, when we drive the Camry from Fredericton to Halifax we often make a 15 minute coffee & gas stop in Sackville NB.  In 2018 we’ll be able to do the same trip in the same time using any of the electric cars mentioned above as long as there is a fast/super charger in Sackville NB.

We need a lot more fast chargers to support long distance trips in Canada.  The good news is that governments at all levels have finally recognized the need for this infrastructure so the pace of charger deployment should start to pick up.  Ontario has recently announced $20 million for new charging stations.  Quebec and BC lead the way with the most fast chargers in Canada thanks to supportive provincial policies.  In fact, in Quebec the St Hubert restaurant chain alone has already installed chargers at over 60 restaurants – 10 of which are fast chargers!  You can see how many public chargers are currently installed by visiting plugshare.com.

All together

Lots of other improvements are coming but I believe those in battery technology and the deployment of fast chargers will be the most significant in getting more electric cars on the road.

Next post – Finding Chargers

“Once you go electric you never go back”. That’s a phrase I’d often read and heard from electric vehicle (EV) drivers before we bought the Leaf. I’d not really gave it much thought. My reason for buying electric was to drive a clean energy car. Plus my techie self thought it would just be cool. Lee was not so easy to convince but to her credit she gave me the benefit of the doubt.

Any doubt had long since vanished. That was confirmed shortly after getting the Leaf when I heard “you’re not taking THE car this afternoon are you?” I replied that I was about to take the Leaf but the Camry was gassed up and ready to go. I got a dirty look. For most of our married life we’ve had “his and hers” cars. Now we have the Leaf and the other car. Unless we have to travel farther than Saint John the Camry rarely leaves the driveway. Read on for the reasons why.

Over two years ago I came to the realization that although I’d known climate change was upon us I wasn’t doing much about it.  Sure, we had installed heat pumps and increased the insulation in our home to reduce power usage but what else to do?  At that time I discovered electrically powered vehicles (EV’s).  What a great and cool way to reduce our carbon footprint!  Over a year of research ensued during which I learned about the rapidly developing EV technology, the industry players, the growing global support and the EV’s which were available for purchased in Canada.

Over a year ago, on August 29, 2014.  Lee and I bought our 2014 Nissan Leaf.   In the months that followed we have learned a lot about owning and driving an electric car.  As Canadians and, especially,  Atlantic Canadians I suspect our experience is still fairly novel if not unique.  I decided to blog about it with the hope that some will find this helpful when considering the purchased of an electric car.

The Car

The Nissan Leaf is totally electric – no gas tank, no exhaust pipe, etc.  It is a mid-size hatchback which comfortably seats five.  The Leaf comes in three versions S, SV, and SL.  We bought the top end SL so we got some luxuries (17″ alloy wheels, navigation system, heated seats, back up camera, leather seats, etc) plus a cool 360 degree camera system.  Well, okay, you may feel some of these are “standard” but they were luxuries to us since our 2010 Camry V6 has none of them except the alloy wheels.

The Cost

$41,000 including 13% HST.  That’s with a $3,500 discount.  The model “S” would have been much cheaper at about $33,000-36,000 including HST but none of the 2014 model “S” were available that late in the model year.  All 2014 Leaf models had the same engine, drive train, and battery pack.

New Brunswick has no electric car incentives.  If we had been living in Ontario we would have gotten a $8,500 cheque from the government reducing our out-of-pocket cost to $32,500! ($41,000 – $8,500 = $32,500)  If we had been living in California we would qualified for a $2,500 rebate cheque plus a $7,500 tax credit.  Sigh!

Charging and Range