Meet Lucy

Meet Lucy Leaf.  She is a 2015 Nissan Leaf.  Lucy is an electric car.

 Look at those curves!

She has a nice trunk, too.



I hadn't really thought of getting a new car, but the tax credits offered by the federal government and state government were too good to ignore.  The environmental aspect of the Leaf is also enticing.  As I mentioned, the Leaf is an electric car, so it uses absolutely no gasoline.  It also has zero emissions.

I got the base model which is the S.  It has everything I need.  I also got the quick charge package.  I'll tell you about that in a minute.

The interior is pretty spacious.  It's not bulky, but it's not skimpy.  It's just right.

Both the front and back seats are heated.  Fancy, no?  The backseat is also pretty spacious.

The S model comes with a back-up camera that displays on the smallish screen in the dash.  It also comes ready for XM satellite radio and includes a three month trial.  There is an auxiliary input for the radio and a USB port where you can connect your smart phone.  Lucy also has Bluetooth connectivity so I can connect my phone and make and receive calls.

The gear shifter is also pretty interesting.  It has four options - Park, Drive, Neutral, and Reverse.  The transmission is constantly variable so it doesn't shift from first, to second, to third, and so on.  It just accelerates without shifting.

The dash is also pretty cool.  Because the battery is so important, the battery temperature indicator is pretty prominent (on the left side in the image below).  Equally important is the amount of charge remaining.  This is on the right side of the image below.  The series of circles across the top of the display tells you how much power you are using as you drive.  Electric cars are smart so they recapture lost power as you coast or use your brakes.  This is shown in the four circles across the top.  The circles on the right show power you are using.

 

The trunk area is pretty spacious.  The back seats fold down, so I can haul quite a bit of stuff back there. 

The image below shows the charging ports.  The port on the left is the quick charge port and the port on the right is the standard "trickle" charge port.  As I mentioned earlier, I got the quick charge package with my Leaf.  This allows me to go to quick charge charger locations and charge my car quickly.

The quick charge port can charge the car in about three hours.  The standard charge port takes about eighteen hours to completely charge.  That sounds like a lot, but if I plug it in right after I get home from work, it's close to being fully charged the next morning since I don't usually let it get too terribly low.

The image below shows a Leaf being charged using the trickle charger.  Note: You don't have to open the hood to charge the car.  You only have to open that small charging area door/panel.

Overall, I really like the Leaf.  It's a fun car to drive.  It's little and scoots around quickly.  It has 100% torque.  The video below explains the 100% torque thing:

I still have my Audi since Lucy is practical to drive around the city, but isn't practical on longer trips.  I head home to visit family several times per year and it would take me three days to get home.  I would be a nervous wreck trying to get to the next charging port!

I'll wrap up this post with the video below.  It's a Tesla Model S (another electric car) and a Dodge Challenger drag racing.  The Tesla is a luxury, power car.  It's the blue/black car in the video in case you were wondering.  =)