ROAD TRIP: 2020 NISSAN LEAF
This was a test drive for Nissan Leaf SL 2020. The purpose of the trip was to ascertain how the 2020 Leaf stacked up to previous Leafs. The goal of the trip to see how it performed through the urban and rural roads, fast interstates, and steep mountain and flat highways with strong head and tailwinds.
By GARY LIEBER
Our route starts on the West Coast of California on interstates that wind through rolling hills to the Central Valley and Sacramento. This drive is mostly at sea level on Interstate 5, which has a 70-mph speed limit. From Sacramento, we switch to Highway 50 and start our ascent to Lake Tahoe, which will take us from 225 feet to a 7400-foot summit and then down to 6200 feet and our destination. This section is 105 miles and has an average elevation gain of 70 ft./mile.Our Leaf came equipped with Nissan’s ProPilot Assist, which made the downhill ride much less stressful.
The outcome:
In anyone’s BEV efficiency book, 4.3 miles/kWh is excellent efficiency. There are other BEVs that brag that they can achieve 4.5 miles/kWh on a flat road, but not many have shown that they can match the Leaf on a course like the one we undertook.The real-world range on the Leaf Plus far exceeds the car’s EPA ratings. As has been shown with other BEVs, the Leaf has much more range than its advertised rated range. The EPA range for this Leaf is 225 miles, but we could easily beat that by 44 miles. If we had been on a flat road course, the magic 300 miles to a charge might have been within reach