CarTalk: A Day with a LEAF from GoCar

Always wanted to experience driving a fully Electric Vehicle (EV)? The perfect opportunity is here! You can now rent a Nissan Leaf from GoCar and drive it wherever you please.

Well, almost... As long as there is a Charging Station along the way. The term "Range Anxiety" existed almost a decade ago when EVs had a real-world range of less than 100km per charge. I have experienced this firsthand with the first generation Nissan Leaf after it was launched back in 2012.

However, EVs have come a long way since with much improved range. To prove our point, we decided to bring one up to Genting Highlands to see if you could make it there and back with just a single charge together with Kelvin from TheCoolCarGuys (link below).

This is Kelvin's driving first experience with an EV - he currently owns a 2018 Honda Jazz Hybrid. Hence, he is used to driving in silence at low speeds. With an EV though, the silence remains even when you reach highway speeds because there is no engine noise.

Furthermore, Electric Motors produce extremely high Torque Outputs which gives them instantaneous acceleration and in absolute silence. Maybe you will hear some tyre squeal as the car launches from a standstill. Stu from the movie Stuber calls the Leaf "silent but deadly" and he wasn't kidding.

During our trip, we covered a total distance of 121.3km and used 50% of battery charge. We also charged the vehicle for an hour when we arrived at the Genting Premium Outlet, where we first experienced some diffuculties locating the Charging Station, followed by minor issues with the Chargers.

The breakdown of our journey is as follows:

Trip 1 (100%, fully charged)
Mid Valley to Genting Premium Outlet (Premium Parking)
Distance Travelled: 54.3km
Battery Level: 63% remaining (17% used)

Trip 2 (77% after 1 hour of charging)
Genting Premium Outlet (Premium Parking) to Chin Swee Cave Temple
Distance Travelled: 8.6km
Battery Level: 68% remaining (9% used)

Trip 3 (68%)
Chin Swee Cave Temple to Mid Valley
Distance Travelled: 58.4km
Battery Level: 64% remaining (4% used)

We recuperated a lot of lost energy from Trip 3 because we were driving downhill from Genting in B Mode (heavier regenerative braking). At one point, we saw the charge went up to 72% before reducing to 70% due to an uphill section. After more downhill driving, we had 75% of charge.

That meant that we have recuperated a cumulative total of 9% battery charge (not 11% as stated in the video) when driving down from Genting. We might attempt another trip where we go all the way up to the top of Genting (SkyAvenue) to see how much battery we would have consumed in total.

Check out TheCoolCarGuys Official YouTube Channel here:

[ahmadfaris]

Thank you for sharing think to take this car for rent

[kona]

Hi was going to plan a trip too via gocar, just wanna ask if the infotainment system in this leaf has bluetooth? Cool vid btw!