Just got my Nissan Leaf a week ago. I must admit having some range anxiety issues the first few days. Especially considering there are virtually no charging stations here in Texas. But now that I know what the car can do, I have almost no anxiety at all. I love the car, and plan on buying a second one so that our household will be completely gasoline-free.

This video, and many of the early ones, was seminal, and made Fully Charged the global brand it is now. Long live FC and their mission.

@captinmax I totally agree,when the Leaf comes off the production line it has made exactly the same impact as any regular car, however, from that point on, it's CO2 output is lower, and with the legislation in place to reduce CO2 emissions from power generation, this is only set to go down. Conventional cars continue to produce CO2 every time they're used.

Hi Robert, I'm revisiting your old Leaf episodes as I'm hoping to buy a second hand Leaf this weekend! Keep up the good work!

Watching this today is a great reminder of how much the cars and charging infrastructure have changed over the past 11 years! I hope I watch this again in 11 years time...

Once you get the battery upgraded on the Leaf I think you're overdue for a trip back to Tellisford and a more in-depth look at their turbine.

Where I live our power is almost all hydro generated, with the balance being from wind and solar. I love driving my i MiEV on pollution free power!

@XitUp Although I think you are probably right, we shall see. I am having a large solar array fitted to the south facing roof on my office. I have been informed by hopefully reliable sources that it will kick out enough juice on the very occasional long sunny days in the UK to produce 24 kwh, which is the capacity of the Leaf's battery pack. I remain open minded.

Excellent video (putting the out of sync audio aside) and absolutely splendid moral of story. There's hope yet, especially with such enthusiast people like you sharing these reviews! Keep up the good work!

Just want to re-state that I've written up about this on my blog, the link is in the notes below the vid. Lots more info about Tellisford Mill, the range, the charging time etc.

A rough estimate: A full charge of the Nissan Leaf (24 kWh) might demand 27 kWh of electricity from the outlet. A hydro power station with 80% efficiency would need 33,75 kWh hydro energy to produce this amount of electricity. 33,75 kWh is 121,5 megajoules. That's the energy of 12,385 m³ of water dropping down 1 m. With 1 m³ per second, you would need 12,385 seconds = 206 minutes = 3 hours and 26 minutes.

@sparkygl0s All the cars I get to review are delivered by truck, not just the Leaf. I don't know why manufacturers choose this but they do. It easily had the range, it was delivered from a dealership about 40 miles away.

It´s only the current price of batteries that makes the range so limited now. Now, a year later Nissan has added 15 miles to the range and lowered thw price on the car. There´s no limitation that would stop them from putting a battery in the car with twice the kwh´s or more. Other than the price tag getting too high..

well done robert awesome achievement, car seems great and that river powered substation is a awesome idea! look foward to your follow up video in a few months, i really want a drive in it !!!

You omitted the factor time: 1 m³ of water (one metric ton) dropping 1 m gives you an ENERGY of 9810 Joule. The POWER you get from it depends on the time within this happens. 9810 Joule per second would be 9810 watts or 9.81 kW. 9810 Joule per 10 seconds would be 0.981 kW. In theory - The real electric power depends on the efficiency of the turbine and generator. But only 1 kW from 1 m³ of water dropping down 1 m PER SECOND would be VERY poor (roughly 10% efficiency) and not plausible for hydro power, which is rather efficient in general. Apart from this: Nice video!

As a realist,how long will it take to recoup the cost of rebuilding the mill and how much CO2 was produced to make the turbine.I am a believer in making cars more fuel efficient by any means.I love the sound of diesel engines and fell into the trap of thinking they were cleaner than they are.Looked through my drivers handbook and cannot find any mention NOX,POX,SOX,COX etc.The best consumption I have had from my Clubman Cooper D is 70.1 mpg!

Great vid Robert but i do wish you'd had more time to show us around the mill. it looked fasinating im a geek for that kind of stuff. Perhaps you could film an interview with the people running it?

Great not only to hear about charging a ev with renewable energy, but great to see a demonstration of what we could do, if we dared to actually seek ways to make renewable energy work in our own lives and communities.

If I were visiting the UK, is there a way I could rent a Leaf? It seems like the easiest way to travel and the easiest on the environment. As Canadians, we are defined by great distances and great cold - two factors that, at present, would seem to limit the usefulness of electric vehicles. So, it would be a treat, as well.

Glad to see another episode Bob! Hope to see more of you and your LEAF. Should join other LEAF owners at the mynissanleaf forums. One challenge I seen today was to see how far one could travel on a single charge. I'm sure others would love to hear from you on there.

Great episode. One questions: Did you use fast charging or normal charging to charge the Leaf and how long did it take? Also If it's possible, please do a walkaround of the vehicle so we can look at it better inside, outside and under the bonnet.

Interesting vid. +1 on doing more vids on things like that mill. Roughly how much does something like that cost to buy/install and how much juice does it put out on an average day?

@captinmax No numbers for the Leaf, but Volvo calculated for their "one tonne life" project 4.164 kg CO2 for the production of one C30 BEV, which is due to the battery 852 kg higher than for the ICE C30. The ICE C30 2.0D produces 151 g/km, so the higher production carbon footprint for the BEV version will be offset after about 5.640 kilometers. Plus production foot print will drop with renewable energy.

I stumbled across your series here on youtube a couple days ago. love it! Been watching them all from the first episode. Noticed ep. 16,17, and now 18 all have audio/video sync issues. I hope this doesn't continue on when I go to watch episode 19!

In this video I totally miss a short interview with the Mill owners about how and why they changed it to a powerplant

Glad you got the Leaf!

8:39... Bob you have it plugged into the trickle charge socket. How long did you stay in Somerset to charge up for the return?

love the car bob. bit expensive for me (yet) but i'm hoping that mass production will see a more realistic price tag. I too would love to see more of that electric water mill. can you do a program about this sort of renewable? love to learn more as we have an abundance of rivers in Ireland (tripping over them)

Great episode, but it would have been fantastic to film an explanation of the turbine with a few mins of video.

very interesting there are loads of places where micro generation hydro electric plants could be added as well. Near me on the canal could the water races and the lowering of boats not be put to better use One thing is the audio out of sync from about halfway or is flash playing silly buggers again? ,

How about an update on the Mill and other mill projects in the UK Robert? It occurs to me that Nissan have not really refined the Leaf very much in it's lifetime, even with the newer model. I'm guessing that as the 40kWh battery pack has the same dimensions as the 24kWh and 30kWh battery packs, some clever people like Classic Car Conversions could take a mk1 Leaf and shove a new battery pack in if one was available. Likewise the eNV200. This leads me to conclude that folk buying a car such as a Leaf are in fact the type of people who don't need to upgrade their car every three years and would run a Leaf (or similar) for a decade or two if it continued to meet their needs.

I would so love to see how you get on with this loan and if there will be any teathing problems further down the line. As my old Uncle Harry used to say, with every new car there always teathing problems.

Looks like the LEAF is perfect for in-car interviews and monologues - it's so damn quiet!

@cavn The Leaf charges 0-80% in about 30 minutes using a 50kW DC socket. The last 20% takes longer to charge, not because of the charger, but because batteries are this way. It's a quick recharge but not the quickest I have seen. The Proterra bus (72 kWh battery, 3x the Leaf's) recharges in about 5-10 minutes using a battery bank and 500kW charging. In a Leaf that battery pack would be good enough for ~300 miles of range and charging is only done in 5-10 minutes! This is on par with a gas car.

@gene978 I think lithium is highly recyclable. Plus the batteries can still be used, just not in a car. People are already starting companies to buy for use in houses with solar to cache power etc.

I wonder if Nissan will change the range indicator or add a simple state of charge display that would show % of charge remaining - or is there a display in the car that shows it already. Hope to see a Leaf here in Canada soon. But the may have screwed up with the price - $6000 more than US and with CDN dollar trading higher than the US dollar that makes for serious sticker shock.

@sparkygl0s maybe to keep it from being damaged?

There was a study put out in the 70's here in the States that said if you (a) are more connected to your car if you drive the first 500 miles of it and (b) you can condition your motor for the way you drive if you drive the first 500 miles the way you normally drive. Thats one theory on why dealers have them delivered, but there are thousands. I think its because people want the prestige and excitement of "driving the first miles" on a car. (That and I don't want anyone driving my car before me)

its a wired question when u did this test is AC was on

@matt3360 2 he forgot to pull out one of the audio tracks. so it sort of echos. THEN it gets out of sync.

The range meter on the Leaf seems similar to that of my Vectrix VX-1. It adjusts every km or so to take in to account your riding style. I currently ride around 5,000 miles per year and I've spent almost nothing compared to a 'normal' car. I don't think plug-in electric cars are the future, but I believe they are a good alternative to the internal combustion engine. I would gladly take loan of a Nissan Leaf, Mitsubishi i-Meiv, smart fortwo ed or Tesla Roadster.

@XitUp Yes. Or wait for a year or two for a factory plug in Prius. I think the ideal stable of autos for my needs would be a Leaf and a plug in Prius. My commute is 60 miles (30 each way). I do have the ability to recharge at work. There are 5 people in my family and I occasionally transport a large dog or 8 foot lumber (so the Volt/Ampera won't do). It's too bad that GM chose such a limited layout for the Volt/Ampera by sticking the batteries in the the middle rather than under the floor.

@XitUp Another alternative, is Geothermal energy, which is probably the one with the biggest potential. Runs 24/7, scales fairly well and isn't dependant on weather. But certainly, tidal energy is a good suppleant. Same with solar energy and the likes, that'll be nice in more sunny parts.

@XitUp of course you can. remember that you don't drive all day. but the sun/wind is all day. you just need the average, you don't need the peak power of a car in a solar installation. say you drive 25km a day at 250Wh/km, that's about 6kWh. then say you have 6m2 solar panels which is about 1kW peak, that might give you 6kWh average on a day. easy. and you could have ten times larger solar array on a roof.

Oh how I envy you. I want a LEAF too! Also, every time there's a shot of the road, I'm like 'hey, what are you doing, go back to the right lane!' And then I go 'oh, wait...' Crazy brits! :D

@Musvilkis Wrong! The calorific value of diesel is less than petrol. However, where you are bob-on is the engine itself burns the fuel in a far more efficient manner.

so cool

Why dont they attach the ''other two'' wheels to direct motors ( as in wind turbines ) and then feed the dc, through an inverter to the battery ( or even some piezoelectric mechanism making use of motion) why would range be an issue then ?

@jobsta Ampera would sound perfect for your needs, when it comes out.

Yeah Robert show us more of the car! It'd be great if you can provide more details on that fast 440V charging cycle so others can see what's possible with electric cars. Drink a couple of Red Bulls and clock a 0-60 run :- ) Nissan needs to change their range display. If they counted how many Ah have been used out of the battery, they'd know exactly how many miles you had left. I'm guessing their estimate is base on current driving conditions which change all the time and so does the display.

it's never 100% but yes..Wary cool m8.. love the show keep up the good work and the people will start to see the light (how u say)

I'm seeing audio/video sync problems too

@DanFrederiksen What mistake would that be?

Rob, I would have preferred more information about Tellisford Mill, zero carbon micro power generation and micro-grids. The TWIT network recently did a green tech today series; what are you're thoughts about a similar GB/EU series. You might also want to consider a rss feed for fullycharged. Great show keep up the good work.

@DanFrederiksen 1. Not sure where you live, but in the UK it certainly isn't sunny 24/7. It's sunny in the day (sometimes) but I'm at work or out usually so most people would charge at night. 2. The average person drives nearer to 45 km a day, so your figures are already out. You're looking at roughly £10k to fit that, it's gonna take a long time to pay off. (I think I've done my calcs right :S )

@XitUp A gen 3 Prius uses less fuel than a Volt/Ampera on trips longer than 220 miles. Compare the US EPA average fuel economy ratings of 51 mpg for the Prius vs 37 mpg for the Volt/Ampera. It would make more sense for jobsta to have a Prius for his 288 mile round trip it would save more fuel/money in the long run.

@marshgre Very possibly, yeah, but that wouldn't be a pure EV on the smaller trips. Might be worth looking for a second hand plug in converted Prius.

@Jesus45U Yup, geo seems to work well. And solar works well in certain parts of the world, but only very sunny ones.

@KiddsockTV Never gonna happen in the UK, we just don't get enough sun. However, we have tons of coastline so tidal/wave power could be an option.

@fullychargedshow According to a 2007 New Scientist article, the embodied energy of a typical car in the UK is between 3 and 5 tons. That's about the CO2 most (non-electric) car drivers would produce in a year at the country average of 15000 miles.

@captinmax As we are all pretty aware of now, most of Japan's power comes from nuclear power which has zero to now carbon foot print as well.

@LOLitsJono That is rather the problem with electric cars at the moment, their purchase price is still probably 50% more than an equivalent petrol one. Anyway...I most mostly replying to tell you petrol is currently $10.40 a gallon in the UK, so as you can imagine more and more people are looking for alternatives.

good stuff but you don't need to drive to a mill to get co2 free energy. solar panel or small windmill on the roof of your house will do the trick as well. I'm sure the leaf is a smooth and quiet ride but there is one thing that's not good about it and that is the weight. over 1700kg. that's SUV territory. they even have a lead acid starter battery in it which is completetly uncalled for and symbolic of the indifference/incompetence wrt efficiency. the lighter the cheaper the battery

It seems like the Leaf probably calculates range too often, with a large sample size it would average out the small changes from going up a bit or a hill or what ever. As you say you've driven a few electric cars, I wonder if anyone else has driven more of them than you...I'd be surprised if there is. Why don't we have hundreds of electric water mills? They could be on every river in the country, it would even have the advantage or making more power during the winter when we need it most.

The sound in the second half is out of sync for me too.

@fullychargedshow May I request that you take a crash course in A level physics, particularly power and energy, purely for accuracy's sake? And I'm not sure if I've recommended this before, but for £20 you can get a hard copy of "Sustainable Energy - without the hot air" by David Mackay, which contains all of the figures you could possibly ask for, to carry with you for reference when in need of some hard data or easy to grasp analogies to put in your videos. Cheers.

@matt3360 i thought it was my underpowered computer with out of sync sound

If you want to show efficiency of the electric car for the people (I would do this way). Do the trick --> Fill the petrol car tank with 2,4 litres of petrol and show how much you can go on it in the city, of course choose the petrol car of the same weight and power. It would be better that they drive next to each other for the comparison that they have the same circumstances. You may ask why 2,4 litres?!. Leaf have 24kWh battery. 1 litre of petrol have about ~ 10kWh of energy.

Energy efficiency. 12 years later and the lesson of early EVs is still not being taken seriously enough. It's about using resources carefully. Not spaffing energy on a whim just because we can. We need to chill our lifestyle, slow down a tiny amount. Then maybe there will be some resources left for the next generations.

@fullychargedshow I'll remain a bit of a skeptic until I see it working. How much is that costing you. Solar works in certain countries, but it seems daft that the govt in the UK give grants to install it. It's just something to make them look green. The money would be much better spent on grants for insulation or other methods of cleaner power generation.

A lot of Leaf owners on the NissanLeaf forums seem to agree that the range indicator is less than useless and may actually get you into trouble if you go by it like some journalists have done. In a nutshell it changes too fast and doesn't use enough driving history. Don't trust it!

@riveaa And the road, and the ducts .. and so on and so forth. ... but still .. Very interesting video, I say. :)

@jobsta If only your stay at your destination was 45 minutes and you has a Tesla Model S the trip would be no problem. Of course you could opt for the top of the line Model S with its 300 mile battery pack and not worry at all. (BIG $)

Totally jealous!!!

m1aws yes, sorry you are right.

@peptopro17 Well it's better than the alternative, which of course tries to blow it's self apart with explosions thousands of times a minute.

The Volt's Battery Range Indicator is far more reliable.

@matt3360 He's a robot, and that happens with robots sometimes. Nice video!!!

Waiting for the new 2018 Leaf video to drop like:

@DanFrederiksen You'll never get enough power from roof top solar or micro wind turbines to power an electric car.

If you choose diesel it have even more energy than the petrol. And if you really want to show the diffrence do a lot start-stop going. The ice engine has very poor efficiency in it's rpm range.

anyone else having syncing problems?

Interesting video. And apart from the audio problem, it's was good quality too. :) I must confess to not know an awful lot about the Leaf, but I do have one comment on it ... Nissan designs some of the most awful looking headlamps ... in the world! And they did the same with the Nissan Micra. Otherwise it seems fairly standard looking, a bit too grey inside, but that's also sort of standard nowadays. :( As for carbon free electricity, not quite, but it *is* very low. Well done, good show.

@mrpepsiman You have to amortize that over the operational life of the turbine and generator. Given the amount of electricity made over the lifetime, I imagine the impact is negligible. Keep in mind you have to count this same time also for other sources. If you count things this way you can *NEVER* have a something you can consider as zero carbon. IMO unless manufacturing is a huge impact, if something is zero carbon during operation should be counted as zero carbon.

....WELL ..YOU DID YOUR PART ...BE SURE YOU WRITE IT DOWN SOMEWHERE SO SOMEONE ONE DAY CAN READ IT ... ONE NEVER KNOWS ..IT COULD BE A WORLD RECORD SOMEDAY!

I love EVs too! My frustration is with ICE (Internal Combustion Engine). They are so damn wasteful! I want get the maximum bang for my energy buck, so Climate Change or not, I love EVs energy efficiency!

I want one. I want one :(

Let me put it this way: Electric motors are the new V8. Torque. That's what it's about. From 0. How good is THAT? Other than that, I fully agree with you!

@Jesus45U ye its great just being picky!

one BIG thing that HAS to happen is Solar Power Collection has to become more efficient.

@grungerman What, you mean like this one : /watch?v=si1oWJjBD6g ?

@riveaa Good. don't stop with that. Or you could end up like the many people that just look at the buzzwords and forgets the facts behind the whole deal.

LOL

@glennbroadway He actually does have a point. since all things have a carbon/pollution footprint, it should be considered. However, I can say from experience that it *is* very low. There is no free energy, there is no non-polluting energy, the trick is to make it cost less ane pollute less .... but that is also an awfully difficult trick. It can make you extremely rich if you do figure it out.

@gene978 Hello BP.

@XitUp try to admit your first mistake, then you can better hear the next

looks like somebody forgot about the iMiev

apart from carbon from creating the generator thing itself... and the car :p

Well, you are off by a factor of 10, but you did warn us about lacking maths 😉

@ninjabob2456 how rude.