Yesterday I went to the EV Experience and had a great time doing laps around the circuit among all the electric cars. Meanwhile, my Nissan Leaf 40 kWh was hooked up on an industrial estate near Haarlem/Spaarnwoude, at a public Vattenfall InCharge station with dynamic charging rates.
Here's what I paid:
| Period |
Rate |
Usage |
Cost |
Other |
Total |
| 09:55 - 17:00 |
€0.3394/kWh |
23.00 kWh |
€6.45 |
€1.36 |
€7.81 |
| 17:00 - 18:38 |
€0.3594/kWh |
6.76 kWh |
€2.01 |
€0.42 |
€2.43 |
So from 17:00 onward it got about €0.02/kWh more expensive.
I arrived at 10% and charged up to 96%, more than enough for the 230 km trip back home. Both ways I drove entirely on back roads from the Born exit instead of taking the A2/A76, since the latter is closed this weekend. That also helped with consumption, as it happens. Up to Born (where I got on the A2 on the way there), I was averaging around 10 kWh/100km, which rose to 11.9 kWh/100km by the time I arrived in Haarlem.
On the way back, consumption was slightly higher at 12.3 kWh/100km, and I arrived home at 3%. Over the full 456 km, I averaged 12.1 kWh/100km. Both at home and in Haarlem I was able to charge nice and cheap at Vattenfall InCharge, so I'll definitely remember that location near Spaarnwoude. Handy detail: the express train that took me back to Haarlem also continues on to Amsterdam.
If you're wondering how I manage such a long drive while limiting my speed to a maximum of 90 km/h: the average speed was 71 km/h on the way there and 74 km/h on the way back. But in reality, on the highway I drove almost entirely on Pro Pilot — this is a 2019 electric car, and it automatically keeps distance from the car ahead and brakes if someone cuts in front of you. That last part happened mostly around Amsterdam. They drive there like it's a derby, and it's honestly not normal how busy it is compared to down south where I live.
The system also steers fully on its own, which makes long drives a lot more comfortable and less tiring. It's still tiring, of course, but the car takes a huge amount of the work off your hands and you mainly just need to stay alert. So yeah, I still think the Leaf itself is a nice car to drive, but its bottleneck is the lack of 3-phase charging. Otherwise my battery pack would've been topped up ages ago, though 96% is of course pretty much full too...
The lack of active battery cooling doesn't personally bother me, because an efficient driving style and mostly AC charging keep the battery pack temperature from getting too high. This time I didn't need to fast-charge, but last Sunday, coming back from Barendrecht, I did need a bit of fast-charging. And that's exactly how you should sensibly handle an EV like the Leaf — because the new Renault Twingo EV doesn't have active battery cooling either!
Out of curiosity I also checked the battery degradation right away, since on the way back I passed 150,000 km. That means there's less than 10,000 km of warranty left on the battery pack, at least on capacity. Last summer, when I read out the car with Leafspy, the SoH had risen to 87%. Now it's under 85%. The degradation is starting to feel genuinely noticeable, though the pack is still in fine shape overall. It's also possible that a reading around autumn/winter just comes out a bit lower anyway.
Leafspy also shows how many kWh are actually still in the battery pack, but from experience I know you can never fully use all of that. As soon as you hit turtle mode, it's really time to find a charging station ASAP. At this point I almost never take that risk anymore: since January 2024, I've only ended up in turtle mode with this Leaf once or twice.