Time for a summary of my ownership for the end of financial year 2019-2020.

In the 3.5 months I’ve had the Leaf I’ve driven 3894 km at an average, if the trip computer is to be believed, of 15.6 kWh/100km (2420 mi @ 4 mi/kWh). This has been around a 70/30 mix of city and highway driving.

So how does this compare to my last vehicle, a Jeep Renegade?

  Nissan Leaf ZE1 Jeep Renegade Sport
Consumption 15.6 kWh/100km 7.25 l/100km (32 mpg)
Total for 3894km 607 kWh 282 l
Unit cost $0.31372/kWh $1.349/l
Total cost $190 $380
Emissions 0.92 kg/kWh 2.3 kg/l
Total CO2 559kg 649kg

The surprising thing here is that, while I’ve halved* the fuel cost I’ve only reduced my CO2 emissions by around 14% according to the information on my electricity bill.

This assumes I’ve done all of my charging at home. In reality, I’ve done about 25% of my charging on free, public chargers. And they claim to use greener sources of power that Origin do. So if I say that about 450 kWh of charging was done at home, that reduces my cost to $140 and 414 kg CO2.

I bought a smart plug for my charger and it logs how much energy is used, so I’ll have a better idea on how much charging I do at home and exactly how much it is costing me. Also, I’m currently on the list to change to Amber Electric which should reduce both the cost per kWh and CO2 emissions. Amber use real-time wholesale pricing, so I should be able to schedule charging the car through the smart plug when their prices are cheapest.