The first road trip with the Leaf was a bit of a mess. The primary objective was completed but all the side quests were abandoned. The main take-away from the trip is that on the highway you are effectively working with a 150km range, which is far short of the 270km advertised.

In light of what is happening with COVID-19, I needed to pick up a Surface Pro from Canberra. To cut a long and boring story short, I couldn’t find someone who was already doing the trip so I decided that this weekend would be a chance to figure out what a trip to Canberra (about 450km each way) in the Leaf would involve.

Why 150km?

I decided that the best place for the first stop would be the NRMA fast charger in Homebush, which happens to be about 150km from home. Leaving home with 100% battery, I had 30% remaining when I got to Homebush. Which means the actual range for a highway trip is about 210km.

Two problems. There is only one fast charging station at Homebush and when I got there a Tesla was plugged in and only 46% full. Went for a walk but the Tesla was still plugged in when we got back so decide to go to the nearby Rhodes shopping centre to top up with a Type 2 charger and grab some lunch for ourselves. After an hour, we came back to the car which was about 50% charged.

Even if the fast charger was available, it would only charge to 80%. So relying on fast charging and leaving yourself with at least 10% for contingencies means you need to plan to stop every 150km.

Plans change

We drove a short distance to my mum’s place and (observing social distancing) said hello and had a coffee while trying to top up using my mode 2 charger. Unfortunately I needed an extension cord and kept tripping the circuit breaker on the power board. So we borrowed my sister’s Outback to complete the journey to Canberra.

Adding to the things that did not go to plan, our niece went into labour after we’d checked into our hotel in Canberra. Lilly wanted to be at the birth so we drove back to my mum’s in Sydney, got a few hours sleep and then got into the Leaf. Luckily, the fast charger in Homebush was free at 5am. It took 17 minutes to charge the Leaf to 80% and then we were off to Newcastle. Made it in time for Lilly to be at the birth and cut the cord of our new grand niece.

Around town

Following our weekend adventure, I’ve kept a close eye on the battery and how far we’ve travelled. It looks like I am getting about 260km on a full charge, so definitely much better. Might need to do some research on whether I can improve the highway range.