The drive range of an electric vehicle, namely Nissan Leaf, could be affected by the use of air conditioning whether to heat or cool the interior, said Mitsuhiko Yamashita, executive vice president of Nissan Motor Co Ltd at Ceatec Japan 2010.
When the Leaf is functioning without air conditioning, it can even drive 220 km at a constant speed of 70 km/h. For a 24 km/h city driving, the car can get you 170 km at 24 km/h (average).
If you use the air conditioner to cool your car in a hot summer’s day and you’re caught in a traffic jam, the Leaf’s autonomy can drastically drop to 95 km at an average speed of 10 km/h. If it’s cold outside and you want heat, then the Leaf will only take you 109 km at a constant 73 km/h.
Yamashita mentioned that the battery is rapidly depleted when the air conditioning is on for a long time (traffic jam). I don’t want to imagine what it would be like to be stuck in winter with the heating on… 70 km?
“Car Wings” is a service that Nissan wants to offer its customers and that can dispatch a wrecker truck in case the Leaf’s battery is depleted. I wonder if the wrecker truck will have some sort of recharging tools onboard, or a swap battery, because it would be more practical.
[via techon]
