Charging LEAF In The City (Is My Town A Livable City?)

November 11, 20158 years ago Cynthia Shahan 21 Comments

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Time moves forward. Here’s a look at week two or three living the LEAF way of life. Back to normalcy in one sense, weeks after enjoying the speakers, learning, learning, learning, and also meeting some of the knowledgeable audience at the recent EV Transportation and Technology Summit in Cocoa, Florida. Now, I am charging “LEAF” in the city, and the question arises, “Is my town a livable city?”

I called ChargePoint as I waited for my card via the post. No one puts you on hold at that company. Now with the card, I follow the simple directions: To activate one’s ChargePoint cards (I received two in the mail), just log in to chargepoint.com, go to “my account,” and go to “manage my cards” to activate cards.

At chargepoint.com, I can also access my personal chart of my recent charging activity. A simple graph of my old-woman EV energy needs appears — (along with my new faster drive mode testing). I am comfortable with the LEAF I am driving — I am safe to explore the torque and its use as a safety feature — getting out into a stream of traffic quickly, not sitting at an intersection with the old Toyota that moves like a reliable elephant, pausing.

Here’s a screenshot of my personal ChargePoint account energy stats:

I recently used the navigation system for the first time. It is voice directed as well — so one does not have to take one’s eyes off the road to follow the directions.

At my choice charging point, I notice several cars over a matter of days are ticketed. The spaces are marked clearly for EV charging, and yet in a large garage full of spaces, several cars park there that are not EVs (from time to time) — even a monster truck once which looked as if it wanted to plow into the EV charger.

I talk with another LEAF driver. He knows of someone who just returned a BMW i8 because he likes the LEAF more, or the Tesla. Wow. Like me, that driver must like the smooth drive of the LEAF, and he prefers the smaller EV, a bit of a taller EV to the longer luxury Tesla.

Topping off this leg of my LEAF journeys, I share some spatial photos of LEAF charging next to a white Tesla. A beautiful, luxurious Tesla, but I still prefer the LEAF to the Tesla on height and length – and windows. Love LEAF’s Windows. The BMW i3 windows I love even more.

I love the Tesla because I am one of the lucky educated ones on Tesla wonders. Still, I am in the honeymoon stage — romancing life with LEAF and keeping it pure and clean inside and outside — since I don’t a self-cleaning LEAF (yet). I am immersed in the LEAF way of life.

This next photo shows the Nissan height a bit taller than the silky white Tesla. I am getting familiar with the safety features, such as cameras under the mirrors and on the back. Soon, I will plant a classical family favorite in it, and yes, a Sade CD — and learn how to enable Pandora perhaps.

As noted, I received my card in the mail from ChargePoint. Great timing, and now I can explore the many ChargePoint stations in my county. I checked out the Libraries — both Sarasota and Manatee have them. Or, rather, there is one near the Manatee Library. Thus far, my town seems EV friendly, and with recent colored bicycle lanes near my house, it seems they are improving step by step.

I also started looking at other safety features on the LEAF. There are cameras under the driver-side window, on the front, and on the rear of the EV. Here are two photos of one of LEAF’s cameras (the one on the front of LEAF attached at the plugin lid):