Now, on to the exterior. There isn’t too much to celebrate, from the front it does look like a Nissan March wearing a funky pair of glasses, which isn’t really a good thing. The only part of the exterior “that looks kind of cool” are the LED rear lights which may be the only part of the car which lets you know that there’s something different here.
Besides the multiple “Zero Emissions” badges, the only other reminder that this different to the
fossil fuel powered brethren
on the streets is its lack of an exhaust pipe.
Taking a look under the hood
and it’s hard to see what exactly is going on under there. Instead of the engine block, what you see is the top of the inverter and the motor below it. The battery you see runs the same functions as the battery in your fossil fuel powered cars (the batteries which actually power the car are under the back seats).
While you don’t need regular services, one thing you should keep an eye on are the batteries. The Leaf’s battery consists of 48 modules, each containing 4 cells. The cost of changing 1 module costs between Rs.10,000 and Rs. 15,000 and purchasing a full brand new battery costs USD 5,500. Reconditioned batteries are also available for Rs. 300,000-Rs. 400,000 but we aren’t sure how using a reconditioned battery will impact performance.
If you have spent a little bit of time looking under the hood of a petrol/diesel powered car, you’ll also notice that there’s no place to put any sort of oil, that’s because there isn’t a need to do so in the Leaf. Also missing are the belts (fan, timing and air con), spark plugs, and filters. The reason is the rather simple system of propulsion for the car, but more importantly this means you aren’t going to be dealing with the usual servicing that’s needed with non-electric vehicles.
State of Charge:
Module and cell health
State of Health:
Overall battery health
If you are thinking of buying a Leaf, or if you own a Leaf,
It’s advisable that you get both a State of Charge (SoC) and State of Health (SoH) scan done.
If SoH below 50%, time for a new battery. Make sure you check before you buy!
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