The main problem(s) with the leaf are
- it charges to 100% every time (unless you dig into a menu, turn on analytics and switch to 80%) I never knew a leaf driver that figured this out.
- the battery size is very small, so you need a full charge to get anywhere reliably and/or drain it very low.
- to put any kind of mileage on the car, you need to cycle the battery MANY times. (one cycle might be a day's driving on the leaf, but one cycle on a tesla is a week's driving or more)
I think the leaf would be a perfect car with up to 20 miles of daily driving.
(I owned the same car as OP)
Ah, I hadn't picked up on this. My BMW i3 has a built-in buffer so what shows as 100% on the dash is actually about 80%, and similarly for 0% (I verified through the raw data).
Doing true "0-100" definitely does not do the battery any favors.
Either the battery heats up too much during driving to accept proper charge (no thermal management). Or it's too cold to accept charge (no heating).
Is there a website to keep track of all the gates?
It isn't comprehensive, though.
A heater for freezing days would be pretty simple.
I guess it's possible one could make a replacement battery pack which has an internal cooling loop, but it would be quite limited in how much heat it could get rid of through the battery case body without external radiators.
Of course better batteries might heat up less when used or charged, due to lower internal resistance, but that still leaves really hot or freezing days.
[1]: https://electricrevs.com/2019/01/31/does-the-new-62-kwh-leaf...