How's it feel compared to your truck?
Very different considering they both have about the same power AC motor, and similar battery pack capacity.
Short comparison:
I am a bit lower in the Leaf (even though the Leaf is a somewhat tall sedan, it isn't a truck.)
The Leaf corners with less wobble, and cruises through bumps more smoothly than the truck.
Neither vehicle lives up to the 4 wheel double a-arms of the Lexus I had been driving, but both show that even a crude suspension can do well when most of the weight is down low. (The truck has leaf springs "for pete's sake", and the Leaf has a solid beam rear axle.)
Off the line the truck actually feels a bit quicker, but it is geared for lower top speed, and doesn't seem as optimized for efficiency.
The Leaf is front wheel drive, and the truck if rear wheel drive. Full acceleration off the line produces a tad of torque steer in the Leaf, but none in the truck.
Once I get up to about 50MPH the Leaf feels like it has more power and does a lot better for freeway passing.
The range difference is very noticeable. The truck just barely makes it home->work->home daily on my long commute, but the Leaf has plenty of extra range for lunch trips and such. That is perhaps one of the most noticeable differences to me is watching the range gauge diminish more slowly. Being used to ~60mile range, now having ~90 mile range seems huge. (well it is ~50% more!)
With a Tesla Roadster, I barely thought about the range except when stopping somewhere, but with Leaf and the old truck one needs to keep an eye on the range gauge regularly to make sure you are safe to make it to a charge spot.
I love the backup camera in the Leaf. It seems even better than the Roadster backup camera, showing guide lines to back into a parking space without having to think to hard about it.
Mostly at the end of the day, the Leaf just feels newer and higher tech. Playing with the iPhone app, monitoring charging, setting climate control, and getting charge station updates for the GPS was something I never could do with the old truck.
By the way, if anyone wants to trade a Roadster for a Leaf...
