Nissan Leaf range with better aerodynamics ?

[Cd]

What kind of range improvement could be gained by simply lowering the drag on the Leaf from its' stock .29 to .19 ?

Since the car has such a lousy drag coefficient, that means there is plenty of things that can be 'tweaked' on the car to lower it.

I wonder who will be the first to aeromod one of these cars.



grille block anyone ?

[Daox]

Using some rough estimates and the Aerodynamic & rolling resistance, power & MPG calculator - EcoModder.com, my guess would be:

16% boost in range @ 40 mph
20% boost in range @ 55 mph
23% boost in range @ 65 mph

[Cd]

Wow - not bad !

An extra 20 miles just by doing some aeromods.

[Rokeby]

Nissan will be showing their "Aero Style" concept car, really a body panel kit,
at the Tokyo Auto Salon. More in this thread:

LEAF Aero Style Concept

[NeilBlanchard]

You could not improve the Leaf to as low as 0.19 -- not without doing major chop and channeling to narrow the rear wheel track and lower the rear roof line.

Even putting in side video mirrors and flattening the headlight lenses and smooth wheels might drop it to 0.24-25, but it would have to look a lot like the EV1 to go much below 0.24, I think?