Drove a Leaf today

[drees]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

I was hoping for a electric direct heater on the windshield glass itself. Ford and others made these in the past.

That would be nice - just a tiny bit of heat on the windows is usually all that's needed to defrost them, otherwise the car makes you fire up 4.5 kW of heat/AC to defrost the windshield. Most end up toggling it on/off as needed to minimize energy consumption.

Smarter, more controllable HVAC is a big annoyance with most LEAF owners.

For example - you can't get "auto" mode and recirc air - 98% of the time using recirc should be more efficient as you then don't have to heat/cool outside air - and who wants to breath exhaust fumes from all the other cars on the road?

On the other hand, getting fresh air without triggering the AC or heat is a pain as well when in moderate temps but you don't want the AC to run. You have to make sure the temperature on the HVAC is well below ambient and turn off the AC - annoying to say the least. Just give me a button that disables the AC/heat - preferably independently as it seems that when temps are close it will turn on the heat a bit even when cooling - I'm guessing to assist with dehumidification??? Isn't there a humidity sensor in there somewhere to detect when this is required?

Rant over. Hopefully Nissan will improve this in next cars - I'm sure they simply pulled the HVAC controls right out of an ICE vehicle without too much effort to minimize power consumption.