Let's level set here.
I have been to Victoria, BC within the past 2 years, and not only that, I rented a bicycle to ride around the city and sightsee because of the moderate summertime temperatures made that possible. I can see how 56 miles range would work for you. The city is not large in population or size. It was a joy in fact to ride around on my rental bike, but that's another thread. I suppose I could tell you to just get a cargo bike, but it would not be pleasant on cold damp days in the wintertime going to the grocery store.
It would probably be fine in my hometown too of Corvallis, Oregon. As long as you were paying attention, you could probably take a run to the next city over, Albany, OR, (or one of the other nearby cities that are just squashed tomatoes on the map) as long as you didn't combine it with other additional trips. We're talking in the 30 mile range round trip in the central Willamette Valley type stuff, some summertime trips that I took BY BIKE as a tweener and an early teenager, just because we were bored and wanted to go places. It would require some thinking but you could make it work fine with a 56 mile EV. Monroe, OR (to go to my favorite winery near Corvallis) would be pushing it, 40-45 round trip range. Anything else like Salem or Eugene would be a no, they are over 40 miles one way.
I am looking for an EV to replace the Navigator in my signature, that's a reasonable price. I don't hardly ever take trips out of town, but for things that I do, your 56 mile EV would not work for me. I live out in the sticks in Central Texas, the closest major metro nearby is Austin.
- Going to the airport for a drop off: roughly 80 miles roundtrip to Austin or Killeen airports.
- Going to the office: 58 miles round trip to the city office. There are L2 chargers available but they are often full in the daytime
- Puttering around the suburbs on weekends - I put together multiple round trips on Google Maps that I might do on weekends in the suburbs, visiting relatives, going shopping, parties/gatherings, etc and those are often more than 50 miles all said. There are DCFC around in the Austin suburbs, but I don't want to have to stop and charge just to complete my errands and social calendar.
Therefore, 56 miles of range would not work for me for probably 90% of the trips I do with my Navigator, and even less so with my wife's Outlander, which we take further afield. It doesn't mean an old Leaf is a bad car, it just means it would not work for my use case as my is right now. Maybe and just MAYBE I could live with the newer Leaf that has 40Kwh and the battery was not degraded too much.
But realistically I would like to have 220+ miles range, that could get me to a weekend trip to say Fredericksburg which is rougly 180 miles, which we currently take the Outlander for doing things like that. If I drive the Outlander conservatively I can get 30mpg, if I drive 75, 27-28mpg. Prime example of why 220+ range would be much more useful: We rented a ranch outside of Fredericksburg recently for 16 people for a major family milestone, for 3 days. Leaving home with a full charge plus topping off with L1 charging while at the ranch would have been fine for the round trip to Fredricksburg plus doing a few runs into town for restaurants. Could have taken the EV and left the Outlander at home in that case and it would have worked.
We have gone to Kerrville on weekend trips in the last year and that might work also with 220+ miles, but I'd definitely at least need access to an L1 plug, or, the Kerrville Convention and Visitors Bureau has two 62kW chargers and there are some restaurants within walking distance. So, easy.
56 miles would work fine if I had a teenager and I didn't want them to get very far, the old high school is within range of two trips back and forth and the new one will probably allow 3 trips back and forth with 56 miles range, or two trips and a run into one of the nearby hamlets. But anyway.
