The fastest way to charge your Nissan Leaf - towing [video]

The Nissan Leaf has brake regeneration which means it charges itself during braking. So in theory you can charge the car by braking while you are being towed. However, the Nissan Leaf manual states you 'shouldn't tow an electric car with four wheels on the ground'. The Nissan dealer was a bit sketchy about why that was so we set out to prove the theory and made this video.

As you can see in the video it really does work! However there are some small differences. Because the car is being towed the range computer thinks it's driving ultra economical and calculates the range according to this. So the range the computer calculates isn't the actual range which you will have when you drive the car, it's about 33% less.

However, the car does charge itself while braking, and actually does a very good job. It's about as fast as a fast charger charging the car. You have to be careful though not to overdo the braking; charging only happens in the first phase of braking if you overdo the Leaf will start to use the regular brakes resulting in very smelly brake pads ;-)

Remember to press the 'CC' button to get English subtitles.