"Based on lots of experience in my Prius PHEV, and a couple of hours in a Leaf, i thought i'd put a few points together (i can't believe you don't have one of these already!)
Slow down carefully. As a rule, no braking is best, regen is bad, and friction braking is really bad. Lots of people (and the press) tell you regen braking adds range. It does compared to -friction- braking, but coasting to a stop is even better. If you apply a small amount of pressure to the accelerator you can move your power bar into the "dead" zone, where you are neither drawing power from or putting power into the battery. the Leaf will travel a -long- way like this, as it has low CD and low rolling resistance. Coast to a stop whenever you can.
Check your tyre pressure. Seriously. The dealer will leave it low for a nice comfy ride. Increasing it to 2-4 PSI above the handbook values will reduce your rolling resistance further. Check regularly, as swings in temperature will affect it.
Don't use cruise control. The car has no idea what terrain is in front of you. if you're about to go up a small rise, and then back down, the car will firstly increase power output going up the hill, and then going back down it will drop into the regen area throwing that energy away. Instead try to apply an even amount of power going up/down these hills.
When descending hills, get into the "dead" zone mentioned above if you can. if you pick up speed, that is fine. it's far more efficient to preserve that energy as momentum to be used at the bottom of the hill (by staying in the dead zone until you have fallen to your target speed), than by forcing it into the battery via regen and pulling it back out again.
Watch the traffic ahead and leave a larger than usual gap. This allows you spend more time coasting, and preserve momentum at junctions and roundabouts - you always want to enter a roundabout at a good speed (25mph+), you never ever want to queue/stop for one. The very moment you see a light turn red, or a brakelight, or a roundabout on the horizon, or any other form of hazard/potential reason to slow down, get into the dead zone. You can always take a bit more energy out of the battery if required, but putting it back in is not as efficient.
Limit your top speed. I no longer driver faster than 60mph. We drove down to St Austell (form Northamptonshire) last summer, and while it may have taken 30 minutes longer it was very relaxing, we saw more of the countryside and we achieved over 70mpg in a non-modified prius. In normal day to day driving this speed limit makes very little difference.
Finally, not a bullet point but just a comment, i now view driving the car in a similar way to travelling in a space craft. By default i don't apply any thrust, i -never- want to apply negative thrust, and only apply the minimum amount of positive thrust required. It's more fun that way "
Em: http://www.leaftalk.co.uk/content.php/1 ... R-Magazine
