Recent content by billvon

Thanks, that's exactly what I needed - some evidence that $8000 is ridiculous.

I just tried to do the same and got a quote of "about $8000." This consisted of: Battery $5499 Upgrade kit for 2012 Leaf "about $1000" Labor $1000 Unspecified extras Have other people seen these sorts of prices?

Well, by that argument, if your Leaf has a superior range - you don't need the charger either. And if it doesn't, it's your fault for buying a car with an inferior range.

Ah, OK. So that's round trip mileage.

Where do you live? Temecula?

Is charging at work an option? If so you could make it 100% EV with the Volt. I drove both and I liked both, but the deciding factor for me was that I didn't need the additional range and I didn't want to haul around that big gas engine all the time.

Thanks, that's good info. There are 5233 users here, which is probably a small percentage of the 27000 Leafs sold so far. (I assume most people here are Leaf owners.) So of those 5233 we have one who doesn't charge at home so far.

I was talking to someone the other day who was claiming that EV charging would bring down the power grid in places like California. He said that since people needed 50 kilowatts to charge their cars quickly that any EV sales success would be quickly followed by blackouts, people stranded unable...

Using the same method as the now-famous Enginer PHEV kit for the Prius, could a secondary battery be used to inject power into the Leaf's HV bus? (i.e. 8kwhr of 48V batteries, 5kW DC/DC to boost to 360-400V for injection onto HV bus) Or is Nissan doing something clever that would "catch" that?

Thanks for the opinions. I'll probably keep the second one at 12A.

Not really. But I do want a separate circuit for the brewing stuff (120/240V 30A) and the charging circuit. And I only have one 240V slot left in the main panel, even converting every breaker to double breakers. And eventually if things work out I will probably end up with a PHEV as our...

Haven't tried it yet. But based on the range numbers I am getting so far it shouldn't be an issue. (At least for me - but then again I can regularly get 55mpg in our Prius on the same route; my wife gets 36mpg or so.)

I've been considering a Leaf for a while. I had been holding off because a very common trip we make is 66 miles door to door +1000 feet and so we'd barely make it at highway speeds. Well, since then a co-worker who built her own EV guilted me into ordering one. She kept pointing out the 10kW...

I have one EVSE-upgrade cable that has both the 240V and 16A mods. (It actually seems to draw about 17A when in use.) I plan on sending the other EVSE I have (trickle charger that came with the car) to EVSE-upgrade to have it upgraded as well. Are there any advantages in leaving it at 12A? I...

Wow, we're swimming in them over here (San Diego.) A dozen or so in our parking lot, and outside of that I see a few a day while I am on my bike.