2019 "60 kWh" Leaf e-Plus

[Astros]

Sounds like you are negating the great deal you got on your 40. Do you need that extra range?

I get we all need it, eventually but at what cost? I have the 40 and it works for me simply because I make it work. Sure more range would be nice but for the what? 6-10 times a year I would need it? Even if it was 50 times a year, I would have to decide whether the cost divided by the occasions to use is worth it.

I have free public charging (as you do) so range is adjustable. If I don't have it, I go get it. Then comes the challenge of how to spend my $8500...

Yes, that is my debate. I got such a good deal on my 2018 (that I picked up just before the end of the sales tax exemption), that it is still possible to sell it for a profit. But, that also means that the step up in price to a Plus is a big percent increase over the total I will end up paying for the 2018. If I knew how #rapidgate ultimately turns out, I would have an answer. If I could get the European partial fix for my 2018 that would be all I really need. If that fix has been applied to the Plus models to better handle the faster charging, that would make the Plus a significantly more useful car for my family. On the other hand, if the Plus suffers from #rapidgate to the same degree as the 40kWh versions in the US, then longer range to the first charge at the start of a trip seems like the only benefit, and that's not worth the money.

My optimistic side says that surely they must have partially fixed #rapidgate for the Plus model ... but since no one is forcing Nissan to do that I don't really believe that they would.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Sounds like you are negating the great deal you got on your 40. Do you need that extra range?

I get we all need it, eventually but at what cost? I have the 40 and it works for me simply because I make it work. Sure more range would be nice but for the what? 6-10 times a year I would need it? Even if it was 50 times a year, I would have to decide whether the cost divided by the occasions to use is worth it.

I have free public charging (as you do) so range is adjustable. If I don't have it, I go get it. Then comes the challenge of how to spend my $8500...

Yes, that is my debate. I got such a good deal on my 2018 (that I picked up just before the end of the sales tax exemption), that it is still possible to sell it for a profit. But, that also means that the step up in price to a Plus is a big percent increase over the total I will end up paying for the 2018. If I knew how #rapidgate ultimately turns out, I would have an answer. If I could get the European partial fix for my 2018 that would be all I really need. If that fix has been applied to the Plus models to better handle the faster charging, that would make the Plus a significantly more useful car for my family. On the other hand, if the Plus suffers from #rapidgate to the same degree as the 40kWh versions in the US, then longer range to the first charge at the start of a trip seems like the only benefit, and that's not worth the money.

My optimistic side says that surely they must have partially fixed #rapidgate for the Plus model ... but since no one is forcing Nissan to do that I don't really believe that they would.

It all sounds like reasons why you should wait. The RapidGate issue if it still exists will come out when Summer driving season hits. Realize this is first run so prices can only go down. So incentives will likely be better and there is also the possibility the sales tax exemption is reinstated.

My interest in the Plus is not the extra range (I am ok with stopping to charge) but in the faster level 3 charging. Realizing 50% more cells means less stress (and heat buildup) per cell which in itself would partially address RapidGate.

Have you lodged your complaint with Nissan about RapidGate yet?

 

[DougWantsALeaf]

I am going with the plus to support push for longer range (though I do have one 175 mile round trip I often do, which will be nice to do on 1 charge) cars, and maintain Chademo in its battle with ccs. Just for fun.

Additionally though, it’s for my kids to see the changing tech, first the electric car, and now the semi autonomous drive.

Can’t wait for May to do some range testing, and hopefully well best the epa.

 

[Astros]

So, we went and looked at the Plus models on Friday, and we were able to get an SL for $7000 off. My wife really liked the seats in the SL compared to the SV, and she does almost all the driving for her work, so that helped push us over. We've only had the car for the weekend so far, but here are a few initial notes:

Unlike the statements in articles on insideevs and greencarreports, the new Leaf Plus comes with the standard 2 years of free charging, NOT 3 years.

The infotainment system feels very different from the 40kWh models. It is not just that the screen is larger and has a different aspect ratio (I think), but the menus, buttons, and map display look very different. The larger screen helps with Apple Carplay, which we didn't use much before.

No one seems to know what "Door to door Navigation" means, which is only available on the Plus. The Nissan sales people told me one thing that obviously isn't true, and the manual states that it is an app that you download on your phone. (Now looking that up on my phone, I see that it is made by Nissan, so it almost certainly is just as slow and buggy as the NissanConnect app)

It is a small thing, but cost me a lot of time and is annoying: they have removed the function to import or export your address book for navigation. So, I will have to enter everything again manually.

It connected easily to my wi-fi at home, and you really can update the infotainment system and maps.

Leafspy shows a capacity of 60.5kWh when fully charged, which is consistent with every other Leaf I have had showing 1.5kWh less than the official capacity. With a full charge, the GOM gave 252 miles, or 234 with the AC on.

The suspension is noticeably stiffer than the 30 or 40kWh versions when driving over the speed bumps near my house. Passengers in the back seat felt quite a bump going over them at the speed I was used to with the earlier Leafs, and it felt more jarring in the front as well.

The Leaf is our only car, so we take it on some long trips (300 - 500 miles in a day) several times a year. We don't have any planned for a couple months, but I will be sure to report back on how the Plus deals with multiple fast charges in a day, how hot the battery gets, and how soon the charging speed slows down.

 

[LeftieBiker]

Unlike the statements in articles on insideevs and greencarreports, the new Leaf Plus comes with the standard 2 years of free charging, NOT 3 years.

Those idiots should have gotten it right by now, as No Charge To Charge has always been for two years, AFAIK.

IIRC, Door to Door Nav means that you can park the car and the app on your phone will direct you on foot the last mile.

 

[cwerdna]

Unlike the statements in articles on insideevs and greencarreports, the new Leaf Plus comes with the standard 2 years of free charging, NOT 3 years.

Those idiots should have gotten it right by now, as No Charge To Charge has always been for two years, AFAIK.

It's possible those press outlets were given bad information or it was initially 3 years for the Plus then got changed back to 2.

Yes, it's always been 2 years for Leafs prior to Plus.

So, we went and looked at the Plus models on Friday, and we were able to get an SL for $7000 off.

Wow! Interesting that they were that willing to deal.

If it were in the picture at end of Jan 2019 when I bought my Bolt, it would've been a much tougher choice between a heavily discounted Bolt and Leaf Plus SL at those kind of prices. Thanks for your other info!

 

[webeleafowners]

So, we went and looked at the Plus models on Friday, and we were able to get an SL for $7000 off. My wife really liked the seats in the SL compared to the SV, and she does almost all the driving for her work, so that helped push us over. We've only had the car for the weekend so far, but here are a few initial notes:

Unlike the statements in articles on insideevs and greencarreports, the new Leaf Plus comes with the standard 2 years of free charging, NOT 3 years.

The infotainment system feels very different from the 40kWh models. It is not just that the screen is larger and has a different aspect ratio (I think), but the menus, buttons, and map display look very different. The larger screen helps with Apple Carplay, which we didn't use much before.

No one seems to know what "Door to door Navigation" means, which is only available on the Plus. The Nissan sales people told me one thing that obviously isn't true, and the manual states that it is an app that you download on your phone. (Now looking that up on my phone, I see that it is made by Nissan, so it almost certainly is just as slow and buggy as the NissanConnect app)

It is a small thing, but cost me a lot of time and is annoying: they have removed the function to import or export your address book for navigation. So, I will have to enter everything again manually.

It connected easily to my wi-fi at home, and you really can update the infotainment system and maps.

Leafspy shows a capacity of 60.5kWh when fully charged, which is consistent with every other Leaf I have had showing 1.5kWh less than the official capacity. With a full charge, the GOM gave 252 miles, or 234 with the AC on.

The suspension is noticeably stiffer than the 30 or 40kWh versions when driving over the speed bumps near my house. Passengers in the back seat felt quite a bump going over them at the speed I was used to with the earlier Leafs, and it felt more jarring in the front as well.

The Leaf is our only car, so we take it on some long trips (300 - 500 miles in a day) several times a year. We don't have any planned for a couple months, but I will be sure to report back on how the Plus deals with multiple fast charges in a day, how hot the battery gets, and how soon the charging speed slows down.

Outstanding report. Thank you. Still deciding between a model 3 and an EPlus.

 

[DougWantsALeaf]

Yes, please post your range experiences with the plus. While hypermiling is not going to as relevant in the day to day commuting, it’s still a needed strategy for trying cross country ventures.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

So, we went and looked at the Plus models on Friday, and we were able to get an SL for $7000 off. My wife really liked the seats in the SL compared to the SV, and she does almost all the driving for her work, so that helped push us over. We've only had the car for the weekend so far, but here are a few initial notes:

Unlike the statements in articles on insideevs and greencarreports, the new Leaf Plus comes with the standard 2 years of free charging, NOT 3 years.

The infotainment system feels very different from the 40kWh models. It is not just that the screen is larger and has a different aspect ratio (I think), but the menus, buttons, and map display look very different. The larger screen helps with Apple Carplay, which we didn't use much before.

No one seems to know what "Door to door Navigation" means, which is only available on the Plus. The Nissan sales people told me one thing that obviously isn't true, and the manual states that it is an app that you download on your phone. (Now looking that up on my phone, I see that it is made by Nissan, so it almost certainly is just as slow and buggy as the NissanConnect app)

It is a small thing, but cost me a lot of time and is annoying: they have removed the function to import or export your address book for navigation. So, I will have to enter everything again manually.

It connected easily to my wi-fi at home, and you really can update the infotainment system and maps.

Leafspy shows a capacity of 60.5kWh when fully charged, which is consistent with every other Leaf I have had showing 1.5kWh less than the official capacity. With a full charge, the GOM gave 252 miles, or 234 with the AC on.

The suspension is noticeably stiffer than the 30 or 40kWh versions when driving over the speed bumps near my house. Passengers in the back seat felt quite a bump going over them at the speed I was used to with the earlier Leafs, and it felt more jarring in the front as well.

The Leaf is our only car, so we take it on some long trips (300 - 500 miles in a day) several times a year. We don't have any planned for a couple months, but I will be sure to report back on how the Plus deals with multiple fast charges in a day, how hot the battery gets, and how soon the charging speed slows down.

Well you can thank Gary for that 3 year rumor as he was the only source for that tidbit that I could tell.

But was EA added as part of NCTC program or is it still only Blink Webasto and EVGO? (Greenlots is there but provides no free charging)

 

[Astros]

No, the only networks with free charging are Evgo, Webasto, and Blink. The EZ-charge card works on chargepoint and greenlots just as before, but they’re not free.

 

[golfcart]

The suspension is noticeably stiffer than the 30 or 40kWh versions when driving over the speed bumps near my house. Passengers in the back seat felt quite a bump going over them at the speed I was used to with the earlier Leafs, and it felt more jarring in the front as well.

That's interesting, I thought my 2015 was way too soft and the 2018 is much improved but still a little soft... perhaps I'd like the suspension tuning on the plus.

 

[Astros]

A few more minor changes that we’ve noticed:

In navigation, you can now set it to display ETA instead of time to destination.

“Min freeways “ is no longer a route option in navigation.

You can now set a work location as well as home, with the shortcut “Go to work.” My wife laughed about that a lot, thinking of the line from The Producers.

The map now has big zoom out and zoom in buttons, and all of the buttons are semi-transparent allowing you to see the map underneath. Also, if you have a route entered, it now displays a button in the menu bar under the map to take you to the route settings, where you can change the route type, add waypoints, or tell it to find a detour for the next X miles. All of that exists in the previous navigation, but I felt it was harder to access while driving.

I haven’t noticed any differences in a ProPilot yet, though it apparently is supposed to now be monitoring two cars ahead, and can alert you if the second car slows down suddenly.

I haven’t had an SL trim before, so I don’t know how much of this is new or just new to me, but the around view cameras provide a lot of options. As long as you are driving under 5mph forwards, you can view the camera at the front bumper or down from the passenger mirror, or the birds-eye view all around the car. You have to specifically press the camera button to see those while moving forwards, but it’s nice that you can.

 

[EVdriver2018]

Leafspy shows a capacity of 60.5kWh when fully charged, which is consistent with every other Leaf I have had showing 1.5kWh less than the official capacity. With a full charge, the GOM gave 252 miles, or 234 with the AC on.

Thanks for your report and giving some insights in the battery capacity.
The battery indicator of the 40 kWh version has a deviation of approx. 10% when the battery is less than 40% full (compared to the status of Leaf Spy).
Can you tell us how exact the battery indicator is on lower levels, compared to Leaf Spy values?
Thanks and have fun with your new Leaf!

 

[lorenfb]

Two Nissan dealers here in SoCal today had only one Nissan Leaf each. They were SL Pluses which arrived within the last few days.
Both had sticker prices greater than $44K. Laughable! No wonder Elon can again promote a $35K M3 reservation scam.

 

[Astros]

Thanks for your report and giving some insights in the battery capacity.
The battery indicator of the 40 kWh version has a deviation of approx. 10% when the battery is less than 40% full (compared to the status of Leaf Spy).
Can you tell us how exact the battery indicator is on lower levels, compared to Leaf Spy values?
Thanks and have fun with your new Leaf!

Yes, I'm curious about that too. The 40kWh Leaf hid 10% of the pack as you say, though confusingly only did so incrementally as you reached a low state of charge. So, the GOM would be pretty accurate above ~60% charge, but below that would claim to drop faster than you were really using it. I was always very surprised by this choice, because it seems calculated to increase range anxiety. My best guess is that they wanted to leave a buffer at the bottom end to prevent people from actually driving to turtle, but didn't want to subtract that capacity and take a hit on the EPA range rating or the GOM display when fully charged.

 

[EVdriver2018]

Thanks for your report and giving some insights in the battery capacity.
The battery indicator of the 40 kWh version has a deviation of approx. 10% when the battery is less than 40% full (compared to the status of Leaf Spy).
Can you tell us how exact the battery indicator is on lower levels, compared to Leaf Spy values?
Thanks and have fun with your new Leaf!

Yes, I'm curious about that too. The 40kWh Leaf hid 10% of the pack as you say, though confusingly only did so incrementally as you reached a low state of charge. So, the GOM would be pretty accurate above ~60% charge, but below that would claim to drop faster than you were really using it. I was always very surprised by this choice, because it seems calculated to increase range anxiety. My best guess is that they wanted to leave a buffer at the bottom end to prevent people from actually driving to turtle, but didn't want to subtract that capacity and take a hit on the EPA range rating or the GOM display when fully charged.

Thank you for giving some more context and background about the topic. It seems that Nissan wanted to stay on the save side and prevent "TURTLE MODE". But it also gives a less positive driving range on the GOM. I hope you can give us some feedback when you have driven the new model longer about wheter or not this "buffer" is still there. Or that the battery indicator is the same as Leaf Spy.

 

[DougWantsALeaf]

Can anyone wiih a plus comment on the cargo area? Visually it looks bigger, per spec it’s about the same.

 

[Astros]

Can anyone wiih a plus comment on the cargo area? Visually it looks bigger, per spec it’s about the same.

It's exactly the same as the 40kWh version, which is slightly larger than the 24 or 30kWh versions.

 

[OrientExpress]

Can anyone wiih a plus comment on the cargo area? Visually it looks bigger, per spec it’s about the same.

It's exactly the same as the 40kWh version, which is slightly larger than the 24 or 30kWh versions.

The LEAF2 interior space is essentially the same as the LEAF1, but it is just a bit bigger because of a redesign of the interior of the C-pillar.

 

[EVdriver2018]

Maybe here is an interesting review of the 62 kWh Leaf, made in Japan (English language)
It seems in the end that Leaf Spy still shows a much greater SOC than on the dash (25% vs 16%, from approx. 55 min. in the video)
So there is still about 10% 'hidden' capacity. I am very curious to see the video's in the future where people just ignore the reading on the dash and keep on driving and watching an eye on Leaf Spy
But I am surprised that Nissan still maintains that hidden capacity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSaY3JZWIzU