Oostenrijker
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2023
- Messages
- 118
The main reason I registered here on this forum: is to share my experiences, with other Nissan Leaf drivers. Especially if you like me, bought it second hand and ofcourse have some degradation.
On Monday Ieft on a roadtrip to Austria: with being the main challenge, to drive a cheap as possible and also follow energy efficient routes. Because a 40kWh Nissan Leaf, doesn't have the greatest range. Mine has about 200km of range and 15% degradation.
So I departed on Monday from the city Heerlen in the Netherlands, and the first stop was IKEA Koblenz. Google Maps told me it was 162km driving, however by using Via Michelin I was able to find a more economical route. Cutting the distance down to 150km, so 12km's less.
Surprisingly I arrived with still 45% left at free quick charger from IKEA Koblenz: sadly, someone found it funny to press the emergency button on both quick chargers. Which meant even though we where there at 10, we couldn't start charging until 10:45 so we lost 45mins.
Lucky one Tesla driver left: at 10 a clock, there where already three Tesla drivers at the quick charger. I was the fourth EV, and could only take the type 2 cable. But one Tesla driver gave up, whereas other just didn't move there car and kept the charger cable locked. So that made me change some of the charge planning on the second day.
The second quick charging stop was at IKEA Manheim: I was able to directly park my car within reach of the CHAdeMO cable, however again a Tesla was charging forever with the CCS. I waited for a bit and saw that the Tesla already was almost full, so I simply stopped the charging session.
Because the way I see it: these Tesla's are just blocking the quick chargers for ever, so I decided to be a bit rude. Normally I wouldn't do this, but IKEA Germany doesn't impose a reasonable time limit. Actually there isn't a time limit.... so sometimes in life, you shouldn't be to kind.
The next day we still had 300km to go until our end destination in Vorarlberg Austria: we drove the region called Montafon, and there are a lot of hills. So I wanted to be sure to have enough battery juice.
My travel plan was to charge at IKEA Ulm: but when I found out, that only the CHAdeMO plug was working. Which would be a good thing for a Nissan Leaf.....
However having the experience that many EV drivers simply block the (quick) charger, after discovering it isn't working for their vehicle. So that would mean, that most likely I would find EV's blocking the charger. Making it impossible to charge and waste a lot of time.
Using the German Lidl Plus app, I figured out there where plenty of CHAdeMO quick chargers at the city of Ravensburg. So instead of charging for free, I choose to pay € 0,48 kWh and received almost the full charging speed. Instead of the 20kW, of which the IKEA quick chargers are limited to.
If if wasn't for the bad charging infrastructure network in Austria: then I would have driving in one go to the hotel. However the hotel being at 1500m height, meaning 16% battery consumption for traveling 5.5km up. And this was also the distance to the closest public charger, which would have been very impractical. It would take 15 mins up, and 15 mins down.
I discovered that I can gain 7% of battery back, so it doesn't matter to much if you get with like 30% above the hill. Once you go back down, you going be able to regenerate quite a lot back. After driving today 18km for some short hiking, I actually arrived at the destination with almost the same battery percentage as when I left.
But 15km before arrival, we simply did a second quick charge at Lidl Austria. Which has a better rate for fast charging, than Lidl Germany. Also no need for the Lidl Plus app, which can be a pain in the *** to configure as a non German.
So instead of wasting a lot of time going to the public charger: I just charged 20 mins at Lidl, going from 32% to 80% and then I arrived with 57% at the hotel. Overall the charging stops, and following B roads to reduce energy consumption. Still increases travel time quite a lot, but atleast you get to see many nice places along the way.
Saturday I'm going to visit Ravensburg: after quick charging there, I noticed that it's really a nice city. So then Saturday we going so some sight seeing there, and use the 22kW type chargers from Lidl. Which are at € 0,29 kWh, only you need to pay the parking after 1 hour. But that's only € 1,50 and in such a city, you almost can't escape of having to pay parking.
For on the way back, I have included more (quick) charging stops at Lidl/Kaufland: because only Lidl has a lot of CHAdeMO chargers, whereas the German discounter Aldi. Only has CCS and Type 2 chargers. So using chargers from Lidl, can be really convient and it's cheaper in comparison to other places.
Just you might need to plan alternative routes, and ABRP is to stupid to do this. So you need to plan it by yourself: ABRP also thinks, I always arrive with almost empty battery. So I don't really use it that much, as it hasn't been very useful. I just plan my charger stops within 160km and preferably not to early.
At the hotel I'm allowed to use my granny charger: when the staff member who has a plugin hybrid isn't there. Because I talked with him, and he explained me. They can't install chargers for EV's here, but I also told him. The Nissan Leaf doesn't have a big battery, so the granny charger would do the job.
On Monday Ieft on a roadtrip to Austria: with being the main challenge, to drive a cheap as possible and also follow energy efficient routes. Because a 40kWh Nissan Leaf, doesn't have the greatest range. Mine has about 200km of range and 15% degradation.
So I departed on Monday from the city Heerlen in the Netherlands, and the first stop was IKEA Koblenz. Google Maps told me it was 162km driving, however by using Via Michelin I was able to find a more economical route. Cutting the distance down to 150km, so 12km's less.
Surprisingly I arrived with still 45% left at free quick charger from IKEA Koblenz: sadly, someone found it funny to press the emergency button on both quick chargers. Which meant even though we where there at 10, we couldn't start charging until 10:45 so we lost 45mins.
Lucky one Tesla driver left: at 10 a clock, there where already three Tesla drivers at the quick charger. I was the fourth EV, and could only take the type 2 cable. But one Tesla driver gave up, whereas other just didn't move there car and kept the charger cable locked. So that made me change some of the charge planning on the second day.
The second quick charging stop was at IKEA Manheim: I was able to directly park my car within reach of the CHAdeMO cable, however again a Tesla was charging forever with the CCS. I waited for a bit and saw that the Tesla already was almost full, so I simply stopped the charging session.
Because the way I see it: these Tesla's are just blocking the quick chargers for ever, so I decided to be a bit rude. Normally I wouldn't do this, but IKEA Germany doesn't impose a reasonable time limit. Actually there isn't a time limit.... so sometimes in life, you shouldn't be to kind.
The next day we still had 300km to go until our end destination in Vorarlberg Austria: we drove the region called Montafon, and there are a lot of hills. So I wanted to be sure to have enough battery juice.
My travel plan was to charge at IKEA Ulm: but when I found out, that only the CHAdeMO plug was working. Which would be a good thing for a Nissan Leaf.....
However having the experience that many EV drivers simply block the (quick) charger, after discovering it isn't working for their vehicle. So that would mean, that most likely I would find EV's blocking the charger. Making it impossible to charge and waste a lot of time.
Using the German Lidl Plus app, I figured out there where plenty of CHAdeMO quick chargers at the city of Ravensburg. So instead of charging for free, I choose to pay € 0,48 kWh and received almost the full charging speed. Instead of the 20kW, of which the IKEA quick chargers are limited to.
If if wasn't for the bad charging infrastructure network in Austria: then I would have driving in one go to the hotel. However the hotel being at 1500m height, meaning 16% battery consumption for traveling 5.5km up. And this was also the distance to the closest public charger, which would have been very impractical. It would take 15 mins up, and 15 mins down.
I discovered that I can gain 7% of battery back, so it doesn't matter to much if you get with like 30% above the hill. Once you go back down, you going be able to regenerate quite a lot back. After driving today 18km for some short hiking, I actually arrived at the destination with almost the same battery percentage as when I left.
But 15km before arrival, we simply did a second quick charge at Lidl Austria. Which has a better rate for fast charging, than Lidl Germany. Also no need for the Lidl Plus app, which can be a pain in the *** to configure as a non German.
So instead of wasting a lot of time going to the public charger: I just charged 20 mins at Lidl, going from 32% to 80% and then I arrived with 57% at the hotel. Overall the charging stops, and following B roads to reduce energy consumption. Still increases travel time quite a lot, but atleast you get to see many nice places along the way.
Saturday I'm going to visit Ravensburg: after quick charging there, I noticed that it's really a nice city. So then Saturday we going so some sight seeing there, and use the 22kW type chargers from Lidl. Which are at € 0,29 kWh, only you need to pay the parking after 1 hour. But that's only € 1,50 and in such a city, you almost can't escape of having to pay parking.
For on the way back, I have included more (quick) charging stops at Lidl/Kaufland: because only Lidl has a lot of CHAdeMO chargers, whereas the German discounter Aldi. Only has CCS and Type 2 chargers. So using chargers from Lidl, can be really convient and it's cheaper in comparison to other places.
Just you might need to plan alternative routes, and ABRP is to stupid to do this. So you need to plan it by yourself: ABRP also thinks, I always arrive with almost empty battery. So I don't really use it that much, as it hasn't been very useful. I just plan my charger stops within 160km and preferably not to early.
At the hotel I'm allowed to use my granny charger: when the staff member who has a plugin hybrid isn't there. Because I talked with him, and he explained me. They can't install chargers for EV's here, but I also told him. The Nissan Leaf doesn't have a big battery, so the granny charger would do the job.
