Chicagoland area

[davewill]

With blizzard season looming in Chicago... Has any got suggestions on how long an extension cord should be? Ought one to have two on board? :?:

I carry one 50 footer, although there's something to be said for two shorter ones. The other thing to consider is that if you're going to be using them in wet outdoor conditions, you need some way to keep the connections and the "brick" out of puddles.

 

[redLEAF]

On another note -- my delivery status was changed from 'week of December 10th' to 'pending' status -- called Nissan CS and they still call it a system glitch. Appears to happen when the car shows up as 'wholesale' (as in the dealer's new car inventory) even though it may or may not be actually at the dealer; best guess is still another day or so but as has happened to others elsewhere on this forum perhaps the car will actually show up quite soon; we'll see !

 

[Dino]

On another note -- my delivery status was changed from 'week of December 10th' to 'pending' status -- called Nissan CS and they still call it a system glitch. Appears to happen when the car shows up as 'wholesale' (as in the dealer's new car inventory) even though it may or may not be actually at the dealer; best guess is still another day or so but as has happened to others elsewhere on this forum perhaps the car will actually show up quite soon; we'll see !

Yes, mine changed to Pending just before it arrived!

A note on public charging. Some maps show Argonne National Laboratory as a public charging station. This is not true, you cannot charge at ANL. How ironic the DOE can't offer public charging.

 

[redLEAF]

On another note -- my delivery status was changed from 'week of December 10th' to 'pending' status -- called Nissan CS and they still call it a system glitch. Appears to happen when the car shows up as 'wholesale' (as in the dealer's new car inventory) even though it may or may not be actually at the dealer; best guess is still another day or so but as has happened to others elsewhere on this forum perhaps the car will actually show up quite soon; we'll see !

Yes, mine changed to Pending just before it arrived!

A note on public charging. Some maps show Argonne National Laboratory as a public charging station. This is not true, you cannot charge at ANL. How ironic the DOE can't offer public charging.

Although it was mentioned earlier that some of the Walgreen's now have L2 charging, don't believe a location was mentioned as not ALL Walgreen's have these around Chicago; I have seen the two EV stations at the Walgreen's on Dundee Road (corner of Dundee and Hicks to be exact in Palatine) and they appear to be operational. What's more interesting is that looking up this store location gives not hint that they even have these (do have a DVD redbox rental though!)

http://www.walgreens.com/topic/sr/sr_electric_vehicle_charging_stations.jsp

 

[redLEAF]

On another note -- my delivery status was changed from 'week of December 10th' to 'pending' status -- called Nissan CS and they still call it a system glitch. Appears to happen when the car shows up as 'wholesale' (as in the dealer's new car inventory) even though it may or may not be actually at the dealer; best guess is still another day or so but as has happened to others elsewhere on this forum perhaps the car will actually show up quite soon; we'll see !

--- almost didn't answer my wife's (formerly mine) cell phone a few minutes ago as I didn't recognize the caller's number; I gave the dealer my new cell number weeks ago but of course they still had this number for me ... and yes it was the call I was waiting for !!! Keith the dealer GM called to say that my car is finally in, verified it's my VIN and it's going in for charging and prep tomorrow. Plan to pick it up first thing Friday as I'm off from work anyway, my rep is on vacation along with the GM but they have folks that can help me so that's great. I did ask if they had other deliveries and they delivered two LEAF's, one on 12/9 and one on 12/10; apparently my VIN was an earlier number so probably was one of the first on the ship so last to get delivered, go figure. In any case, don't fear the 'pending' status as it might be good news! Perhaps the first two LEAF deliveries were someone on the forum -- dealer is McGrath Nissan in Elgin ? Thanks again for everyone's encouragement, will definitley beat year end for tax credit and rebate now. Post delivery news to follow --

 

[dutchinchicago]

Mine says pending but I picked it up earlier today.

What a great car. Worth the wait.

We twice had an orange warning light with a message warning about power steering. It prevented us from driving away. We had to turn the car on and off to get it working. Has anyone else experienced this?

 

[lukati]

... and yes it was the call I was waiting for !!!

... and about time. Glad it finally happened.

 

[dutchinchicago]

I have ordered a GE wattstation from amazon. I am hoping to get my electrician to install it next week so that I can use the 30% tax rebate.

Does anyone know if we need a permit to install this inside my garage?

 

[redLEAF]

I have ordered a GE wattstation from amazon. I am hoping to get my electrician to install it next week so that I can use the 30% tax rebate.

Does anyone know if we need a permit to install this inside my garage?

'dutch' it depends on what your city/town/village requires -- out here in the NW 'burbs my electrician didn't require any permit -- basically unless you're doing a major house addition, etc. you won't need an inspection and/or permit. Best bet would be to check your local municipality home page for permits, etc. and I would doubt you'll see anything on adding an electrical circuit unlike CA or other areas.

 

[Dino]

We twice had an orange warning light with a message warning about power steering. It prevented us from driving away. We had to turn the car on and off to get it working. Has anyone else experienced this?

No, that doesn't sound good. I hope the dealer can fix it quickly. intermittent problems can be difficult.

 

[lukati]

Big EV mail day. I received both my EVSE 240V upgrade (have been limping along with juice from a nearby Walgreens) and my Illinois license plates in the mail today. The upgraded unit works like a charm and the plates look sharp: black letters (2xx EL) on white background and an orange sticker good through 12/13.

 

[redLEAF]

Big EV mail day. I received both my EVSE 240V upgrade (have been limping along with juice from a nearby Walgreens) and my Illinois license plates in the mail today. The upgraded unit works like a charm and the plates look sharp: black letters (2xx EL) on white background and an orange sticker good through 12/13.

That's great news -- my home charger has been waiting for its first use for a bit over two months, I knew that the EL series was low but not just to the 200's, not sure if they started the series at say 1xx or the single number 001 followed by the suffix but we all know our EV numbers are small here in IL. Plan is to get EL plates as well so thanks for sharing, can't beat the $35 rate every two years.

 

[Dino]

After my first week-

Carwings is almost worst than I expected. I don’t have a smartphone if that makes a difference. It’s good if you want to check the SOC or see if it’s plugged in or charging. You can also start charging or start the Climate control. Beyond that I see nothing. Has anyone else found anything useful? It would be nice to know what level it will charge to (80 or 100) and it would be nice to stop charging. I tried to forward a route to the nav system …hmm… maybe it’s in someone else’s nav LOL or course it could be me, I never had a nav system. EDIT I found my route

Also I noticed under the car in front of the back tire, there are these little plastic tab things hanging down. The service guy said it was some kind of deflector. Does anyone know what their function is? Reduce ice buildup maybe? Aerodynamics?

 

[OldQuadDog]

Big EV mail day. I received both my EVSE 240V upgrade (have been limping along with juice from a nearby Walgreens) and my Illinois license plates in the mail today. The upgraded unit works like a charm and the plates look sharp: black letters (2xx EL) on white background and an orange sticker good through 12/13.

Great to hear you are upgraded!
I just picked up my Leaf yeterday afternoon (Thursday)!!
I will send for EVSE upgrade when they return next year. I have GE Wattstaion for my home and I just had a 208VAC outside outlet installed at my work. (Only 208 because the building is the 3 phase that only gets me the 208 (Delta or Y I don not recall, it is one of them) I am planning on using this primarily for pre-heating before the evening trip home.

If you find yourself at the southeast part of Elk Grove Village M-F and need some KWH's and have your upgraded EVSE with you I can get you some time at the outlet.

I could use some help with the EV plates.
Libertyville Nissan claims they have called the secretary of state and the process is not settled yet so they insisted at registering for plates at the full cost.
Does not seem fully accurate does it?

 

[dutchinchicago]

Martin Nissan gave me temporary plates and charged me the full amount. They are working on getting me the EL plates and will give me a rebate check for the difference once that is done. They had the same story saying that the EL plates are not fully set up yet which is strange as some people on this forum already have received theirs.

Dutch

 

[redLEAF]

Big EV mail day. I received both my EVSE 240V upgrade (have been limping along with juice from a nearby Walgreens) and my Illinois license plates in the mail today. The upgraded unit works like a charm and the plates look sharp: black letters (2xx EL) on white background and an orange sticker good through 12/13.

Great to hear you are upgraded!
I just picked up my Leaf yeterday afternoon (Thursday)!!
I will send for EVSE upgrade when they return next year. I have GE Wattstaion for my home and I just had a 208VAC outside outlet installed at my work. (Only 208 because the building is the 3 phase that only gets me the 208 (Delta or Y I don not recall, it is one of them) I am planning on using this primarily for pre-heating before the evening trip home.

If you find yourself at the southeast part of Elk Grove Village M-F and need some KWH's and have your upgraded EVSE with you I can get you some time at the outlet.

I could use some help with the EV plates.
Libertyville Nissan claims they have called the secretary of state and the process is not settled yet so they insisted at registering for plates at the full cost.
Does not seem fully accurate does it?

Sent OldQuagDog a PM with the name and number of the contact at IL SOS -- they can either inform the dealer of how to complete the proper paperwork or send you a form to fill out for the EL plate registration --on dutch's comments; I hope to pick up my car today so will see what the finance guy says/does; they've delivered two other cars already so perhaps they've already worked it out but plan to bring the form sent to me by IL SOS

 

[dutchinchicago]

I traded in my old car (2008 Toyota Matrix) at Carmax. It was a great experience. My local Toyota dealer where I bought the car originally offered $9000. The Nissan dealer where I bought my Leaf offered $10000 as a trade in. Carmax offered $12000.

It took me 4 hours at the Nissan garage before I finally could drive out with my new car. It is a very slow and drawn out frustrating experience. It took me 20 minutes at carmax to sell my car.

Carmax rocks. Thanks for the tip.

 

[dutchinchicago]

I decided to take my kids to Lake Genva in a couple of weeks time. I was there recently and checked out their Chargepoint L1 charger which would work fine.

I used carwings navigation to check out the route and was surprised that says it takes 8 1/2 hours including a 6 1/2 hours L2 charging stop and Gurnee Mills. This is not really a realistic option.

Does anyone know if there are any plans to install L3 chargers in Illinois? Is there anything we can do to make this happen?

Also what do you think the chances are that we can upgrade our chargers to 6.6Kw like the 2013 Leaf is supposed to have?

 

[Dino]

Big EV mail day. I received both my EVSE 240V upgrade (have been limping along with juice from a nearby Walgreens) and my Illinois license plates in the mail today. The upgraded unit works like a charm and the plates look sharp: black letters (2xx EL) on white background and an orange sticker good through 12/13.

I see you are already under 1 cent/mile

I had to reset all the totals on my TED. When I saw this I expected to see my garage on fire! Apparently TED had a communication problem and gave my erroneous data. Tech support told me to rewire it and change some settings and it seems ok now.

 

[radryan]

RE: Finance Guys

They don't like new things. The one at my dealer called the contact Redleaf has(they got to the same contact as I told them but they went thru their own contact first) to get his answers but it ended up that he does everything the exact same way he does any other car(gives standard temporay plate, does same title and paperwork) except he just takes $35 from you for plates(instead of $99 or whatever the normally take) and marks in the notes requesting EL plates.