Chicagoland area

[KJD]

Last Sunday we took a trip to Brookfield zoo with the Leaf. An epic 26 mile journey. We left with 11 bars and drove 55 miles/hour even pushing as high as 56 at some points with the heating on auto to prevent the fogging up of the windows. When we got back we only had 3 bars left. A rough calculation shows that on this trip we could have done 39 miles. Completely unacceptable.

11 bars is only about 91% full. Is there a reason you did not charge to 100% on this day?

 

[dutchinchicago]

Last Sunday we took a trip to Brookfield zoo with the Leaf. An epic 26 mile journey. We left with 11 bars and drove 55 miles/hour even pushing as high as 56 at some points with the heating on auto to prevent the fogging up of the windows. When we got back we only had 3 bars left. A rough calculation shows that on this trip we could have done 39 miles. Completely unacceptable.

11 bars is only about 91% full. Is there a reason you did not charge to 100% on this day?

I usually charge to 80% and as soon as we decided to take a longer trip I remotely enable charging but we left before it reached 100%.

Was ok for this trip because I knew that the Leaf could easily do 32 miles on 11 bars.

In weekends I charge to 100% but I had the 100% set for Friday and Saturday thinking that is what I want for the Friday night and Saturday night charging cycles. I set up the charging with only an end time of 4am so the Leaf interpreted this as to 100% on the charging cycle ending Friday morning 4am even though it might have started on Thursday night. Changing the 100% charging cycles to Saturday and Sunday would have fixed this. I just misunderstood the setting.

 

[lukati]

Best of luck with your Volt. I hope you will still be checking in on us on a regular basis. I don't see why you shouldn't be able to keep your state rebate. You bought the Leaf and owned it at the target date. The state subsidizes the sale of new electric vehicles. What you do with your car is your business.

 

[redLEAF]

Best of luck with your Volt. I hope you will still be checking in on us on a regular basis. I don't see why you shouldn't be able to keep your state rebate. You bought the Leaf and owned it at the target date. The state subsidizes the sale of new electric vehicles. What you do with your car is your business.

Agree -- the only wording I see on this is listed below on the IL EPA site, they don't mention at all how long they expect you to keep the car, it simply goes to the first purchaser:

"An alternate fuel vehicle is only eligible to receive a Vehicle or Conversion rebate once in its life, regardless of ownership."

 

[Herm]

They must see it as a real coup to get someone that already owns a LEAF to defect to Volt.

Dont use that word, it implies moving from a Leaf to a Volt is a run to freedom

1900 miles?.. is that considered a new car?

 

[ibLEAF]

Talked by e-mail with 350Green. Seems they say the DC chargers will be available to use in February. I like that. They are preparing a card to use but do not say whether they will charge by the subscription or usage. I hope by usage, actually prefer free but not my choice. The card will be 480 specific. If they reply back with further info, which I requested, I will post back. Called Whole Foods in Sauganash and found out their garage with the DC, as well as 220 chargers, get closed at 9pm when they lock down the garage which stores the charging units. Does anyone know whether the Waveland and Clark Whole Foods looks like it goes under lock and key as well? Sauganash shuts their garage door when the store closes. UIC looks 24-7 but I've not been there as yet. Is there anyone who's seen the operation yet. The photo looks like a public access parking lot. None of my iPhone car charging station apps shows those DC's built and ready to roll either. Just the one by Midway. I'm going to check my Navigation system tomorrow and see if it will shed any light on the situation. It would be great to have these up and available for the cold weather BRRRRRR.

 

[Bzzzzz]

Talked by e-mail with 350Green. Seems they say the DC chargers will be available to use in February. I like that. They are preparing a card to use but do not say whether they will charge by the subscription or usage. I hope by usage, actually prefer free but not my choice. The card will be 480 specific. If they reply back with further info, which I requested, I will post back. Called Whole Foods in Sauganash and found out their garage with the DC, as well as 220 chargers, get closed at 9pm when they lock down the garage which stores the charging units. Does anyone know whether the Waveland and Clark Whole Foods looks like it goes under lock and key as well? Sauganash shuts their garage door when the store closes. UIC looks 24-7 but I've not been there as yet. Is there anyone who's seen the operation yet. The photo looks like a public access parking lot. None of my iPhone car charging station apps shows those DC's built and ready to roll either. Just the one by Midway. I'm going to check my Navigation system tomorrow and see if it will shed any light on the situation. It would be great to have these up and available for the cold weather BRRRRRR.

I was the one who stumbled on the UIC quick charger. It is a public pay-garage that I assume operates 24/7.

 

[radryan]

Been a while but we have been busy with a new baby!

Couple of things:

No plates yet for me either I think someone else said 50 days until they got them, I am at 55 days or so.

Someone else mentioned that they were possibly below 2 miles per kwh Wall to Wheels, I seeing something simlar at 2.2 miles per Kwh Wall to Wheels. Seeing 3.2 on carwings which we all know is pretty inaccurte. Would like to see more of others Wall to Wheels if the have a TED or other engery monitoring solution so that we can see if were are within the same ball park.

 

[Dino]

Been a while but we have been busy with a new baby!

Couple of things:

No plates yet for me either I think someone else said 50 days until they got them, I am at 55 days or so.

Someone else mentioned that they were possibly below 2 miles per kwh Wall to Wheels, I seeing something simlar at 2.2 miles per Kwh Wall to Wheels. Seeing 3.2 on carwings which we all know is pretty inaccurte. Would like to see more of others Wall to Wheels if the have a TED or other engery monitoring solution so that we can see if were are within the same ball park.

I’ve seen below 2mi/kwh(wall to wheel) using TED but that was for one 20mi trip, that was worst case-lead foot ample heat on a below 10F day. My last 600miles comes out to 2.6mi/kwh, but I drive with a pretty heavy foot. I pay ComEds standard rate (6.98cts along with the other charges it’s about 10.8cts total)so it’s about 4cts/mile for January. Half the cost of a Prius!

 

[redLEAF]

As many seem to be waiting for their IL EV plates, thought this would be good news as mine just arrived today so perhaps they're catching up ..

My car was delivered on 12/23 so would assume paperwork went in the following week with the holiday, so perhaps 30 to 31 days to process, we have #

307 - which I believe is about 10 cars higher than the last plate number reported on the forum; hopefully your own plates are not far away; I'm assuming due to the low numbers that the SOS is assigning these in sequence of when they get an application but one never knows, someone else obviously is being assigned # 300 but I'm happy with what I got (kind of has an 007 ring to it)

car has been performing more efficiently with some of the milder weather as of late -- Tuesday I saw a 4 miles/kWh on a 29.6 mile commute R/T to work; our to date average is 3.6; up from 3.2 on the first day we owned it. I'm waiting until I reach 1,000 miles (I'm at about 800 now) before I reset it or may simply wait until spring arrives for more 'normal' ranges. So to extrapolate; that trip cost me 7.4 kWh or .4884 cents (.066 rate); my winter ICE gets 16 mpg and runs on mid-grade gas ($3.81/gal) so 1.85 gallons and $7.0485 -- round numbers I saved $6.56 ... not bad at all, and that was just one trip.

 

[bigtlb]

I just received my plates in the mail today, "304"...

 

[OldQuadDog]

Plates number 305 EL received yesterday, Thursday Jan 26!
Just over 1200 miles. All but 35 on snow tires.

I stopped by Walgreens Palatine at Rt14 and Palatine Road for first try at public charging..... did not need to.. I just wanted to become familiar with it but I had left my Charge Point RFID home so did not bother.

The L2 are at NE corner of building. Upon leaving I noticed L3 yes L3 at that Walgreens at the SW corner of the bldg. Not powered up yet but there..... Did not know if anyone has mentioned previously but its a FYI.

 

[bwallach]

Have not posted in a while. Stopped getting email notifications of postings (not sure why) so kinda dropped off of my radar. Of course I come by this morning, and there are several pages of posts

A few updates on my end:

* Got a refund check (for registration) from Dealer(Liberty Nissan). I think it was ~$63.
* Got my plates yesterday (303)
* Having the same issues reported by others with my windshield fluid pressure..very wimpy.
* Looks like reality set in for those needing better daily range in our climate (ala 'dutch'). I feel the pain, but my commute is very short. We really have 2 major things working against us here:
1) cold weather
2) In cold weather you need the heater (unless you want to suffer).
Both of these reduce range considerably .. double whammy!

Overall I am satisfied with the car for "my personal usage" pattern. However, when someone asks me about it, I also qualify that it is not practical if you need to drive "far" (>50miles I think ... I guess that can be debated a little though)

 

[tech01]

Got my refund for overpayment of license fee from McGrath today. Money is always welcome in the house. Have 1300 mi. currently. The elec. bill should be more than offset by the petrol we didn't buy. Yesterday the master warning light came on(red). Stopping at a stoplight the warning turned to yellow then back to red when the car was rolling again. Got home with 24 mi. on the gom. Charged to 100% and the warning lights went off. However the carwings is not working with my smartphone. Off to the dealer this evening to see if they know what happened and what fix is indicated. Will report on this later. My initial surmise is that programming issues will be the most problematic.

 

[lukati]

I received my title the other day. The SOS doesn't seem to have a good handle on the Leaf.

Year 2012
Make NISSAN
Model
Body Style 2D HARDTP

Very odd. Am I an outliner or did others get the same description?

 

[bigtlb]

I received my title the other day. The SOS doesn't seem to have a good handle on the Leaf.

Year 2012
Make NISSAN
Model
Body Style 2D HARDTP

Very odd. Am I an outliner or did others get the same description?

Seems like a mistake. I got my title with my plates:

Year: 2012
Make: Nissan
Model: LEAF SV/SL
Body Style: 4D HTCHBK

 

[lukati]

Seems like a mistake. I got my title with my plates:

Year: 2012
Make: Nissan
Model: LEAF SV/SL
Body Style: 4D HTCHBK

Thanks. Should probably ask for a corrected title.

 

[dutchinchicago]

Did anyone get a confirmation for submitting the state rebate forms?

 

[redLEAF]

Did anyone get a confirmation for submitting the state rebate forms?

Nothing yet -- their site doesn't mention that you'll get anything in the way of a 'confirmation' other than the time of year that they process these; I'm OK waiting as I know I got mine in well before year end but as the contact name is listed on a public site feel free to call or email him if you have any concerns about your own application. They do say online that an application can take up to five months to process (it assumes those submitted say a month after the January batch would not be looked at until the mid-year batch).

Looks like the last site update was January 12 of this year so perhaps we'll see some more information on number of applications to be processed, etc. ..

http://www.illinoisgreenfleets.org/fuels/index.html

(217) 557-1441
Darwin Burkhart

[email protected]

 

[lukati]

I wonder what is going on behind doors at the IL EPA's rebate office. This is an established program that has been handing out money to a certain "clientele" for years. I assume fuel subsidies have been the main budget item, while EV rebates were probably only a minor issue (see our low EL plate numbers). Now suddenly these EV applications are coming in in large numbers and with large demands in an environment of, at best, constant funding. So something will have to give.