New to forum

[ruralleafowner]

Guys,

New to the forum. Got my leaf 24th Jan 2014.

I am running an in-depth experience via video and posting them up day by day, from thinking of getting one to getting one and beyond. Its on a 4 year contract hire so its going to be with me for at least that amount of time

I will run daily videos for the first 2 weeks, then spacing out to once a week. It should make interesting watching if you are thinking of getting one, and you will see exactly what I experience from the word go - no bull, just how it happens when it happens. Its already been a bumpy ride although stressful it has been enjoyable so far (most of the time!)

Youtube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdHkV8RW_scN45T28FtgHHw (feel free to sub to be notified when I post up a vid)

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ruralleafowner

 

[DNAinaGoodWay]

Hello, and welcome to the future. Exciting, isn't it?

Four years is a long time. Your battery will degrade some, taking your range with it.

But luckily, the UK is building infrastructure at a good clip. If you live in the right area, you should be OK.

Have you found leaftalk.co.uk?

 

[ruralleafowner]

Hello, and welcome to the future. Exciting, isn't it?

Four years is a long time. Your battery will degrade some, taking your range with it.

But luckily, the UK is building infrastructure at a good clip. If you live in the right area, you should be OK.

Have you found leaftalk.co.uk?

Where I live the infrastructure isn't great unfortunately . Range from driving like a saint on eco - 68 miles - temp approx 4c, pretty disappointed as its the new model, local nissan dealer reckons thats about right if driving very well. If driving hard to expect about 45-50 miles from a full charge.

 

[RonDawg]

Congratulations Ian. I take it that "contract hire" is what we would call a "lease" on our side of the pond?

I haven't had time to watch all of your videos, but would you be able to keep the Polo as a backup vehicle, even if it is a bit "dodgy?"

As far as the Quick Charge port, unfortunately the dealer is correct, you cannot retrofit this to a car that didn't have it, at least not economically. EDIT: YouTube was giving problems with Episode 4 so I only was able to watch the first 7 minutes, but I noticed in Episode 5 with your charge port door open that your car does have what appears to be a QC port. On our cars over here that lack it (like mine), it's just a blank panel in that spot.

 

[RonDawg]

Range from driving like a saint on eco - 68 miles - temp approx 4c, pretty disappointed as its the new model, local nissan dealer reckons thats about right if driving very well. If driving hard to expect about 45-50 miles from a full charge.

If you can make 68 miles at such low temps with the heater going, you're doing quite well.

EDIT: As I'm watching Episode 5, I've noticed that you refer a lot to the Distance to Empty meter. If you rely on this, you will eventually find yourself stranded. There's a reason why on this forum we call it the "Guess-O-Meter."

What you want to look for is your average miles/kWH for your journeys. On the dash display you should be able to toggle to the Average Economy screen. Reset it every time you take a journey, and note the readings. For example, note your readings going to the High Street (I noticed you were driving on a hill in that video) or to your child's school or to the local train station. Compare those average miles/kWH readings to Tony Williams' range chart:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=101293#p101293" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

For example, if you see that you are averaging 3.3 miles/kWH, you can only go about 68 miles on a new battery with a 100% charge.

 

[ruralleafowner]

Congratulations Ian. I take it that "contract hire" is what we would call a "lease" on our side of the pond?

I haven't had time to watch all of your videos, but would you be able to keep the Polo as a backup vehicle, even if it is a bit "dodgy?"

As far as the Quick Charge port, unfortunately the dealer is correct, you cannot retrofit this to a car that didn't have it, at least not economically. EDIT: YouTube was giving problems with Episode 4 so I only was able to watch the first 7 minutes, but I noticed in Episode 5 with your charge port door open that your car does have what appears to be a QC port. On our cars over here that lack it (like mine), it's just a blank panel in that spot.

Yeah - contract hire = lease (probably anyhow! Its contract hire as its through my business)

Yeah - the videos are progressive (e.g. initial problems and in later videos solutions and smiles....then some more crying and then more smiles!) - it DOES have a Rapid charge port -the dealer actually told me it DIDNT and that it was a 6.6kw fast home charge port < which was wrong

If you can watch them all please do (or pass them on to someone who may be interested), my wife tells me they are boring, but I would have loved videos like this when looking into it (I would still have bought one regardless - I am mad like that!)

Doing the videos only to help out potential people or people who want answers - takes quite some time to do them but it should be a good source (until they bring out a model that does 300 miles on a single charge then everyone will have one!)

 

[RonDawg]

Yeah - the videos are progressive (e.g. initial problems and in later videos solutions and smiles....then some more crying and then more smiles!) - it DOES have a Rapid charge port -the dealer actually told me it DIDNT and that it was a 6.6kw fast home charge port < which was wrong

Unfortunately the UK seems to be no better than the US when it comes to the knowledge of Nissan dealers when it comes to the Leaf. I believe you mentioned something about that in Episode 4. Listening to your initial disappointment with the range, you might have been told the car has a "100 mile" range, something Nissan was doing a lot in the early years of the car over here.

The car does take some adjustment if you have never lived with a pure electric car before. You may have to do some planning and you can't be as spontaneous as you can with a petrol or diesel-powered car. But I've had mine for over a year and I'm quite satisfied with it. I still have my old petrol-powered car and have only used it for a half-dozen occasions over the last year where my Leaf would not be able to make the journey. Otherwise, it gets driven once a month just to keep things lubricated and to prevent the tires from developing flat spots.

 

[evken]

Hi Ian
Love the video. I have an 2011 leaf and get about the same mileage as you in the winter here in Vancouver BC Canada. It does get better in the summer but the heater in the 2011 and 12 decreases range by about 20%. The good news is that my battery still fully charges after 40000 KM. Good luck and welcome to the club. Ken

 

[ruralleafowner]

Hi Ian
Love the video. I have an 2011 leaf and get about the same mileage as you in the winter here in Vancouver BC Canada. It does get better in the summer but the heater in the 2011 and 12 decreases range by about 20%. The good news is that my battery still fully charges after 40000 KM. Good luck and welcome to the club. Ken

Thanks Ken!

Wow 20% reduction, glad they have improved this in the new version - big bonus I never really thought of is its almost instant heat - no more running the car for 10 minutes to get it warm inside (and possibly stolen while you wait)

 

[LeftieBiker]

Wow 20% reduction, glad they have improved this in the new version - big bonus I never really thought of is its almost instant heat - no more running the car for 10 minutes to get it warm inside (and possibly stolen while you wait)

Once the temperature falls below 23F, you may as well have a 2012 Leaf. The heat pump doesn't work from there on down, and you get the same 20% reduction in range. Blocking the grille helps a bit, but the biggest thing you can do is insulate the heater/coolant lines in the "motor compartment", which Nissan should have taken care of at the factory.

 

[ruralleafowner]

Wow 20% reduction, glad they have improved this in the new version - big bonus I never really thought of is its almost instant heat - no more running the car for 10 minutes to get it warm inside (and possibly stolen while you wait)

Once the temperature falls below 23F, you may as well have a 2012 Leaf. The heat pump doesn't work from there on down, and you get the same 20% reduction in range. Blocking the grille helps a bit, but the biggest thing you can do is insulate the heater/coolant lines in the "motor compartment", which Nissan should have taken care of at the factory.

That's 23F is -5 Celsius right? < if so where I am that's pretty rare, it does get there occasionally but not very often. (Mind you with this video blog I guess I will find out just how often!)

 

[LeftieBiker]

That's 23F is -5 Celsius right? < if so where I am that's pretty rare, it does get there occasionally but not very often

That's my understanding. Before the car came out it was often reported as -5F, and that was what I thought when I leased mine. People still confuse the two measures. Same with the battery warmer, which comes on at something like -5F, IIRC. There should be a FAQ with info like this - a "Winter Driving" FAQ.

 

[ksnogas2112]

So a little about cold weather driving based on my experience with a 2012 Leaf

Cold: 25-40*F (-3 to 4*C) the battery temp gauge will stay around 4 bars. The amount of regen on braking will be a little less but in general the rest of the drive will feel normal.

Very cold: 10-25*F (-12 to -3*C) the battery temp gauge will be around 2 or 3 bars. If it is at 2 then it will go up to 3 when you start driving a bit and the battery warms up. You will get almost no regen on braking and you will be using the resistance heater not the heat pump. If you run the heat it will be nice and toasty but your range will drop like a rock and the GOM will be less reliable than ever.

Stupid cold (aka just stay home): <10*F (-12*C) the battery temp gauge will be 0-2 bars. You will have no regen, the display will be slow to respond to changes. Driving in D mode will feel like driving in Eco. In fact you can change between the two modes and feel no difference. Figure 40 miles max driving.

A 40*F battery pack (from garage 4 temp bars) will have 0-1 battery temp bars in 5*F weather when sitting outside undriven for ~8 hours.

Having said all that, when the temp comes back up to decent weather (50*F) the car returns to normal regen, acceleration, and range.

I left the house today with 80% charge and 4 temp bars. It took 2 range bars to drive 7 miles to the office with the heat running. Current temp is a balmy -11*C (13*F). It was fun Sunday, high of 58*F and low of 8*F. It snowed when the air temp was still 45*F.

 

[RonDawg]

Once the temperature falls below 23F, you may as well have a 2012 Leaf. The heat pump doesn't work from there on down, and you get the same 20% reduction in range. Blocking the grille helps a bit, but the biggest thing you can do is insulate the heater/coolant lines in the "motor compartment", which Nissan should have taken care of at the factory.

Before the car came out it was often reported as -5F, and that was what I thought when I leased mine.

Several months back, I got into a discussion about what point the heat pump was no longer effective, and someone posted a graph supplied by Nissan showing the heat pump to be effective down to +5 F (-15C), not -5F or +23F (-5C).

A bit of Googling came up with this post, though it's not part of the discussion I participated in:

To be clear, this is not the first time that I see the effectiveness of the heat pump used in an EV to be questioned. According to the data presented by the LEAF engineering team, a significant benefit can be expected around 0°C, and the ambient temperature would have to go down to about -15°C for the heat pump to stop offering a benefit over the heater used in the previous model year. If you find more relevant references, please post it.

From: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=15108#p339708" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[evken]

I believe there are instructions somewhere on the forum that show how to do that mod. Just not gotten around to it. I find preheating the leaf well still plugged in makes it easier not to use the heater. Still my kids complain some morning about the lack of heat. Ken