Street-parking a Leaf in the cold

[zwjohnson]

Good morning,

We are thinking about getting a Leaf in the next few months. My wife and I have short commutes of less than 5-10 miles, and she might have access to a charger at work. However, we don't have a garage at home, and only have an alley parking spot. We also live in Minnesota, where it can get very, very cold in the winter. Is it possible to both

a) Street park a Leaf in the winter without it getting wrecked by the cold

and

b) Charge it using a 50 foot extension cord. I've seen people recommend 12 gauge extension cords for this.

Thanks!

 

[jjeff]

With only a 5-10 mile commute you should have no problem. You won't get nearly as warm morning warmup with only 120v for charging but you should get enough to warm the seats, steering wheel and take the chill off the car and windshield. A 12g extension cord is the minimum I'd use, you can even get 10 gauge cords from places like Menards. Just make sure to get a cold weather cord, rated for something like -40, a regular extension cord at below zero temps literally get as stiff as a board and can even break if you try and bend it. A good 12 or 10 gauge 50 foot extension cord will probably set you back $50-75 at Menards and they do occasionally go on sale.
If she could plug in at work, all the better. It wouldn't have to be plugged in all day(unless she needed to charge the battery) but at a minimum maybe 30 minutes before she leaves. If it's a L2 setup she should start her trip back home in a nice toasty car.
Another option at home is if you have 240v available is it's possible to purchase 240v extension cords, best place is probably Amazon, you get much better morning warmup on 240v than 120v although 120v is better than nothing.
I use my Leaf in MN and it actually works pretty well, although the range in teens and below can drop to almost half(maybe 40% less at 0F and below) but again with your short commute it doesn't sound like it will be a problem. The Leaf actually heats pretty well in the cold and again the heated seat and nicest of all the heated steering wheel is a real plus. I found the Leaf to handle the snow pretty well, better than our Prius although since it's not the highest off the ground it does tend to drag a bit on the snow after a large snowfall, like any car with it's clearance would, and in the summer it has a very good AC that doesn't really effect the range that much.

 

[Reddy]

Good info above. Uggh, why would anyone park outside in a heavy snow area? I stopped scraping windshields after leaving apartment living many years ago. Waking up to a pre-warmed EV in the garage is truly one of technology's better gifts. I will add that in VERY cold temps, you can expect less than 30-40 mi range when the battery is completely full. However, if you are charging overnight with only L1, 12 A, 120V on a 50 ft extension cord, I would expect that you may have trouble completely filling the battery every night. Yes, it will work fine if the commute is only 10 mi, but you'll probably want to drive it more since it's so fun. Try to get L2, 240 V if only for the pre-heating. Pre-heating on L1 with the 2011/2012 is nearly worthless below 20F, especially outside. The newer 2013+ models are likely better. Also, make sure that you purchase one with the cold weather package (the early 2011's didn't) so that the battery doesn't freeze below 0 F (plus the added bonus of seat heaters). Edit: You didn't say what model/year that you are looking at.

 

[zwjohnson]

Thank you both for your reply! I don't want to park it outside, but our house doesn't have a garage We're looking at 2013 and newer as far as years go.

 

[LeftieBiker]

With only a 5-10 mile commute you should have no problem. You won't get nearly as warm morning warmup with only 120v for charging but you should get enough to warm the seats, steering wheel and take the chill off the car and windshield.

The car uses the battery pack to preheat, not the charging cable. You will get full heat for preheating, no matter if the car is plugged into 120 volts or unplugged. You will also easily be able to recharge overnight with that short commute. Just get a 12 volt battery maintainer, and use it with the extension cable once a month to top off the 12 volt accessory battery. And avoid leaving the car plugged in but not charging for more than a few minutes, if possible.

 

[jjeff]

With only a 5-10 mile commute you should have no problem. You won't get nearly as warm morning warmup with only 120v for charging but you should get enough to warm the seats, steering wheel and take the chill off the car and windshield.

The car uses the battery pack to preheat, not the charging cable. You will get full heat for preheating, no matter if the car is plugged into 120 volts or unplugged.

Interesting, I could swear before I got my L2 EVSE I didn't have very good morning warmup but after it got toasty warm....I could be wrong as it's been quite a while since I've relied on L1.
So your saying the heat should be the same whether L1 or L2 but with L1 the EVSE isn't able to keep up and the battery will actually discharge?
I do remember reading posts from you stating to just use 5 minutes or so morning warmup if on L1, using L2 for morning warmup I just program my departure time and the car starts heating 30 minutes prior to departure, do you have to trick the timer? That is tell it your departure time is actually 25 minutes later that you plan on leaving?

To the OP, I agree you should only be looking at '13 and newer Leafs(preferably ones with a mfg. date of 4/'13 and on) which gives you a better heater and generally faster charger(if your EVSE can take advantage of it). Don't be afraid of the "S" model(I have that model) while it doesn't have the more efficient heat pump heater it does have a rather quick to heat heater, unlike the very slow '11 and '12 models that just don't heat all that well in our climate.

 

[LeftieBiker]

Interesting, I could swear before I got my L2 EVSE I didn't have very good morning warmup but after it got toasty warm....I could be wrong as it's been quite a while since I've relied on L1.
So your saying the heat should be the same whether L1 or L2 but with L1 the EVSE isn't able to keep up and the battery will actually discharge?

Yes, that's it. Preheating on L-1 costs me about 2-3% charge for a 3 or 4 minute warmup, but it's usually worth it, as this gets the car quite a bit warmer than ambient, making it seem warm even if it really isn't. It also activates the wheel and seat heaters, which alone would be worth it. I don't use the car's timer to do this. Instead I use either the Nissan site's timer or the Nissano app to start the climate control right before I leave the house. I suppose it's possible that using the onboard timer would change what happens, but I doubt it. The car has to use the pack to preheat, for reasons of simplicity and safety.