range, charge time, trip time, used leaf 200 miles from home

So I'm cruising autotrader.com looking at used leafs. The thought is how far away can I buy a leaf without it turning into a multiday drive?

Take for this example trip: suppose I buy a used 10 bar leaf (with unknown capacity, might be strong 10 bar, or weak 10 bar) in Alpharetta, GA and drive it to the west side of Knoxville, TN. Assume the car has the 3.3KW charger and no L3 charging is available on the trip no matter if the car has the port or not. Just not much L3 charging happening in my part of the world

https://evtripplanner.com/planner/2-4/?id=4hox" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; shows a proposed trip charging on L2 public evses after about 55 miles travel, forcing me to stop and get a nearly full charge 3 times on the trip home. Travel time alone is 4 hours, how much time do I add for charging during that 200+ mile trip?

If it is fully charged I'd get no chance to test the EVSE that comes with the car. If the dealer charges to 80% or doesn't charge the car I'd probably have to do a partial or full charging session to stretch to the charging locations already on the trip.

How much time would you spend checking out a car you hadn't seen before when trying to check it out for purchase? Assume I have bluetooth ELM and phone with all the apps I'd want.

Assuming a trip down (4 hour drive) in the Prius can I possibly make a transaction and drive back home with both cars before I or my other driver is falling asleep at the wheel? Is it a 12 hour day, 16 hour day, 20 hour day? How tight would that schedule be?

There are several stretches of I75 in northern GA and southern TN that have no chargers and no exits worth stopping at for dozens of miles so there isn't room for misjudging by 10 miles on a charge. Chop it up and tell me if I'm underestimating the difficulty or just being overly cautious.

Sounds like a very, very long day. I think you'll need to stop overnight. Four hours to get there, four back, plus three L2s of likely 4-5 hrs each, plus the transaction time, you're at or near 24 hours. Might be easier to rent a flatbed?

DNAinaGoodWay said:

Sounds like a very, very long day. I think you'll need to stop overnight. Four hours to get there, four back, plus three L2s of likely 4-5 hrs each, plus the transaction time, you're at or near 24 hours. Might be easier to rent a flatbed?

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would renting a flatbed truck be cheaper than a hotel room? It'd save time for sure but deisel fuel and rental fees would rack up pretty quick for 150-200 miles (I suppose if you did it right you could drive the leaf toward home and rent the flatbed truck on the way home).

Just make it an overnight trip. Maybe you can plan something fun to make it worthwhile? Get to the car in the early to late afternoon and arrange to have it charged to 100 percent. spend the night 75 miles away while the car charges. leave first thing in the morning without eating breakfast. drive 75 more miles and then stop for breakfast and fun somewhere there is a charging station. If you throw a bicycle in the back, or just make a weekend of fun out of it, It won't be that long of a drive back home.

+1

johnrhansen said:

Just make it an overnight trip. Maybe you can plan something fun to make it worthwhile? Get to the car in the early to late afternoon and arrange to have it charged to 100 percent. spend the night 75 miles away while the car charges. leave first thing in the morning without eating breakfast. drive 75 more miles and then stop for breakfast and fun somewhere there is a charging station. If you throw a bicycle in the back, or just make a weekend of fun out of it, It won't be that long of a drive back home.

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we'll I haven't settled on a car purchase yet. I just want to make sure I have a sense on the travel time limitations and costs if I'm making a choice between a car in my home town vs one 100 miles away vs one 200 miles away. Plenty to choose from in a variety of cities within 200 miles of me.

If I'm looking at a night in a hotel plus gas for the chase car I guess we are talking about $100 worth of expenses not counting the value of the time for the two drivers.

So as a rule of thumb say it's worth $500 per 100 miles away. If the car isn't that much cheaper I'm better off buying local. Then I have to factor in differences in mileage, features like the cold weather package, paint color, etectera.

Thanks to those that were willing to share their thoughts on this, good to have a sounding board for life's bigger decisions. No one I know locally could answer such questions about cross country leaf travel.

If you have a chase car, you don't need to stay in a hotel. Drive it as far as it can go, plug it into a 120 volt outlet to charge, and drive home in the chase car. Come back the next day and drive it another 75 miles. Then go home in the chase car again. Then on the final day, you can bring it home. Just figure the cost to go 200+200+125+125+50+50 miles in the chase car. At 30 mpg and $4 per gallon, that's a hundred bucks. Plus what your friends along the way will charge you to plug into their outlet. If you do it this way, you don't need a charging station. Just L1 at any dedicated outlet.

Take a look at http://www.plugshare.com/ to see where available chargers are to plan a trip.

NeilBlanchard said:

Take a look at http://www.plugshare.com/ to see where available chargers are to plan a trip.

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I looked at plugshare and without being logged in it didn't show any additional L2 or L1 chargers that would help on my route. Maybe logging in I might have seen a residential option that I didn't see as a guest.

Even if it did I don't think it would change my options, I'm still limited by the 3.3KW charger in the car. If someone had a private L2 option closer to I75 it might save me a couple of miles on the trip but it wouldn't be significant.

I actually used plugshare to find the L2 chargers as I used evtripplanner to do the routing, revised the route dozens of times trying to find an optimal solution.

what I haven't done is look harder for L3 options at Nissan dealerships or other possible L3s along I75. Since I haven't picked a car yet I'm not sure if it will have the L3 charge option. If it does and there is L3 in Chattanooga that I can use it could cut a few hours off the trip.

There used to be an L3 at a gas station in Chattanooga but it broke and they decided not to repair it. http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=5349&start=100" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So unless there is a Nissan dealer along the route I haven't considered I don't think L3 will be an option even if the car has the port.


OK, Nisan dealers along the way include

PYE NISSAN
2801 E WALNUT AVE
DALTON, GA 30721

NISSAN OF CHATTANOOGA EAST
2121 CHAPMAN RD
CHATTANOOGA, TN 37421


And I'm passing a number of Cracker Barrels if any of those have a L3 but http://newsroom.crackerbarrel.com/images/9034/CrackerBarrelChargerLocations%281%29.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; says they only have L2.

Looking on the Blink network they have L3 listed at

Dalton Utilities - College Drive
890 College Drive
Dalton, GA 30722

Cracker Barrel 29 East Ridge
1460 North Mack Smith Road
East Ridge, TN 37412

SEARS - Store #1115 (Hamilton Place Mall)
2100 Hamilton Place Blvd
Chattanooga, TN 37421

Cracker Barrel 21 Cleveland
1650 Clingan Ridge Drive NW
Cleveland, TN 37312

Cracker Barrel 9 Athens (Sweetwater)
110 Burkett L. Witt Blvd
Athens, TN 37303


$7 a charge for members / $10 a charge for guests.

So maybe L3 charging could turn it into a one day event? If so I'd be paying Blink instead of a hotel.

I wouldn't make or plan any trip before knowing for sure if the vehicle supported L3 charging or not. Figure out your bottom line and work from there.

Turnover said:

I wouldn't make or plan any trip before knowing for sure if the vehicle supported L3 charging or not. Figure out your bottom line and work from there.

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I'm planning it both ways to determine the cost of time and transportation for the trip. The charging fees and time spent is part of deciding whether or not it's worth me driving to a further away city to buy a cheaper car.

Thus this thread is me figuring out the bottom line before I have to make a trip.

dhanson865 said:

Looking on the Blink network they have L3 listed at

Dalton Utilities - College Drive
890 College Drive
Dalton, GA 30722

Cracker Barrel 29 East Ridge
1460 North Mack Smith Road
East Ridge, TN 37412

SEARS - Store #1115 (Hamilton Place Mall)
2100 Hamilton Place Blvd
Chattanooga, TN 37421

Cracker Barrel 21 Cleveland
1650 Clingan Ridge Drive NW
Cleveland, TN 37312

Cracker Barrel 9 Athens (Sweetwater)
110 Burkett L. Witt Blvd
Athens, TN 37303


$7 a charge for members / $10 a charge for guests.

So maybe L3 charging could turn it into a one day event? If so I'd be paying Blink instead of a hotel.

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OK the chademo version of the trip is https://evtripplanner.com/planner/2-4/?id=4il7" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Is it fair to budget 30 minutes for the L3 stops and 1 hour for the L2 charge in Calhoun to give me a few miles to stretch to the L3 in Dalton?

Probably faster for me charge to 20-25 miles on the DTE/GOM then hypermile it to Dalton than it is to sit on the L2 longer and then drive at normal speeds? It's 3 lanes each way on I75 at that point so I can just sit in the right hand lane for 14 miles.

That then leaves me legs from first L3 50 miles to second L3 then 25 miles to third L3 then 50 miles or so until a final L2 near home if I can't hypermile the last bit of the surface roads to my house.That L3 in the middle almost begs me to L2/hypermile it to the next L3. It'd be a trade off of $5 in fees and a hour time so on a long trip like that I'd rather just pay for the extra L3 charge I'm thinking. I guess that depends on the weather and my Miles/kwh I'm getting.

4 hours driving plus 1.5 hours L3 plus 2 hours L2, call it 7.5 to 8 hours for the trip home?

If so we are talking 8 hours total for Chademo vs 24 hours total with L2 to drive the 200 miles.

Pretty strong argument for me making sure I get the Chademo option if I'm driving the car from out of state.

Of course I'm only looking at cars with heated seats and the SL comes with the Chademo port so it's only the SV I'll have to pay attention to.

dhanson865 said:

Saw that video when it was new, you'll notice there is a warning in the article saying Nissan says to never tow your Leaf with the wheels on the ground as the gears never truly disengage even in Neutral and it may damage the car.

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Yes I read that, but how is this different from coasting down a long, steep hill with the car in D, using regenerative braking to slow the car and recharge the battery?

Not sure I'd want a car with a 3.3 KW charger and no chademo.

as i said in a post above I'm not considering a non chademo leaf unless it has heated seats and is in my local area, its unlikely I'd find that combo. I did however want to be sure I knew the limitations in case a chademo charger is down and I have to use a L2 as my backup plan.

as to L3s lets add some possible options

for Kennesaw routes.

Town Center Nissan
2310 Barrett Lakes Blvd N, Kennesaw GA 30144


for Alpharetta routes.
Regal Nissan
1090 Holcomb Bridge Rd, Roswell GA 30076


several other L3 options around the inner ring and middle ring of the Atlanta area

Here is another possible route from the west instead of the south, about 175 miles to my house from the dealer.

https://evtripplanner.com/planner/2-5/?id=5p2e" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (hypermiling the 80 mile leg, risking VLBW or turtle)
https://evtripplanner.com/planner/2-5/?id=5p2r" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (stopping for a short L2 charge to keep the GOM above 40 miles remaining for the 33 miles still to travel)

Assuming I can go 60 miles on the dealer charge, and I quick charge for a 55 mile leg and the last 60 mile leg, that leaves me with only a couple of miles of L2 charging along the trip and only if I can't hypermile that 80 mile stretch from Lebanon to Crossville. Nissan of Cookville would be the short stop for a L2 boost if the weather is bad and a 80 mile leg doesn't seem feasible.

But it also assumes that the lone L3 chargers in Lebanon and Crossville both work. Should either of those not work I'm stuck on a long trip L2 charging at ~12mph for 4 hours? If both don't work it adds 8 hours to the trip? Well if Lebanon L3 didn't work I could L2 charge enough to get to Cookville (50 miles) to L3 there but it and then try to skip to Harriman at a cost of 4 hours? If Lebanon worked but Crossville didn't work I could L2 charge enough to get to Harriman (30 miles) at a cost of 2.5 hours?

Even with a quickcharger port driving a used leaf for a 200 mile trip doesn't look like a slam dunk low stress trip.

I suppose I could improve range using the Prius as the lead car and keeping the Leaf in its draft. Maybe that saves a few minutes L2 charging here and there.

With all the used Leafs coming on the market form expired leases, I would hold out for one with all bars. Unless the situation is different in Georgia.

NoMoShocks said:

With all the used Leafs coming on the market form expired leases, I would hold out for one with all bars. Unless the situation is different in Georgia.

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I've seen 12, 11, 10, and 9 bar leafs on the used market. I figure there is no practical difference between the 12 and 11 bar cars at this age the 12 is likely to become an 11 any day now.

I'm more concerned about where it came from (lack of exposure to heat), has it been in an accident, but then I'm also concerned about how many bars left, price, how far away it is from my home, heated front seats. I'm not worried about the quick charge port since it seems that all the ones I want for having the heated seats also have the quick charge port.

Oh and while I might consider going to Georgia to grab a car, I'm in Tennessee. I'd also consider driving to Kentucky or North Carolina if the range isn't excessive or the car is significantly cheaper (not likely that the price would be enough to make anything over 200 miles worth the trip)

I'm also seeing more cars with 1-3 bars lost now that I'm looking at cars under $10,000. I'm not sure that I want to pay several thousand dollars for one or two more bars.

I would just get it delivered, car transport company could probably do it for $300 to $400. I had an electric motorcycle delivered from MA to NC years ago cost around $400, bought it sight unseen as well.