My Nissan Leaf Forum

Actually, I want a firmware upgrade for GEN1

My biggest issue is with the limited charging options:
- We're told to keep it below 80% for battery life
- If we need >80%, but want to limit time at high charge level, it would be good to have a screen that allows us to "Charge to X %, completing at 7am (or whatever time you plan on getting into the car)"; and 'X" needs to be much more configurable than 80/100%. I don't want the car coasting downhill when in ECO, just because I don't have a way to charge to 98% and therefore start at 100%.

Love the car, though!!

Note--I used to have a GM EV1--so some of these comments are due to a comparison between the two.

Add the following

1. Internally heated front window (saves on energy for defroster)--only drawback is that radar detectors don't work well when the front window has a copper layer.
2. Use pushbuttons instead of the puck/mouse for shifting--I've gone into reverse umpteen times when I meant to go forward.
3. Improve the braindead timer function--there are so many problems with the current one--e.g., timers should be location dependent (e.g., active only at home), timers should "know" when to turn on even if the schedule changes (e.g., if you have Su-Th midnight to 6 am and Friday 10 pm to 6 am, if you plug it in Th at 11 pm, it won't turn on!!!(see, at midnight it starts the friday schedule, and is waiting for 10 pm).
4. Make it easier to open the charge port--e.g., have the switch next to the parking brake.
5. 6.6 kw charger.
6. adjustable regen (e.g., off, low med high)
7. synchronize the dash clock with the GPS clock
8. state of charge meter--after you've driven the car a while and developed some experience with the size of the "fuel tank", a SOC meter will provide much more useful range info than the current range meter (aka random number generator)
9. get rid of all the other meters except the speedo--they're annoying and useless (well, a battery temp meter might be useful for those who really flog their vehicles--such as going up and down long hills)
10. instead of the white dot thingy, have an instantaneous power/regen indicator--maybe like the graph on the energy utilization screen
11. show some indication of regen vs mechanical braking--perhaps a pie chart, or an indicator of mechanical force
12. speedo and state of charge should be digital indicators, not bars
13. lower drag coefficient--this car has the same size motor and battery as the EV1, but the highway mileage sucks.
14. lower frontal cross section (same reason as lower drag coefficient)
15. design the steering wheel with buttons that make sense, rather than the current random distribution of semi-useless buttons (who uses the top one on the left, for example)
16. light for the charging port
17. an interior that is less likely to get dirty--no white/light beige armrests
18. cooler pedestrian warning sound--the current one is ignored by pretty much everyone--something like 'star trek' sounds will get more of a response
19. a real horn, though it is relatively simple to upgrade the OEM one
20. design the cover to the level 2 port so that the lid can't close unless the cover is closed (the level 3 port has a big enough cover) --otherwise, we'll keep on forgetting to close the cover
21. heat pump instead of less efficient resistance cabin heater
22. and allow the 'timer defeat' switch to be effective for as long as the car is parked--this will allow EVSE sharing--remove the plug from one car, put in another, return to first after finished; or remove from own car and put into a second car when you're driving away

My wish list is different than most here.

1) Battery chargers should come 3 sizes small medium and large. I am fine with the base model being 14 amp, but we need a 30 amp option and we need a 50 amp option. The J1772 spec goes to 80 amps.

2) Battery packs should also come in 3 sizes 24kwh as the base 30 kwh as the next step up and 36 kwh as the top of the line model. Let the customer decide how much range they are willing to pay for.

3) Heater control that has a fan ONLY mode.

I really do think the Leaf is an outstanding car as is. The changes I have listed will take the car to the next level.

Build in charger should be 6.6, the smart extension cord (current EVSE) could come in three.
2. Battery packs should be 24, 36, 48 vice 24, 30, 36.

Like the previous post on all others. Heat pump, heated windshield for defrost etc.

JJL

You mean 3 kW at 120v?? I don't think so. That would be 25 amps even before accounting for charger losses and required downrating. How many 40A 120v outlets have you seen? Answer: None. The closest you are likely find is TT-30 outlets at an RV park. (They look like this.) Downrating for continuous duty means you can't pull any more than 24 amps from those. Allowing for charger losses, you would end up with about 2.2 - 2.3 kW.

With an "ordinary" electrical plug the most you can legally pull is 12A x 120v = 1.44 kW, which is what the LEAF charger currently supports. (About 1.0 - 1.1 kW make it into the battery compared to 3.3 kW at 240v.) The special 20A plug with a rotated pin could be used, and would plug into a household outlet with a "T" slot. See this, for example. That could legally pull 16A x 120v = 1.92 kW, which might translate to as much as 1.5 kW going into the battery if the charger was upgraded to support that.

Ray

the original quote had 1. the charger should come in three sizes, small medium and large. My comment was to correct the statement. The charger is built into the car. for MY 2012 and earlier it is 3.3kW for MY 2012 it will be 6.6. My comment was for the 240v EVSE. They could come in small medium or large. Or like my SPX is switchable all the was to 32A.