My Nissan Leaf Forum

Mark Perry is like that, he is an optimistic guy.

Its strange that they would annouce this info now, with plenty more 2012's to be produced and sold....

anyone who is on the fence on a leaf purchase might wait til December/ jan feb 2013 to purchase to get the newer heater and interior, and the 6.6kw , important improvments most of us would like

in the car business hese annoucments are normally made in july, august or september

why tip your hat or whatever and let people know now?

It seems to me like they tried pretty hard to avoid it for those very reasons, but between a possible slip and possible competition from the Ford Focus Electric may have led them to let the cat out of the bag.

Impossible? Given that it happened, I think not, and I'm FAR from the only one who has experienced it. Just read any discussion about efficient a/c usage on this board. The pump is utilized only as much as is necessary to maintain evaporator core temperature. When the vehicle's inside air has reached target temperature and minimal air is moving across the evaporator, that takes nearly no power. So if you set the temp all the way down (in order to avoid any heater usage), keep the car in eco mode, turn the fan down as soon as the cabin hits a comfortable temp, then turn on the energy usage display - you'll see it's consuming somewhere in the 100-200w range (I think; the sliver of usage on the screen is too small for a closer estimate) - such a small draw that it is negligible impact. And you'll note that even in 100+ weather that's enough to keep the cabin comfortable. I used that method all summer - literally dozens of 100+ days, in a black car, weekdays parked in an uncovered lot at work all day - and never lost a measurable bit of range or efficiency, and numerous others on this board have experienced the same.

That's part of the reason I found the loss of range from the heater so vexing...

Either that, or basically they are currently so capacity constrained that they are still selling all they can make and anticipate that to be the case until Smyrna comes online...

I wouldn't be surprised if Nissan hasn't entirely decided what rate the 2013 LEAF charger will have, yet.

I expect, to rationalize production, Nissan would like to have one standard for all cars worldwide, which, IMO, is the principle reason for the "lowest common denominator" 2011-2012 charger.

Is there any market, except America (with its dysfunctional public charge infrastructure) for which an upgrade makes sense?

So Nissan may still be considering, just how many LEAFS it plans to sell here, Vs Europe, Japan, and other markets.

6.6 is a big deal and they should change it on the 2013 model

example, I make my 64 mile rt commute and arrive home at 4 pm with 2-3 bars
I want to use the leaf to drive 14-16 miles each way to baseball practice with my son.

cant do it, even plugged in for 1 hour at the low 3.3k rate i only get to 4 bars and I'm to nervous and take the ICE.

If I had 6.6kw , I would have been up to 6 bars plus by departure time.

Couple of things to note.

Renault Zoe will have a heat pump - which is "3 times" more efficient. I expect the same heater in the car.

Zoe's 40 kW charger has been designed for Europe where 3-ph electricity is ubiquitous. Ofcourse, we have 3-ph in US as well - but rarely seen outside the control panel in our homes.

Your dream, and your utility's, and your regional electric grid's load managers' nightmares.

Maximum BEV charge demand, perfectly timed for summer afternoon maximum grid demand.

Many new electricity generation plants would need to be built, and the local infrastructure in you neighborhood, would also need to be upgraded, at great expense, since many other BEV owners will have the same plans.

Someone will either have to pay a hell of a lot per kWh for that charging behavior, or you will shift to an alternative.

Even if you get a faster L2, you will probably prefer a much cheaper alternative, a charge in the AM at work (or another L2 paring space) or to use a fast charge station, earlier in the day.

good point, I had tries to trickle at work that day but the lot was full and I had to park on the street.

If I had trickled at work I would have arrived home with enough range to make the trip to practice and back.