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Shaka

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 24, 2012
Messages
142
Location
Cleveland, Ohio - USA
Pretty sure a few other people on these forums are from NEohio - I'm in Cleveland, suburb of Beachwood. Any other active Cleveland, Ohio members on here? We should meet up for coffee/donuts and chit-chat about the Leaf sometime!

Ari
 
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First charge "in the wild" today. There is a shopping area near University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University, called Uptown. They just "built it up" (had been old run down shops or what have you). New shops, places to eat, a neat grocery store. After a nice dinner with the wife we stopped by to check it out as my wife had seen the EVSE locations on a prior trip.

Since parking there was free for the first 30minutes we decided to check out the deal. We plugged in the L2 EVSE, expecting to have to swipe our credit card or something but nope -- it just started to charge right away!! So we walked over to the self-pay station, figuring once we keyed in our parking spot was one of the EV spots, it would charge us more. Nope! So we got 30mins of free charging. Not having any reason to stay longer (or pay the $1/hr parking fee), we left. But for the same price to park an ICE, one can park and charge their EV. Granted $1/hr isn't great kWh pricing -- but for parking in that area, really not a bad price even for Cleveland!!

Just wanted to share even though so far I'm the only one posting this in thread LOL
 
Hi Ari! Sorry I haven't responded, but I haven't been back to this site for a while. Can you be more specific about where that charging station location is that you took a picture of below?! I have a friend in Coventry who I visit and can't charge because she's in an apartment. This one you found may really help!

THANKS!

David

P.S. Is your LEAF color Glacier Pearl? Mine too.
 
David,

Let's see how savvy I am with Google Maps. If this works you should get a nice map link here:
http://goo.gl/maps/4yVMH" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Bottom line: there is a new Constantino's Market located at 11473 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH. (corner of Euclid Ave & East 115th). There is entrance to the parking lot off E-115th (just North of Euclid). As soon as you enter the parking lot you'll see 4 parking spots for EVs (it will be on your right hand side if you enter there and come around the building). Hope this helps... feel free to send me a private message if you need more details!

Indeed, our LEAF is Glacier White. We have seen only one other LEAF in the wild and it was silver (on Fairmount Blvd) so obviously not yours. We live in Beachwood not far from Coventry area. Too bad the Arabica that was once there is no longer, would be a great place to have a LEAF-gathering! :)

Ari
 
Hi Ari,

This is David from Solon. I just got my white Leaf this month. It's so fun to drive and I can't imagine that I would go back to ICE.

Any idea how many Leaf owners there are in NEOhio? Anyway, we're for sure among the early adopters here.

David
 
Hey David from Solon. :)

I regularly see a black Leaf and silver Leaf in the Beachwood/Heights area. But they don't ever see/wave back at me sadly. I am sure there are more of them around than we realize, but probably more commuters and not geeks like us who are on here haha!!

You didn't happen to be on Fairmount Blvd a night or two ago did you? Saw a white leaf going the other direction, first time I've seen another white one on the road. Could have been you? Hope to see you around...

If we could get more "users" on here I'd suggest a meet up for coffee and conversation... but alas, our numbers are still small ... haha!
 
Thank you for responding, Ari. I was surprised to see your reply because the last post was more than a half year ago.

The white leaf could very well be mine. I drove from Cleveland Heights to Solon several times. I'm pretty sure that our numbers are small, under 100 in the whole NEOhio if I have to guess. But that's going to change pretty soon when the early adopters like us show their families and friends how cool it is to drive an electric car.

A meetup for Leaf owners or even EV drivers is a good idea. Each of the early adopters must have their unique experience to share. I'd volunteer to help if you have something in your mind.

BTW, what do you think of calling ourselves Cleafer ;) ?
 
Hi again Ari and welcome David!

David - since you're new to the LEAF market in Cleveland, I'll let you know of some charging stations that I know of that may not be "on the map."

First, there's the locations downtown. Ari has posted one a few posts above. It's located at the Uptown development by University Circle. There are actually FOUR chargers behind Constantino's. His directions are spot on. There's also one at the Baker Electric building (E 70th + Euclid, I think). I haven't had good luck there, but supposedly it's fixed.

Out in the suburbs, there is a charger at the McDonald's in Garfield Heights (Rockside Rd). There is also a charger at the First Unitarian Church in Shaker Heights (solar array too!). Besides that, it seems that all Nissan Dealerships also have chargers. I've never had any problems at Ganley Nissan in Mayfield Heights. They leave their parking lot open 24/7 so you can always get a charge if needed.

On another note, have either of you heard of National Plug in Day? http://www.pluginday.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; There isn't an event in Cleveland, but there is one in Columbus on September 28th. I'm planning on going (there's a charger in Medina and Mansfield which should allow the trip to be made).

However, we could possibly have an event in Cleveland. I'm not sure what is involved because the events seem organized on a local level but I'd certainly attend and help if others want to help set it up. If not this year...maybe next?

And to answer your question David - I know of a owner in the Mentor area with a red Leaf (Jon). And I recently met a silver owner from Solon (had Wisconsin plates). So with Ari's numbers, that's 7 total. :D
 
So of the three of us on here, two share the name David? Yeah, that won't get confusing (haha!)

That Columbus/plug-in event sounds interesting. Not sure I'd try to make that event, just because technically the Leaf is my wife's car plus we take our 5-year old with us most places. The girls would get bored, no doubt. But still, neat!

Thank you for sharing those charge station locations. I was not aware of the McD's in Garfield Heights. I'll have to remember that, should I ever need it. I have PlugShare app on my iPhone in case I ever needed to quickly see where stations are, and I also signed up for ChargePoint with $20-25 on a pre-paid card, but I don't think there are any near us. Maybe down in Akron/Canton? Either way I've never actually used the CP card, at least, not yet.

My wife/I drive our Leaf daily, and we have about 7500 miles on it thus far since our "purchase" (leased) on 12/28/2012. So we're not quite hitting the 1000 miles per month we get, but we're doing pretty good to get most of our value from the car. We use it primarily, and my diesel VW SUV secondary when needed for longer trips.

I like the "Cleafers" name-- though as a fan of the TV Show Dexter, it seems a bit too close to "Cleavers" and makes me think of the Bay Harbor Butcher or something like that, haha! Still, I do like the name!

As for a meet-up here in Ohio at this point I'd suggest we wait till next year. Rumor has it that they still plan to build some EV ports at the Cleveland Zoo, as well as downtown (near the stadium/science center) and a third, not yet determined, east side location (my guess is that it will be somewhere like Eton, Legacy, or maybe even Acacia Park). I'm thinking if the Zoo manages to get off their arses and install an EV charge station(s) there, we could probably get them to support an EV-day. Maybe discount admission ("group rate") and we could really try to have them help push the event. Maybe on Earth Day? So maybe like an EV/Earth Day GTG. Something like that... April 22nd 2014. Just thinking out loud....
 
Haha, right. 2 Davids so far...

I'll write about the event if I end up making it down to Columbus.

I did the chargepoint thing too. You're right, I believe they handle the stations at Walgreens (one in Akron and another in North Canton). The McD's uses Blink (ECOtality) which recently was in talks of going bankrupt. They work the same way except I don't think you have to make a deposit. You can also just go online ahead of time and pay $2.00/hour. With the card, it's $1.00/hour.

Same for me with usage. It's my primary car and I have around 8000 miles I think (about 1,000 a month). It's a great car!

Great idea! I think they have the Earthfest thing each year.

And just for fun, I saw a white Leaf tonight on Chagrin on my way home from work. So...anyone driving on Chagrin tonight? :p
 
da119 said:
And just for fun, I saw a white Leaf tonight on Chagrin on my way home from work. So...anyone driving on Chagrin tonight? :p

If that was us you would probably notice. We have white wheels with pink accents (it is my wife's car, after all) (see below)

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We do live in Beachwood and travel NEAR Chagrin. I don't think we were on Chagrin Blvd tonight. But we do come home via Shaker Blvd to get my daughter from school. We were down near Richmond/Chagrin on our way to swimming, and on our way home from swimming. And again down near Green/Chagrin for parent/teacher conferences this evening at my daughter's school. So all in all we were down in the Rich/Chag area a few times this evening... it MAY have been us ;)
 
Haha!

Well, regardless of who's Leaf it was, it was on the other side and I just caught a glimpse of it.

BUT...now that you've shared a picture I can almost surely say I've seen your Leaf! It was parked at Ganley Nissan awhile ago when I was charging one day and I took a picture. Definitely noticed the pink around the wheels.

I'd post the picture, but I'm not entirely sure how (or think I have that feature).

So here's a link...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13389077@N06/9729684118/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I've also added my Leaf to the 2 picture set!

Enjoy!
 
da119 said:
BUT...now that you've shared a picture I can almost surely say I've seen your Leaf! It was parked at Ganley Nissan awhile ago when I was charging one day and I took a picture. Definitely noticed the pink around the wheels.

Yep that is our family daily driver. It was recently up there for some "software update" (letter came in the mail). Cannot say we've seen ANY note worthy difference since the upgrade. Never the less, that is why it was there (and you can see the service tag in the window).

I'm really happy to say that the reliability of this car has been top notch. Knock on wood, nary an issue with the 7500 miles of driving. Better than I can say about other cars we've owned, even BMW and Volkswagen and Audi brand cars we've bought new. VERY happy with the Leaf.....
 
Thank you for all the info, Ari and the other David. I have only charged at home so far. Overnight charging works for me because I drive my wife's ICE car if I need to go long distance. Since Leaf is so fun to drive, I use it more than my regular commuting. My average mileage per day is about 50 so far and I'm set to bust the 24,000 miles limit on the lease.

I don't know how to post an image. Hope that you can see my white Leaf below.
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Or you can try this link:https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8jk2u4c9m6dgeh3/5aim9Krb-L#lh:null-David's Leaf.jpg

I'd be glad to hear what's going on in the Columbus plug-in day event. Hope that there is one in NEOhio pretty soon.
 
Hi Ari and David -

Updating you both (any anyone else who reads this thread) on the event in Columbus and chargers in Cleveland -

I made it to Columbus! I had to stop both in Medina and Mansfield (both Nissan dealers) but had absolutely no trouble charging. Here are the details for the trip:
(David - if you have a 2013 Leaf (not an S), I think you can charge at 6.6 KW which would make the trip faster)

Medina is about 35 miles from Shaker - charged for about 2 hours in Medina (walked around and got breakfast)
Mansfield is around 50 miles from Medina - charged for 4 hours (they have a free dealership shuttle that will take you to the mall, etc.)
Columbus is about 70 miles from Mansfield - there are charging stations in the city
(on the return trip, you spend more time (5 hours+) charging in Mansfield)

I did not confirm with Medina, but Mansfield has their chargers on all the time.

In the end, I left Cleveland at 7:12 AM and arrived (with traffic) at 5:41 PM at a charger in Columbus (friend picked me up while car charged).I-71 has many hills which causes a significant drop in range (50 miles took 8 bars of charge away) so I played it safe with charging as much as possible. Although it takes a while, it's definitely doable! If we ever got fast charging in Ohio - it would be GREAT. If I hadn't paid for the statehouse garage to charge ($5), the entire trip (almost 500 miles) would have cost $0. Amazing.

At the event, there was one other Leaf, at least 5 volts, 3 Tesla Model S's, and a Tesla Roadster. I did take a ride in a Model S and it was definitely memorable (while being a passenger). I was able to drive a Model S the other day in Cleveland (Tesla was here) but it was disappointing (didn't really get a chance to try out the performance because of traffic). I think the Leaf can certainly remain viable into the future.

OKAY - now for the charging update -

The new Walmart in South Euclid has 4 charging units available free of charge. I've added it to Plugshare as well.

What's happening in your LEAFs?

:)
 
David (da119)-- thanks for the story and info. Funny, my wife/I live in Beachwood and actually visited the new Walmart the other day on the way into work. Somehow we totally missed (did not notice) the charging stations. Thanks for the heads up. So close to my house, so I'd never really see myself needing it-- but still always surely nice to know about.

I also had a chance to drive the Tesla S last weekend during their Ohio visit. We were there on Saturday evening around 4:45 PM and while the traffic was light for us (my wife/daughter joined me), the short drive still meant the experience was VERY limited. However, I found the power was great. The seats were unsupportive, the interior ergo was nice but odd, but overall the car felt amazing. However, I don't need a large sedan that big, and it felt like you would be paying a premium for performance I didn't need and battery range I did indeed want/need. So the question is, will the mainstream allow for a bigger mfg (read: Toyota, Nissan, etc) to make a car with more range? Or does that just require a larger battery that requires a larger price tag? Ehh whatever.. I don't see myself in a Tesla for a few years... maybe to replace the Leaf, but who knows. BMW is entering the market now too, and their options will probably prove more affordable. We shall see...

Your trip to C'bus sounds great, and daring! I'd love to take the Leaf on longer trips, but we have our SUV for that. Some day, however, I would love to try a longer trip say to somewhere like C'bus or Pittsburgh in the Leaf. Maybe next summer we should try to do a CLE to PIT Leaf adventure with a group!! Hahaha... except then we'd have to spend WAY too much time taking turns charging.

Cheers!
Ari
 
I live in Aurora and work at Playhouse Square. Back when the Nissan Leaf first came available in this area I took one from Streetsboro (the dealer) to my house, to Playhouse Square and then almost back to Streetsboro with 20 degrees outside. My plan was to see if it could be used for my commute. Keeping in mind that the trip was a little longer than a normal commute and I had the sales lady and my son in the car for extra weight, we didn't have enough juice to make it back and ran out of KW's 2 miles short of the dealership. I tried "gassing" it up at a BP station but the Leaf kept tripping the breaker.

My question for all you NE OH leaf owners, is the Leaf a viable option for me? I installed a charger in my garage anticipating buying one and although I can go with a Chevy Volt, there's something about the Leaf that I like.
Jeff
 
Jeff-- the range of any EV is greatly reduced in the cold weather. We live in Beachwood and work downtown, so our commute is only about 22 miles round-trip per day. On the worst cold days we can lose 50% charge in that, meaning effective range is only 45 miles or there-abouts. That is city driving at 35-40mph... so again, range will vary depending on elevation changes, speed, temperatures, tires, etc.

None of us here can really answer your question, though if you were to provide specific locations there are sites that tell you the change in elevation, and Google Maps can tell you the distance. Also consider charging options-- will you charge at home? Can you charge at/near work? (We are on East 30th, and I'm pretty sure there are charging stations nearby-- but none at my work-- how about where you park?)

I've got a friend who lives in California who uses about 40-60% of his charge driving to or from work. Hence he HAS to charge at home or at work. Luckily he works 10-hour shifts so he can charge (at just 120v) at work and regain most/all of his power. Same at home.

We love our LEAF. It has just over 10k miles and goes in tomorrow for it's first free annual check-up. They test the battery, rotate tires, check brakes, etc. We have had ZERO issues in the first year of our car and would definitely get one again. Our #1 (and really "only" complaint) is the range. In the summer with the windows down and no HVAC we can easily get 75+ miles-- but it would be nice to get even more.

Hope this helps-- if you have any other specific questions about the LEAF in Ohio, we work nearby-- we can def grab a cup of joe or just a phone call even. Send me a private message or reply here... hope we can help! - Ari
 
Ari,
Thanks for the reply... I understand that temperature plays an important part in range, that is why I tried my drive in the coldest weather. From your comments, it looks like in winter I need to plan on a charge stop. I can charge at 240v at home. I was so sure that I was going to purchase a Leaf, I purchased and had the charger installed. In fact it was installed using a welding outlet so it is portable.

Q1) If I find a 120v outlet near where I park, will it necessary charge the Leaf? On my test drive, I tried to charge the Leaf at a gas station and the breaker kept tripping on the outlet. When I contacted Nissan, they told me I need a dedicated circuit to charge it.

Q2) There is a Level 2 charger at the Baker building 3 miles from my parking lot, but how long will I need to sit there to charge? I'm estimating 30 minutes per 5 miles. Longer if there is a line waiting for a charge (I don't know how popular that charger is). I'm unaware of any closer charger.

Q3) Am I better off staying off the freeway to extend my range?
Jeff
 
Jeff, I'll do my best to answer your questions here.

Q1 - I've managed to charge my Leaf at my parents house (Russell/Chesterland) in their garage which has just standard outlets. Home was build in 2000. It has never been an issue, and charges just fine. Not sure what the problem was with the gas station you were at, other than maybe old outlets or poor quality wiring. My friend in California uses an extension cable (proper for the draw/current) and charges as such at home and his police station at 120v without issue. Sounds like your gas station experience was a freak occurrence.

Q2 - Our Leaf is a 2012, and the newer 2013+ models have an optional 6.6 kWh charger on board. From what I understand that charges the car considerably faster when using an L2 240v charger like the one at Baker. (I've never charged at Baker, but know people who have with good success). In my 2012, a full charge when empty is maybe 5-6 hours, and again in winter that is a range of let's say 40-45 miles. Charging for 30 minutes the would be 1/12 of a charge at work (maybe better), adding about 4 miles to your range. In the summer, that same charge time could be 6-7 miles of range.

Q3 - Back when I first got our Leaf a year ago, I recall reading somewhere that the car is most optimal at 39 MPH. Not sure how true that is, or if that has changed. My understand is that freeway speeds are not as ideal because of the wind resistance the car must overcome. So it does make sense that somewhere around 39 MPH, give or take, would be a good break-even on wind vs output. From my experience personally, driving at 65 MPH on the freeway gets much worse miles per kWh compared to driving 40 MPH on city streets even in stop and go. Constant speed is good, but wind is your enemy. We have avoided freeways and managed to do what I feel is "Better" on efficiency, but again YRMV. We've driven from the Heights to the Zoo and back on a single charge without issue in mild weather! (using surface streets)

Hope this helps you out. If you could charge fully at your home and then make it on a single charge to your work, to me that is ideal. Having to charge just to make that single journey would be a hard thing to deal with for travel. Remember there are also chargers at the Walmart in South Euclid and also at the Uptown shopping near Constatinos not far from Little Italy. Not sure if those would help at all.
 
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