Newbie About to Soon Buy A Leaf

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colaboy29

New member
Joined
Apr 8, 2014
Messages
3
I've been driving a Honda Civic Hybrid for 8 years. Lately I've been interested in getting an EV. I was deciding between the Volt and the Leaf up until a few weeks ago. Crossed the Volt off my list after reading a bunch of reviews and getting the most disinterested sales person at a Chevy dealer. Instead of him giving me all the info he knew, he just stood there and only talked if I asked him a question. I couldn't even drive it because it was not charged.

So I've decided on the Leaf. Have read a lot of good things about it. I test drove it for the first time and really loved it. I understand my driving habits will need to change if I want to take a long trip (that is very rare and usually my partner does the driving in his car). How quickly can you charge your Leaf at a charging station you find at a parking garage or restaurant? I can do round trip to and from work and charge overnight (we have an empty 210 plug int he garage so thinking about buying a charge station but that is for alter) but if I have a day of driving I'd like to know how much time I might need to allow it to charge before I can take off for home.

Thanks for your help. I am really looking forward to my new car soon. -Reid
 
If you are talking about a new, SV, SL, or S with charge package (these all have the 6.6kw charger built in), the charge time for an L-2 station would be about 3-5 hours, depending on whether you needed to get completely back to 100%. An older Leaf or base S model with the 3.3KW charger would take about twice as long.
 
LeftieBiker said:
If you are talking about a new, SV, SL, or S with charge package (these all have the 6.6kw charger built in), the charge time for an L-2 station would be about 3-5 hours, depending on whether you needed to get completely back to 100%. An older Leaf or base S model with the 3.3KW charger would take about twice as long.

Really? I've got the 3.3 and 6 hrs from LBW is the most I've had to wait to 100%. I thought with a 6.0, it would be like 2-3 hrs depending on how low you are, 3.5 hrs tops.

Reid, how many miles a day do you need?
 
I do know I will be getting the Quick Charge package on my model (looking at the mid-level model). I also want the aerodynamic headlights. Is the camera system for viewing around your car for parking worth it? How about the solar panel spoiler on the back? I know that only charges the battery for the radio, not the motor.

I am looking at 52 miles roadtrip for work.
 
The solar panel is nothing importent. The Full view camera is nice, but you also have to take the Bose, which eats up trunk space, but maybe you want the sound?

Look on Plugshare.com for stations. A QC will give you enough to get home in 30 min or less, unless you live where it's freezing for months on end. Figure the 240V L2 stations will give you back about 24 miles range for every hour charging.
 
I downloaded the app on my phone after test driving and searched my area. There's one at a restaurant by my house, and hoping new stations will appear. The biggest trouble for me now would be if I wanted to travel up to Jacksonville from Orlando to visit family. That's about 170 miles. I am guessing I would need to stop several times on the way up for 2-3 hours each time to charge.

I don't need the Boise system. I'll by pass the solar panel, too, though it's a cool thing to show off to people. Thanks, DNAinaGoodWay.

My final question for now is hearing about those with experience installing a charging station at their home.
 
If you have an unused 240 volt outlet in your garage, for about $300 you can update the EVSE (often erroneously called the "charger") that comes with the car to use 240 volt current. The company that does this is called EVSE Upgrade and many members here have upgraded theirs that way:

https://evseupgrade.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

As far as long road trips, I would rent or borrow a conventional car or hybrid for that. Unless things have changed lately, Florida has been a bit scarce on quick-charge stations.
 
Really? I've got the 3.3 and 6 hrs from LBW is the most I've had to wait to 100%. I thought with a 6.0, it would be like 2-3 hrs depending on how low you are, 3.5 hrs tops.

It's my understanding that the car will often sit equalizing for quite a while to get to fully 100%, even at L-2. I use L-1, and it does that with me. I could be mistaken, since I don't charge at home using L-2.
 
DNAinaGoodWay said:
LeftieBiker said:
If you are talking about a new, SV, SL, or S with charge package (these all have the 6.6kw charger built in), the charge time for an L-2 station would be about 3-5 hours, depending on whether you needed to get completely back to 100%. An older Leaf or base S model with the 3.3KW charger would take about twice as long.

Really? I've got the 3.3 and 6 hrs from LBW is the most I've had to wait to 100%. I thought with a 6.0, it would be like 2-3 hrs depending on how low you are, 3.5 hrs tops.
Re: the bolded part, nope, at least no at 208 volts at work. Near the end, it tapers and then bounces a bunch from 0 to ~1.x kW. Sure, up to 80ish or 90ish % is fast (full speed), until it tapers.

My car pulls ~5.7 to 6.0 kW at work, depending on the station. The '11 and '12 Leafs on the same stations pull ~3.7 kW. Their taper profile and bounce looks different though. See links at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=338038" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

Here are some data points for me for charging to 100% @ work (at 208 volts on Chargepoint EVSEs w/30 amp output max):
We wanted to let you know that your vehicle, which is charging at (redacted), is drawing very little power. Typically, this means it's fully charged, however, it may also indicate that your vehicle is configured for delayed charging. Your vehicle has accepted 14.16 kWh of electricity and has been plugged in for 03:40:14 (hh:mm:ss).
I received the charging complete Carwings email of 12 of 12 bars 14 minutes earlier. It seems like Chargepoint has a built in delay before it declares charging done, likely due to the bounce behavior. And, it seems like the stations are only polled (or they only broadcast/send data) every 5 minutes, at least from the graphs I've seen.

Here's an 80% example:
We wanted to let you know that your vehicle, which is charging at (redacted), is drawing very little power. Typically, this means it's fully charged, however, it may also indicate that your vehicle is configured for delayed charging. Your vehicle has accepted 9.72 kWh of electricity and has been plugged in for 01:55:01 (hh:mm:ss).
The Carwings 9 of 12 bars email came 17 minutes earlier than the above. When charging to 80%, there's basically no taper. It's not clear if the very minor changes are due to the OBC or line voltage varying...

Side note: I started a Model S charging today and for some reason it pulled 6.5 kW instead of the usual ~ 6.2 kW (makes sense for 30 amps * 208 volts) or so, I see. Perhaps our line voltage was higher than normal today?
 
colaboy29 said:
I do know I will be getting the Quick Charge package on my model (looking at the mid-level model). I also want the aerodynamic headlights. Is the camera system for viewing around your car for parking worth it? How about the solar panel spoiler on the back? I know that only charges the battery for the radio, not the motor.

I am looking at 52 miles roadtrip for work.
Since you're in Florida, I would not probably not buy, as you will probably suffer noticeable capacity loss by year 3 or so... and lose at least 1 or 2 capacity bars. You might luck out and qualify for http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=13192" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; but you need have lost 4 capacity bars (be down to 8 bars) to get a replacement. After that, if you want a replacement, you'll have to go with the http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=13331" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; aka "steal your battery" (SYB), as some call it.

I would lease. (I'm on a 2 year 12K miles/year lease.)

The Phoenix Leaf that was down to 8 capacity bars only made it 59.3 miles on Tony's range test at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=228326" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; going 100 km/h (62 mph).

Also, 52 miles roundtrip w/o the ability to charge at work will pretty much require you to charge to full at home at 240 volts. It will probably not cut it at 120 volts as you can't replenish charge very quickly at 120 volts. See http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=101293" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; under "Nissan LEAF Miles Gained per Hour Charging".

Can you update your location info via User Control Panel (near top) > Profile (left side)? That way, we don't need to ask in future posts/threads or do sleuthing to deduce it.

Of that 52 miles, how much city vs. highway? Will you have the ability to charge at your work/destinations?

DNAinaGoodWay said:
The solar panel is nothing importent. The Full view camera is nice, but you also have to take the Bose, which eats up trunk space, but maybe you want the sound?

Look on Plugshare.com for stations. A QC will give you enough to get home in 30 min or less, unless you live where it's freezing for months on end. Figure the 240V L2 stations will give you back about 24 miles range for every hour charging.
Solar panel is pointless, no point in getting the SL for that. I LOVE the Around View Monitor. As for Bose stereo, I like it, even though I'm NOT a Bose fan. It takes up little trunk space.
 
As far as the Bose stereo and trunk space, the OP should know that a 2013/2014 Leaf equipped with one has just as much trunk space as the 2011/2012 models did. Nissan was able to carve out a bit more trunk space by relocating the on-board charging unit to the front of the car starting in 2013, and the resulting void between the rear wheels where the charger used to be is where Nissan put the Bose module.
 
^^^
Yep, basically. OP can look at http://sfbayleafs.org/news/2013/01/2013-nissan-leaf-product-highlights/attachment/13leafproduct8/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. The Bose sub-woofer module takes up some of that newly created void but it is nowhere near as tall as the hump (containing the on-board charger) was on the '11 and '12 Leafs.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=69224" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; was a peek under the hump's cover. The OBC has been integrated into stack on the '13+ Leafs (http://articles.sae.org/11993/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;).
 
I honestly would not rely on public charging at all. People are fighting over them already and I am seeing more and more EVs on the road (a good thing), so the problem is only likely to get worse.
 
I guess not that much too add since it seems like much has already been said.

If your roundtrip is around 50 miles, just charge at home every night and you'll probably be ok. But to be safe, I would get an evseupgrade on your charger so you can charge at 208v (or whatever higher voltage you have access to).

For your trips to visit parents, you should check into any nissan dealerships or other QC stations that might get built in the near future. that would allow you to have 20-30 minute charges so you can just get lunch or coffee during that time. You will need to charge twice on the way over there and because of the charging it will take longer than you're used to.

Of course you can just rent a car for those trips and you'll still probably be saving a lot of money.

Or you can borrow your friend/partner's car for a few days, etc.
 
LeftieBiker said:
If you are talking about a new, SV, SL, or S with charge package (these all have the 6.6kw charger built in), the charge time for an L-2 station would be about 3-5 hours, depending on whether you needed to get completely back to 100%. An older Leaf or base S model with the 3.3KW charger would take about twice as long.

3 hours would be VLBW to 100%. Sure it'll tell you 5 hours, but that timer is super pessimistic, and builds in the 45 minutes at the end that it sits at 100% doing balancing or whatever it's doing then.

I regularly take a 60-mile highway trip down to Salem and charge L2 when I get there. I roll in with about 30%, spend two hours there, and usually leave with about a 95+% charge.
 
RonDawg said:
As far as the Bose stereo and trunk space, the OP should know that a 2013/2014 Leaf equipped with one has just as much trunk space as the 2011/2012 models did. Nissan was able to carve out a bit more trunk space by relocating the on-board charging unit to the front of the car starting in 2013, and the resulting void between the rear wheels where the charger used to be is where Nissan put the Bose module.
For the benefit of DNA and others who haven't looked at the trunk area of a '13+, http://sfbayleafs.org/commentary/2013/09/2013-vs-2011-nissan-leaf-whats-new-whats-gone-whats-changed/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; has a pic of the Bose sub-woofer. That area is flat and flush w/the rest of the trunk area if one doesn't have the Bose stereo.
 
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