Leased 2015 Leaf S with QC

Hello, just picked up my 2015 Nissan Leaf S with QC (in Peral White). I think I got a good lease ($114 with tax per month, $4800 down (tax and downpayment), 12.8K buy after 3year lease completes).

Here are my questions and please bear with me. The leaf is my commute car (25miles each way, with not charger at work). This is also the first time I have ever leased a car. I did a lot of reading on this form before the purchase (thanks for the help). I do however have some additional question.

1) Most important: How do I set the charge time from the Leaf POV, and if this is not possible please see my next questions (again this is for a Model S with QC and I have no option for 80% charge). We are on PG&E and my super offpeak (.10cents) rate is only applicable from 11pm to 6am. I would like to "plug-in" my EV when I get home but do not want the charging to start until 11pm and end charging 6am, regardless of charge achieved. Currently, I am on 110V, however have and electrician coming tomorrow to get an estimate on a 25 ft 220V run from my fuse box.

2) If the EV can not set the start and end times, is there a EVSE out there (with reasonable price) which are programmable? Here are the pros and cons of each of EVSE I have reviewed thus far. If someone has better recommendations I am open.

3) Any estimates on a 25 ft 220V cable run from electrician.

Blink HQ
+ Good price
+ Has timer (but unsure if a schedule can be set)
+ 30A (7.xkWH)

Upgrade EVSE
+ Excellent Price
- Not Programmable (at least I do not see an option)
- 20A (5 kWH)
- Longer charge times.

Siemens VC30GRYU Versicharge
+ Better Price
+ Has timer
+ 30A (7.x kWH)

Thank in advance for looking at the post and any comments to the questions. I am sure I will have more as I "learn" about the car.

You can set the start time for charging on the S. Just set it for 11pm. The OpenEVSE build I bought off this forum from GlennD also has a start and end timer. So, you can set the start on the Leaf, but you will need to get an EVSE with timer support to set an end time. Electrician costs vary wildly. Get a couple of quotes from local electricians. I paid $800 to have a 240v and a 110 installed, but the run was only about a meter. I paid $400 shipped for the L2 EVSE.

Thank you very much for the quick reply. I will contact GlennD. I will at least set the time to 11pm. It does not make sense why this would not be a standard feature, probably because the utility companies want to make money.

You have to remember that the Leaf S is Nissan's loss leader. It is missing many of the desirable features of the SV and SL to entice you to upgrade.

It gets cars out there for emission credits but they would really like you to upscale.

powerplyer said:

I will at least set the time to 11pm. It does not make sense why this would not be a standard feature, probably because the utility companies want to make money.

Click to expand...

Actually, set the time to 6 AM (or whenever the desired time to stop charging will be). The Leaf S has an END-only timer, though it is not clear in the instructions. So if the car thinks it will need 5 hours to charge based on the battery's charge level and the amount of power it is drawing from the EVSE, it will start charging at 1 AM.

If you set the timer for 11 PM, under the same circumstances the car will start charging at 6 PM.

To make sure your charging will complete in that 7 hour off-peak period, I recommend getting a 30 amp EVSE if your home's electrical infrastructure will support it. On a Leaf equipped with the 6.6 kW on board charger, fully drained to fully charged will take about 5 hours. With a 16 amp EVSE, it's more like 8 hours.

GlennD said:

You have to remember that the Leaf S is Nissan's loss leader. It is missing many of the desirable features of the SV and SL to entice you to upgrade.

It gets cars out there for emission credits but they would really like you to upscale.

Click to expand...

That's not what the term "loss leader" means. If only that were the case, because a loss leader is a product that loses money by having a low price and high production cost. It exists to get people into the store or looking at a product line. An SV with Premium Package, sold at the S price, that would be a loss leader.

LeftieBiker said:

GlennD said:

You have to remember that the Leaf S is Nissan's loss leader. It is missing many of the desirable features of the SV and SL to entice you to upgrade.

It gets cars out there for emission credits but they would really like you to upscale.

Click to expand...

That's not what the term "loss leader" means. If only that were the case, because a loss leader is a product that loses money by having a low price and high production cost. It exists to get people into the store or looking at a product line. An SV with Premium Package, sold at the S price, that would be a loss leader.

Click to expand...

Unless the seesaw just tipped over to the profitability side very, very recently, as of last October, Nissan's Carlos Ghosn said that they were still "getting there" in terms of profitability of the Leaf:

http://www.autoblog.com/2014/10/02/ghosn-we-are-getting-there-on-making-nissan-leaf-profitable/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Currently, Nissan is selling the car for more than it actually costs to produce, but I don't think that takes into account the development costs. In which case, the entire Leaf line is a "loss leader" but with the goal of being able to recoup at least some of those losses through selling of EV credits, as well as avoiding CARB fines for failure to adhere to ZEV requirements. Plus Nissan benefits from the positive publicity of offering the world's best selling all-electric car (battery degradation issues notwithstanding).

Talking about the S model as a "loss leader" is incorrect, regardless of the profitability of the whole Leaf product line. The S costs less to produce than the other models, and is sold for less. It is an "entry level" model.