Hello from Des Moines, Iowa

Hi everyone,

I just leased a 2016 Leaf SV and I'm coming from a 2012 Chevy Volt the went back in on lease in January. I've kinda hemmed/hawed about what to do since I had another gas powered vehicle I can drive.

Truth be told, I liked the Volt quite a bit, but GM was not willing to work with me on the residual... so back it went. It went in with 28k on a 36k lease.

I own a L2 charger at home, but it's a smaller one since the Volt only had a 3.3kW charger. That said, my employer provides free 6.6kW and we have six charging stations. As an added bonus, besides the company car (Ford CMAX Energi), only one other person owns a plug-in (another 1st Gen Volt) so I'm never denied a spot

My commute is 15-17 miles each way depending on which school I'm dropping my daughter off to in the morning.

So far I'm really liking the Leaf, and so is the rest of the family. Compared to the 1st Gen Volt, this car makes waaaaay less high frequency noise that always irritated me a bit. We'll see how I feel in ~2.5 years, but if NMAC drops a huge chunk of the residual of the car... I'd bite if it was today.

The Volt was a good stepping stone for me on my commuter car. It showed me that I can live an EV. Even with the Volt, I always rented cars when I went on a long haul trip (very rare). I always figure if I can beat on a car of Enterprises for ~$100/week vs. mine, why not?

My other vehicles are:

1991 Toyota MR2
2014 VW Beetle (wifes car).

Congrats on your new vehicle. I think you will not miss the Volt after all.

Additionally, I think the 3.6kw charger will work fine for you. We have a 3.6kw (3.3) charger at our house as that is the most our 2012 Nissan Leaf will pull. At the time, I chose not to have a larger charger than needed for future upgrading to other vehicles. But the lower amperage has worked out well for us and made our installation cheap.

L2 at home will just be back up for you. You can't beat charging at work for free. You don't even need to charge everyday. But it's great to leave work fully charged as you can maximize running around town. Going into work, you'll know you can make it even if your SOC is fairly low, then charge all day. Sweet.

Good report Gimpster. We've had our Leaf going on 2 years and we're about to dump our Prius. We're not there yet, but getting close. Maybe another year or two. More QC stations are appearing, the next EVs will have longer range, and our Prius is now 8 years old. Altogether it makes a good case just to go electric.

We chose to go with a 6 kW EVSE for a number of reasons, but the 3 kW at home will be fine.

Paul

Thanks for the replies!

I would say the most acute "annoyance" I have now owning a full EV is the *total* lack QC (or even L2 for that matter) infrastructure along I-35 going up to Minneapolis or down to Kansas City. I knew this buying the car, but there is not one publicly usable QC in the state of Iowa. They are ALL over Kansas City and Minneapolis though. I guess in the future the 200+ mile range EV's will solve that problem. In the meantime, it will keep me using our gasser cars for the occasional weekend trips to those cities. I-35/I-80 are such major interstates, just seems odd.

I will be working with local EV enthusiasts to try and see if we can lobby our state reps, but I doubt it given the Ethanol lobby here.

So far the only thing I miss from the Volt is the volume knob vs. buttons, but I will get over it I also knew that going into it doing my research on the Leaf before leasing. I do not miss the engine running for maintenance on the Volt or hauling around that dead weight. When the engine is on in the Volt, its about the most unrefined feeling gas car I've ever driven.

Welcome to the BEV community and the Leaf. We love ours and plan to purchase it at the end of our lease in September.

We will be in Des Moines the last week of June for the National Square Dance Convention. Should be well over 5,000 square dancers from all over the world will be there. We go every year. For this trip we also rent an ICE for the trip, then spend another week going to Georgia and Florida to visit family before returning to San Diego. Last year it was in Springfield, MA so we spent time touring New England, then worked our way home, passing through Philadelphia, KY, then Nashville, before heading home. Over 8.000 miles on that trip. Can you just imagine how much time it would take to charge for those miles, even on the DCQC? So much easier and cheaper to use an ICE on longer trips and the Leaf for all our local driving. As it is my wife uses it as a daily driver with only about 100 miles per week, but we end up doing another 200 miles per week with other local driving.

As far as public charging, we find that even with FREE electricity we find it easier to just plug in at home on our L2 rather than charging elsewhere. Even the L3 will only give us about $1.00 of electricity and our time and effort to get there is more valuable than the free electricity.

Good Luck with your new Leaf. I hope you come to love it as much as we do. If we end up not keeping it in September we will replace it with a new Leaf.

Hello Des Moines!!! I live up here in Ankeny (Just north of town), and going on 2 years with my black 2013 LEAF! I also have a 16 mile commute to/from work, and the Leaf is just perfect for what I use it for. I love to talking to others who have a Leaf as well. I live about 3 blocks from the new Hy-Vee in Ankeny that has 4 charging stations. I love the fact I can plug in, shop and have a beer at the bar! I sometimes plug in and walk home...

May I ask...where do you work where they have free charging stations? Maybe I need a new job! The good news is more and more charging points are opening up around here. Just ran across a new one downtown by Guru BBQ and Fuzzy's Taco's. Also several Kum & Go's have free chargers, and the Franklin St. library has several as well...plus the Hy-Vee Urbandale and Waukee. Was in WInterset the other day, and they have one at the Hy-Vee there as well.

Let to meet you and talk shop. You can contact me at [email protected]

Cheers!

Ken

Always great to see more new EV owners in the Midwest; we've been through Des Moines many times in the past on our way to Lincoln, NE when my oldest son attended UNL.

The EV charging infrastructure in the IL NW 'burbs and greater Chicago has gotten better over the 4 1/2 years we've had our LEAF but still has a ways to go and of course unless people buy more EV's it won't happen! We have used L2 stations at a few locations, pricey when compared to charging at home but not cost prohibitive; of course not free though.

Best of luck with your new LEAF!