onboard charger 2013 Leaf S

The more I read on this topic the more confused I get. I am looking for a straight answer.

What capacity charger does my 2013 LEAF S come with? Is it a 3.3 kW charger or a 6.6 kW?
Wish this was clearly written somewhere, maybe, even under the hood ...

The manual specifications don't say this clearly, the wording, "depending on the on board charger..."
It's a generic manual for all trims S, SV, SL.

Looking to buy an L2 charger and hoping the car does have a 6.6 kW.

My 2013 Leaf S has the 3.3 kW on-board charger and I saw that I can upgrade to 6.6 kW.

The base 2014 Nissan LEAF S comes with a 3.6kW onboard charger, which takes 8 hours to fully replenish the battery pack from a 240-volt Level 2 source.


OPTIONAL - S Charge Package
• Nissan 6.6 kW onboard charger • Quick charge port
• RearView Monitor21

jossshe said:

What capacity charger does my 2013 LEAF S come with? Is it a 3.3 kW charger or a 6.6 kW?
Wish this was clearly written somewhere, maybe, even under the hood ...
...
Looking to buy an L2 EVSE and hoping the car does have a 6.6 kW.

Click to expand...

FYP. You're looking to buy a level 2 EVSE. See http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=14728&p=332668#p332668. The charger is on-board the car, and yes under the hood.

It's part of the PDM stack at http://www.sae.org/mags/aei/11993/.

jossshe said:

My 2013 Leaf S has the 3.3 kW on-board charger and I saw that I can upgrade to 6.6 kW.

The base 2014 Nissan LEAF S comes with a 3.6kW onboard charger, which takes 8 hours to fully replenish the battery pack from a 240-volt Level 2 source.


OPTIONAL - S Charge Package
• Nissan 6.6 kW onboard charger • Quick charge port
• RearView Monitor21

Click to expand...

No, you cannot upgrade the OBC... well, Nissan or your dealer won't do it for you. You/the previous owner had to have chosen a car with the charge package.

Perhaps there's something similar to the Brusa charger add-on that was for '11s and '12s (http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=12323)?

If your Leaf S has the CHAdeMO inlet (aka quick charge port), to the left of the J1772 inlet, then it has the charge package which includes 6.x kW OBC. See pic at http://sfbayleafs.org/commentary/2013/09/2013-vs-2011-nissan-leaf-whats-new-whats-gone-whats-changed/ "Charging port hatch with remote keyfob release and light, option to lock the plug in place" for what the looks like. If you just have a blank area on the left where the CHAdeMO inlet is and no door covering it, you do NOT have the charge package and thus would only have the 3.x kW OBC.

(On '13+ SV and SL... having CHAdeMO inlet or not has nothing to do w/OBC. '13+ SV and SL both come with 6.x kW OBC.)

If I'm not mistaken (and cwerdna and anybody else who has a 2013+ model please correct me if I am) but on Leafs that do have the faster OBC, if you have the display in the center of the instrument panel set to display charging time required, when the car is on but not plugged in you should have three charging times listed:

• 120 volts
• 240 volts at 3.8 kW
• 240 volts at 6.6 kW

IIRC Leafs that do not have the faster charger simply have charging times listed for 120 volts and 240 volts (without regard to wattage).

^^^
The above sounds right. My '13 SVs both give 3 times to charge: 240V 6 kW, 240V 3 kW and 120V. (Yes, they don't include anything past the whole numbers.)

And yeah, the '11s and '12s simply gave 2 times: 120 volt and 240 volt. I'd imagine the base S w/o charge package is like that, as well.

Hi all, thanks for your replies...

That answers the question then.

I only see two charge options (not 3) in the display panel. And this is a base S model 2013.

• 120 volts Time remaining to charge:
  240 volts Time remaining to charge:

So it is confirmed that the OBC is only 3.3kW, just as I had feared.

^^^
Yep. And, you also likely confirmed that there's only one inlet under the door (for J1772) and no CHAdeMO inlet.

If you're pretty sure this isn't going to be your last EV you can still buy a higher powered EVSE to charge it with. The price difference is about $400-$500 and I doubt that the price of the units will come down by that much in the next 3 years to make it worth buying one now and buying another later.

The best thing to do is talk to your electrician and wire up the house for the highest possible outlet rating(although over 60 amp breaker is probably overkill). Even if you buy just a 3.3kW unit now by having the higher rated wires the job in a few years to upgrade will be as simple as plugging in a new unit and mounting it on the wall.