EVSE 200V 15A - Nissan Leaf 2017

[Shameem]

Hello, I bought a Nissan Leaf 2017 in 2019 from Japan and received a 200 V AC 15A EVSE Panasonic?
Now that I have an issue with my EVSE, I need to buy one.
I am unable to find one on the Web (Especially a 200V AC 15A).
Can you please help me? I am unable to charge my car...

Thank you very much.

 

[SageBrush]

What convinces you that the EVSE is defective ?

Regarding EVSE, is there a reason you want 16 Amps ? I'm pretty sure that the car can pull up to 27 Amps if the circuit and EVSE allow it. Regarding voltage, any EVSE you might buy supports 240V, and most generic EVSE handle voltage down to 208V.

Actually, the only EVSE I've read about that does NOT support 208V is one that used to be bundled with the LEAF. I don't know about whatever Nissan puts in the car these days

 

[cornbinder89]

Coupla questions, did it ever charge off this EVSE since you owned it? Where are you located and what is the common voltage supplied in that country?
I believe all the EVSE's will not work if there is a ground-fault on the power supplied to it. so if your wiring doesn't have a ground, the EVSE will not work.
The onboard charger works from around 110 volts to 240 volts, (I don't know the exact cutoffs at each end) so you should be able to find an aftermarket unit that will work as well
What amp rated circuit are you trying to use, and if higher is available why only 16 amp?

 

[cornbinder89]

Here are the voltage spec's for the aftermarket unit that came with my Leaf (bought used). It would do what yours did and can be set to the current requirements of the circuit you have available.
"This PRIMECOM Level 2 EV charger functions up to 32-Amp working within a range of 90-Volt to 250-Volt."
https://www.primecom.tech/products/...14259&pr_ref_pid=4415594561587&pr_seq=uniformI'm not promoting them and I'm sure there are lots to choose from. It is what came with my car and I found it works well. Another poster here had a Bosch adjustable charger and it worked well for him.
Plenty to choose from
It can be set from a low of 10 amp to a max of 32 amps. What it is set to is based on 80% of the circuit rating it is plugged in to.
As S/B posted the car charger would max out at 27 amps at 240 or 32 amps at 208, if you had a big enough supply circuit or are considering adding one later, you could use the 32 amp setting for 200 volts, if that is what your supplied voltage is.
One question, does the Jap.an built car use the J1772 charger port? My guess is yes, but that could rule out North American chargers if it doesn't

 

[SageBrush]

you could use the 32 amp setting for 200 volts

I don't think that is correct. The LEAF will pull up to 27 Amps -- period. If the voltage is 208V, then max power is

0.208*27 = 5.616 kW

 

[cornbinder89]

I guess the question to be answered, is the 6.6Kw controlled by inlet amps or by Kw? I haven't found any info that states that one way or the other. I stand to be corrected if documentation can be found.
6.6kw @208 works out to be just shy of 32 amps.
If amps are the limiting factor that would mean the 6.6Kw charger would be de-rated in countries that have 200 volt mains, I don't believe that to be the case.
Looking through the charger section of the FSM, it doesn't spell it out that I can find. Since input is rectified and then inverted and rectified again, it isn't as simple as a transformer power supply.

 

[SageBrush]

In the US both 240v and 208v are common. What wire ampacity is required if 6.6 kW is pulled ? This ambiguity implies a hard Amp limit or 40A wire ampacity. I found a National Lab study of a 2015 LEAF that does not agree with either of us, and pretty much splits the difference:

https://avt.inl.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/fsev/SteadyStateLoadCharacterization2015Leaf.pdfI wonder for how long the 29+ Amp load was sustained, although the title does say steady state

I think it is clear though that the car can set the Amps, since we see it action during a taper during DC fast charging or during the last few percent of an L2 charge

 

[cornbinder89]

Wow how did you find that? I does make sense in a way, as far more countries use 220 and 230 volts. Japan almost alone in using 200. They also install mainly 3.3 Kw chargers in the JDM cars. 29 amps at those two voltages (220 and 230) are right around 6.6 input.
The manual doesn't tell how any of the components in the charger function. There is something they call "power factor correction" (their term not mine) after the initial rectifier, and before the inverter. My guess is the inverter is where the current limiting is done. By rectifying 1st, before anything else, it makes input frequency moot.
Like most modern manuals they don't explain the how or even the why, only how to test/replace.
edit:
I never doubted it could set the amps, just if the max input in Kw was determined by current regadless of input voltage or only the max Kw the charger can see is determined by voltage alone. From what I can see on the report neither is 100% true. It can take more current at lower voltages than 240 to bring the input Kw more in line to the stated input capacity of the charger. While there is some "wiggle room" you couldn't feed 60 amps of 120 volt into the input and get 6 Kw on the charger.(Obviously).

 

[cornbinder89]

Interesting take away form the INL study is that if I want to do a long slow charge to equalize cells, I am still better off setting my Level 2 charger to the min (10 amps) then I am using the level 1 charger. At least in terms of efficiency. Not sure about which brings low cells up to balance better.

 

[Steve52]

My USA manual only covers 2 circuit type cases for use with my Nissan EVSE;
Level 1 110-120 volt 15 amp circuit
Level 2 220-240 volt 50 amp circuit

For a Japanese version of the Leaf, you'd have to find the specs required for charging your version.

 

[cornbinder89]

The dual voltage one supplied in the later Leafs, that would be the case. Aftermarket ones have more choices.
As pointed out previously the charge current will not exceed 27 amps on 240 or 29.9 amps on 208. Both exceed the 80% rule for current supplied by a 30 amp circuit. Since there are no NEMA forms for 40 amp, the next step up is 50 amp, even though the car doesn't draw that. A 40 amp breaker would suffice for hard wire installs. 40 amp breaker on a 50 amp outlet could result in an overload and breaker tripping if a larger load was connected.

 

[Steve52]

I'm guessing you live in Australia or other 240 volt country and have a "private import" Japanese Leaf designed to run on a 200 volt, 15 amp circuit capable of 2.4 kWh charging. If this is the case, are you certain that your version Leaf will run on 240 volts used in your country? See the attached fact sheet for these types of Leaf.

 

[SageBrush]

"power factor correction"

PF is the ratio of watts/VA

Reactive components like coils and capacitors introduce a phase shift between the voltage and current. Some electricians (outside the US, I think) are more used to 'phi' -- the angular shift. Cos(phi) = PF

I never doubted it could set the amps, just if the max input in Kw was determined by current regadless of input voltage or only the max Kw the charger can see is determined by voltage alone.

You were clear. I was only saying that Amp limits *can* exist, not that they must exist.

 

[cornbinder89]

I've never seen Pf referred to in DC as the manual does abit pulsing DC, but that is why I said their term not mine.
I suspect the current draw limitation is done in the 3rd stage (Inverter) where the power is boosted up to battery charge voltage. From the drawing it seams it is done at high frequency square wave, to minimize the inductor size. I suspect that you can adjust the current draw by changing the frequency. The inductor efficiency will fall off as the frequency drops, and the Idaho labs graphs show this (less efficient at lower output). This would give max output at designed Hz and less output the further away you get from it. It would also be "self limiting" in that it can't exceed ideal conditions current. Much the way any transformer is.
Just guessing as I can find no documentation on the subject.

 

[SageBrush]

I suspect the current draw limitation is done in the 3rd stage (Inverter) where the power is boosted up to battery charge voltage. From the drawing it seams it is done at high frequency square wave, to minimize the inductor size. I suspect that you can adjust the current draw by changing the frequency.

This topic is beyond my casual understanding, meaning I can only guess how current is being limited here. Fwiw, I can quote a book and say that coil inductive reactance is proportional to frequency and inductance. The inverse holds true for capacitors.

Since the PF is quite high (98% IIRC), I presume that either the contribution of coils and capacitors is minimal, or they are balanced. But in this case I would not expect it to be the mechanism used to regulate current

<<shrug>>

How about current control with high frequency switching ? I know VFD's operate this way using IGBTs, but those are expensive boxes.

 

[cornbinder89]

I don't claim to know either. The manuals are of no help. I am just making guesses based on very little hard info.

 

[Snakebitten]

I have an adjustable EVSE hardwired to a true 240V dedicated 50amp service. (6 gauge copper)

I set it for 28Amps and the charger shows that only 27amps are being consumed.



By the way, if you don't set a timer to limit charging at less than 100%, you will see the onboard Leaf charging strategy start reducing the amps drawn from the EVSE, once SOC is beyond 95%.
It continues to drop 1 or 2 AMPs every couple of minutes. Dropping to about 6 AMPs before finally hitting 100% SOC.
(This is not a reduction because of battery temperature, since L2 charging, even at the maximum of 240V/27A, doesn't generate much battery thermal concerns for a cool battery)

 

[LeftieBiker]

According to GerryAZ, 208 volts will make the Leaf draw 28 or more amps under some circumstances. At least that's what I remember...

 

[cornbinder89]

The Idaho lab's report show almost 30 amps @208 volts.
I have a 50 amp circuit, 6 ga cable less than 20' from a distribution panel with a full 125 amp feed. The car charger is the largest draw on the whole panel, so I see very little fluctuation in voltage.
Mine is also adjustable and can be set to as little as 10 amps, which I use for equalization charge.
I wish I could find more info on how all the control is done in the onboard charger. There is a dearth of info on how things are controlled.
It would seam the JDM cars and supplied EVSE's are more specific to that markets odd (to us in the rest of the world) 100 or 200 volts.
Aftermarket EVSE's sold seam to be more adaptable in what voltages they can deal with.
Right now, I don't use the full current charging as I work out how to charge to less than 100%. lower current means the 10 min steps in the charger timer are less pronounced.

 

[Snakebitten]

I would think at 208V it would be able to consume about 31amps?

At least if it's a Kilowatt equation