Phoenix metro-area

[skippycoyote]

Mesa to Payson?
Recently, my husband and I have been discussing moving from Mesa to a smaller, higher elevation town such as Payson. We are still just in the pondering stages, but I was wondering if anybody had traveled from Mesa to Payson in their LEAF. If we did move, the only reason why I would probably make this drive would be for the annual battery checks at the dealership. If it can't be done comfortably, I could put it the trailer and tow it up and down, but that is not nearly as convenient, fun, or zero emission.
Also, I got my home Blink EVSE from Ecotality. I know I don't officially "own" the EVSE. Does anybody know if they will let you relocate it to another city as long as you stay in the same state?

 

[turbo2ltr]

I doubt you'd make that trip without having to stop for a charge. According to plugshare, there aren't any chargers along the way either.

 

[ERG4ALL]

I go to Payson frequently, but not in the LEAF. From my house (SR 51 and Northern) to Payson is 83 miles. Thus, I suspect that from Mesa it must be somewhere around 75 miles. If that were a flat stretch, it might be doable, however, the change in elevation will make the uphill trip impossible without charging along the way. Of course you probably could make the downhill trip without any trouble.

Off topic but because this is for Phoenix LEAFers, I want to encourage everyone to go out to dinner at Monte's La Casa Vieja on Mill Street in Tempe. We have on several occasions, but the last time was truly superlative. Our LEAF was low and needed a charge after returning from far east Mesa so we decided to have dinner there and use their Blink chargers which they offer for free. We went inside and got the activation card with the RF chip. When we used it on the charger, the display said there was some problem with the account. We went back inside and eventually got the right manager, Scott, who was familiar with the equipment. He offered to go outside with us (and it was cold) to see what was the matter. He tried the card and after a fairly long wait, the charger accepted the card and was ready to go. I apologized for his inconvenience but we really had not done anything different than what he had done. The only thing I could think of is maybe the RFID needs to be continually held against the Blink until the entire validation process is completed. Anyway, I thanked him profusely and commented to my wife when we were walking inside that I was ready for a double something at the bar while we waited for a table. We went to the bar and had our cocktail. Then the hostess came up and said our table was ready. I asked the bar tender what the amount of our tab was and he said that Scott told him that that round was on the house. Scott had overheard my comment to my wife. We had a great meal and am blown away by the courtesy at Monte's La Casa Vieja.

 

[LEAFfan]

I go to Payson frequently, but not in the LEAF. From my house (SR 51 and Northern) to Payson is 83 miles. Thus, I suspect that from Mesa it must be somewhere around 75 miles. If that were a flat stretch, it might be doable, however, the change in elevation will make the uphill trip impossible without charging along the way. Of course you probably could make the downhill trip without any trouble.

Off topic but because this is for Phoenix LEAFers, I want to encourage everyone to go out to dinner at Monte's La Casa Vieja on Mill Street in Tempe. We have on several occasions, but the last time was truly superlative. Our LEAF was low and needed a charge after returning from far east Mesa so we decided to have dinner there and use their Blink chargers which they offer for free. We went inside and got the activation card with the RF chip. When we used it on the charger, the display said there was some problem with the account. We went back inside and eventually got the right manager, Scott, who was familiar with the equipment. He offered to go outside with us (and it was cold) to see what was the matter. He tried the card and after a fairly long wait, the charger accepted the card and was ready to go. I apologized for his inconvenience but we really had not done anything different than what he had done. The only thing I could think of is maybe the RFID needs to be continually held against the Blink until the entire validation process is completed. Anyway, I thanked him profusely and commented to my wife when we were walking inside that I was ready for a double something at the bar while we waited for a table. We went to the bar and had our cocktail. Then the hostess came up and said our table was ready. I asked the bar tender what the amount of our tab was and he said that Scott told him that that round was on the house. Scott had overheard my comment to my wife. We had a great meal and am blown away by the courtesy at Monte's La Casa Vieja.

We ate at Monti's in Jan. and were happy to pay $2 for two hours of charging. Our dinners and experience there ranks in the top five restaurants that we've eaten in.

 

[phxsmiley]

Great location for a QC, showed up recently on blinknetwork.com

This is on I10 at Casa Grande. Zooming in with Google Maps, it looks like there may be a couple restaurants in the area.

Chevron Discovery Market
2128 E. Florence Blvd
Casa Grande, AZ 85122

I don't think it's enough to make it all the way to Tucson, especially since these don't really charge to 100%, but combined with the GoE3 quick-but-not-too-quick charge (16098 E. Camino Adel, Picacho, AZ 85241, see Plugshare), you should be able to make it to Tucson now.

 

[LEAFfan]

Thanks for posting that. I drove my LEAF to Picacho Peak with an 80% charge for the charging stations' grand opening and I was the only one from the Phoenix area with a LEAF. I made it with about 2% from Turtle. It would have been nice to have the Casa Grande QC.

 

[kovalb]

...it looks like there may be a couple restaurants in the area.
...these don't really charge to 100%

There is a shopping mall across the freeway from where this new DC-QC station is in Casa Grande. I would be interested whether there are any restaurants within walking distance of the charger.
The charge stops at 80% if the LEAF is under 50% at the start. Just start charge a second time after it stops and it should take you to 100%.

Being 40 miles from where I live, the location is just about perfect (at the mall would have been better). I like seeing the Blink DC-QC stations popping up at the outskirts of town which extend the usable range of the LEAF.

 

[jspearman]

I'm too late! I saw the news about the Casa Grande charger on Twitter, and it made me long for a vehicle with a QC port. They also tweeted that the station has two L2 chargers for my Volt, ha. At 3.3kW, I'd be sitting in Casa Grande an awful long time for very little charge. It might be handy for a top-off of the RAV4, though.

 

[Volusiano]

I'm too late! I saw the news about the Casa Grande charger on Twitter, and it made me long for a vehicle with a QC port. They also tweeted that the station has two L2 chargers for my Volt, ha. At 3.3kW, I'd be sitting in Casa Grande an awful long time for very little charge. It might be handy for a top-off of the RAV4, though.

Yes, it'd be so cool if the Volt has a quick charge port. It'd only take 10 minutes to fill up the Volt. If somebody offers a QC port upgrade on the Volt, I think there'd be a big market for it.

 

[jspearman]

I'm too late! I saw the news about the Casa Grande charger on Twitter, and it made me long for a vehicle with a QC port. They also tweeted that the station has two L2 chargers for my Volt, ha. At 3.3kW, I'd be sitting in Casa Grande an awful long time for very little charge. It might be handy for a top-off of the RAV4, though.

Yes, it'd be so cool if the Volt has a quick charge port. It'd only take 10 minutes to fill up the Volt. If somebody offers a QC port upgrade on the Volt, I think there'd be a big market for it.

I want Chaedmo on my Volt, but I also want Tesla to offer a full upgrade to Tesla innards for the RAV4: supercharger, 17" monitor, full Tesla software, etc. I don't think either will happen, but it's nice to dream!

 

[baragona]

OK. I'm coming up on my first Phoenix summer in the LEAF.

I'm getting 75-85 miles range in the spring, less when I charge 80%. How much should I expect that to drop in the heart of the summer in Phoenix?

 

[baragona]

Newbie question...

I bought my 2011 used.

I'm trying to confirm if it has the quick charge port.

I see the physical interface. Does that mean I have the QC port?

 

[turbo2ltr]

if there are two connectors (one with an orange cap and a larger one with a black cap) under the charge cover, the larger one on the left is the DC fast charge port. There is no additional hardware, if the connector is there, you can use it.

 

[kovalb]

OK. I'm coming up on my first Phoenix summer in the LEAF.

I'm getting 75-85 miles range in the spring, less when I charge 80%. How much should I expect that to drop in the heart of the summer in Phoenix?

My experience is that range does not drop much in the summer. The A/C is very efficient, even more so if you use Carwings or the timer to pre-cool the cabin. I expect no more than a 4 mile drop from using the A/C.

You may see a much larger drop indicated initially, especially if you do not pre-cool, but the A/C power draw should only be around 250W once stabilized.

 

[turbo2ltr]

Summer one I didn't notice much drop. But second summer when I started losing capacity bars, I definitely noticed a difference in range that came back when it cooled off.

 

[phxsmiley]

I agree about the A/C and summer efficiency. Everyone I talk to about the Leaf is surprised to hear that using heat in the Leaf is so much more inefficient than using the A/C. This past Sunday was interesting, as I used heat in the early morning, then used A/C later in the day.

 

[Volusiano]

OK. I'm coming up on my first Phoenix summer in the LEAF.

I'm getting 75-85 miles range in the spring, less when I charge 80%. How much should I expect that to drop in the heart of the summer in Phoenix?

Is your LEAF still showing 12 capacity bars? Or less? And how many miles already on it?

In general, the only difference on the range between spring and summer time, regardless of your remaining battery capacity, is your use of AC in the summer. Colder weather may cause a temporary range reduction but hotter weather shouldn't cause a temporary range reduction (although it may cause capacity reduction) except for AC use.

It looks like your LEAF has the QC port. As a general rule of thumb, QC with 5 temperature bars is OK. You probably want to avoid QC in the summer when your temperature bars are in the 7-bar range to avoid overheating the battery. Six temperature bars is the norm in the summer, and 7 temperature bars will be seen quite often in the summer, too.

Also try using delayed charging so that charging ends in the morning just before you go to work. That way your battery has a chance to cool down in the evening before being charged late at night. And if you only have a short commute, maybe keep the SOC close to 50% by not charging to 80% everyday, but maybe every other day or two and not recharge until your SOC falls below 40%.

 

[baragona]

14,800 miles.

Still has 12 bars...

 

[ERG4ALL]

If there is any way you can avoid driving in 115 degree heat, I'd say do it. If you have to drive in the extreme heat, it might be a good idea to park in the shade (otherwise you may be parking over 140 degree asphalt) and to keep the speed down. Basically do anything you can to keep the temperature bars below 7 or minimize the time at 7 or above.

 

[surfingslovak]

14,800 miles.

Still has 12 bars...

Congrats. Would you know where your new LEAF came from? It would be interesting to get an idea how well the battery has held up with a Gid meter.