Road Trips for noobies?

[treinjapan]

Hey gang!
Will be picking up our Leaf here in a couple weeks. I've been reading through the road trip threads, and am often overwhelmed by the "technical jargon" about amps, charging stations, special extension cords, and all kinds of other things. I'm a COMPLETE noob when it comes to electric cars, but I've done loads of road trips over the years in normal cars. I live in northern Japan, and would like to someday (this Spring perhaps?) take a road trip down the west coast of Japan for a couple of weeks.

There is a pretty thorough network of charging stations in Japan it seems, but I'm a bit hesitant to be fast-charging once or twice a day for a few weeks because I don't want to mess up the battery. Nissan and Mitsubishi dealerships almost all have either L2 or L3 chargers which are free to use. The circles on the map below have roughly 50 miles/80 km radiuses.

Since the goal is to take it slow and experience different places in Japan, I wouldn't really be aiming to cover massive amounts of ground in a short amount of time. I would aim for maybe 200-300 km per day (125-180 miles) in a few hours, while stopping in cities for the afternoon and evening to recharge and explore the town.

What are some MUST DOs and MUST HAVEs for a long road trip in a Leaf?

Here are some things I've already thought of:
-Perhaps a spare rim/tire just in case.
-A careful plan laying out each stop and hotel/camping ground for each day. Make sure to have access to 2 or 3 charging stations just in case.
-Blankets
-What else?

Thanks all!

 

[RonDawg]

I don't know what the speed limits are in Japan, but with an EV, high speeds kill range. If you can keep your average speed down to 90 km/hr or less that would help extend range.

Keep an eye on your energy consumption (on our Leafs, we can bring up on the center nav display what our average and real time energy consumption levels are, and the average one on the dash display) and check out Tony Williams' range chart:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:LEAFrangeChart.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Keep in mind that the chart assumes a brand new battery and on level ground. Even if the car is showing all 12 bars, I would plan as if it only had 11, at least initially until you get an idea of how much charge the car is using.

 

[treinjapan]

I don't know what the speed limits are in Japan, but with an EV, high speeds kill range. If you can keep your average speed down to 90 km/hr or less that would help extend range.

Keep an eye on your energy consumption (on our Leafs, we can bring up on the center nav display what our average and real time energy consumption levels are, and the average one on the dash display) and check out Tony Williams' range chart:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:LEAFrangeChart.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Keep in mind that the chart assumes a brand new battery and on level ground. Even if the car is showing all 12 bars, I would plan as if it only had 11, at least initially until you get an idea of how much charge the car is using.

Thanks Ron!
The speed limits here are painfully slow, going up to maybe 100kmh on the freeway, but for the most part, 40-50 kmh around the city or beaches.

Thanks for the chart!

 

[cwerdna]

From what I hear (and what you alluded to), Japan has a VERY extensive CHAdeMO DC FC infrastructure. You may as well take advantage of it.

There is a pretty thorough network of charging stations in Japan it seems, but I'm a bit hesitant to be fast-charging once or twice a day for a few weeks because I don't want to mess up the battery. Nissan and Mitsubishi dealerships almost all have either L2 or L3 chargers which are free to use. The circles on the map below have roughly 50 miles/80 km radiuses.

I wouldn't be too concerned about DC FCing multiple times a day unless it's really hot out. I wish I could find the thread here where there was a study done comparing Leafs that are ONLY fast charged vs. a set that never were fast charged. There was almost no difference in battery degradation.

Make sure whatever Leaf you get has the 6 kW on-board charger, otherwise, when you L2 charge, it will be quite slow (assuming the EVSE can output 27+ amps at 200+ volts). The 3.3 kW OBC is much slower.

I can't speak to power that's readily available in Japan other than knowing you guy have 2 prong 100 volt AC at either 50 or 60 hz, depending on the region. Not sure of the typical max amperage nor availability and type of outlets for 200+ volts (you'd probably need an EVSE that is upgraded to support that too, if you wish to use the stock L1 brick as I highly doubt the JDM of the stock L1 EVSE supports more than 100 or 120 volts). If you're just using a L2 EVSE found publicly (e.g. at a dealer), no need to worry about that.

Again, for a refresher, see diagram at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=262630#p262630" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

For Japan, I would not buy ANY Leaf w/o the CHAdeMO port.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=198034" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; gives you an idea of TonyWilliams' planning for his 1st BC2BC road trip.

 

[Valdemar]

I wouldn't worry about two quick charges per day unless we are talking about 30C and above ambient temperature. Look at the battery temperature indicator, if it shows 6 temp. bars or less QC definitely not an issue. 7 bars or more - L2 is safer.

 

[RonDawg]

Make sure whatever Leaf you get has the 6 kW on-board charger, otherwise, when you L2 charge, it will be quite slow (assuming the EVSE can output 27+ amps at 200+ volts). The 3.3 kW OBC is much slower.

He already bought a used 2012 SL (or whatever the equivalent is called in Japan) dealer demo with 6k km.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=2099&p=348406#p348406" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[treinjapan]

They say the dealer quickcharge should take 30 minutes to get you to about 80%. Don't know anything more than that

 

[Phoenix]

With all those QC stations in Japan and its cool climate, I just would not worry at all. Just drive and enjoy! Envious here, of course! Assuming they work reliably over there.

 

[cwerdna]

Make sure whatever Leaf you get has the 6 kW on-board charger, otherwise, when you L2 charge, it will be quite slow (assuming the EVSE can output 27+ amps at 200+ volts). The 3.3 kW OBC is much slower.

He already bought a used 2012 SL (or whatever the equivalent is called in Japan) dealer demo with 6k km.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=2099&p=348406#p348406" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Doh! Oh well.

They say the dealer quickcharge should take 30 minutes to get you to about 80%. Don't know anything more than that

As long as you've got the CHAdeMO port, yeah, that's about how fast they are, unless it's a lower output station (say 25 kW or lower). Charging speed ramps down as you get closer to 100%, somewhere past 80% or so.