The official "I got my Leaf" thread

[TomT]

We picked up our red Leaf at Fontana Nissan a few hours before Josh. We made it home with 22 miles and three+ bars left, locked on cruise control at 65 in ECO mode, for a total trip distance of about 78 miles. This included a side trip for lunch and a long run up some steep hills to our house. Not bad.

I got my Leaf today from Fontana Nissan! Ecotality came at 7am to install the Blink, then Fontana Nissan picked me upat 10:30. I was there for about 4 hours, they were great going over everything on the car. Drove the 70 miles home, with 37 to spare.

 

[bowthom]

Kewl guys, welcome and enjoy your petrol free weekend.

 

[welovecats]

we picked up our leaf (vin 430) on 3/3 at universal, boy the blue is bright! but we like it!

very impressed how quickly it recharges from just going down a hill, ours gains almost 10 miles charge on the way down, so kinda makes up for the uphill hit.

sept 6 order
march 3rd delivery (dash was week of march 14th the day dealer called)

loving the leaf! no more oil for us!

 

[Googler]

Picked up my leaf today (#416) from Boardwalk Nissan in Redwood City, CA. They had six on the lot at the time I picked mine up, but they had only delivered nine prior to this (or so the manager said). First experience from the dealer - the usual multi-hour rigamarole about trying to sell you something in addition to the car. Blech. I would happily pay a dealer $500 extra to dispense with all the bullshit, but the reward structure of the auto industry is structured around bullshit. First experience from the car - it drives ok, but didn't seem substantially different than my 2005 Prius. I just drove it home (35 miles) so I don't have much else to report from the driving experience. I won't be driving it much until I get carpool stickers for it.

I immediately noticed a couple of engineering flaws that could have easily been fixed.
1. the "trickle charger" is seriously flawed by having too short a cord between the very heavy box and the wall plug. You can't let it hang from the cord - you need to have a shelf next to the plug in order to plug it in. That makes me wonder how I will plug it in most places unless I keep a tripod or a step stool in the car. That's a really silly design flaw.
2. the covers on the charging plugs open the wrong way. If you make a mistake and close the outer cover before closing the internal covers on the plugs, you will break them off. It would have made a lot more sense to have these plugs swivel in a direction that would allow them to endure closing the outer cover without closing them.

 

[TomT]

This is kind of funny. I found this sheet in the door pocket when I picked up my Leaf. Note the line at the bottom.

 

[planet4ever]

1. the "trickle charger" is seriously flawed by having too short a cord between the very heavy box and the wall plug.

I believe that is an IEC code requirement - the EVSE has to be within 30 cm of the wall plug because of GFCI-type protection concerns.

Ray

 

[garygid]

I think the 18" is a rather "stupid" length to choose for a 120v appliance, even if used outside and on extension cords, like drills, lawn mowers, etc.

I wonder about the motives of the standards committee.

 

[garygid]

welove...,
Your apparent range gain going down the hill/grade was not so much from recharging the battery, but rather from the range calculation thinking that you had drastically changed your driving "style", and thinking you would continue with that "very efficient" driving style.

But, of course, after reaching the bottom of the hill, it (too) SLOWLY realizes that your p-recent-past driving is NOT a good estimate of your future driving.

So, you usually get a substantially optimistic "range" at the bottom of the grade.

Likewise, when just starting to climb a hill, the range estimate will usually be substantially too high.

 

[DarkStar]

1. the "trickle charger" is seriously flawed by having too short a cord between the very heavy box and the wall plug. You can't let it hang from the cord - you need to have a shelf next to the plug in order to plug it in. That makes me wonder how I will plug it in most places unless I keep a tripod or a step stool in the car. That's a really silly design flaw.

The J1772-2010 specification requires the plug to be within 12" of the EVSE... Unfortunately it wasn't up to Nissan...

 

[krwalsh]

We picked up our Silver Leaf SL last night from Serramonte Nissan. Had to go through paperwork, which is never fun, but got it all set, set up Carwings, Bluetooth for my wife's iPhone and my BlackBerry, and we were off. Drove it home (8 miles), ran an errand (1.5 miles), drove it to a friend's house for a party (34 miles), and then back home (34 miles). 77.5 miles or so, total. Not only that, but it was raining outside, night for most of it, so we had the headlights and wipers on, and had the AC running while we played around with it for quite a while. I know in my other car you see a noticeable difference in mileage in the rain, which is assume is pumping losses from the water on the road. The last few miles were in "turtle" mode, and it stopped 3 feet short when I pulled it into the garage. Way to max it out on the first drive!

We've only driven it once since last night after a full charge overnight. Really impressed with the quiet. We were driving at 35mph and our daughter dropped a book from her car seat in the back and the bang on the floor was pretty loud. In our other car you'd barely hear noises like that.

 

[DaveEV]

The last few miles were in "turtle" mode, and it stopped 3 feet short when I pulled it into the garage. Way to max it out on the first drive!

Heh - you really pushed it! Topping off when you were at home might have been prudent as well as driving a bit slower on the freeway - remember that the EPA range is 73 miles which is fairly representative for highway driving with the HVAC running!

 

[LEAFer]

The last few miles were in "turtle" mode, and it stopped 3 feet short when I pulled it into the garage. Way to max it out on the first drive!

Thanks for your report !

One clarification ... were you really in "Turtle Mode" (the turtle icon showing) for several miles ? Or in "low" or "very low" battery mode ? If the latter ... any idea how close to home the "Turtle" actually lit up ? ( You might not remember with all the excitement and this happening on your first drive ... we would understand )

(Consider making a comment on the recent Barron's article comment section ... just to counter-point that reporter's experience and its uninformed reporting ... )

 

[smkettner]

1. the "trickle charger" is seriously flawed by having too short a cord between the very heavy box and the wall plug. You can't let it hang from the cord - you need to have a shelf next to the plug in order to plug it in. That makes me wonder how I will plug it in most places unless I keep a tripod or a step stool in the car. That's a really silly design flaw.

The J1772-2010 specification requires the plug to be within 12" of the EVSE... Unfortunately it wasn't up to Nissan...

I agree it is lame. Use a short extension cord with #14 or #12 wire.

 

[evnow]

Way to max it out on the first drive!

Wow - hopefully your last turtle as well.

BTW, do you know how much the charging kwh was ?

 

[mxp]

This is kind of funny. I found this sheet in the door pocket when I picked up my Leaf. Note the line at the bottom.

I wonder what is that checklist for? It doesn't make any sense to me.... Is that a pre-ship checklist or post-shipment checklist? It sure ain't a factory release checklist.

The english translation is kinda lost-in-translation. Just doesn't make sense, but definitely interesting to note...

I am curious to see if anyone else on the forum could make any sense of the note.

 

[DaveEV]

I am curious to see if anyone else on the forum could make any sense of the note.

The bars correlate to the charge level seen on the dash when the car is on. The person moving the car is supposed to note the charge level at each of the 4 phases (Production check phase, Japan pre-shipment phase, Port received phase, Port delivery phase). If the car is in a red zone, they need to charge it before moving to the next phase.

 

[garygid]

Shipped from Japan with (maybe) 11 bars showing, received at US Port of Entry with 6 bars showing.

Translate: Do not leave the A/C or any kind of light On, because the SOC will go down (it will discharge the battery).

 

[LEAFer]

Shipped from Japan with (maybe) 11 bars showing, received at US Port of Entry with 6 bars showing.

Mogur would have to confirm ... is the "mark" in the 11 position a "stray mark" or a real "check mark" ? Hard to tell or easily deceptive on the scanned in version ...

 

[krwalsh]

One clarification ... were you really in "Turtle Mode" (the turtle icon showing) for several miles ? Or in "low" or "very low" battery mode ? If the latter ... any idea how close to home the "Turtle" actually lit up ? ( You might not remember with all the excitement and this happening on your first drive ... we would understand )

I know it started to tell me it was low about 10 miles from home. At 8 miles of range left, it showed 6.9 miles to home. Then the range indicator went to solid bars. The turtle was definitely there for the last 2, possibly 4 miles. The biggest issue was that I live on a hill that is a pretty serious climb up from the highway exit ramp. Up that hill I had my foot flat on the floor and the car would only manage about 10 mph.

My big mistake was not plugging the car in when I got home from the dealer before we went out. There was a good hour that it could have charged, and that would have made all the difference. It is all about getting used to the modality of pull in the garage, plug it in.

 

[sproqitman]

My big mistake was not plugging the car in when I got home from the dealer before we went out. There was a good hour that it could have charged, and that would have made all the difference. It is all about getting used to the modality of pull in the garage, plug it in.

We live at the top of a fairly long hill and take advantage of opportunity charging whenever possible. If the car is at home for an hour or two between trips, we plug it in. An hour is usually good for another trip or two down to sea level and back up to the house (800').