Moving Leaf from Europe to USA

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mary1795

New member
Joined
May 22, 2021
Messages
3
Hello, new here, I have been searching threads but am not finding answer so would appreciate your advice. We have a Leaf purchased in Europe with 2 charging ports - IEC Type 2 (which we always use) and chademo. If we move this Leaf to the US, and purchase an adapter of some kind, will we have any trouble charging it there at public stations and/or at home? I don't want to be reliant only on chademo, and I definitely don't want to ship our car only to find out it will not work over there! Thank you very much for any help!
 
mary1795 said:
Hello, new here, I have been searching threads but am not finding answer so would appreciate your advice. We have a Leaf purchased in Europe with 2 charging ports - IEC Type 2 (which we always use) and chademo. If we move this Leaf to the US, and purchase an adapter of some kind, will we have any trouble charging it there at public stations and/or at home? I don't want to be reliant only on chademo, and I definitely don't want to ship our car only to find out it will not work over there! Thank you very much for any help!
This might solve the problem for L2 240V and L1 120V in the US. Public charging is almost all J1772, mostly L2. I've never used one of these, but I've bought other things from this company in the past.

https://www.evseadapters.com/products/us-european-type-1-j1772-to-type-2-iec-mennekes-ev-adapter/
 
Thank you very much for the link! Yes, that adapter looks like it would work. I was less sure about the current - and want to make sure I won't be starting any fires or wrecking my battery if we get set up to charge at our new home in the US (I'll definitely have to do that as where we will live there aren't a lot of public stations, unfortunately. Very different from Europe!)
 
Yes, of course you'll need an adapter if you have a Mennekes Type 2 inlet. There's no Mennekes Type 2 charging in the US and nobody sells such EVSEs for use here.

Are you sure you want to bring it? You might run into complications importing it (Google for site:.gov importing vehicle), getting it registered and may need to make modifications. And, you may have to pay import duties.

If still under warranty, I'd ping some Nissan dealers or Nissan North America (https://www.nissanusa.com/contact-us.html) about the warranty and recall work and how that'd work. AGES ago, when I lived in WA state, I considered buying a Nissan Maxima from Canada and importing it into the US due to the favorable exchange rate and pricing. I called around and besides the car being in km and C, I was told I'd have to pay for warranty work out of pocket and file to get reimbursed each time so I nixed that idea. I don't know if you could even do that for a car from Europe.

You might be best off selling it and buy a new/used one in the US. It's not like Leafs have great resale value anyway.
 
Agree with many of the comments so far; would a local Nissan dealer honor a non-US warranty, unlikely - would the US EPA allow a non-US certified Leaf legally into the US; perhaps paying a tariff but how much, may actually need the car to be modified by a shop -- have seen this for some models not made here; not cheap. US charging infrastructure wouldn't support it other than chademo and lastly just how much would it cost to ship it (unless you have some kind of free shipping already set up)? Some ship US-made Tesla's overseas only to find that their warranty is no longer valid and its difficult to charge (Tesla sells a chademo adapter that will work) but unless its a cheap salvage car, etc. its just not worth it. Best bet is to simply sell it and take the proceeds to buy one in the US when you arrive. The EPA has a pass for foreign-origin cars after 25 model years but the Leaf isn't old enough yet ...
 
cwerdna said:
AGES ago, when I lived in WA state, I considered buying a Nissan Maxima from Canada and importing it into the US due to the favorable exchange rate and pricing.

I lived in Canada for a while, a long time ago, and had to go to Washington State for warranty work. There was some modification needed to the car, mostly flipping a switch that said USA/Canada giving daylight headlights. I could either do it and pay a few hundred for inspection or pay a few hundred for someone to flip the switch. Some cars require fairly extensive modification...
 
Thanks everyone, I really appreciate it. Relocation costs are covered by employer and there are apparently no import duties for US citizens returning to US (my case), but yes, charging compatibility and adjustments required to the vehicle are the two major concerns. It does seem like on balance, might not be worth it. We are trying to avoid the cash outlay of having to buy a new car on top of everything else. Was hoping for some success stories from fellow transplants! :)
 
mary1795 said:
Thank you very much for the link! Yes, that adapter looks like it would work. I was less sure about the current - and want to make sure I won't be starting any fires or wrecking my battery if we get set up to charge at our new home in the US (I'll definitely have to do that as where we will live there aren't a lot of public stations, unfortunately. Very different from Europe!)

That linked adapter is rated for 32a, the max our Leafs will draw is 27.5a @ 240v so you should be good. I would assume? the adapter won't let the car draw more than the connected EVSE advertises to it, like it does for a regular J1772 car. In other words if you hook up a 16a EVSE to the adapter you want to make sure the car won't pull more than 16a, I'm sure this adapter would have do this, otherwise as you said it would be a potential fire hazard.
 
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