The official "I got my Leaf" thread

My wife and I road-tripped the Leaf this weekend for a day trip. We completed two fast charges and air temps were in the 40-50 degree range and battery temp never went about 1/2.

I am certain it may be different in the summer, but I don't plan to road trip it that much.

Got my leaf yesterday. A 2018 SL, which is the exact model I had kept my eye out for for a while but they rarely seemed to come up used (which is a good sign I think.) Got a good deal on it, and it’s my first EV.

I love driving it, and this may be a specific gripe about the dealer I bought it from, but I’m going to gripe anyway. I had an awful night and I’m glad I love the car so much because otherwise I would be very upset at the whole thing. Also, I recognize this is mostly my own fault for not pre planning, but if you’re buying your first EV or know someone it is these are good things to make sure they know.

I live about 60 miles from where I bought it, which is fine, the range easily exceeds that. But when they handed it over the range was only about 40 miles. I asked if they could quick charge it and their quick charger was out of service. They had a level 2 charger but it was 8PM and I couldn’t wait a few hours to drive it home. And I had already driven there and back twice (first time there was a nail in the tire so I couldn’t test drive it) and had no interest in doing it a third time. The salesman showed me the button to find a charging station and off I went.

Well, first thing I learned is that button is worthless. I could pretty much tell that just from looking at the place names. I tried one, it was closed, so I moved on. I googled around a bit and found the ChargePoint map. Lots of places nearby (I live near LA so we have good charger accessibility.) Cool. I drive to the first one. It’s in a parking garage which is closed. Another one. Same thing. Another one. Same. My range is dwindling and I know nothing about the area I’m in. My stress level is extremely high.

Finally I see one listed as being at a gas station. Alrighty then, now I know what to look for. I go and notice there is no spot for a credit card. I didn’t know you had to have an app, and the internet at that station was awful, but I get it downloaded and get signed up. I plug it in and use my phone to get it started aaaaand it gives me an error. Something is wrong with the station. I also notice something I hadn’t thought about: this was a level 2 station. I had assumed that a gas station would be level 3, because in what use case is someone leaving their car for several hours at a gas station near nothing to charge? Grocery store, mall, shopping center, sure. Gas station?

So I give up on that one. Even if I get the error cleared I can’t sit there all night, it’s already past 9. I’m pretty damned panicked. Then I figure out how to see the level 3 stations in the ChargePoint app and find one at another gas station a few miles away. My range is 20 miles now.

So I go up to it and am very relieved to see that it seems to be working and it is level 3. I go up to it and try to use my phone the same way I did at the last one, but this is an EVGO station, not a ChargePoint (despite finding it in the ChargePoint app) so it doesn’t work. But there’s a credit card slot! But it doesn’t work unless you are already signed up. So I download and sign up for another app and honestly at this point if I could’ve rewound the day I just wouldn’t have bought the car. That’s where I was with it.

But I get signed up, get it plugged in, and thankfully it finally works. I get charged up and have a great drive home. The cruise and lane control are amazing. The power is better than my gas car had. Just love the car.

So anyway, I should’ve researched more on the mechanics of using an EV. I thought I had done enough, and for my driving it to and from work (my wife has a gas car for any longer trips) trickle charging at home is more than enough. I thought I had time to figure out the charging outside the home. But there’s what I wish I had known:

You’ll need an app to find charging stations
A lot of stations in the ChargePoint app are closed or inside parking garages. I still don’t know if there is a way to filter that.
You have to make sure the station has the level of charging you’re expecting. Don’t assume it’ll be fast charging.
You have to be signed up for the app of the station you’re using, they may not just take a credit card.

The #1 rule you need to take to heart is:

NEVER start a trip without enough charge to make it all the way, unless you have a QC station and two backups for it lined up and known to be working. It's very unfortunate, but that is still the state of public charging in the US. Something else that might have helped: using L-2 for 45 minutes and then driving slowly (~30MPH) would very likely have gotten you home. Anyway, enjoy the car. I drive one like it.

Glad you figured it out in the end, sounds like a crazy frustrating evening. While public charging is probably necessary for some I'm glad it's not for me. I've never had to resort to paid public charging, I charge at home almost exclusively only using public charging for the free charging which is nice and available at several places I frequent. In MN they are hardly used and it also allows me to park closer to the front door although at times I kinda wish it wasn't as while I rarely see other people charging I do occasionally see stations ICE'd(ICE vehicle parking in a charging spot) either from a clueless driver or someone who just doesn't care.
It sounds like if L1 is working for you, you must not drive a lot and good for you but L2 does open up more possibilities such as coming home from an errand with a somewhat low SOC and being able to start another trip only a few hours later. It's nice also for pre"heating" your car but I suppose living in sunny southern CA you don't have to worry about that too much and L1 probably works just fine for pre"cooling" which draws significantly less power than preheating.

Yep, I’ll likely almost never be using public charging. The leaf is to get me to and from work and the store which are just 20ish miles round trip. We have a gas car for long trips.

I believe I have this right, but I could L2 charge with a 240V dryer plug in, right? I have the L2 plug since it came with the car. I was considering doing a minor rearrangement of the garage so I could unplug the dryer and plug this in sometimes, but for my usage case I think that would just be a luxury and L1 is going to be plenty. Preheating/cooling isn’t really a problem since our garage keeps a pretty constant temperature.

Leftie, thanks for the tips. Will keep them in mind for sure.

Congrats on the car and welcome to the club. You will find most of us in this board very much enjoy our Leafs. We have 2 2019 Leafs (S+ and SV+) and even with 3 large kids, have completely dumped our gas cars. You will over the coming months, you and your wife with fight over who has to drive the old car. We tossed our minivan because everyone refused to drive it.

Please post your adventures.

I believe I have this right, but I could L2 charge with a 240V dryer plug in, right? I have the L2 plug since it came with the car. I was considering doing a minor rearrangement of the garage so I could unplug the dryer and plug this in sometimes, but for my usage case I think that would just be a luxury and L1 is going to be plenty.

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Nissan screwed up BIG time when they included a non-adjustable charging cable that provides 27.5 amps at 240 volts. Why? Because most dryer circuits have 30 amp wiring, and the maximum sustained draw allowed on 30 amp wiring is 24 amps. So if you want to use the dryer outlet, you need to get another charging cable or station that pulls - or can be set to pull - no more than 24 amps.

LeftieBiker said:

I believe I have this right, but I could L2 charge with a 240V dryer plug in, right? I have the L2 plug since it came with the car. I was considering doing a minor rearrangement of the garage so I could unplug the dryer and plug this in sometimes, but for my usage case I think that would just be a luxury and L1 is going to be plenty.

Click to expand...

Nissan screwed up BIG time when they included a non-adjustable charging cable that provides 27.5 amps at 240 volts. Why? Because most dryer circuits have 30 amp wiring, and the maximum sustained draw allowed on 30 amp wiring is 24 amps. So if you want to use the dryer outlet, you need to get another charging cable or station that pulls - or can be set to pull - no more than 24 amps.

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Chuy, to put it another way, while your dryer circuit may power your current L2 EVSE if it only has a 30a breaker as the vast majority of dryer circuits do, it would be unsafe to use it for long term charging with the supplied EVSE. For ~$300 and up you could purchase a 24a aftermarket EVSE that would work, one probably with the correct dryer plug you might have or for ~$200 you could purchase a cheap 16a L2 EVSE that would give you more than 3x the charging speed than your current EVSE on 120v but if 120v works for you there isn't any problem using it indefinitely, well as long as your 120v outlet/circuit is in good shape and not powering too many other higher current things when you charge.

Chuy1530 said:

Got my leaf yesterday. A 2018 SL, which is the exact model I had kept my eye out for for a while but they rarely seemed to come up used (which is a good sign I think.) Got a good deal on it, and it’s my first EV.

I love driving it, and this may be a specific gripe about the dealer I bought it from, but I’m going to gripe anyway. I had an awful night and I’m glad I love the car so much because otherwise I would be very upset at the whole thing. Also, I recognize this is mostly my own fault for not pre planning, but if you’re buying your first EV or know someone it is these are good things to make sure they know.

I live about 60 miles from where I bought it, which is fine, the range easily exceeds that. But when they handed it over the range was only about 40 miles. I asked if they could quick charge it and their quick charger was out of service. They had a level 2 charger but it was 8PM and I couldn’t wait a few hours to drive it home. And I had already driven there and back twice (first time there was a nail in the tire so I couldn’t test drive it) and had no interest in doing it a third time. The salesman showed me the button to find a charging station and off I went.

Well, first thing I learned is that button is worthless. I could pretty much tell that just from looking at the place names. I tried one, it was closed, so I moved on. I googled around a bit and found the ChargePoint map. Lots of places nearby (I live near LA so we have good charger accessibility.) Cool. I drive to the first one. It’s in a parking garage which is closed. Another one. Same thing. Another one. Same. My range is dwindling and I know nothing about the area I’m in. My stress level is extremely high.

Finally I see one listed as being at a gas station. Alrighty then, now I know what to look for. I go and notice there is no spot for a credit card. I didn’t know you had to have an app, and the internet at that station was awful, but I get it downloaded and get signed up. I plug it in and use my phone to get it started aaaaand it gives me an error. Something is wrong with the station. I also notice something I hadn’t thought about: this was a level 2 station. I had assumed that a gas station would be level 3, because in what use case is someone leaving their car for several hours at a gas station near nothing to charge? Grocery store, mall, shopping center, sure. Gas station?

So I give up on that one. Even if I get the error cleared I can’t sit there all night, it’s already past 9. I’m pretty damned panicked. Then I figure out how to see the level 3 stations in the ChargePoint app and find one at another gas station a few miles away. My range is 20 miles now.

So I go up to it and am very relieved to see that it seems to be working and it is level 3. I go up to it and try to use my phone the same way I did at the last one, but this is an EVGO station, not a ChargePoint (despite finding it in the ChargePoint app) so it doesn’t work. But there’s a credit card slot! But it doesn’t work unless you are already signed up. So I download and sign up for another app and honestly at this point if I could’ve rewound the day I just wouldn’t have bought the car. That’s where I was with it.

But I get signed up, get it plugged in, and thankfully it finally works. I get charged up and have a great drive home. The cruise and lane control are amazing. The power is better than my gas car had. Just love the car.

So anyway, I should’ve researched more on the mechanics of using an EV. I thought I had done enough, and for my driving it to and from work (my wife has a gas car for any longer trips) trickle charging at home is more than enough. I thought I had time to figure out the charging outside the home. But there’s what I wish I had known:

You’ll need an app to find charging stations
A lot of stations in the ChargePoint app are closed or inside parking garages. I still don’t know if there is a way to filter that.
You have to make sure the station has the level of charging you’re expecting. Don’t assume it’ll be fast charging.
You have to be signed up for the app of the station you’re using, they may not just take a credit card.

Click to expand...

So you made it with a few detours because of your actions and nothing to do with the car.

Looking for stations; get plugshare.com. Its a user supported app so yeah, some users are clueless but because its user supported it does a fair job of self correction. Be familiar with the filters on the app so you hide things you don't want to see to prevent them from hiding things you do want to see.

Apps? Do a survey of providers in your region and download and register for all of them. Include the ones you have no interest in using because you don't know what you don't know.

Your "20 miles left" is completely wrong. Nissan creates a hidden reserve so your 20 miles was probably closer to 30-35 miles.

Can't use Nissan EVSE on the dryer plug. Doesn't match up in plug config or current config.

At 20 miles a day, 120 will be fine but I STRONGLY suggest you start looking at other options. Using the dryer outlet is what I have done since...forever. At my current location, the dryer is in the garage so I have a Y adapter so I don't have to unplug anything. Just dont run both at the same time. Parkworld literally has EVERY type of adapter you could possibly need.

But you will need a matching EVSE that charges at 24 amps. Plenty of options there.

I would also seriously consider LEAF Spy. Its a $20 app that uses a $25 dongle that plugs into your OBD port. Provides a lot of info and abilities (custom door locking, code reading, clearing, etc) and its seriously dirt cheap but it will provide a stress free way to use your pack's capacity.

"I live about 60 miles from where I bought it, which is fine, the range easily exceeds that. But when they handed it over the range was only about 40 miles. I asked if they could quick charge it and their quick charger was out of service. They had a level 2 charger but it was 8PM and I couldn’t wait a few hours to drive it home. And I had already driven there and back twice (first time there was a nail in the tire so I couldn’t test drive it) and had no interest in doing it a third time. The salesman showed me the button to find a charging station and off I went."

Trial by fire !
It will only be much easier here on out.

Lefty gave good advice; below is a little more information when you are calm and in the mood:

'40 miles range' is the car guessing, based on recent driving. You are much better off using the SoC meter to know how many kWh remain. With some experience you will know what miles/kWh to expect in your upcoming drive and then you will be much better informed what the car's range is and how much energy you should add before or en-route.

L2 charging is slow, but so is driving to a faster station. If you are in a comfortable place, grab a coffee and let L2 do its thing if you only need an hour or less of charging. Much less annoying

I definitely blame, in order, myself and the dealer. Not the car at all. But come on dealer, you sell a ton of leafs (they never once tried to push me to take a gas car, just newer leafs, which they had a lot of,) have a working charger.

Whoever said my wife would be trying to steal my car is right. She’s already commandeered it twice. I suddenly have the feeling we now have an “our” car and a “her” car haha. But I’ll be driving the Leaf to work which is 80% of my driving anyway.

I showed the car off to her grandparents today. They don’t get the appeal of an EV at all but both liked how it drove. “It doesn’t look weird” was the review from her grandfather which is about the nicest thing he’s ever said about an EV.

I did not expect to use the e-pedal, but after trying it out I may love it. The fact that it uses the brakes less is very appealing to me. Overall I just love driving this car, and I’ve never thought that about another car. I’m 32 and it’s only the third car I’ve ever had, and the last two were pretty much beaters by the time I got them. I was hesitant to pay up for a nicer car (yes, for me this was paying up, I’m cheap when it comes to cars) but I’m not regretting it at all.

Unfortunate to hear I can’t just use the dryer plug. For now at least the 120 is proving to be plenty, but I’ll look in to EVSEs a little down the road.

Unfortunate to hear I can’t just use the dryer plug.

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You can. You just need to buy a Level 2 charging station or cable that draws no more than 24 amps. Order it with the correct plug installed and you can open the package, take it out, plug it in (after unplugging the dryer) and start charging your car with it. Clipper Creek has a couple of no frills units with 3 year warranties for about $400, and there are Chinese units for about half that. If you can afford it, I suggest Clipper Creek. They name the stations by the amperage of the circuit they can use, instead of their output, so just get one with the "16" "20" "25" or "30" designation. The actual charging output is 80% of the number in the name, so for maximum charge rate you'd want an HCS 30 or LCS 30 with 24 amp charging rates.

Chuy1530 said:

Whoever said my wife would be trying to steal my car is right. She’s already commandeered it twice. I suddenly have the feeling we now have an “our” car and a “her” car haha. But I’ll be driving the Leaf to work which is 80% of my driving anyway.

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Simple solution, buy another EV (a used leaf is really cheap now if your driving needs fit). When I had my first leaf back in 2013, I was thinking up of all sorts of ways to get rid of all my gas cars and live with 2 leaf's (involved renting a car for the 2-4 times a year that I'd road trip).

LeftieBiker said:

Unfortunate to hear I can’t just use the dryer plug.

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You can. You just need to buy a Level 2 charging station or cable that draws no more than 24 amps. Order it with the correct plug installed and you can open the package, take it out, plug it in (after unplugging the dryer) and start charging your car with it. Clipper Creek has a couple of no frills units with 3 year warranties for about $400, and there are Chinese units for about half that. If you can afford it, I suggest Clipper Creek. They name the stations by the amperage of the circuit they can use, instead of their output, so just get one with the "16" "20" "25" or "30" designation. The actual charging output is 80% of the number in the name, so for maximum charge rate you'd want an HCS 30 or LCS 30 with 24 amp charging rates.

Click to expand...

Easier way is get a Y adapter that you plug EVSE and dryer into. No unplugging needed. Just remember you can't run both at the same time. Shouldn't be tough as I only charge either overnight or first thing in the morning; neither is a time the dryer would be in use

I don't have a problem with doing that, but I'm reluctant to advise newbies to violate the NEC. A Dryer Buddy would also work, at some expense.

After some further digging I’ve found a few things. One, my dryer plugs into a normal 120 plug. There is a different plug in the garage from an old dryer but it’s a 10-30.

I’m also a little suspicious that the circuit that that outlet was on may have been cannibalized for our air conditioning. My wife’s uncle does some electrical work and has a multimeter so I’m going to borrow that and see. If it is still on the 30A circuit I looked around and found some cords that I think will work for that type of plug. If not then I probably won’t bother for a while; the trickle charging is keeping me more than good.

Chuy1530 said:

After some further digging I’ve found a few things. One, my dryer plugs into a normal 120 plug. There is a different plug in the garage from an old dryer but it’s a 10-30.

I’m also a little suspicious that the circuit that that outlet was on may have been cannibalized for our air conditioning. My wife’s uncle does some electrical work and has a multimeter so I’m going to borrow that and see. If it is still on the 30A circuit I looked around and found some cords that I think will work for that type of plug. If not then I probably won’t bother for a while; the trickle charging is keeping me more than good.

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so you have a gas dryer? Well, that complicates things a bit...

as far as "cannibalizing" the circuit? Not easily done but possible. The electrical dryer circuit will be connected to double breakers so a rather easy tell. 120 volt is "normally" a single breaker although it s possible to grab 120 from a double although HIGHLY not recommended.

240 volt AC is the norm as its more efficient than the 120 volt version

as far as adapter to cover the 10-30 Parkworld is a good place. I had 10-30 on my EVSE because that is what my house had. I moved to a newer (MUCH newer) place and just got an adapter to fit. Works fine

www.parkworld.us

The dryer is electric but it plugs into a normal 120V plug.

There are two 30A breakers in the breaker box. I suppose I could flip them and see if it turns off my AC... But the best way for me to know for sure is going to be to go borrow the multimeter.

The good news is I’m having to leave my car unplugged some days just to keep it from getting fully charged since I like to use the e-pedal and regenerative breaking.

Chuy1530 said:

The dryer is electric but it plugs into a normal 120V plug.

There are two 30A breakers in the breaker box. I suppose I could flip them and see if it turns off my AC... But the best way for me to know for sure is going to be to go borrow the multimeter.

The good news is I’m having to leave my car unplugged some days just to keep it from getting fully charged since I like to use the e-pedal and regenerative breaking.

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interesting. Last time I saw one of those was in a college dorm room. Have never seen one in a house before.

DaveinOlyWA said:

Chuy1530 said:

The dryer is electric but it plugs into a normal 120V plug.

There are two 30A breakers in the breaker box. I suppose I could flip them and see if it turns off my AC... But the best way for me to know for sure is going to be to go borrow the multimeter.

The good news is I’m having to leave my car unplugged some days just to keep it from getting fully charged since I like to use the e-pedal and regenerative breaking.

Click to expand...

interesting. Last time I saw one of those was in a college dorm room. Have never seen one in a house before.

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Yes a 120v electric dryer would take FOREVER to dry anything. Subtracting the motor to spin the clothes would leave you with what, 1200w? left to heat the clothes, less than a modern hairdryer
OP, truthfully the best way to see what's what is to do as you thought, flip the breakers and see what goes off, while you could use a VOM the true test is to see what goes off. There isn't anyway your electric dryer could have a 240v part and then a separate plug for 120v that feeds everything other than the dryer heating element? I've never heard of that but then I've never seen a 120v electric dryer, sounds like Dave may have though.