Is the e-NV200 welcome here?

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woeful

Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2021
Messages
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I'm a new member in these forums, and a new owner of a 2021 Nissan e-NV200 "Combi" (van with extra seats). Is this a fit subject for messages here? It uses the same motor and almost the same power electrics as a 2015 LEAF, with a 40 kWh battery very similar to the later LEAF designs.

The navigation system is past its use-by date, but otherwise my e-NV200 is very good -- at least, that's my impression, although I am biased because I paid good money for it.

- Mark
 
Welcome to the site, Mark. Yes, of course your e-NV200 is welcome here. We have a forum for other EVs, and I'll move the topic there tonight. In the meantime, feel free to ask questions, and to tell us about owning this Leaf-powered van.
 
Sure, but unfortunately, the e-NV200 never made it to the US and this forum is pretty US-centric. There aren't that many active users here from outside the US and Canada.
 
Thank you for the welcome. I'll start with a bit of an overview of the e-NV200 and the ways it is and is not like a Leaf.

First, it has a mich bigger name. Mine is the Nissan "e-NV200 Combi 7-seat Evalia" which is enough of a mouthful to halve the sales of the car on its own. The plain e-NV200 is a small panel van, an empty box with just the two front seats and side-hinged rear doors, rated to carry 705 kg or 1554 pounds, about 3/4 ton. The Combi models have 5 or 7 seats, carpets, trim, windows and a top-hinged huge tailgate, sold as a car rather than a van and with about 100 kg less payload. Originally the NV200 was a diesel vehicle, and the e-NV200 uses the same structure and suspension with a Leaf front-wheel-drive power train. The battery fits under the floor, with its weight low down and neatly between front and back wheels.

Now at the end of its production (next year a completely new model will replace it), the diesel NV200 is no longer available in Britain or the EU. Early e-NV200 (2014) used the same 24 kWh battery as the Leaf. From 2018, the battery has been 40 kWh but the 80 kW motor and power electronics are those of the older Leaf. Since the van shape has the aerodynamics of a haystack, the effective range of my new 40 KWh car is about 120 miles.

There is what looks like a conventional automatic gear shift, unlike the Leaf's. Presumably Nissan wanted a van to have a minimal learning time for a busy driver. P for park, R, N and D all look ordinary. They aren't gears, though, and only P has a mechanical effect; the others are just electrickery. A sideways jog of the lever switches between D and B (for added braking effect such as descending a long or steep hill). A separate button turns on "Eco" mode which decreases power and increases regenerative braking a bit. The instrument panel is less exotic than an old Leaf, with a huge number displayed for a speedometer and bar displays for power and battery level. The Guess-O-Meter range estimate is there, too. The indicated speed is about 8% faster than the real speed (measured with a phone app). My model has CHAdeMO charging and a 6.6 kW on-board AC charger. The battery has a cooler (a loop off the car's air-conditioning) which helps somewhat for fast charging on long journeys. The Leaf Spy app works.

Despite the greater weight and bulk than a little Leaf, the e-NV200 does not feel under-powered. It's quick and of course nearly silent in city traffic. It happily reaches all legal speeds on British roads, but on long journeys there is no point in cruising faster than 60 mph, because the range is so much reduced as to spend more time on fast chargers than saved by going faster between them. Considered as a car, its plastic trim and fittings are not exciting but adequate. Wind noise is very noticeable, probably because the electric drive train is so quiet and possibly because our first long journey was through a seasonal storm. With back row seats folded up or removed completely, and one seat in the second row folded, a full-size bicycle can be wheeled in, upright, and strapped in place in a few seconds. Sliding side doors are good for access to those second-row seats. A reversing camera and big mirrors make it easy to park. The automatic lights and wipers are good, the seats are comfortable although their adjustments are basic, and there are bottle or cup holders all over the place.

There are six brakes, plus regenerative braking from the motor and the transmission lock for gear P. (The back wheels have both disc and drum brakes, the latter for a cable-operated parking brake.) Slowing down and stopping has not yet been a problem.

Our "Evalia" model has a good audio system but waste-of-money satellite navigation. The maps are years out of date, it doesn't support Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, and entering a destination from Google Maps is supposed to work but does not. There are a few other faults which I am still following up with the Nissan dealer who sold the car to me.

Enough for one evening. I'll raise issues or ask questions as and when seem appropriate.

- Mark
 
cwerdna said:
Sure, but unfortunately, the e-NV200 never made it to the US and this forum is pretty US-centric. There aren't that many active users here from outside the US and Canada.

I'll bet that we get some UK drivers, at least. I remember seeing an ad for a full camper conversion on one of these vans, for sale in the UK. It was neat! IIRC, that one was actually 30kwh - maybe that was a one year only version. I would have loved to have had one when I was younger. I had a donated* Econoline van for a few years, with a luxurious but ratty interior. It was like driving a small house, but it carried whatever I needed to carry.


* I used it first to haul cat food and litter for a no-kill shelter in Albany.
 
Thank you for the nice write-up Mark. i thought it was quite interesting that leafspy also works.
 
I really wanted an eNV200 back in the day and while they did quite a bit of testing in the US around 2013 and the post office even considered them for a brief while as did FedEx I believe, sadly they never made it this side of the pond. With the 24kw battery, the range was pretty bad, imaging a battery the size of the original Leaf in as was described as a "haystack" :D I had hoped when Nissan started increasing battery sizes we'd have gotten it here but sadly not. Speaking of battery size, I do wonder why they don't offer the 62kw battery....again considering how non aerodynamic the NV is, it would be an ideal fit to maybe get close to 200 miles range, which would help it's sales.
I drive a 2L gas-powered NV200 and your descriptions down to shift lever sounds just like mine. While it's EPA is I believe 24mpg I'm lucky to get 20, more like a consistent 18MPG if I drive normally, 70+ on our speedways. If a person kept it at 55 or even 60 you might be able to approach EPA but with it's boxy shape, speed really kills efficiency.
OP, there is an official e-nv200 thread here at MNL and while it seems to be pretty dead, you might want to revive it. There also used to be a MYNissan... forum just for the e-NV200 but sadly it seems to be gone, I'm guessing due to inactivity someone didn't want to pay the hosting fees and let it slip away :(
https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=7545&hilit=e+nv200
 
I too wished the eNV200 would have made it to the US in Combi form, ideally with a 62 pack. It would have made a great minivan replacement for many of us in the US. Not amazing, but functional. You see them in different configuration in the UK and Japan on youtube, but sadly not in the states.
 
Thank you, @jjeff , for the link to the "official" e-NV200 thread at https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=7545

Nissan had to trade off range and payload when selecting just the 40 kWh battery. For the cargo-only van they got it about right for its target market. A local friend, a plumber, has an old 24 kWh van model and he needs it more for carrying tools and supplies than for travelling long distances; the later 40 kWh battery is the same weight. Muxsan in the Netherlands offer a neat but expensive custom-made upgrade battery which they call a UBEX - Under Body EXtender. It's heavy enough that its maximum capacity model uses most of a combi's payload, and rather expensive.

My e-NV200 has been on just one long journey so far, a week of holiday/vacation in Ireland. The longest days were about 450 miles (plus 3 to 4 hours on the ferry) across England and Wales and half the length of Ireland. By the time we set off on the return journey, we were used to the procedure of driving not too fast and planning the charge stops every 70 to 80 miles. Apart from that, there's been no day with more than about 90 miles, so have not needed any charging away from home at all.

The battery cooler operates only during charging. The battery doesn't cool down significantly when driving; it seemed that the maximum rapid charge rate dropped from over 40 kW for the first two charges of the day to about 30 kW thereafter (and recovered a bit after a rest on the ferry). That cooler seems to be another Nissan design compromise to make the van more suitable for parcel delivery or taxi services, where it might be used all day with a few breaks for rapid charging. I hope it will also help extend the working life of the battery. It's clear it made our long journeys a bit more time-efficient.

If a higher-capacity battery had been available, and had cost hardly anything more for the upgrade, I would have been better to choose it. But, considering that a fair fraction of the price and weight of the combi is its battery, I doubt the combination of added cost, weight and capacity would have been successful. Nissan's solution to the design issues is to replace the e-NV200 with next year's completely new design, the Townstar, the same vehicle and power train as the Renault Kangoo E-Tech, 44 kWh and 90 kW, slightly more aerodynamic (i.e. the roof is lower).

- Mark
 
I see this is dormant and ready for a refresh, also I haven't posted in here in like , well a long time, just purchased a 2017 Nissan E-NV200 (relocated to Japan for work) and took ownership of a larger battery pack, came with the 24 KW, will be installing the 40KW in a bout a week, have to wait till the lift is available. we have in total owned 3 Leaf's and they were great cars, but maxed the range limit and went to a different maker. now in Japan, this van has been great, and the fast chargers are almost always open.
 
grandizer52 said:
I see this is dormant and ready for a refresh, also I haven't posted in here in like , well a long time, just purchased a 2017 Nissan E-NV200 (relocated to Japan for work) and took ownership of a larger battery pack, came with the 24 KW, will be installing the 40KW
Battery capacity is measured in kWh, not "KW". kW and kWh are totally different metrics.
 
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