New member on a remote island with a 50 kph speed limit and 20 km range

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2017Leaf30

Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2023
Messages
11
New Member from New Zealand.

Yesterday I brought home my first EV, a 2017 fully-loaded 30 kWh leaf with 8 bars and a promised range of 145 km after an overnight charge with the car set to stop charging at 80%. With 65,000 km on it, it looks new. Clearly never parked outside. The degraded battery is not a concern because it still should go a week between charges. By the time it is inadequate, I expect replacement costs will be affordable, and we will keep the old battery as a whole-house battery.

There are 1,200 Leafs on sale in New Zealand right now (almost all imported from Japan), but when my wife wants a light interior and a neutral (white, silver, grey or black) exterior, limited to a 2016-2017 30 kWh, the selection gets much smaller. This one was a dealer trade in where the dealer knew virtually nothing about EV's. So the only way to get the story was to examine the car. NZ$16,800 including English conversion and GPS maps I will never use (Google maps is far superior).

I looked at one, 2016 with 12,000 km and 85% on the battery ($19,500), but the motor showed corrosion spots as if it was near the sea or driven in salt. And it was $3,000 more with only one key and a few dings. Another had questions raised because the odometer was replaced and the private party was selling three Leafs. Many were dealer offer, looking like they had come off lease, showing evidence of having been parked outdoors. They qualified for the $3,450 rebate, but the dealers built that into the price - asking $20-26,000 depending on battery.

I live on the island that dealers say is where Leafs come to die. With a distance of 12 km from the ferry at one end to the last village beach on the other, and a speed limit of 30-50 km/h with lots of hills to recharge the battery, there probably are more Leafs on our island than anywhere else in the country. The first Leaf expert started out here, but now has expanded to the Auckland mainland.

The decision to go EV was not eco-minded. While I am an environmentalist, I view EV's as greenwash. A recent report found Auckland had 74 million tons of microplastics in its air. Car tyres are the second largest generator of microplastics and an EV will not change that. I could not find data on a Leaf, but a Tesla battery requires 230,000 litres of water just to turn raw lithium into a battery, and the electricity required to make a Tesla aluminium body is double the electricity it will use in its lifetime. The only real answer to the environmental impact of cars is to build new towns based on the ancient model of market towns where a local economy is sufficiently large that almost all day-to-day destinations are within walking distance - meaning a critical mass of 10,000 people to support about 250 local job types.

My decision was prompted by COVID. We had fuel shortages because the ferries that deliver fuel suffered staffing problems. When the COVID tax holiday ends on April 1, our petrol (gasoline) will cost about $4 litre (US$10 / gallon) and eventually we can expect a carbon tax on ICE car registration (currently about $100). First thing I will do is shift my power plan to low-cost night charges and next am learning everything about solar panels. The power company will pay more for daytime solar than they charge for night-time use.

But for me it is not about saving money so much as not being impacted by systemic failure. COVID exposed the vulnerability of national and global systems, with shortages and price rises, and remarkably flawed actions and inaction by government. I'm not one to truck in conspiracy theories, and I only act when national and global events start to bite personally. So now, we're becoming more like homesteaders, upping our food growing and moving toward energy independence. We already are water independent with three huge rainwater tanks (15,000 gallons) that will hold us through droughts and a bore (well) with manganese-infused water good for the garden and toilets but not potable.

I'm now selling our 2008 Mercedes B170 that the Leaf replaces. Very similar vehicles, but the EV adventure begins

Here are some pics the dealer sent me of the actual car - impressive photographer






 
Hey mate nice looking car. Looks brand new. And yes you have the perfect situation for a electric car especially a leaf. Plus if you can charge via solar panels you can drive for free! And your steering wheel is on the wrong side lol. For me it costs apx .03 cents a mile for the leaf compared to my Tacoma at .17 cents a mile. Plus I can charge for free at work and at the local nissian dealer. It really is a cheap form of transportation. I'm surprised I don't see more on the road. What is your cost for electric in NZ, for me it's. 085 cents per key.
 
Since your car has a 30kWh battery, be sure to check if the 'BMS firmware update' has been performed. It helps a lot with the accuracy of the battery capacity reporting. You can find details here: https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=32956

I think you're going to love the simplicity and reliability of and EV. It sounds like you live in a perfect location for it.

Good luck with the solar project(s). I put my own grid-tied solar system up on my roof a year ago and it's been great. Everything you need to know is on the web but if you have specific questions, there is a solar sub-forum in the Non-Leaf discussion area and there are plenty of experts here that can answer probably any questions you may have.

Welcome to the forum and don't be a stranger.
 
Steelcity said:
Hey mate nice looking car. Looks brand new. And yes you have the perfect situation for a electric car especially a leaf. Plus if you can charge via solar panels you can drive for free! And your steering wheel is on the wrong side lol. For me it costs apx .03 cents a mile for the leaf compared to my Tacoma at .17 cents a mile. Plus I can charge for free at work and at the local nissian dealer. It really is a cheap form of transportation. I'm surprised I don't see more on the road. What is your cost for electric in NZ, for me it's. 085 cents per key.
My 1982 Mercedes G-Wagon costs US$1 per mile in petrol (gasoline) so it only is driven about 600 miles a year. Petrol is close to $10 per gallon on our island (the highest price in the country).

I will be moving to a plan that will charge NZ0.13 kWh (US$0.084) for night charging and pay $0.17 kWh for solar fed into the grid.
 
goldbrick said:
Since your car has a 30kWh battery, be sure to check if the 'BMS firmware update' has been performed. It helps a lot with the accuracy of the battery capacity reporting. You can find details here: https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=32956

I think you're going to love the simplicity and reliability of and EV. It sounds like you live in a perfect location for it.

Good luck with the solar project(s). I put my own grid-tied solar system up on my roof a year ago and it's been great. Everything you need to know is on the web but if you have specific questions, there is a solar sub-forum in the Non-Leaf discussion area and there are plenty of experts here that can answer probably any questions you may have.

Welcome to the forum and don't be a stranger.
Thanks for the welcome. I rang Nissan and they gave their usual expensive quote for the firmware update. So before I pay the $168 ferry fee to town and another $200 or so for the firmware does it actually do anything other than correct the readout?

If it just is feedback, is that something I need to know if I invest in Leaf Spy Pro?
 
Yikes, I thought the update would be free. As far as I can tell, the only change is the display on the dash is much more accurate. I suppose that could affect other factors as well (charging tapers/when turtle mode engages/etc) but if the car is fine now I wouldn't worry about.

LeafSpyPro can tell you whether the update has been done and it does a lot more too. I'd recommend it and it's only $10 IIRC.
 
That photog is pretty skilled along with a slick studio setup! That 2017 looks like about perfect for your setup there.

Based on some recent reports, it looks like oil, gas and mining companies have done very, very well over so called inflation, which has only accelerated interest in energy independence everywhere...not just in New Zealand. I guess we should thank them? If you are an investor in solar tech, heat pumps etc. you will do well over the next few years.

Post up some pics of your car in it's new setting. It's always nice to see what life on another hemisphere is all about :)
 
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