Nissan LEAF - General

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#1575859 17-Jun-2016 16:25

First intercity trip in the LEAF today.

I drove to Hamilton this morning. Didn't do anything special. Out of respect for my battery, I tended to keep the speed at the speed limit and not accelerate rapidly. I arrived in Te Rapa on 24%. This is significant because I was past the point of no return. I *had* to charge up in Hamilton in order to get home.

I went around to the WEL office in Te Rapa. They have the only rapid charger in Hamilton. They have one parking spot for electric cars. Next to it is visitor parking. The WEL Nissan LEAF was already parked in the electric car spot and the CHAdeMO charger was connected to it. Fortunately, the next park was empty. The stand has 3 chargers. The other two chargers (CSS/SAE and Tesla-compatible) were of no use to me.

Fortunately, the other LEAF had finished charging.

I disconnected it and plugged in my own car. Thirty-five minutes later I had a 97% charge. I went and did my business in Hamilton and then drove back to Auckland. I noted going up the steep side of the Bombay Hill ate about 5% of my battery....though I did put my foot down and zoom out of a clot of traffic. The LEAF can really GO when you ask it - and don't mind eating the battery a bit. Of course, coming down the other side the regenerative function gives some of that power back.

This time, I went up to the charge.net.nz rapid charger at the Z station in Botany Downs (at Guys Rd and Te Irirangi Dr). I had received my charge.net.nz fob ($1 each - order form their web site) via courier this morning. I plugged in my LEAF and tapped the fob on the tap-the-fob-here spot....and the car began charging....and I went to Burger King for a late lunch. Thirty mins later the LEAF was at 95% and the charger shut itself off. I'd had a wee break and bite to eat.

So going longer distances is perfectly fine and do-able provided there is a rapid charger around. We need more of those. There are only a handful in Auckland.

Off to Thames (108km) on Monday.

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gzt

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#1575861 17-Jun-2016 16:27

Brave man! What was the plan b? : )

Linuxluver

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#1575863 17-Jun-2016 16:30

gzt: Brave man! What was the plan b? : )

Find a slower charger and go back later after supper. :-)

There are a few J1772 charging points in the Tron....and they would take 3-4 hours to get me enough juice to get home.

The plugshare.com app is worth its weight in gold.

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Linuxluver

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#1575911 17-Jun-2016 16:53

bfginger:

Bridges has previously said the government won't be subsidising EV car sales. Taking measures probably means things like clearing the way for kerbside charging ports for people without off-street parking.

I'd guess this sums up the government's thinking on electric cars as Hosking channels John Key's opinion on everything
https://www.facebook.com/MikeHoskingBreakfast/videos/1108422875857939/

There is too much taxation to miss out from for the exclusion from RUCs to keep being extended. Is it true you have to pay an extra $100 per year ACC levy to register EVs compared with petrol cars?

Why not a second hand Prius or Mirage? They're cheaper to buy and cheaper to run than a Leaf + RUC and have better range.
The i-Miev is much cheaper second hand than the Leaf although its range is a bit lower. In future years' models Nissan should extend the Leaf's range.

One advantage of an EV is it isn't going to be hit by anther oil shock.

I've read "This Changes Everything" by Naomi Klein. To me, I couldn't keep pretending that what I do has no effect on climate change. It does. What we all do does. individually tiny and relatively insignificant, but collectively very significant indeed.

Everyone who drives fast and burns more fuel than the law allows is making climate change worse.

Everyone who buys a bigger car than they need makes climate change worse.

It's obvious in this discussion almost no one sees any connection between their own vehicle choices, and vehicle usage choices. I think that needs to change if we are to avoid more than 2C degrees of warming (and we have already reached 1.5C degrees).

So why not a cheaper small car or a hybrid? That's why. OK, it took fossil fuels to make the LEAF.....but it doesn't take any to run it. I'm not slagging anyone who make different choices. But I suppose I am making explicit a factor in that choice that mattered to me.

More generally...this government is utterly, hopelessly clueless on climate change. It's one of many reasons I can't consider voting for them and hope no one else sees any value in it either.

Who else would be better? At this stage, almost anyone other than ACT.

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surfisup1000

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#1578681 22-Jun-2016 21:52

The next generation model leaf has been announced, and it has a far more useful range of 320km. . .

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/230550-next-nissan-leaf-ev-will-hit-200-miles-just-like-chevy-bolt-tesla-model-3

Linuxluver

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#1578704 22-Jun-2016 22:48

surfisup1000:

The next generation model leaf has been announced, and it has a far more useful range of 320km. . .

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/230550-next-nissan-leaf-ev-will-hit-200-miles-just-like-chevy-bolt-tesla-model-3

I'll definitely be looking at all the EV options in 2-3 years time.

But for now, I wanted to stop burning any more fossil fuels through MY driving.

It's becoming very obvious that climate change has moved onto a steeper trajectory....and I'm not so sure it going to wait around until we all decide the alternatives to business as usual are good enough to justify doing something different.

We're all frogs in the pot at the moment.....and I bought my EV to at least let me feel a wee bit like I have a foot on the ladder out of the pot....though clearly, if most people do nothing I'll 'boil' along with the rest of you no matter what I do.

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Scott3

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#1578705 22-Jun-2016 22:50

surfisup1000:

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/230550-next-nissan-leaf-ev-will-hit-200-miles-just-like-chevy-bolt-tesla-model-3

The photos in the articular are of the Nissan IDS concept. Looks really nice, but I doubt it will get released looking like that (I guess if they use that, Nissan will have to change the shape to get more interior space)

Only information released at this time that the Next Gen Leaf will have a 60kWh battery option. Nissan representative said that he couldn't say when it would be released.

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afe66

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#1578707 22-Jun-2016 22:53

The longer range sounds interesting but for nz most of our Leafs are from overseas which have benefited from tax rebates to push down the second hand prices so is probably a few years away for us.

I'm looking at one for second family car round town and I won't do 100km in a day so the current shorter range leafs would be still be practical.

If we get enough practical recharge stations between cities then the longer range leads tesla 3 might be useful.

A.

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#1578709 22-Jun-2016 23:01

afe66: The longer range sounds interesting but for nz most of our Leafs are from overseas which have benefited from tax rebates to push down the second hand prices so is probably a few years away for us.

I'm looking at one for second family car round town and I won't do 100km in a day so the current shorter range leafs would be still be practical.

If we get enough practical recharge stations between cities then the longer range leads tesla 3 might be useful.

A.

Changing the government might see some movement on the commitment to actually do something about promoting vehicles that don't burn fossil fuels.

Norway won't selling non-EVs - at all - after 2025. That's the sort of commitment we need here. More importantly, India is moving to the same policy setting.

We won't get it from this government. We need a new one.

Electric vehicles at a reasonable price with longer range will be a by-product of requiring that vehicles meet those specs.

This is just the beginning. If several big countries embrace a move to EVs, we will be awash in them.

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Linuxluver

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#1582357 28-Jun-2016 21:11

I've been driving my LEAF for 2 and half weeks. I've been to Hamilton and Thames with minimal drama. I can see how I can get around fairly easily and quickly on the existing network of fast chargers from Hamilton to Kawakawa. That's a lot of ground to cover if I want to right now. I do not feel constrained by range....which was always the tug at the back of mind. Last time I drove to Wellington was 7 years ago. By the time I do it again there will be a network of fast chargers every 80km up and down SH1. We only need 6 more to thread that needle.

I'd read about driving EVs and how great it feels.....so I bought mine without even taking a test drive.

Wow.

It is so smooth. So quiet. You put you foot down and there is minimal noise. No primal internal combustion engine roar. No ka-chunk ka-chunk as the gears are changed (manually or automatically).

When you put your foot down it just goes faster and faster and faster in a straight, smooth progression that can push you well back in the seat - more so if you turn the regeneration function off (briefly - heh) when you plan to plant boot.

When the light turns green, you're gone....and the other cars with "pretty please" automatic transmissions are ka-chunking their way up through the gears watching you disappear up ahead. Of course once you reach the speed limit, you lift your foot and turn the eco mode back on. :-) Job done.

Around town, I'm not worried about using the heat or the aircon. I'm not going to go far enough to worry. On Sunday morning, we drove from Greenlane to Ararimu and back with the heater on - set to 20C - and got home with 38% battery / 57km left. A few hours (3-ish?) of charging and we were ready to do it again after 2pm-ish, if we wanted....but no need. If we had been in a hurry to do some distance again there is a fast charger near my house and I can be at 80% in 20 minutes. But we'd already done our thing. The drive to Ararimu and back (83km) cost me about $2.86 worth (13KW at $0.22/Kw) of electricity at home. The LEAF is really, *REALLY* cheap to run.

I'm over the Moon with the thing. No emissions (the main reason to buy it) and it's the best driving vehicle I've had in ages. I'm looking forward to driving it to Wellington in the near future when the charge.net.nz (or someone else's) fast chargers are up and running. Not because I have a reason to go.....but because the drive itself will be awesome. :-)

I never was a petrol head.......but I'm at serious risk becoming a battery head.

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Linuxluver

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#1592046 13-Jul-2016 15:43

I was trying to work out what tyre pressure is best for my LEAF.

The manual says 36 PSI.

I checked mine and they were all inflated to 28 PSI from the vendor. I hadn't checked them before.

I inflated them to 44 PSI (suggested by some as best for optimal range) which might be OK as the tyres are maxed at 51 PSI.

But it drove like a wooden-wheeled farm cart after that, so I dropped it back to 36 PSI as per the manual.......smoothness restored (mostly)....and hopefully a small dividend in range.

I have to say after 5 weeks of driving the LEAF that range hasn't been an issue unless I want to drive to Taupo....and I don't want to drive to Taupo.

Most days, my usual driving wouldn't see me use 10% of the battery.....never mind anything like run flat.

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Linuxluver

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#1592053 13-Jul-2016 15:56

I drove my LEAF to Whangarei and back on Sunday. The weather was shocking up that way, but the trip went smoothly.

From my home in Greenlane, I got to Kaiwaka on 26% (including a detour through Unsworth Heights to pick up a mate).

I charged up to 85% in 20 minutes at the charge.net.nz fast charger at Jaques Four Square, then carried on to Whangarei.

I arrived there (after the Bryndrwyns) on about 35%. Whangarei has some public fast chargers (paid at Paramount Shopping Centre, and free at Northpower's sub-station....but you need to have arranged a card for access to the latter).

After the event i went there for, we charged up to 90% and headed back to Kaiwaka....where we topped up to 80% in 19 mins...and then to Silverdale for a 15 min charge at Kings Plant Barn so I would arrive home on about 50%.

The point of all that was that a day trip to Whangarei from Auckland in my LEAF was easy and simple and no problems.....and cost a LOT less than had I burned petrol to do it.

I'm looking forward to the charge.net.nz fast charger going into Thames this month so Tauranga becomes part of the "easy day trip" EV network.

(My LEAF charging in Kaiwaka)

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ubergeeknz

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#1592070 13-Jul-2016 16:17

If I'm reading this right you stopped 4 times and spent (at least) 75 minutes charging - for a four hour drive - to finish at 50% battery?

I'm glad you enjoyed it - but I'm afraid that would drive me barmy!

Linuxluver

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#1592097 13-Jul-2016 16:58

ubergeeknz:

If I'm reading this right you stopped 4 times and spent (at least) 75 minutes charging - for a four hour drive - to finish at 50% battery?

I'm glad you enjoyed it - but I'm afraid that would drive me barmy!

I stop a lot anyway.....so it didn't matter.

But I didn't really need to stop on the way back after Kaiwaka.

If you want to see it another way: charged once on the way up and once on the way back. Plus once before leaving Whangarei.

So the "interruptions" were 20 mins each way on a 2 hour drive (each way)...and I do that anyway.

Plus it was super cheap and I produced zero CO2....other than by breathing.

For me, that last point makes it worth the slight inconvenience. Climate change isn't waiting until we find it effortless to do anything about it. Pompeii is a great example of people assuming it would be OK do something later.

It's understandable there is no sense of urgency in NZ about this. The government has always been climate deniers paying lip service to pressure from Obama....and the media here are largely in the same camp, failing utterly to communicate any sense of urgency toward any action to do anything about it.

That's probably why I'm posting stuff like this.....so that as people turn on to the idea they need to take some kind of action themselves, these posts will be useful in helping to work out what actions to take and how to proceed along a given path.....in this case, life with a zero emissions vehicle.

It's really much of a hardship. The coffee in Kaiwaka is good enough by itself to justify the stop. :-)

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dwl

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#1592211 13-Jul-2016 19:07

I have had a Leaf for 6 months and done 12,000 km. Nearly all my charging is overnight so the time taken is literally a few seconds to plug in and out. Over that same period I would have been to the petrol station around 25 times with several hours total time consumed.

The example above of a longer trip shows it can be done but it isn't the sweet spot for current cars like the Leaf - they are really good for commuting within their range per day.

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