Nissan LEAF - General

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#2319148 17-Sep-2019 13:00

TLDR - be careful of the ChargeAmps brand.

Full reply: If by the 'Swedish' ones you mean ChargeAmps, be mindful that a number of NZ Leaf owners, including me, have had problems with these.

The dealer I purchased off reported he'd had to return many of these; he believed it was a problem associated with the changes made to the product once in NZ (not sure what more the importer does other than replace the plug?).

We had the ChargeAmps Ray that, when combined with the suitable external adapter thing, enabled us to charge at both 16A from the caravan socket on the wall of our house, or at 8A from a three-pin plug. After about six months it became increasingly temperamental to the point it wouldn't charge the car.

The dealer wasn't willing to provide a new Ray, based on his history with the model, but did send me two separate cables to cover 8A standard and 16A caravan charging. The 16A one was the OEM Audio model - I recall talking to the guy from the firm (Paul?) at the time, and he said he had plans to have the factory produce a model in which amperage could be altered (like the Ray) - but perhaps nothing ever came of that? (I was supposed to swap out these two cables for one of the new models.)

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#2319167 17-Sep-2019 13:36

From the Petrol thread

Linuxluver:

If you commute less than 70km a day then even the oldest, crustiest Nissan LEAF will be good enough for 90% of your driving...and cost about $10k or less. Use your petrol car for longer trips or busier days. You'll save a huge amount of your usual petrol spend.....and lower your emissions by 90%, too. The old LEAF would pay for itself in 2-3 years. Plus you'll notice how little servicing they need (and save you more).

I said this to my co-worker today; even though I hate the old Nissan Leaf; as I can't afford a new style (2017+), maybe one of the old 2011/12 with a bad SOH but cheap would be a better solution than having to continue to fork out petrol until such a time that I could upgrade to an electric car I actually like...

What are the things to consider when doing this?

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#2319174 17-Sep-2019 13:48

Read this thread from page one to the end.

I say that only slightly in jest, as it's something I did prior to buying a Leaf (though I think it was a few pages shorter when we bought ours). I like to do my research!

Am I right in thinking you were asking questions about Leafs a few weeks/months ago? IIRC my advice was to take one for a test drive so you can actually experience what they're like to drive (this was specifically around the acceleration of them I think). If you haven't already done so, do this!

Anyway, here's some points I noted down for another member who's looking at buying one; note, they're my own personal views, so I'm sure others here will disagree with some (or all) of the following.

While there are some downsides, the biggest regret is we didn’t do it sooner. They’re a great city car, given the acceleration is fantastic up to about 60, but they don’t handle amazingly on the open road (pretty wallowy, and not that fast acceleration at the upper end). Never get sick of the heated seats and steering wheel (also able to be switched on via the timer, so the car is nice and toasty prior to leaving).

Boot space is pretty good, if you ask me – way better than many small cars. A relatively high lip and certainly not a full opening, but fairly capacious.

I’m not sure of how much you’d use the car every day, or whether you’d need it to do (relatively) significant distances in any one trip, so that would affect whether you should get the 30kWh model or whether the ‘standard’ 24 would do you (and I’m assuming you’re looking at the ‘gen 1’ model, not the current model?)

Model - I recommend getting a gen 1.2 – slightly different specs, slightly roomier boot. Good explanations of model differences here -

https://samholford.github.io/leafguide/

Then there’s the three different specs – a key difference is heat pump heater in some, and the fully replaceable stereo in the cheapest spec. You may have seen there’s now the option of having the control unit of the higher-spec models flashed to English – when we got ours the only option was to have the headset swapped (we have a US one, which means some of the buttons don’t line up/work as they should – so switching between audio inputs is frustrating). Many don’t care about controls in Japanese, but I was happy to pay to ensure ease of use (and was happy with that decision). Some also get only the screen above the speedo flashed (used to be the only part that could be) – this is key for the lowest-spec ones, as they use this for setting all controls including timers.

There can be some frustrations with the settings, eg getting clock set to NZT (I think ours is set to Hawaii with then a manual over-ride of x hours, and I change that by an hour for daylight saving); others report big problems with this (again, an issue because of timers for heating/charging).

No spare tyre is something to consider. I’ve gone through the whole consideration of this – can of goo and a compressor? Spare tyre in the boot? – and did SFA in the end. My wife and I both have AA membership, so would use that if necessary. (Noting that they say ensure the car is put on the back of truck rather than being towed.)

Airbags – most only have two, but we have young kids so a full suite was key to us. If it’s important for you, you may need to pay for this as they’re rare (as on most Japanese cars)

Parcel tray – not all come with them, so if important to you ensure one is included (for ours they took it from another car).

Use a reputable dealer who knows their e-cars.

Worry about battery health when you buy it – as many bars as you can, as fewer fast charges (our battery life is worse than my sister’s, despite fewer kms; ours had nearly all fast charges, her basically none) – so get a Leaf Spy report, and ask on GZ if you need any interpretation.

Don’t worry so much about monitoring battery health once you own it – it just adds unnecessary stress. Main thing is to follow basic principles which appear to include not leaving it fully charged for long periods (anything over 80%), doing an occasional full charge (we do this once a week), and some recommend an occasional fast charge (we don’t bother doing this).

Charging at home – we get 85% of our charging done in a free hour of power via Electric Kiwi, and so only pay for an hour or two when doing the weekly full charge (we charge every morning from 6-7, so even if it lifts the charge to over 80% it’s for no more than a couple of hours). Others get EV rates/night rates from providers like Meridian.

Charging cable – worth putting some thought into. Some dodgy sellers will try to provide an adapted version of the original Japanese charger, which is apparently illegal. I went with a ChargeAmps Ray, which is a 16A ‘caravan plug’ unit (hence probably why we can get so much of our charging covered by a single hour each day!); also got a second box that allowed us to connect the same charger to the 8A 3-pin-socket. Crud charger, though, and it was replaced by an NZ-made one that only does 16A; because of that the dealer lent me a second one for 8A charging. It’s worth asking on GZ or on FB for advice on the best cable recommendations as we’ve had our car nearly two years so things will have changed (that NZ brand said they were going to release a unit with switchable settings).

That reminds me – there are a couple of groups on Facebook which are really helpful for prospective/new owners – some guys on there are really knowledgeable and very patient, given they must be answering the same questions one million times.

Commercial charging – not sure what [your location] has in regards to ‘free’ chargers, but assume there are some around; we have them in the local mall (Meridian ones). If you want to keep running costs down do anything to avoid paying for commercial fast chargers, though. They are far from cheap.

Be mindful the speedo is typically out by up to 10 percent – always over-reading the speed. It’s my theory as to a key reason why you see so many Leaf drivers travelling well under the speed limit!

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#2319185 17-Sep-2019 14:09

jonathan18:

Read this thread from page one to the end.

I say that only slightly in jest, as it's something I did prior to buying a Leaf (though I think it was a few pages shorter when we bought ours). I like to do my research!

Am I right in thinking you were asking questions about Leafs a few weeks/months ago? IIRC my advice was to take one for a test drive so you can actually experience what they're like to drive (this was specifically around the acceleration of them I think). If you haven't already done so, do this!

I did wonder who would suggest reading from the first page.
You are correct - a month or so ago I was asking about the 2017 (new shape) Leaf; I have to be realistic however - either I am waiting until I can afford an electric vehicle that I like the look off, that is not a used Japanese import (which could take forever and never happen) or I am jumping to something I may not be happy with (like an old Nissan Leaf with bad SOH) just because it is actually in the price bracket I can afford in the present time.

Yes; I really do need to take one of these cars for a test drive and then I can look at your list.
One of these weekends :-)

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#2319229 17-Sep-2019 15:01

I have had my Leaf for over 2 years now and have driven over 36,000 kms, mostly for the work commute of 70km per day times 5 days a week. Apart from tyres & windscreen wipers I have spent on repairs & maintenance a total of zero dollars. My power costs are around $40 per week less money than petrol would cost if I was driving a fairly economical petrol car, but it might end up being quite a bit more savings if there are more attacks on Saudi oil refineries.

In my opinion a 2nd hand Japanese import Leaf is a good deal in terms of reliablility and low running costs, it should pay itself back over a few years of running. If you want to stop funding OPEC then buying an EV that you can afford is definitely a good idea!

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#2319608 18-Sep-2019 09:48

This guy has fitted a 40kW Leaf battery to a 2011 Leaf and installed a further 20kW of batteries n the boot to produce a Leaf with over 400km range.

He is building a business (in Europe) where he installs range extending batteries in peoples Leaf's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iEJBpOfoI4

BTW +1 the caution on the ChargeAmps Ray EVSE. My one went in the bin. It was a triumph of form over function. It is the iPhone of charging leads, being beautiful, compact and with cool features except unlike the iPhone it became horribly unreliable.

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#2319894 18-Sep-2019 16:56

Just a personal observation but so far I don't believe I've seen any current model [with the redesigned body] Leafs out in the wild, only the previous models. Is it just my neck of the woods or are they fairly rare for now?

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#2319923 18-Sep-2019 17:20

Guilliman: Just a personal observation but so far I don't believe I've seen any current model [with the redesigned body] Leafs out in the wild, only the previous models. Is it just my neck of the woods or are they fairly rare for now?

In August there were 39 "new" leafs registered in NZ, - this excluded used imports. I've seen at least 2 in Wellington.. I would expect more next months.....

-Interesting that most of then were sourced from the UK, as opposed to Japan - but Nissan are a global manufacturer and make leafs in both places..

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#2319924 18-Sep-2019 17:24

About 200 around the country:

https://opendata-nzta.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/motor-vehicle-register-1/data?orderBy=MODEL&where=MODEL%20like%20%27%25leaf%25%27%20AND%20MAKE%20like%20%27%25nissan%25%27%20AND%20VEHICLE_YEAR%20%3E%3D%202018%20AND%20VEHICLE_YEAR%20%3C%3D%202019

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#2319934 18-Sep-2019 17:32

The new body leafs have been for sale at least in Dunedin for several month ?all year. I went to a car yard year earlier this year and they had 3.

I know one person who bought one last month from someone who had it for several months and the chap who runs the Dunedin ev facebook group has had one for a couple of months.

(They are ex uk)

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#2319956 18-Sep-2019 18:23

In Cambridge I was driving by the Nissan dealer the other day when I saw a 40kWh Leaf out front. I didn't stop and buy it, but I did think it was good to see such a thing at a Nissan dealership.

I've actually seen a LOT of EVs around Cambridge - heaps of Teslas, an Ioniq today, Leafs galore, a couple of E-Golfs, a Soul EV, a Zoe and a bunch of e-bikes.

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#2319961 18-Sep-2019 18:31

afe66: The new body leafs have been for sale at least in Dunedin for several month ?all year. I went to a car yard year earlier this year and they had 3.

I know one person who bought one last month from someone who had it for several months and the chap who runs the Dunedin ev facebook group has had one for a couple of months.

(They are ex uk)

Price? 60k here new.

jonathan18

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#2319979 18-Sep-2019 19:55

Around 36 of the gen 2 models on sale on TM (a number of the '17 Leafs are gen 1 but I've not counted those) -

https://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/CategoryAttributeSearchResults.aspx?search=1&electric=1&cid=268&sidebar=1&rsqid=c892ebedf08d499a9c42c0e34a928b69-005&sidebarSearch_keypresses=0&sidebarSearch_suggested=0&14=Nissan&15=Leaf&11=Plug-in+hybrid%2CElectric&minPrice=&maxPrice=&13=0&13=0&24=2017&24=0&309=0&309=0&54=&searchRegion=100

I've not seen many of them around my neck of the woods; the local Nissan dealership had one a few weeks back, and have got another one this week - I'm planning on giving it a test drive, as I'm interested to see how different it is to drive than the gen 1, especially given it's a lot faster off the mark.

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#2320057 19-Sep-2019 07:00

Plenty of them around Auckland. The EV dealer down on Barry's Point Road in Takapuna is selling them. I pulled up to one yesterday afternoon at the Kings Plant Barn Vector charger in Silverdale.

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#2320121 19-Sep-2019 09:30

Guilliman: Just a personal observation but so far I don't believe I've seen any current model [with the redesigned body] Leafs out in the wild, only the previous models. Is it just my neck of the woods or are they fairly rare for now?

I've had one since October 2018 from Mercury Drive's lease program. Ex UK. I love it to bits!

Interestingly it did not come with floor mats (being ex-UK?) and Drive has said "we're sourcing some for you" for the past 9 months. Tempted to just go buy some cheapies from Super Cheap Auto. It did get a little messy in the depths of winter.

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