Nissan LEAF - General

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#1702833 13-Jan-2017 17:45

afe66:
Id love there to be government buy in to electric vehicles but I cant see them wanting to spend any real money.

Unless.....Tewai smelter is closed and the government has to suddenly find a market for all that unused electricity to prevent the share prices of electricity companies that were floated a couple of years ago from tanking and Joe Public getting angry at the government.

On rapid chargers; I've used the Dunedin rapid charger twice in 6 months (first time was out of curiosity) usually charge at night at home. I got a 32A circuit put on the outside of my house.

A.

32amp! You basically have have your own 'pretty-quick' charger. Adding 22-ish% per hour is very useful for topping up over lunch on the weekend.

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#1702835 13-Jan-2017 17:59

Can't wait for these 10kw DC chargers out of china to get some traction, Much easier to dot around the place and still pack a decent punch

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afe66

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#1702838 13-Jan-2017 18:11

Linuxluver:
afe66:
Id love there to be government buy in to electric vehicles but I cant see them wanting to spend any real money.

Unless.....Tewai smelter is closed and the government has to suddenly find a market for all that unused electricity to prevent the share prices of electricity companies that were floated a couple of years ago from tanking and Joe Public getting angry at the government.

On rapid chargers; I've used the Dunedin rapid charger twice in 6 months (first time was out of curiosity) usually charge at night at home. I got a 32A circuit put on the outside of my house.

A.

32amp! You basically have have your own 'pretty-quick' charger. Adding 22-ish% per hour is very useful for topping up over lunch on the weekend.

My ex-uk leaf has the 6.6kW charger in it. For first 6 weeks I charged via normal wall socket while I thought of what I needed to do longer term. I then decided to put a dedicated plug/circuit on side of house and thought I might go for 32A to future proof things.

Currently only drawing 16A via caravan socket but if I decide to get a 7W juice point, the electrian says it will take 30minutes to change the fuses at the board and install juice point on side house to use all that 30A power. 😊😊

Or to power a more powerful EV..

blakamin

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#1702839 13-Jan-2017 18:12

Linuxluver:

wellygary:

Linuxluver: an EV with 400km range, can charge in 15-20 mins and a battery that lasts a decade (and / or can be easily replaced at a reasonable price) is going to kick petrol cars to the kerb.

Only at a ~30-40K NZD price point, if it costs $60K the takeup will be incredibly slow.........

Agreed.

A new government later this year could be a game-changer. A simple policy like: add a tax to petrol / diesel and the sale of petrol / diesel cars that's used to fund a rebate on buying EVs. Even better, ban diesel for non-commercial transport. It's a cancer-causing fuel.

The places that are actually doing something something about climate change, or even just cutting emissions to improve health, are doing these things already.

That's all well and good for people with money...

You guys keep forgetting about the little people.

F'rinstance, I'm buying a house. I'm not going to spend 10k on a car. Ever.

People that have to drive and have a middle income can't afford to blow 30-40k on a car.

So all you're doing is taxing lower income earners out of existence.

That's nice of you.

I'd love to know how many used cars are sold under $10k in NZ every year... I'd guess a lot more than new car owners realise.

Oh, you'd better ban bacon while you're at it... cancer causing food.

MikeB4

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#1702842 13-Jan-2017 18:20

The market is not ready for a Government to start change motivation taxation. I believe we are still at least five years from the car makers and infrastructure being ready.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

Linuxluver

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#1703033 14-Jan-2017 07:16

MikeB4: The market is not ready for a Government to start change motivation taxation. I believe we are still at least five years from the car makers and infrastructure being ready.

It would be part of a policy that required car makers to sell EVs or pay a penalty. The penalty would fund rebates on the purchase of EVs. California does this. It works.

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#1703034 14-Jan-2017 07:16

MikeB4: The market is not ready for a Government to start change motivation taxation. I believe we are still at least five years from the car makers and infrastructure being ready.

It would be part of a policy that required car makers to sell EVs or pay a penalty. The penalty would fund rebates on the purchase of EVs. California does this. It works.

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MikeB4

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#1703038 14-Jan-2017 08:13

Linuxluver:
MikeB4: The market is not ready for a Government to start change motivation taxation. I believe we are still at least five years from the car makers and infrastructure being ready.

It would be part of a policy that required car makers to sell EVs or pay a penalty. The penalty would fund rebates on the purchase of EVs. California does this. It works.

It's still just too soon in NZ. The infrastructure is not in place. Also compared to the US the NZ market place is a rounding error it would be unfair and could push the move towards EV's back. Trying to push people into EV's before we are ready will drive them away

from EV's. Drivers do not want to queue for hours at the few charge stations we have just to plug in. Once we have the infrastructure in place and prices come down, right now we have small cars at medium to large car prices and that just won't sell in NZ in any large numbers

and its unfair to impose penalties on manufacturers when there is market resistance to their product.

Don't get me wrong I love EVs and I will own one but it in our very small market and country make up it is just too soon.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

Linuxluver

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#1703081 14-Jan-2017 10:59

MikeB4:
Linuxluver:
MikeB4: The market is not ready for a Government to start change motivation taxation. I believe we are still at least five years from the car makers and infrastructure being ready.

It would be part of a policy that required car makers to sell EVs or pay a penalty. The penalty would fund rebates on the purchase of EVs. California does this. It works.

It's still just too soon in NZ. The infrastructure is not in place. Also compared to the US the NZ market place is a rounding error it would be unfair and could push the move towards EV's back. Trying to push people into EV's before we are ready will drive them away

from EV's. Drivers do not want to queue for hours at the few charge stations we have just to plug in. Once we have the infrastructure in place and prices come down, right now we have small cars at medium to large car prices and that just won't sell in NZ in any large numbers

and its unfair to impose penalties on manufacturers when there is market resistance to their product.

Don't get me wrong I love EVs and I will own one but it in our very small market and country make up it is just too soon.

All fair points. Let's see where we are in a year. Charge.net's fast charger rollout will be well advanced. We may have a new government that will actually do something about climate and toxic emissions. More car vendors will have EV options on the market here and in RHD markets overseas.

The view from January last year was there were maybe 3 or 5 fast chargers anywhere and almost all in Auckland. Now the are 40-ish covering a big part of the country. There were 1006 EVs, increasing to 2500+ by the end of November when we got the last update. You can now buy a used EV for barely more than $10K while a year ago they were $20k.

Things are moving rapidly.

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Scott3

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#1703349 15-Jan-2017 02:37

Beccara:

Can't wait for these 10kw DC chargers out of china to get some traction, Much easier to dot around the place and still pack a decent punch

10kW DC is too slow to bother with DC in my opinion.

For the sake of avoiding confusion I would like it if all DC charging stayed "fast' i.e. 50kW+....

Cars that can charge at 6.6 - 7.2kW AC are fairly common, so those who value mid speed charging can use all/most the capability of a 30A 240V supply. The added cost of a DC charger just to jump to a still slow 10kW is hard to justify.

Example cars AC ability:

Leaf: 3.3kW / 6.6kW AC depending on option
Iconic: 7.2kW AC
Zoe: 22kW / 44kW AC depending on options
i3 (60Ah) 3.6kW / 7.2Kw depending on options
i3 (94Ah) 11kW ac (NZ new variant restricted to 7.2kW ac due to single phase only charging socket)

Linuxluver

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#1703775 15-Jan-2017 21:06

Driving from Auckland to Whakatane tomorrow.

I'll probably top up in Thames (arrive on about 40% - 15 mins to 90%) and Tauranga (arrive on about 25% - 20 mins to get to 80%) on the way. I'm leaving about 7am. Hopefully I'll be in Whakatane around 1pm. Traffic allowing.

If I lived in Takanini I might consider going all the way to Tauranga - 174km - in my 30kWh LEAF. But I don't....I'm 20km north of there......and 194km on the highway is maybe possible.....but optimistic. I don't like going below 10% if I can avoid it....That's my safety buffer...and the battery is happier if it doesn't get below 10% very often. You can do it. Just don't do it every day.

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#1705903 19-Jan-2017 15:53

I drove to Whakatane this week in my 30kWh LEAF. It was a fun drive, really....on an absolutely stunning day.

I went from Auckland to Thames (106km) and arrived on about 45%. I charged in Thames for 22 minutes to 95%, adding 14kWh.

I stopped for an hour in Puriri for a coffee and a catch up with a mate, then to Tauranga (118km from Thames) to Bayfair Mall. I charged there only to 80% - for just under 19 mins adding 13.6kWh.

Then to Whakatane (81km) and had a look at the new Horizon Networks fast charger at 30 Quay St. The cool thing about this charger is that it also has (Correction from 43) 22kw AC Type 2 charging port. This would allow a car like the Renauly Zoe to charge at 22kw. In my case, my LEAF was able to charge at 6.6kw (30amp). So what? Well at the time there was another LEAF there already using the 50kw CHAdeMo port. Only one car can DC fast charge at a time on these units, but a second car can use the Type 2 at the same time. Nice to have the option. This was also the first time I've been able to use the Type 2 to J1772 cable that came with my UK-sourced LEAF. :-)

It was suggested by the other LEAF driver that I go to Rotorua via the lakes as it's a beautiful drive. It's also about 81km. By this time my battery temperature as 9 bars out of 12. I was thinking the drive to Rotorua would cool it down a bar or so. It didn't quite turn out that way. Just before you get to lake Rotoma you have to go over a hill along a steepish, winding road. For some reason I decided to turn ECO off and hoon up the hill. This was huge fun, but it also heated my battery to 10 bars......instead of cooling it to 8 bars. Oh.......so down by the lake I turned ECO back on and enjoyed the ride.

At Rotorua there was another LEAF at the Haupapa St fast charger. Two busy chargers in a row! A first! So I parked the car, let them know I was waiting, and walked around the block. When i got back 15 mins later they were just leaving. By then my LEAF had cooled down to 9 bars...and I charged to 100% with no issues.

From Rotorua, I had the bright idea to bypass Hamilton completely and go to Te Kauwhata now that there is a fast charger there. It's 153km and there is a big hill in the way.....but but mostly downhill. "Greenrace" (web app) suggested my car could do this at an average 95kph and arrive with 16% battery. Greenrace knows the topography and calculates the energy use (and likely regen). So I went SH5 to Tirau, SH1 to Cambridge and then SH1B to Taupiri.....and then SH1 to te Kauwhata. I arrived on 15%. Good enough. My battery had cooled down to 8 bars....and I only charged to 70% as this would be more than enough to get home from there.

The sole remarkable thing about charging at Te Kauwhata just after dusk is a billion mozzies. Maybe a trillion.

This was my first drive with 5 fast charges in a 30kWh LEAF......and though the battery got warm - not a bad thing - it didn't get too hot (a bad thing).

Here's the route. It was 619km, 5 fast charges (mainly just to add some range, not because I was empty - so about 15-20 minutes each) and the longest leg was 153km from Rotorua to te Kauwhata. The shortest was the 81km from Whakatane to Rotorua.

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Linuxluver

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#1710201 26-Jan-2017 17:25

I use an ODBII dongle with wifi to talk to Leaf Spy Pro (phone app). It both displays data on the phone and logs data from my Nissan LEAF to a csv file.

This is a graph (in Libre Office Calc) of battery energy available on my return drive from Auckland to Opotiki yesterday. You can see the changes as I drove / charged along the way. It's squashed on the left as I was logging every 5 minutes at first, then changed it to every minute. This represents 730km of driving Including local trips in Opotiki.

I can make all sorts of graphs.......it reports heaps. :-)

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Linuxluver

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#1717433 8-Feb-2017 23:16

castigan:

OK Bought me a Gen 1 Leaf today.

Yay!!

12 bar battery, 19000kms on it.

its nice. impressed so far.

questions: (as i got lost in this tread, cant remember if i saw it before or not)

1) is there much benefit to replacing all bulbs with LED ones ? (can the headlight bulbs be replaced also?)

The talk I can see is about the high-beam bulbs...which are halogen?.....and replacing them with LED. This makes them brighter overall. The power saving switching to LED is trivial - 0.05kWh 2 hours of driving.

2) how bad is fast charging for your batteries ?

The battery's enemy is age and the number of cycles (full to empty to full). Nissan have said fast charging may cost 3% across the life of the battery (8-10 years) if you *primarily* (most often / usually) charge via fast charger. How high you charge is probably more relevant. If you can, and it suits your use case, charge - fast or slow - to 80% and go with that. Li-ion batteries last best when charged / discharged in the mid-range. So keep it between 20% and 80% as a general preference. But don't be rigid about it. It's a tendency....not a hard rule. What does hurt batteries is draining them to - say - 5% and then topping them up to 100% (or as high as you can go) and then draining again - over and over..... In other words, try to avoid full cycles and instead add power frequently up to about 80%. Remember your car regens power into the battery as you drive anyway....so it's usually being slightly topped up constantly.

3) is putting a caravan plug on the Jap charger a bad thing ? if i have a regulated 16amp socket at home also then it should be fine yes ?

I've been told there is signalling going on in the unmodified unit that ceases to work if you just cut the plug off and put another one on. Plus the Jap unit is 15amps.....not 16amp. It will get warm and probably will burn out after a week or three. The unit should be modified by an electrician......but Worksafe NZ are of the view that the units are only safe as certified from the factory....and mods aren't 'safe'. That said, a properly modified unit hasn't failed or caused any fires than anyone seems to know of. But the Jap unit does need internal modification for 16amp instead of 15amp. I have used a Jap EVSE (modified internally) with a Blue Commando plug attached...and had no issues. It was supplied by Autolink, who sold me the car. Who sold you the car?

4) i was thinking of changing the factory wheels to lighter aftermarket alloys.... yes/no ? would tyre size affect range ?

Does your LEAF have tyre pressure and temperature sensors? (My 2016 LEAF does) Changing the wheels will probably break that if you have it.

5) Whats the best app for iPhone for finding charging stations ?

Plugshare.

6) i have my iPhone blue toothed to the stereo, can you stream music also ?

I can stream music over mobile data on my Android phone, yeah....but don't lose network coverage. :-)

7) What size are the speakers in the doors ? my front ones sound like crap

No idea.

thanks all !

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gulfa

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#1717477 9-Feb-2017 08:03

Great to see all the help from this group especially Linux Luver Hope you enjoy your car I love mine

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