Wow, I cant recall a single person who hasn't asked me this and I cant recall ever giving anything more than a ballpark. This spreadsheet is long overdue and took me a long time to make (Excel is NOT like riding a bicycle, only a year and I had forgotten how to build in formulas and what not). All the values vary off of the Cost of Gas, Cost of Electricity, Annual Km fields so you can use it so simulate any scenario (eg when we are paying UK gas prices). You can also compare any other vehicle by changing the fields in grey such as Maintinence Cost per Km, L/100Km and for EREV's Km/kWh which is by default set to blend 50/50 with gas usage. Fire me an email at gsylte@regencyauto.com and I can send you the Excel version of it. All of the maintenance costs are pulled from yahoo autos "first 5 years of ownership" averaged out at 20k/year and converted into per-km. For the leaf I got a quote directly from our service department.
Bear in mind the Leaf blows ALL of these cars away both in ride quality and amount of features. Interesting highlights include break even with a Honda Civic around 4 years, first year against Prius, and the only two plug ins (Prius and Volt) being of absolutely no competition whatsoever to the Leaf.
No special concerns lifting the vehicle, find hard points in the frame like
anything else, as long as you are not pinching a wire or lifting from the
battery pack. Here is a picture of a Leaf in our shop while our tech practices swapping out its modular components.
As you see the Leaf is lifted via the outer
unibody frame like any other vehicle. Under that skid plate at the back is the battery pack. The armored shell
around it is built to withstand a highway collision and actually gives the
frame of the leaf the majority of its rigidity. So in theory it looks like you probably could
lift or brace it from the battery pack but at the same time let’s not try it. The one thing of note is that the all season tires currently on the Leaf are specialty “Economy”
tires targeted at taking rolling resistance out of the equation. Winter tires
are the polar opposite as their main trait is a softer "stickier" compound so at below zero temperatures it wont be rock solid. Depending on the specific tire this will affect your range
accordingly just like with a gasoline vehicle. Just be ready for this and closely monitor the impact on your
range and Km/kWh. After three days of use the “Guess-O-Meter” will more
accurately reflect the real world range with them installed. Only other
thoughts on that note are to put off installing the winter tires until the
average temperature is around 8-10 degrees when their compound won’t be as
“sticky”. This will both prolong the life of the tires and not waste range as running tires above their recommended temperature will have a similar effect to having them severelyunder-inflated.
First off 12 Gauge should be adequate up to 50ft and 14 up
to 15ft. Now in reality there are a few more factors at work here compared to
your average appliance. In my honest opinion no have no impact on performance
and no risk of malfunction I would recommend 14 Gauge at 10-15ft, 12 Gauge at
30ft and 10 Gauge at 50-75ft. This also gives you wiggle room as the copper
oxidises and in-line impedance increases. Package amperage ratings are very
inconsistent so you should base your choice only off of gauge and length.
Here are my recommendations:
16ft/14g - $24 – This will get the job done but may run into
challenges 3-5years down the road due to oxidization and wear
25ft/12g - $40 – More so I would recommend something like
this, you will unlikely be affected by oxidization and wear and I am 99%
certain the speed charging with this will be identical to plugging the stock
charger directly into the wall. Also of note it is a bright yellow color which
if you are in a public place will ensure visibility so nobody is tripping over
it and what not.
At the end of the day the bigger the better. It would also
be good practice to check the temperature of the extension cord and its
connections at 5min, 30min, 1hour, 2hour and 4hour intervals the first time in
case there are manufacturer defects in the cord generating excessive impedance.
The biggest benefit of a suitable extension cable is actually the ability to charge in a completely public place with no risk of your charger being stolen. Take a look at the pictures below for how to properly secure your level 1 charger:
Likely one of the coolest applications of the Nissan Leaf to date, a US based company has started turning Leafs into limousines! One more knock-out blow towards thinking EVs are limited in their application! Take a look at the company manufacturing the Limos website for more details!
It is reassuring to see a manufacturer so committed to the transition to electric vehicles given how well the previous attempt went. Infiniti already has a rolling concept for their new LE full electric. The show concept does not yet directly represent the production model which is expected to hit the assembly line for 2014. As with any concept it looks excessively sci-fi at this point however there are a few details which are very likely going to be carried directly over to the production model such as the new dash.
It also displays some of the technology that most EV owners can look forward to in the future. Luxury brands have always been giving us foresight into the technology that a few years later we reach for in just about every car on the road. Pair that with Nissan/Infiniti's industry leading position on electric vehicles and you have a recipe for some exciting advances. One of the most interesting ones being Wireless Inductive Charging. Take a look for yourself and see!
You have to love how Nissan has a habit of putting a sinister spin on the most innocent vehicles. The most recent example being The Juke-R By RML. The Carbon-Fiber-Happy Racing Leaf by Nismo Offers a 2,068lb curb weight which paired with the stock leaf 80Kw AC Synchronous Motor gives a 0-100Kmh of 6.85 Seconds instead of the factory 7.9 seconds. The other interesting modification is movement of the motor to achieve a RWD drive train. The vehicle is built with the dual intention of helping Nissan learn how to improve the drag coefficient of future vehicles and joining Fisker and Tesla in the coup de grace of the concept that electric vehicles are slow, limited, boring, glorified golf cart with power windows. By the way I love how easy it is to not mention names and imply something about the competition when there's only one other brand with an electric vehicle on the market.
First of all I would like to welcome everyone to the site. It is my intention to create an online community specifically for Nissan Leaf Owners in the Greater Vancouver area. My name is Garth and I'm an Electric Vehicle Specialist at Regency Infiniti Nissan in North Vancouver. Many people on here will know me because I sold you your Leaf (no hard feelings if not).
After finishing the Nissan Leaf Certification course put on by Nissan Canada I realized that there is more to the car than any course can teach. Having learned more from talking to owners over a charge at the dealership than anywhere else I think it is really important for Leaf owners to have a place to share their knowledge and experience. I am currently working on getting the forum online in another window and it should be working by the end of the day. I am totally open to feedback on this site as it develops more along with the community it connects.
One other note, local Tesla and i-miev owners are welcome to sign on here and give their ten cents worth on their EV experience.
