Nissan Leaf

[rolosrevenge]

Ah, I see you had the same thought I just mentioned in the previous post.

I have heard 2nd hand comments that Nissan basically acknowledges that the 3.3kW ended up being inadequate for the USA in large part because of the slow CHAdeMO rollout.

I am used to an older EV with a 5+ kW charger and I find the LEAF painfully slow to do opportunistic J1772, but even 12A@120V is OK for most overnight charging.

Interestingly, I've driven it twice more, from our Redmond office to the University of Washington campus for some experiments on the vehicles load as seen from the grid, and I've had the opposite problem, the 15 mile trip isn't long enough to drop the SOC sufficiently to get all of the measurements that I want. Today, even with the heat on full, radio blasting, headlights and interior lights on, I only dropped 3 bars, and I was driving in normal mode very aggressively. Oh well...

 

[ElSupreme]

EVNow has been doing some trip time calculations of LEAF CHAdeMO to various Model S scaenarios:

I looked at this again. This is really making me want to spend the 10k and get the 60kWh pack. Hmmm. Hope those lotto tickets pan out tomorrow.

 

[rabar10]

While all of this info is great, it has nothing to do with the Leaf.

Sorry mods.

 

[ElSupreme]

Ok I helped derail this topic now an anecdote to put it back on course-ish:

I was at dinner with my Fiancee's mother. Tesla got brought up as we were waiting on the valet. My soon to be mother-in-law was saying she didn't want an electric car. Then a Leaf pulled up. She pointed at it and said, "I like that car, it is really quiet." I couldn't help but inform her it was an electric car! She regularly drives from NYC to Western mass ~200 miles so a leaf wouldn't work for her. But if people see these cars Leafs and EVs in general they will be liked!

The man driving it had his friend driving a 73ish Corvette. The were jesting about the leaf and the Corvette guy kept revving the engine in front of the valet lines. The valets were not really happy about that.

 

[Doug_G]

Jump in a pile of Leafs

One of these things is not like the others...

There was a Leaf "user's group" attached to our local electric vehicle club tonight.

 

[dpeilow]

2011 Nissan Leaf: One-Year Drive Report

 

[doug]

Misleading info about the "5 kW's" needed to produce gasoline. First it should be kWh's, not kW's, and the implication that it is 5 kWh's of electricity when it's actually equivalent energy is misleading even though electricity was not specifically mentioned. I'll give them somewhat of a pass though.

While all of this info is great, it has nothing to do with the Leaf.

Sorry mods.

This discussion went to our existing thread on the topic here: How much electricity to produce gasoline?

 

[Doug_G]

2011 Nissan Leaf: One-Year Drive Report

The good:

Yesterday, a few days short of our 1-year anniversary with the car, its odometer passed the 15,000 mile mark.
...
Moreover, based on European gas prices over the past year, we’ve saved an estimated $5,454 in gasoline over the fuel cost of our previous car

That's pretty awesome.

The bad:

For reference, although it isn’t the fault of Nissan, we’ve arrived at eight charging stations during the year which were non-operational. In three of those cases, we had to call for a tow due to remaining range of less than 10 miles.

Yikes! I'm sure Nikki is more adventurous than most, but still... having to get towed three times due to dead charging stations?

 

[dpeilow]

Her previous car must've got 26mpg.


I know that at least one of these towings was at a major motorway service station, which isn't really that adventurous. Other LEAF drivers have reported similar towings, and one was even from a Nissan dealer.

This stuff should just work.

 

[Kevin Sharpe]

"Nissan sets out to ‘turn on' one million people to electric driving and reward one city with improved infrastructure"

http://www.newsroom.nissan-europe.com/uk/en-gb/Media/Media.aspx?mediaid=90869

NISSAN LEAF - NISSAN LEAF THE BIG TURN ON

 

[daniel]

2011 Nissan Leaf: One-Year Drive Report

Overall, it sounds pretty good, though the 50-mile range under hard driving in extremely cold weather would be a bit disappointing. The charging infrastructure problems are one reason why I personally would not make a trip where I was going to have to charge away from home, and why I'm happy that in the end I got the Roadster instead of the Leaf.

 

[Norbert]

Sneak Peak At Nissans 2013 Altima - CNBC

Includes: Carlos Ghosn on the Leaf this year. Sounds like Nissan will be holding back the Leaf due to the Yen / dollar exchange ratio, though September/end of the year things will change significantly when Nissan's american factories start taking over production for the US.

 

[vfx]

Some good stuff in here.

Leaf owners are:

Mostly college grads
$125k income
91 Percent of purchases are conquests (conquest customer means they traded-in another car). May be the strongest conquest car ever.

From the speech.

• 3 out of 5 generation Y <30 -which is the largest demographic group ever -want an electric vehicle more than any other type of car
• This summers' new marketing will be no longer be "Nisan Branding" and aims at early adopters but will now feature real world testimonials (I note that the Volt is doing that now) aimed at "pragmatic majority" which they see as the ones who will make electric transportation a mainstream reality
• He said that most buy the Leaf for environmental reasons (I had heard it was for the cost savings?) but when they start driving they like the performance (acceleration) convienance quietness, no vibration, and not going to a gas station.
• They are just starting to tell the story of living with an EV
• By July they will have cars in showrooms (not online) and dealers will be able to offer Leafs with longer term loans to let them experience the car
• Carlos is bullish on EVs and thinks thy will be 10 percent of the market by 2020. sees 1. 5m EVs by 2016 Skeptics do not bother him. He is used to it.

 

[ChadS]

[*]He said that most buy the Leaf for environmental reasons (I had heard it was for the cost savings?) but when they start driving they like the performance (acceleration) convienance quietness, no vibration, and not going to a gas station.

Yeah, that's odd. Data I've seen from Nissan (and others, largely surveying Leaf owners) indicates that environmental reasons didn't rank high in the purchase decision at all. Maybe environmental reasons are why they start looking in to the cars, but not why they buy them? Just guessing.

 

[jerry33]

Yeah, that's odd. Data I've seen from Nissan (and others, largely surveying Leaf owners) indicates that environmental reasons didn't rank high in the purchase decision at all. Maybe environmental reasons are why they start looking in to the cars, but not why they buy them? Just guessing.

My guess would be that Nissan, like a lot of car manufacturers, does it's research using marketing research firms. These firms typically:

1. Tell the company paying them what they thing the company wants to hear.

2. Use a "pet" set of "subjects" that very likely don't represent the actual purchasers of the product. (just ask any long-time Prius owner)

3. Even if they don't do #2, the subjects are likely to give the tatemae answer rather than the honne answer because they think that's what's wanted.

(tatemae means public, official, or politically correct, honne means private or the way things really are).

 

[vfx]

At around 26:00 in the interview he talks about his role in ROTEC and why EV are important for the car industry. Good stuff.

Also Nissan has beside EU's partnership three e-cars (and a new one coming in Sept) Nissan has 3 more electric cars coming, a full product line-up. (Awesome!)

All Leafs are connected with the data center in Japan.

Cars have to be safe and flawless first, then get cheaper (like Tesla)

Cell phone batteries used to be talk for 20 minutes and charge for 8 hours. Now they are the other way around.

The 7,500 tax credit is need only until they get up to 500,000 deliveries a year It was 1M but higher gas prices brings it down.

 

[GSP]

Great video. It is always a pleasure to listen to Carlos.

GSP

 

[dpeilow]

Nissan LEAF gets makeover for Europe

- New look
- Lower price
- More range

Glad that's finally in the open.

 

[JRP3]

the Sunderland built cars would benefit from increased range over the current 100 miles claimed

I'd assume all LEAF's would get the same improvement. Odd wording I suppose.

The cosmetic changes to the LEAF are very unlikely to involve any sheet metal changes –

Can't say I'm surprised since it's too soon for a model redesign, but I was hoping for something more.
Overall good news, though I have to wonder if the expected cost reductions might hurt current sales. Maybe there are still enough early adopters desperate for an EV.

 

[rabar10]

Nissan LEAF web chat answers questions on electric car fast charging and more

Interesting summary article. Selected questions and answers presented with contextual information (i.e. 'this question in various forms was asked several times') and additional background info and commentary provided along the way.