Nissan LEAF Pre-Order

Post by **coulomb** » Thu, 14 Jun 2012, 23:45

bladecar wrote: The Albion Peace Centre is not easy to find.

Yes, it can be tricky. The carpark for it is right under the Albion overpass (Albion road).

Post by **Canberra32** » Fri, 15 Jun 2012, 00:17

I feel your pain Hital
I'm also building a new house and what kind of system is needed for charging was a question that seemed to slip most people into a coma.
So I figured hey the garage is also my workshop so I'm just stuffing in some high amp single phases and a few 3phase points.
Easier now than later minimal cost now but epic "oh gee that will take a lot a doing$$$$" from sparky later lol

Website · Post by **htial** » Fri, 15 Jun 2012, 02:30

Thanks Canberra32,

Brother-in-law is an industrial pump electrician. So he works with three phase and water. I'm hoping he'll be able to do some of the work for me if Origin say I need to have bigger wires put in. And I hope it only costs me a few beers and a baby sitting or two.

I think the biggest thing for me at the moment is budget.

Post by **BigMouse** » Fri, 15 Jun 2012, 03:20

bladecar wrote: Hi BigMouse,

A serious comment here. The Albion Peace Centre is not easy to find. Myself and a different new visitor did a bit of sitting on the side of the road before we figured out which building was the right one. The electronic navigator didn't understand the layout of the streets. But you'll get there after a while.

Unfortunately, I have a different event happening each Wednesday evening at the moment.

Thanks for the tip! I'll seek it out via street view ahead of time or something.

Post by **sez** » Sat, 16 Jun 2012, 03:07

We bought our Leaf last week from Metro Nissan in Lutwyche. I'm a fan: http://blog.storybridge.org/2012/06/lea ... olves.html :-)

The plan is to come to the AEVA meeting next week and it would be great to meet and compare notes.

What about CarWings? The app installed OK on hubby's iPhone but despite many repeated attempts the credentials supplied by Nissan would not allow a login.

The website was non-existent/unhelpful - there seems to be no "mail me a new password" facility.

Anyway - would be good to get that working.

Post by **localpower** » Sat, 16 Jun 2012, 03:53

Great, see you then.

I haven't been supplied any iphone app credentials yet.

Post by **localpower** » Wed, 20 Jun 2012, 15:17

iphone app now working (anyone can download and try it in demo mode). tells you how much range you have left etc. can also remotely turn on charging (if you are plugged in and waiting for a timer) and remotely turn on climate control (which I haven't tried yet). not too different from sitting in the vehicle.

carwings website login also working. tells you how much energy you have used each day for powertrain, accessories and how much energy you got back from regenerative braking.

in car wings there is also a trip log. no detail about time of the trip (just the date), but you can see each trip each day, number of km traveled and number of kWh used for each trip.

not sure how they define a trip, e.g. if you are running errands, drive for 2km, stop for 2 minutes, drive for 2km, stop for 5 minutes etc. it doesn't seem to be turning the ignition off, but could be.

Post by **E-STATION** » Wed, 20 Jun 2012, 23:36

The first Nissan Leaf E-Station charge points have been installed. Feedback from customers is excellent. Installation is trouble free and takes less than half an hour.

The E-Station charge point has a maximum draw of 3.6KW and will integrate nicely with a standard 15amp circuit.

More details available from our EBAY Store: http://stores.ebay.com.au/e-station-australia

Direct Link: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/E-Station-Ho ... 27c55e35b1

Post by **leighf** » Tue, 17 Jul 2012, 03:05

Origin installed my Chargepoint last Thursday (I know e-station, I am paying too much for it!) and I picked up my LEAF on Friday from Blackburn Nissan.
The dealer said that Carwings wasn't yet operational in Australia and he would let me know when it was.
Anyway, the car is fantastic. I can't wipe the "EV grin" off my face.

Leigh

Post by **acmotor** » Tue, 17 Jul 2012, 05:08

localpower & leighf, did you take the standard 3year nissan warranty or buy the 2 year extension (total 5yr) ?

Post by **Johny** » Tue, 17 Jul 2012, 13:41

Nice going Leigh.
I'm envious.

Post by **localpower** » Tue, 17 Jul 2012, 14:28

Carwings is definitely working in Australia. Mine's been switched on since around 19/6. Wasn't ready the day I picked it up on 6/6. Several thousand people around the world use it and you can see your various rankings by country or on a global basis.

I haven't purchased extended warranty yet. Was told you can purchase later if you want to before the 3 years is up. What does it cost?

Having my 1000km free service today. Have clocked up almost 1500km.

Range suits me perfectly. I quite regularly travel around 90km from brisbane to the gold coast, work the day while charging up at 10A on a 15A power point for 6-8 hours, and then travel 90km back home again.

Interestingly they recommend to only charge the battery to 80% in normal round town use, unless you need the range, to maximise battery life. So on the days I need the range I charge to 80% overnight, then start a topup after I wake up (remotely using the iphone LEAF app) getting to 100% just before I need to leave.

Post by **acmotor** » Tue, 17 Jul 2012, 17:33

The 2 year extended warranty is listed at $1995. This should be given serious consideration given the extensive new technology in leaf ? Maybe a bargaining point at time of purchase ??
Battery pack life is probably the biggest concern. Leaf forum suggests folk with 2 bars of battery health drop in 15,000 (US)miles for those familiar with the leaf instruments.

Battery warranties: Prius 8 year, Imiev 5 year (in Oz, but 8 in US !), leaf 3 year but extendable by 2.

localpower, if you top up in morning, is that still at offpeak rate ? i.e. before 7am (assuming that is your local off peak time)
Wouldn't you set the charge timer to finish charge at the time off peak power ends ? Just thinking.

Post by **Johny** » Tue, 17 Jul 2012, 17:54

localpower wrote:Interestingly they recommend to only charge the battery to 80% in normal round town use, .....

How does that work? Can you set a target percentage to reach? I wonder how they do cell balance if they are not charging to 100%?
Is this just to avoid heat in the cells or is there a reason not to charge LiFePO4 to near 100%?
Anyone?

Post by **coulomb** » Tue, 17 Jul 2012, 19:09

Johny wrote: I wonder how they do cell balance if they are not charging to 100%?

My guess is that they don't bother balancing if not charging near 100% SOC.

Is this just to avoid heat in the cells or is there a reason not to charge LiFePO4 to near 100%?

My understanding is that all LiFePO4 will increase life if time near 100% SOC is reduced. So conversions should do this too.

I believe that 80% is a special option for the Leaf; I don't think you can choose an arbitrary SOC like 77% or 93%.

The cycle life penalty for routinely going to 100% SOC might be higher for higher temperature climates, such as Arizona USA, where some lifetime degradation has been noticed, but only for drivers that chose to charge to 100% regularly.

Post by **localpower** » Tue, 17 Jul 2012, 23:33

A grab bag bunch of comments to some of the questions...

First, the LEAF uses LiMn2O4 chemistry. I have read they do some cell balancing but only when it's been at 100% for a couple of hours. Somewhere else I read that the amount of time spent at 100% is the culprit for degradation. It was alluded that the people in Arizona who have lost battery capacity were topping up to 100% every night and staying on 100% for many hours/days at a time. Not keen to do that personally, although I imagine it would be important to do some cell balancing at some point down the track.

The LEAF car computer allows you to set a timer for each day of the week which will activate charging if you are plugged in, between the start time & end time you specify for each day, and you also get to specify 80% or 100% charge. NB your target charge level may or may not fit into the time period depending on how far apart the start and end times are.

The Australian owners manual talks about overall car warranty of 3 years 100,000km, however a Nissan official at the recent launch was reported to mention battery warranty of 8 years 160,000km warranty, which would match the US.

NB the US battery warranty explicitly doesn't cover degradation, where they expect capacity may go down "in normal use" to 80% after 5 years and down to 70% after 10 years, but it does cover catastrophic battery pack failure I suppose.

I am seeking clarification through my Nissan dealer about what the Nissan official was reported to say. http://www.carsales.com.au/news/2012/sm ... reen-30923