Overnight test on the leaf, long term capacity question.

njburke

There is a company in the states that do a very nice set of leather seats about $800 for a full set.

The nissan dealer in Dublin was offering non factory leather for €1750.

GreyDad

Heated seats/steering wheel are not options on the current UK Acenta's - just checked. At least not the 2015 models.

Different in Ireland? Or pre-2015?

Benny_Cake

GreyDad wrote: »

Heated seats/steering wheel are not options on the current UK Acenta's - just checked. At least not the 2015 models.

Different in Ireland? Or pre-2015?

If the Acenta is what is sold as the SV here, the cold pack is definitely an option, I have it in my SV. A very nice option to have and not a lot extra.

njburke

The leaf was delivered yesterday and the skoda is sadly no longer with us. Minor glitch with home charger, the electrician did a neat install but the charger is faulty. There is no power exchange between car and charger so the box is to be replaced.
I plugged it into our neighbors home charger with our cable and everything works as it should.

Dealer came up last night and we charged at Tesco, he will loan us a grannycable until our charger is repaired/ replaced.

Other than that, wow!

Great news, the wait is finally over !

Well wear ! Don't be taking up the Naas fast charger on me now !

njburke

We may share it for the time being, until the solenoid is repaired on our home charger.

Got an urgent phone call from my wife yesterday, she was stuck at the lights and could not engage drive, stuck in neutral:-) the lights had changed twice, solution of course was to keep her foot on the brake then select drive.

We're learning.

njburke

njburke wrote: »

We may share it for the time being, until the solenoid is repaired on our home charger.

Got an urgent phone call from my wife yesterday, she was stuck at the lights and could not engage drive, stuck in neutral:-) the lights had changed twice, solution of course was to keep her foot on the brake then select drive.

We're learning.

if you are used to an automatic ICE car you would also need to press the foot brake to put the car in Drive !

Oh well.

njburke

@ mad_lad, Well she has only driven my automatic a few times, creep takes a bit of getting used to as does not using the left foot.

Will keep an eye out for you at the Tesco charger, or pm me and I'll nip down some evening.

Niall

Yeah no bother, I'll be there in the morning on the way home around 8.20 ish if you're knocking around.

Padraig Mor

[Deleted User] wrote: »

if you are used to an automatic ICE car you would also need to press the foot brake to put the car in Drive !

Oh well.

My transition to the Leaf should be pretty easy as not only was I driving an automatic, it also had its parking brake in the exact same 'clutch' position.

njburke

@mad lad. Leaf and Mrs will be in the city by then.
@parfait more , yep the parking brake has been on once or twice too, I'm guilty of that. It's like an American car or older mercs.

Will it roll if the parking brake is not on and the leaf is not powered?
Probably time I read the manual, there are lots of little features on it I keep finding.

Is there a cheat sheet on the web?

Padraig Mor

Padraig Mor wrote: »

My transition to the Leaf should be pretty easy as not only was I driving an automatic, it also had its parking brake in the exact same 'clutch' position.

Same as the Prius, I remember driving my first Automatic, DSG TDI horrible laggy box at that time, don't know if it's improved but I remember my left foot wandering over to the brake pedal in search of a clutch that wasn't there and hit the brake very hard LOL .

njburke

njburke wrote: »

@mad lad. Leaf and Mrs will be in the city by then.

No bother will catch ye again.

njburke

I had defender for 13 years, every time I went to change gear in an ordinary manual car I would sweep the left hand about a foot away from the gearknob. Muscle memory, I suppose.

Oafley Jones

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Same as the Prius, I remember driving my first Automatic, DSG TDI horrible laggy box at that time, don't know if it's improved but I remember my left foot wandering over to the brake pedal in search of a clutch that wasn't there and hit the brake very hard LOL .

Curious about this. DSG boxes can suffer brain farts the odd time but the dual clutch nature means they shouldn't lag and they're phenomenally quick. What car and and what engine.

What car has a hard on for anything Volkswagen/Audi !

The early DSG's were crap, laggy and hunting for gears. Dreadful, give me a CVT for smoothness any day !

The DSG in my Brothers A4 TDI Quattro is definitely better, my old DSG was a 2006 so a good few gens behind, but compared to the leaf even the A4 is laggy any ICE would be.

One of the problems with the A4 is the many different driving modes which is a pain in the ass, all this crap for efficiency then throw in start stop and I'm glad I don't have to drive a diesel automatic any more, or any diesel/petrol. !!!

njburke

One of things I like about the leaf is the smoothness of the power delivery. My rover 75 has a 5 speed jatco 506e gearbox, it works well with the m47 diesel engine provided the MAF and few other ICE components are all working well. It takes a bit of effort to maintain performance in a diesel engine, stuff comes up,EGRs foul etc.

The expectation I have with the leaf is that performance should remain constant over say 3 -5 years, battery capacity aside.

I had a good look round the motor bay in the leaf today compared to the rover. Mrs wanted to know why the diesel was still hot even though it had been parked up for an hour and we had just driven in with the leaf but it was cool to the touch.

Yes the Leaf is always cool to touch, the pipe from the heat pump for the heater in winter is the hottest part. and in summer the return pipe for the AC.

You can feel some heat at the back of the Motor near the reducer gear at the bulkhead but other than that it runs cool and efficient most of the energy used ges to moving the Leaf rather than in the combustion process and friction in an ICE.

The leaf should drive as good in 10 years !

njburke

10 years would be nice.
It's not as well built as the rover is though, I know it's light weight,rover is 1680 kg. Then again the rover does say 40 mpg, which is say 11 euros per 100km.

Leaf has just finished a topping of charge with the granny cable, it shows 168km range in normal or 177km in economy.

Is this true? Does it learn it's commute profile?

We charged at Tesco to 130km range from 28km range ( I did an errand in it after my wife's commute and we let it run down to see the warning indicator)

njburke

njburke wrote: »

10 years would be nice.
It's not as well built as the rover is though, I know it's light weight,rover is 1680 kg. Then again the rover does say 40 mpg, which is say 11 euros per 100km.

Leaf has just finished a topping of charge with the granny cable, it shows 168km range in normal or 177km in economy.

Is this true? Does it learn it's commute profile?

We charged at Tesco to 130km range from 28km range ( I did an errand in it after my wife's commute and we let it run down to see the warning indicator)

In warmer weather the battery can store more energy than in winter with a cold battery. Nissan chose to exclude battery thermal management because of the complexities and costs involved. A warmer battery also charges a good bit faster. There is a battery heater in 2012+ Leafs to prevent the electrolyte freezing but this turns on only at -17 and off at -10 Deg C. fast charging will warm it up a bit.

So your range indicator will show more range in Summer than winter. Unfortunately for us, Ireland is a hell of a windy place and it's nearly always windy, not breezy but windy and this has a good impact on range winter or summer.

I've seen 110 Kms on the display at the height of winter but I don't drive too easy and that readout is based on previous driving. But by 110 Kms I would want to be actually plugged in charging. But I could get the range down to 80 Kms if I drove hard enough in winter , cold air is also denser creating more drag.

njburke

Cheers madlad. Battery chemistry stiffness at lower temps,pre heat should help during our coldest winter days.

Arrived to charger this evening to find another recharging. There was a little laminated note into the fly window and we met a very pleasant owner after a few minutes.bit of a community thing this EV racket.

peposhi

njburke wrote: »

Cheers madlad. Battery chemistry stiffness at lower temps,pre heat should help during our coldest winter days.

Arrived to charger this evening to find another recharging. There was a little laminated note into the fly window and we met a very pleasant owner after a few minutes.bit of a community thing this EV racket.

Enjoy it until its still small haha
Things will change as the sales of EV progress.

njburke

Hi,
Our home charging point was fixed today.It now works as it should,the solenoid secures the cable at the charging end and the car charges as it should.
Week 1 down, s'all good.

njburke

Hi. I met mad lad today at the charging point and we had the chat.
One of the few boardsies I can put a face to.

Niall

I met Niall at the Naas fast charger last night on the way home from work, waiting by his Leaf, probably in case and angry Mad_Lad came along haha

Thanks for letting me charge by the way, I appreciated it. But as I've been saying I literally only need the 10 mins to get home.

I was a bit dopey after the week on shift and tanked up on Coffee. Shift work is really tough but I finally started my week off !

Lovely colour Leaf by the way think it's the first time I've seen the red up close. The Black is nice too but hard to clean but I do like my Grey.

Glad to finally meet you Niall !

njburke

Cheers Mark,
We kinda like the whole get away from the kids for 20 minutes to recharge. Elaine like that grey on yours and the leather seats.


Niall

It was nice of you Niall to let me in to charge thanks, The Lady I met at the Nass charge point the night before was annoyed claiming that I tried to dictate charger etiquette to her but I was merely trying to relay back the words of the ESB themselves that the charge points are supposed to be used for 30 mins max and no more than 80%.

She charged to around 80% and maybe more but my point is why if she did want to go out later did she not charge enough to get home and plug in at home ?

I've no objections to locals using them at all and don't wish to give out this impression, I use the charge point in Carlow a lot and if someone pulls up I leave.

So I don't care if locals use them all day or night but a little decency like you showed towards me last night means the whole ev experience with the limited fast chargers would be a whole lot more pleasant !

Benny_Cake

Dunno Mad_Lad, I live in Naas and have used that fast charger before when I was on my way home from work and needed to head out again in an hour. Plugging in at home for an hour wouldn't give the charge needed. I wouldn't charge there just for the sake of it because I know it's a busy spot and I'd rather leave it for someone who really needed it. I do use the standard charge points in the centre of Naas when I have something to do in the town though, and I've only seen another car using them once.

I'd be interested to see if the ESB have actually put anything in writing about 80% / 30 minutes as it should be quite possible to automatically stop the charge at that point. Although I'd have absolutely no issue with someone using it as long as they wanted so long as they stuck close to the car and unplugged to let someone else in if needed.

Ultimately that charger is just in the wrong spot, lousy location generally from a traffic standpoint, and right beside the entrance to the shopping centre.

Benny_Cake

Benny_Cake wrote: »

Dunno Mad_Lad, I live in Naas and have used that fast charger before when I was on my way home from work and needed to head out again in an hour. Plugging in at home for an hour wouldn't give the charge needed. I wouldn't charge there just for the sake of it because I know it's a busy spot and I'd rather leave it for someone who really needed it. I do use the standard charge points in the centre of Naas when I have something to do in the town though, and I've only seen another car using them once.

I don't care if locals use the chargers or not for as long as they want as long as consideration is given to those who do rely on them to get home, consideration like Niall showed me last night or like I show to others in Carlow. This is where people are misinterpreting what I'm saying.

This lady's attitude is "I'll use it as often as I like for as long as I like and no body including the ESB will tell me otherwise" !

Benny_Cake wrote: »

I'd be interested to see if the ESB have actually put anything in writing about 80% / 30 minutes as it should be quite possible to automatically stop the charge at that point. Although I'd have absolutely no issue with someone using it as long as they wanted so long as they stuck close to the car and unplugged to let someone else in if needed.

Yes, the ESB publicly stated this on their Facebook page and if in doubt you can put this question to them on the FB page. They are monitoring the situation and will indeed send out letters regarding charger usage if they deem necessary.

Benny_Cake wrote: »

Ultimately that charger is just in the wrong spot, lousy location generally from a traffic standpoint, and right beside the entrance to the shopping centre.

Absolutely, and I'm sure they're aware of it now. This is an example of where the 22 Kw chargers should be installed and why I stress people should get the 6.6 Kw charger in the Leaf, makes a difference to me, Zoe owners are sorted in this regard !!!

njburke

We were about a week or 10 days waiting for our charger to be installed and then fixed so that it would work. So we used the naas Tesco charger most evenings around 8 or 9pm.
I know the monread road is dreadful at peak commute times. I think in 8 or 10 charges we only came across 3 other leaf owners either ahead or behind us in the queue. Anyone we met that was genuinely pleasant and keen to chat about leaf.

As a tip, if I were coming from city centre towards that charger at evening peak I would,
Come off at junction 8, cross N7, past Johnstown garden centre heading for sallins, left in sallins,cross N7 , left at r'bout and into Tesco. Should knock 10-15 minutes of the journey. The Montreal road is effectively a one way street at from 5~6.30 pm midweek.