Which Leaf

Firblog

Been thinking of changing to electric car for a while now, am interested in the Nissan Leaf. Was in Galway (am in Donegal so no dealers doing them here) at the weekend so went into Windsor Motors to have a look and a wee drive in one. Nothing there to change my mind So which model do you recommend, and what are the benefits of say SV over XE?

Does anyone recommend the 'extras' such as Supagard, Cold Pack, 3 Year Service plan?

cros13

Firblog wrote: »

Been thinking of changing to electric car for a while now, am interested in the Nissan Leaf. Was in Galway (am in Donegal so no dealers doing them here) at the weekend so went into Windsor Motors to have a look and a wee drive in one. Nothing there to change my mind So which model do you recommend, and what are the benefits of say SV over XE?

Does anyone recommend the 'extras' such as Supagard, Cold Pack, 3 Year Service plan?

Definitely, unquestionably do not buy an XE. Nissan shouldn't be selling the XE at all. By default it lacks Rapid Charging, the Heat Pump for the heater/AC and B-Mode (enhanced regenerative braking). All of these are absolute essentials, not options. Having the remote access to the car is handy too, something the XE also lacks.

So SV is the only grade you should be considering. I'd add the cold pack as well because the seat heaters use around ten times less power than the cabin heater. Not sure the service plan is worth it since you only have a minor inspection every 50,000km / 1 year.

Cold pack is good value.... €300 gets you front and rear seat heaters and a heated steering wheel too.

Padraig Mor

I wouldn't consider an XE either; I just picked up my new SV with cold pack a few days ago. At €300, the cold pack is a no brainer and going without it shouldn't be considered. An extra €2100 over SV with cold pack gets you into an SVE with leather and surround view cameras which may or may not be worth it for you. There will no doubt be a few comments re getting the 6kW charger - at €900 it's horrendously overpriced but an excellent option for some, but virtually useless for others. I don't have it but having only had the car a few days (including one long trip), I would suggest getting it if you foresee needing to use the public charging infrastructure more than occasionally - i.e. if you have a longer commute, or will likely be heading 'into the country' fairly regularly. I would imagine it would also make your car very attractive come resale time.

Firblog

Can you can purchase the 6Kw charger as an add-on at anytime?

cros13

Firblog wrote: »

Can you can purchase the 6Kw charger as an add-on at anytime?

Nope, has to be ordered from the factory. Personally I'm of the opinion that it's too expensive. I've moved on from the Leaf (I had a 141 SVE without the 6.6 kW charger) to the i3 (which has a 7.4kW charger), I can honestly say that in more than 70,000km of EV driving having the faster standard charging mattered no more than twice. I mean if you are charging overnight (and therefore at home for 9-10 hours at least) do you really care that it takes 4 hours or 8 hours to charge?

I will admit if you are getting a lot of use in the daytime it is handy to plug in when you are home for lunch and have an extra 30% on the battery inside an hour.


Rapid chargers bypass the car onboard charger and connect to the battery directly, so there is no difference where it really matters.

Benny_Cake

Firblog wrote: »

Can you can purchase the 6Kw charger as an add-on at anytime?

No, it can only be fitted at the plant I'm afraid.

I have the 6.6kw charger myself and it's nice to have, but I think it's a personal call as to whether it's worth paying €900 to have. Where you live and where you'll do most of your charging should inform your decision.

homer911

Firblog wrote: »

Can you can purchase the 6Kw charger as an add-on at anytime?

No

We avoided the XE because of the lack of Carwings/SatNav - It just doesnt look right for an otherwise technically advanced car. Opting for the cold pack is perhaps more an issue of the availability of stock. I've never been a fan of leather seats, but thats a matter of personal preference vs cost, so yes, SV is way to go if you have the budget.

We do live in South County Dublin so journeys are relatively short and the public network is very good around here

Firblog

homer911 wrote: »

We do live in South County Dublin so journeys are relatively short and the public network is very good around here

I'm living in Donegal Town, so there's not even a Nissan dealer who's doing the Leaf in the county.. My main driving is DL town to Killybegs 1/2 times per week, and DL town to Letterkenny an back Fri/Sun, other than those runs it's in an out to work - less than 2 miles. All 3 towns have chargers, and would prob have house charge point one in Letterkenny.

peposhi

Firblog wrote: »

I'm living in Donegal Town, so there's not even a Nissan dealer who's doing the Leaf in the county.. My main driving is DL town to Killybegs 1/2 times per week, and DL town to Letterkenny an back Fri/Sun, other than those runs it's in an out to work - less than 2 miles. All 3 towns have chargers, and would prob have house charge point one in Letterkenny.

Standard SV all the way then. Unless you want to treat yourself with extras...

pwurple

SV or SVE I'd say.

We got SV with the add on coldpack, which is awesome. I don't know many other cars with heated rear seats as well as the front and steering wheel. Very nice to be able to pre-heat from the house before you come out on a chilly morning as well with carwings. 6.6 charger didn't make sense for us, as we have chargers at home, at work, and in pretty much every place we drive to.

Is supaguard the paint and interior protection? It is probably worth it if you put a lot of wear on the car. I've got suncream marks, scuff from the kids shoes etc on mine already. Didn't get the guard put on at the time.

You can add the telematics to the XE and I've not yet heard of an XE leaf imported into the country without the fast charging port which can also be ordered.

The XE should still do 100-110 Kms in winter but the heat pump in the SV/SVE does make a big difference and it makes me wonder about domestic heat pumps !!!

Yes I do go on about the 6.6 Kw charger but really it is only 900 Euro's and considering all the savings on petrol/diesel and all the free electricity from the public chargers it will pay itself back.

You're in Donegal OP correct ? then what you do is go on to the ESB Ecars website, onto the charge point map

http://www.esb.ie/electric-cars/electric-car-charging/electric-car-charge-point-map.jsp

You can use the filter at the top of the page, the standard type 2, shown as green on the map are the AC points you would use the 6.6 Kw charger at. Now look at the blue and count the difference and then decide if you think charging as fast as possible from the AC points is worth it.

I was in Naas a few weeks ago, plugged into a standard street point at 25% and 2 hrs 20 mins it was 100% charged. Probably would take 2 hrs to get to 90% because the last part takes longer. With the 3.3 Kw standard charger that would have been at least 4 hrs 40 mins. I was impressed actually how fast it charged.

I've been spared looking for a fast charger several times, come out hop in the car and drive off, no looking for DC chargers and possibly having to wait, one of the most important thing about an EV is it's ability to charge and charge fast so yeah I absolutely think the 32 amp charger was the best thing I could have got.

If I was looking for a 2nd hand leaf it would have to have the 32 amp charger !

When the ESb start to charge for leccy you may want to charge at home much faster in case you need to make a trip and even though this may be on day rate leccy it will still be cheaper than what the ESb will charge and even though they won't install a 32 amp home charger even if you insist you can always purchase one in the future.

If you have to pay for street parking then you'll want to charge as fast as possible from your 2 hrs or whatever you pay for. Yes most of your charging will be at home but while out and about I love the ability to charge faster from the standard charge points.

On my commute home a 10 min fast charge gets me home with 20-25% left the 6.6 Kw would still be too slow for this and this is where the usefulness of the DC chargers becomes obvious and while travelling longer distances on the motorway then when you get into town the 6.6 Kw is king giving you a significant charge while you eat/shop.

Oh and don't get too excited about the Bose sound system in the SVE, it's utter rubbish and far from a premium sound the junk Sub in the rear is the culprit, tiny, cheap and very low power, definitely not one of Bose's finest achievements that's for sure, if I were Bose I wouldn't print the Bose name on that thing !!! The sound is clear enough but with the complete absence of proper Bass, never mind Sub bass frequencies it destroys the audio in the car.

Cold pack is brilliant, come out in the morning heated seats and steering wheel, can even heat the rear seats which passengers do appreciate.

The LED lights are the business, look really cool and very useful again, really glad I opted for the SVE for that alone.

I really like the leather effect seats, easy to clean and look nice.

DrPhilG

I still don't quite understand the SV, SE, XE etc. I bought in the UK so it's Visia, Acenta and Tekna.

I waited for the Tekna for 2 reasons. Heated seats/steering wheel, and the 360 parking camera. Both were mainly for the wife, although I admit that I love the parking surround camera.

I prefer the leather seats too although I would love to be able to cool them as well as heat them!

I've done about 2000 miles in my first 6 weeks of driving, although that included a 700 mile round trip to Cork from Donegal. I'd say I'll do about 13k miles a year.

I've done 15,000 Kms since Mid January. Just wish I didn't have to do so many commute miles !

Visia is Xe, Acenta is SV and Tekna is SVE.

You can order the heated seats (cold pack) on the XE and SV . I admit the camera is pretty handy.

GreyDad

I can't find the cold pack heated seats option for the Acenta/SV - is it factory fitted only?

Padraig Mor

GreyDad wrote: »

I can't find the cold pack heated seats option for the Acenta/SV - is it factory fitted only?

Factory fit. Although the UK also have an Acenta Plus (could just be a very recent model) - maybe this has it?

GreyDad

Acenta Plus only came out a week or two ago in the UK.

Basically an Acenta with the most commonly requested option - the 6.6kW charger - included and some special edition blue-ish wheels, which aren't quite the same as the really nice ones on the Tekna/SVE.