Nissan Leaf

DB01

n97 mini wrote: »

We paid about €14600 for a 152 sve (tekna). 6.6kw charger, granny cable (worth 300), type 2 to type 1 cable (worth maybe 120), and a 32amp charge point (worth maybe 280). A lot of value in those extra cables.

How old was the car when you bought it? The 32amp charge point, is this the part you have installed in your house?

DB01

DrPhilG wrote: »

Am I getting you right, £14k sterling for a 2 year old SV?

Not a great price IMO.

I paid £13,600 for a 1 year old SVE with 5,500 miles. That was in June 2015, the car is a July 2014, 6.6 charger and came with granny cable and public charger cable.

Am I correct in thinking those who paid in sterling bought direct from the UK and not from a dealer here? I'm looking at one through a dealer here so I guess I should expect to have the cost of importing included in the price but they seem to be a lot cheaper in the UK so I should still get a good price. Or at least some extras i.e. Cables or fast charger included. Agree?

DrPhilG

DB01 wrote: »

Am I correct in thinking those who paid in sterling bought direct from the UK and not from a dealer here? I'm looking at one through a dealer here so I guess I should expect to have the cost of importing included in the price but they seem to be a lot cheaper in the UK so I should still get a good price. Or at least some extras i.e. Cables or fast charger included. Agree?

True I did buy from the UK direct.

So I should add that I spent about £400 bringing the car home, flight out-ferry back etc.

Also the fact that I got both cables may well have been due to the dealer being uneducated. I had confirmed that the home charging cable was included but didn't mention the granny. When I arrived I asked if one was included and he looked confused for a second, then took one from another car and chucked it in the boot!

KCross

DB01 wrote: »

Am I correct in thinking those who paid in sterling bought direct from the UK and not from a dealer here? I'm looking at one through a dealer here so I guess I should expect to have the cost of importing included in the price but they seem to be a lot cheaper in the UK so I should still get a good price. Or at least some extras i.e. Cables or fast charger included. Agree?

Correct, we bought direct in the UK and brought the cars back ourselves.

There are also folks on here who bought from Irish dealers who do the same thing (i.e. bring in EV's from the UK). Obviously you pay a bit more from them as they have to get their profit.

I see quite a few 151 SVE's in the UK for £12k(€13775) with less mileage.
e.g. http://www.motors.co.uk/car-44096161/154/sr

The difference in price between SV and SVE when new is €2400. You get leather, 360deg camera, 17" alloys and heated seats/steering. If you dont value any of those then fine but I think the main point is that you should be able to get an SV for a good bit less than what you are paying but you would have to go to the UK yourself for it.

I'd be looking for a better price based on your car being a 151 SV with 3.3kW charger (or does it have 6.6kW?). They are making about £9500 (€11000) in the UK at the moment.

n97 mini

DB01 wrote: »

How old was the car when you bought it? The 32amp charge point, is this the part you have installed in your house?

One year old. Yes, it's the home CP. To take advantage of the 6.6kw charging at home you need a 32amp CP. Not strictly necessary but nice to have.

macnab

I saw a Dealer on Donedeal incorrectly advertising 2014 and 2015 Nissan Leafs as 30kw cars, be careful when buying from uneducated dealers. Dont take anything at face value, do your research and spend your money wisely. This includes the spec level. Be aware that the lowest spec Leaf has steel wheels and ugly hub caps instead of alloys. This in itself is not the problem, the problem is that the lowest spec cars had the older battery for longer, they have the older power hungry heater. They are worth considerably less than the SV or SVE.

TBi

macnab wrote: »

I saw a Dealer on Donedeal incorrectly advertising 2014 and 2015 Nissan Leafs as 30kw cars, be careful when buying from uneducated dealers.

I would say educated dealers trying to rip off uneducated punters.

DB01

Thanks so much for all the info. The dealer hasn't come back yet to confirm what's included but I'll be seeing the car later. In the meantime I just want to clarify re the cables etc. so I'm going in prepared. Since its a U.K. import I should expect the granny cable to be included as standard. Is this correct? There may or may not be the cable for charging with the domestic charge point included, a 2 to 1 cable I think. There almost certainly won't be a domestic charge point included. It may or may not have a 6.6kw charger installed. Is there anything else I need to look out for?

On the subject of charging, I should be ok to charge at home if the granny cable is included, although it doesn't seem an ideal method of charging, it would be fine initially. I would then need to get a cp installed and (if not included) I would need to purchase a 2 to 1 cable. Is this all correct?

Public charging - do I need a card to access these and how do I get one? Do I also need a cable or do the machines have the cable installed that is then connected to the car?

For those with U.K. imports, can the mileage reading be changed to kilometres?

I only started looking at these last Saturday, hence all my questions!

DrPhilG

Granny cable charging is fine, I'm doing that at the minute as my home charger is on the blink.

Contact the ESB regarding a card. They will want to see proof of purchase, picture of a deposit document or something will do. You can usually find someone who can lend you a card in the meantime if you're stuck.

UK imports can display miles and km, setting is in the menu to choose.

macnab

And you will need a type 2 to type 1 lead to access public slow charge points, fast chargers have their own leads attached.

DB01

macnab wrote: »

And you will need a type 2 to type 1 lead to access public slow charge points, fast chargers have their own leads attached.

Is this the same cable for charging with the home cp?
Does the car need to have the 6.6kw charger to use a fast charge point? I guess otherwise nobody would bother with a slow charge point or am I missing something?

DrPhilG

Standard (slow) chargers are useful. They use the same cable as you use at home, and will give you about 20% in an hour, or 35-40% if you have the 6.6kw charger in the car.

Fast charger is a different beast. Doesn't matter if you have the 3.3 or 6.6, it uses a different socket on the car. It will add anywhere from 50% to 70% in about 30 minutes, depending on a few factors like battery temperature, ambient temperature and the charger itself (some are a little faster than others).

Standard charger or home unit plugs into the socket on the right, fast charger connects to the one on the left.


Normal home and standard charger plug


Fast charger plug


or

DB01

DrPhilG wrote: »

Standard (slow) chargers are useful. They use the same cable as you use at home, and will give you about 20% in an hour, or 35-40% if you have the 6.6kw charger in the car.

Fast charger is a different beast. Doesn't matter if you have the 3.3 or 6.6, it uses a different socket on the car. It will add anywhere from 50% to 70% in about 30 minutes, depending on a few factors like battery temperature, ambient temperature and the charger itself (some are a little faster than others).

Standard charger or home unit plugs into the socket on the right, fast charger connects to the one on the left.


Normal home and standard charger plug


Fast charger plug


or

Thanks for that! So I'm assuming the fast chargers aren't available at every public charge point? So the cable for the standard cp is still necessary?

DrPhilG

Go onto the ESB charge point map on their site or the app. You can filter the charger location by type.

Select chademo only for the Leaf fast charge locations. Select the type 2 option to see all the standard charge spots.

cros13

DB01 wrote: »

Is this the same cable for charging with the home cp?

Yes.

DB01 wrote: »

Does the car need to have the 6.6kw charger to use a fast charge point? I guess otherwise nobody would bother with a slow charge point or am I missing something?

Charging at home or at a level 2 public chargepoint uses the built-in charger in the car. The default onboard charger on the leaf is 3.3kW but it's possible (at initial order only, not aftermarket) to have a 2nd charger fitted that ups the charge rate to 6.6kW (through the same socket). Pretty much all chargepoints in Ireland provide the european standard Type 2 connector as a socket.... which is a good thing for Leaf owners as the Leaf uses the North American J1772 Type 1.



A Rapid Charger bypasses the onboard charging equipment and connects itself directly to the battery supplying power at 10-15 times the rate of the onboard chargers. In the case of the Leaf it does this via a second port on the car which uses the Japanese CHAdeMO standard (the european CCS standard was not finalised until 3 years after the Leaf launched).

The port on the left is CHAdeMO and the one on the right is J1772/Type 1:

zilog_jones

DB01 wrote: »

Thanks for that! So I'm assuming the fast chargers aren't available at every public charge point? So the cable for the standard cp is still necessary?

Generally the public charging points in city centres are standard chargers, so if you want to avail of these you'd want a Type 1 to Type 2 cable. Parking at SCPs is also free in some areas (Cork yes, Limerick no, dunno about elsewhere), but that's more up to local councils and not the ESB.

DB01

So turns out there's a granny cable included. Dealer seems to think the 6.6kw is standard on 2015 and later. He's going to check if it's on the one I'm interested in anyway.

KCross

DB01 wrote: »

So turns out there's a granny cable included. Dealer seems to think the 6.6kw is standard on 2015 and later. He's going to check anyway.

Granny cable only or both cables?

6.6kW is not standard.

zilog_jones

Do Nissan not have some website where you can stick in a VIN and get the full original configuration of the car? I know other manufacturers do this.

It seems there's no obvious way of determining what charger it has unless you drill down through some menus on the dash (I forget specifics).

DrPhilG

DB01 wrote: »

So turns out there's a granny cable included. Dealer seems to think the 6.6kw is standard on 2015 and later. He's going to check if it's on the one I'm interested in anyway.

That doesn't sound right...

Make sure. I was very fussy about that with the English dealer I bought from. I wouldn't pay the deposit until he sent me a picture of the display reading showing both charger times.

cros13

DB01 wrote: »

Dealer seems to think the 6.6kw is standard on 2015 and later.

Standard in 2015...in the US...not this side of the pond.

DB01

How would I check on the 6.6kw? Looking at the display now...

DB01

Theres a solar panel on top. Would that indicate anything?

n97 mini

The only easy way to tell is to cycle through the menu on the dash. One of the menus will say To 100% Charge. If there is no mention of 6kw then it does not have the 6.6kw charger.

DB01

n97 mini wrote: »

The only easy way to tell is to cycle through the menu on the dash. One of the menus will say To 100% Charge. If there is no mention of 6kw then it does not have the 6.6kw charger.

Thanks for that. Doesn't look like it has the fast charger installed. There was just one time coming up for charging to 100%. On the plus side the car is like new and has 29,000 km not 32k. It also has a solar panel.

isnottheword

DB01 wrote: »

It also has a solar panel.

By all accounts, the solar panel isn't much more than an aesthetic feature.

DB01

isnottheword wrote: »

By all accounts, the solar panel isn't much more than an aesthetic feature.

I've just read that it's only good for charging accessories

bottar1

Okay, revising a previous post.

I'm paying 2400 a year in fuel on my Nissan Micra 03 to get to work 83 kilometers round trip. If a used nissan leaf around 8000-9000 euros would do me for 3 years+ I'd be willing to buy it.

I'm fine with driving without A/C on if it would be that reliable since I'd be able to charge it for ~9-10 hours every night to full. Doing 25000 KM a year including leisure on weekends, so 75000KM over 3 years.

Anyone have the stats to see if it's worth it?

n97 mini

As a very broad rule of thumb the Leaf costs a fifth the running costs of a regular car when charging at home exclusively. Less if you use public charging.

2400 a month is astronomical. Are you sure that's not a year? 600 a week in fuel is articulated lorry territory!

bottar1

n97 mini wrote: »

As a very broad rule of thumb the Leaf costs a fifth the running costs of a regular car when charging at home exclusively. Less if you use public charging.

2400 a month is astronomical. Are you sure that's not a year? 600 a week in fuel is articulated lorry territory!

Haha I meant a year.