Nissan Leaf - checking it out tonight

Does anyone know or can find out the details of the charging unit?
I currently live in 2 story apartment type townhouse. I'm on the 2nd floor and the park lot to my house (nearest outlet) will be about 60-80 feet. Do you know how long the charging unit is? Is there an extension that can be bought?

 

I also remember reading an article saying that the home chargers hook to a home's 220-volt power -- such as used for an electric clothes dryer... what if you don't have a 220 volt power outlet?

 

i dont plan to install the charger. i will use strictly 110.

 

How do you use it without charger?

 

cupidchild, we believe there will be an onboard 120V charger, however, if the Leaf is near empty, it will take a LONG time to charge. The math is:

120VAC * 20A * .80 Saftey Factor (to not overheat the circuit breaker) = 1920Watts, or 1.92KW per hour, and that is with a 20AMP circuit, for a 15AMP circuit, lower this amount by %25

the Leaf contains a 24KW pack, assuming no losses (there will be), do the math, 24KW / 1.92KW = 12.5 hours, for a full depleted battery. The battery will not be fully discharged, but there will also be charging losses, so you can figure 12-16 hours to recharge @ 120V, this is why they are recomending the 240V charger, at on either a 20A or 40A circuit...

Note: the home "fast charger" (2 to 4 hours), will cost $2200 to purchase and install, it can be installed outside, but it will require running a wire from the circuit breaker panel to it, this is the company tasked to do it: http://www.avinc.com/ev_charging/fleet

 

Great website~!
thanks.
So I assume $2200 (50% rebate) will include the installation?

Do you know the cost of re-installation? Its b/c I plan on moving several month after.

 

Yes, the $2200 is said to be for the charger & "normal" installation (whatever that means)

as far as relocation is concerned, we don't have those numbers yet, it all depends on how much labor there is I suppose, and how far a wire has to be run... Any electrician can remove/reinstall it.

 

yes, I saw the video. And if the car comes with 120 volt, i can just use that and run looong extension wire outside to my car~ ^_^
I hope that is possible.

 

yes, a long, 10 or 12 gauge (20-30AMP rated, as there will be "voltage drop" as you go longer and longer), you would be better off to have an outlet installed outdoors, to keep the length down to a normal 25-50' 12 gauge extension cord...

 

According to Allan, the 220-v "charger" is actually a surge protector. The charger itself is on-board.

Apartment dwellers are in a bad situation for electric cars. Lack of 220-v; long distances from plug to car (extension cords can be stolen or cut). Some apartments have garages, and it would be possible (with the landlord's approval, and at some expense) to run 220 v out to the garage, but might not be practical, and if you move you'd have to do it all over again.

Until charging stations become more common, EVs are probably not a convenient choice for apartment dwellers, or for people who have no garage and have to park on the street.

My step-sister lives in San Francisco. She owns a townhouse but has no garage and has to park on the street. She can never be certain of finding a parking spot in her own block, and almost never directly in front of her house. Until S.F. installs parking-meter type chargers on her block, or there is a fast-charging station nearby, she could never use an EV.

The time is coming, but it's not here yet.

Like Dave, you could use 110, assuming you have access to an outlet (my step-sister, mentioned above, does not) but you might find an EV an inconvenient choice without 220.

I predict that in 20 years all homes will have 440-v three-phase power and residential streets where garages are uncommon, as well as downtown areas and shopping center parking lots, will have credit-card-operated chargers. The entire grid will have two or three times its present capacity and we will be sealing the eventual radioactive doom of the planet with nuclear reactors to replace the petroleum which will be so depleted as to be prohibitively expensive. What I want to see is renewable energy, but I expect that big business will bribe politicians into taking the nuclear route instead.

 

u dont. the Leaf comes equipped to use 110, 220 and 440.

if 110 volt was not available, i would not buy it and i told them that over 2 years ago and they said 40% of people polled agreed with me.

as far as charging time. garages, laundry rooms, kitchens, etc. have to use GCFI circuits which basically run on a 20 amp circuit with 15 amp "pass thru" (dont know what the diff is here)

on my Zenn, it starts charging at around 16-16.5 amps and then usually within 30-45 mins starts to slowly trickle downwards. in 31 months of charging, i have never tripped the circuit one single time and my Zenn has arguably, the 2nd stupidest charging system made (talk to daniel if you would like to hear about the most stupidest)

i do not own my house, so i will not put anything in there that is permanent.

now Nissan has emphasized that if you move, you do not need to take the charger with you. they will simply install another one in your new house. this implies that Nissan is thinking the Leaf will be a runaway smash hit or the plug is pretty standard...

but using the math in the post above. the battery is dead, it takes 12 hours to charge. well, in my situation, i have opportunity charging including my employer (which could change?) right now so i can charge elsewhere. but i will rarely run it down that far (remember medium commute is like 35 miles??) so a recharge will usually take a few hours anyway. but at night when i park it, i am parking for nearly 12 anyway which is the estimated recharge from dead time

i also truly believe that a truly successful launch of an EV that fits the needs of the majority as the Leaf appears to be will create the necessary political pressure that EV charging stations and companies like BP will be able to flourish with a rollout much faster than people might expect.

 

I resemble that remark.

 

the poor grammar WAS intended by the way

 

Yes, that was obvious.

 

:focus:

Well . . . if they keep their word . . . only 4 more days until you can place a reservation. I don't see any line forming at either of the 2 nearby dealerships.

.

 

If they were selling the Leaf in four days, you bet that I would be in line.
No need to stand in line for a simple reservation.

 

The $99 deposit and reservation is being done online, not at Nissan dealers. They have not chosen which dealers in each area will be EV specialists, and they may not until they gauge the demand for the Leaf in each area. This is why the dealers seem clueless, as I'm sure Nissan doesn't want to get the dealers feathers ruffled, as there may be very few dealers in each area that are chosen.

 

not quite. they will start taking reservations by email invite only. so u get email, click link to respond.

they will be sending out email batches every few days for several weeks after the april 20th start. estimated time to complete email invite process is about a month.

so, if you do not get your invite on april 20th. be patient. u should have gotten a prelim email sometime during prior week (which should be today, give or take a few days. i got mine yesterday 4/16)

 

I'm in NJ. (East Coast)
Once Leaf is released in December and its likely that they won't have dealership that will have LEAF within 100 miles of where I leave.
IF that is the case, can they deliver the car to a Nissan dealer near me? Or do I have goto EV Leaf carrying dealership and then deliver the car to my house (via flatbed truck) myself?
What do you guys think?

 

See the New Leaf Information thread for an update. All the emails will go out on the 20th and there'll be a mad rush that will probably crash the web site.

I am sure they will not deliver the car to you. The Leaf customer service line (which has passed out a LOT of misinformation) said that anybody will be able to buy one, but only through a dealer in the selected markets. This means you'd have to pay for shipping, and in the case of service or warranty repairs, you'd be responsible to ship the car back or do the service/repair yourself out of warranty.

The above is my speculation, but there are reasons they are rolling out the car only in selected markets at first. There will be no dealers on the east coast, and they are not going to pay for shipping or provide service outside the selected markets.