dwl
Well-known member
My name is Donald and I live in a rural area 35km north of the capital city Wellington. I have had a long term interest in EVs but only last week made the step to EV ownership with a 2014 S grade import from Japan. I trained in Electrical Engineering, with a focus on telecommunications, and I will use the car to commute into Wellington.
This forum is a fantastic resource and helped me with my purchase. The following are my observations which may be of interest to some:
The situation with Nissan and the Leaf in NZ is fragmented. The Nissan dealers have been selling new Gen1 which were recently sourced from the Australian market. These were in English although the GPS wasn't loaded with NZ maps. There was a new car warranty which I believe included the Nissan battery warranty.
In parallel we have had several enthusiastic importers who have been bringing in mostly Japanese domestic market (the UK sourced models are more expensive). We are now seeing a lot more Gen2 (2012-2015) with some Gen1 still being landed to provide a lower cost option. These imports stay with the Japanese central console for the higher grade G and X models but the lowest spec S which has no car functions there are often swapped out for NZ radio and GPS making them less daunting for buyers but missing out on higher features.
When I asked the Nissan dealers over a year ago whether they would service the imports, it was a clear no. In addition there is no battery warranty on imports so it is a riskier purchase. This hasn't stopped a lot of buyers with the registration stats up to 30th Nov 2015 showing 236 used imports compared to 86 new. There are currently nearly 50 used Leafs being advertised, either on dealer lots or en route from Japan.
Recently the supply of the new Gen1 dried up and a few Nissan dealers have started to import used from Japan. They have also agreed to service imports although the cost of repairs for complex work is an unknown. Service is currently limited to major centres. There still seems to be some tension between the independent importers and Nissan dealers which hopefully will die down as the market matures.
Purchasing an import was a bit stressful without any traction battery warranty. I relied on LeafSpy for SOH and all the four Gen2 cars I looked at were 95% or better. I asked the Nissan dealer what sort of battery report they could give and it ended up as the 5 star health report which didn't seem that useful. Once I made my decision and took the car home, the first cycles were a bit worrying as there is a lot of shunting (only 14-17mV difference) and a run down to VLBW had LeafSpy reporting 82mV difference but saying all cells OK. I will probably continue to worry a bit about but all I can do is cross fingers and try and mostly use 80% charge (which luckily is giving enough range). These imports have probably sat with high charge for several months (had 91.4% on the lot).
Charging infrastructure is very limited but there is now some momentum to roll out fast chargers with the first for Wellington (our capital city
) due in about a month. With 240V supply, charge times at home are good but only if you get a EVSE that works at higher current Earlier Gen1 Nissan EVSE supplied from Japan with the car were rated for 200V and needed modification. Dealers are offering 240V certified EVSE which may be additional cost.
My first longer trip today over some local hills with summit at 550 metres (1800') so decision point at top whether to carry on - had 62% so pushed down to other side. Total distance just over 100 km with the hills crossed twice and arrived home with 28% so very happy. I fully expect range to slowly decrease as it ages but seem to have enough margin for now for our rural location.
The local EV community is great (NZ EV Owners at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1399474043653239/) and several businesses are growing around EVs such as https://bluecars.nz/ who rent EVs.
Keep up the good work and thanks for the efforts.
This forum is a fantastic resource and helped me with my purchase. The following are my observations which may be of interest to some:
The situation with Nissan and the Leaf in NZ is fragmented. The Nissan dealers have been selling new Gen1 which were recently sourced from the Australian market. These were in English although the GPS wasn't loaded with NZ maps. There was a new car warranty which I believe included the Nissan battery warranty.
In parallel we have had several enthusiastic importers who have been bringing in mostly Japanese domestic market (the UK sourced models are more expensive). We are now seeing a lot more Gen2 (2012-2015) with some Gen1 still being landed to provide a lower cost option. These imports stay with the Japanese central console for the higher grade G and X models but the lowest spec S which has no car functions there are often swapped out for NZ radio and GPS making them less daunting for buyers but missing out on higher features.
When I asked the Nissan dealers over a year ago whether they would service the imports, it was a clear no. In addition there is no battery warranty on imports so it is a riskier purchase. This hasn't stopped a lot of buyers with the registration stats up to 30th Nov 2015 showing 236 used imports compared to 86 new. There are currently nearly 50 used Leafs being advertised, either on dealer lots or en route from Japan.
Recently the supply of the new Gen1 dried up and a few Nissan dealers have started to import used from Japan. They have also agreed to service imports although the cost of repairs for complex work is an unknown. Service is currently limited to major centres. There still seems to be some tension between the independent importers and Nissan dealers which hopefully will die down as the market matures.
Purchasing an import was a bit stressful without any traction battery warranty. I relied on LeafSpy for SOH and all the four Gen2 cars I looked at were 95% or better. I asked the Nissan dealer what sort of battery report they could give and it ended up as the 5 star health report which didn't seem that useful. Once I made my decision and took the car home, the first cycles were a bit worrying as there is a lot of shunting (only 14-17mV difference) and a run down to VLBW had LeafSpy reporting 82mV difference but saying all cells OK. I will probably continue to worry a bit about but all I can do is cross fingers and try and mostly use 80% charge (which luckily is giving enough range). These imports have probably sat with high charge for several months (had 91.4% on the lot).
Charging infrastructure is very limited but there is now some momentum to roll out fast chargers with the first for Wellington (our capital city
) due in about a month. With 240V supply, charge times at home are good but only if you get a EVSE that works at higher current Earlier Gen1 Nissan EVSE supplied from Japan with the car were rated for 200V and needed modification. Dealers are offering 240V certified EVSE which may be additional cost.My first longer trip today over some local hills with summit at 550 metres (1800') so decision point at top whether to carry on - had 62% so pushed down to other side. Total distance just over 100 km with the hills crossed twice and arrived home with 28% so very happy. I fully expect range to slowly decrease as it ages but seem to have enough margin for now for our rural location.
The local EV community is great (NZ EV Owners at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1399474043653239/) and several businesses are growing around EVs such as https://bluecars.nz/ who rent EVs.
Keep up the good work and thanks for the efforts.
