Phoenix metro-area

[leafkabob]

I was driving west on Camelback Road at 42nd Street Friday night when a Black Leaf honked as it passed me in the next lane. I was driving like a granny and they were driving like they stole it. I never did quite catch up the it before it eventually went north on 16th Street as I continued west.

Anyone from this forum?

 

[Volusiano]

Do we know if there's going to be anything interesting for Leaf owners to see at the AZ Mills drive tour they're having this weekend? Or is it pretty much going to be the same as the one set up last year in Tempe?

 

[phxsmiley]

It sounds like we get a T-shirt, from the email invitation they sent. But I was curious enough to go, to see if there was more. And, it looks like perhaps we may meet a couple of other Leaf owners also!

 

[LEAFfan]

I saw a woman driving a blue LEAF on Main St. going W in E Mesa tonight. I was driving in the middle lane and she whooshed past me in the left lane. I maintained my speed and caught up at the light and we waved to each other. Anyone on here?

 

[TickTock]

I am going to shoot for Sunday ...would love to connect with other owners.

I plan to participate on Sunday as well.

Not sure how much of a crowd there will be, but if there are a lot, it might be nice if forum participants also put their forumID on any name tags we are provided so we can put a face on some of the people we are interacting with.

 

[mark13]

I was thinking of going to that event in the early afternoon and then going to a ASU game at 3pm..I have never used a public charger..Do they take debit cards or charge cards?..Ohh it would have to be a lvl 3 charger also,have they even installed one in AZ..

I wonder if I could make it up and back from 151 ave Deervalley ?

 

[phxsmiley]

The Blink public chargers are free, but require a Blink RFID card to activate the charger. The Nissan dealers in the valley have chargers also, and Power Nissan is about 3 miles south of the Arizona Mills mall, around Elliot/I10. There are 2 Blink Chargers at Monti's on Mill Ave at ASU also, but not sure it's good etiquette to leave your car there and go to a game...

 

[danscottphx]

No level 3 (DC fast chargers) yet in AZ that I know of. Anyone want to see about installing some of Nissan's new $16,000 chargers in South Phoenix/Chandler, Picacho/Eloy/Casa Grande, and Marana/North Tucson?

 

[LEAFfan]

No level 3 (DC fast chargers) yet in AZ that I know of.

Yes, there are two QCs almost ready to go 'live' to the public. They are located at the ECOtality building in Phoenix, Lincoln and 3rd Ave./Buchanan St. It should be any day now. I guess you missed the posts about them.

 

[turbo2ltr]

Heading over to AZ Mills for the drive event..

 

[SilverLeaf]

I was at the event yesterday afternoon. Yes, they do have T-shirts for owners, and a 'stash' of goodies (food). The entire staff treated me like royalty. Definitely a worthwhile trip. Almost makes us feel like a rockstar

 

[mark13]

Well according to MSM maps,its 45 miles to the mall,thats 90 miles round trip...I dont know the traffic lighting system so i can not time the lights,that takes away my hypermiling and spare 30-40 miles I would have.. I see the ASU game is also on TV,last week they said no TV,I could record it.. ...Im in a thinking moment now..
If i get lost trying to find the mall that would take away miles also..

I think 2 years from now I will not need to worry about running out of charge,most major malls will all have chargers..

 

[turbo2ltr]

They have chargers there you can use as well!

 

[TickTock]

Good to know! I'll be there in the morning and it is nice to know I can take the freeway at a more natural pace instead of hyper-miling it across the valley. Any level one chargers?

 

[Volusiano]

I stopped by the drive event tonight around 6PM. Attendance traffic was very light (probably due to dinner time). I asked if they had a Quick Charger that I can try out on my car. They said they have one but it wasn't set up. What a bummer. I don't know why they brought it with but not bother set it up. That was the main reason why I wanted to stop by. Did anybody here happen to stop by during the time that they had it set up (assuming they ever had it set up at all)?

One question I asked them about the battery pack is how does the thermal blanket for the battery in the 2012 weather package affect the hot battery in AZ weather. Doesn't it trap the heat in and not allow it to dissipate more quickly? They said the thermal blanket keeps the heat in the battery in colder weather, but keeps the heat out in hotter AZ weather. OK, I buy that if the internal battery temperature is lower than outdoors temperature. But once the battery heats up above outdoors summer temperature (>110F, for example), then I still think it's gonna take the battery longer to cool down. So I still think that the thermal blanket is still more hurtful than helpful for hot weather areas like AZ.

 

[TickTock]

One question I asked them about the battery pack is how does the thermal blanket for the battery in the 2012 weather package affect the hot battery in AZ weather. Doesn't it trap the heat in and not allow it to dissipate more quickly? They said the thermal blanket keeps the heat in the battery in colder weather, but keeps the heat out in hotter AZ weather. OK, I buy that if the internal battery temperature is lower than outdoors temperature. But once the battery heats up above outdoors summer temperature (>110F, for example), then I still think it's gonna take the battery longer to cool down. So I still think that the thermal blanket is still more hurtful than helpful for hot weather areas like AZ.

I was able to compute the battery internal resistance to be only 70 mOHms from my data logs. At that level, there really isn't a lot of heat being generated by the battery. I remember reading that the battery chemistry is endothermic during discharge so it is quite possible that the battery doesn't heat up during driving. In fact, being an engineer for another large company that tends to over-engineer everything, I would be surprised if the battery internal resistance wasn't deliberatly tuned to to keep the temperature constant during heavy use (I know we would). If so, the insulation makes a lot of sense for both AZ and VT.

 

[Volusiano]

One question I asked them about the battery pack is how does the thermal blanket for the battery in the 2012 weather package affect the hot battery in AZ weather. Doesn't it trap the heat in and not allow it to dissipate more quickly? They said the thermal blanket keeps the heat in the battery in colder weather, but keeps the heat out in hotter AZ weather. OK, I buy that if the internal battery temperature is lower than outdoors temperature. But once the battery heats up above outdoors summer temperature (>110F, for example), then I still think it's gonna take the battery longer to cool down. So I still think that the thermal blanket is still more hurtful than helpful for hot weather areas like AZ.

I was able to compute the battery internal resistance to be only 70 mOHms from my data logs. At that level, there really isn't a lot of heat being generated by the battery. I remember reading that the battery chemistry is endothermic during discharge so it is quite possible that the battery doesn't heat up during driving. In fact, being an engineer for another large company that tends to over-engineer everything, I would be surprised if the battery internal resistance wasn't deliberatly tuned to to keep the temperature constant during heavy use (I know we would). If so, the insulation makes a lot of sense for both AZ and VT.

Thanks for sharing this info. If that's the case, I'm glad to hear.

 

[Volusiano]

By the way, I stopped by and charged (very briefly) at Monti's by ASU yesterday. Today I remember somebody said that if you plug in at a public station, your Leaf will "register" this spot into memory. I just checked my posted stations and I didn't see any location posted for Monti's at all. Did I have to do something when I was at Monti's to "post" it on my Leaf?

Can you manually add one in just by typing in an address or something?

 

[turbo2ltr]

Every time I plugged into a charger, it remembered it. I didn't do anything special.

 

[EVDRIVER]

You must set it to auto add.