Confirmation needed: Level 3 quick charge only on the SL?

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mwalsh

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Leaf Supporting Member
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When I was choosing between the SV and the SL while making my reservation, I noticed quite distinctly it said that the quick charge feature was only available on the SL model, which is pretty much why I chose it. Could someone reconfirm this for me?

There is a bit of discussion on the Leaf Facebook page over whether that is so or not, and I'm pretty darn sure that's the way I remember it.
 
Straight from Fabiola on the Leaf chat...The port for a quick charge will be available only by request, for both SV and SL trim levels. There will be an extra charge for that but the exact $$ amount is not available yet. We will share that information as it becomes available
 
Thanks Randy! It's not the way I remember seeing it, but if that's the "party line" as of today, then I guess it is what it is. I sometimes get the feeling that Nissan is sort of making up as they go. Which is fine, I suppose.....at least it's forward momentum.
 
Randy said:
Straight from Fabiola on the Leaf chat...The port for a quick charge will be available only by request, for both SV and SL trim levels. There will be an extra charge for that but the exact $$ amount is not available yet. We will share that information as it becomes available

That would be a BIG mistake on Nissans part, without making the Level 3 DC charging port standard on every Leaf, Level 3 charging will go no where in the U.S. And, frankly I may not buy the Leaf without it, I do not want to be stuck with only the onboard 3.3KW/8 hour charge option.
 
Well, Nissan will have a problem advertising fast charging and not provind them with their base model. They may be hesitent because the standards are not set, though ...
 
I didn't recall seeing anything about the quick charge being included or not included. A google showed a screen-grab of the model selection page and it doesn't show any mention of it:
nissan_100310821_l.png
 
efusco said:
I didn't recall seeing anything about the quick charge being included or not included. A google showed a screen-grab of the model selection page and it doesn't show any mention of it


On my screen it was down under the lease price for the SL. Gosh, I wish I'd saved a copy of it now. or at least wish someone else who saw it would step forward. Or you're all going to get the impression I'm a mental!
 
I also recall seeing that the Level 3 Quick Charge option was only listed on the SL Model.

I am DEFINITELY not Crazy (Crazy People Don't Buy Leafs).
 
My application process didn't include any Level 3 charging text.

I suspect that level 3 charging is still in a bit of flux and that patience into July might be the best option before trying to figure out how the car will be configured. The SAE J1772 committee is scheduled to vote on how Level 3 will be implemented in the US late in June.

I strongly believe that there's enough 'handwriting on the wall' at this point to show that Level 3 will be the TEPCO/CHAdeMO system that's already used by Nissan, Mitsubishi, and Subaru in Japan, and that has made it to the US via CHAdeMO partner and technology licensee Aker Wake (who partnered with Coulomb in January).

In addition - all of the official Nissan literature and presentations seen in the wild (and conversations with Nissan folks during the cross-country tour) shows that Level 3 is part of the Leaf. From a cost perspective, car-side Level 3 support appears to be wiring - the more complex and expensive stuff is the on-board charger for Level 1 and 2 - so there doesn't appear to be a cost-saving aspect to leaving the connector off some cars.

Andy
 
During my reservation process, I selected the SV. Before I went to the next step, a message came up and mentioned the Quick-Charge connector was only on the SL and would I want to upgrade to SL? I switched to SL and noticed that the Quick-Charge wasn't mentioned in the additional options list for the SL.
Thought it was kinda weird but I agree with the earlier post that Nissan seems to be making up some of this stuff as it goes along.

They don't make this connector, and may not have had supplier agreements about pricing signed-off yet. So, the current pricing that Nissan was anticipating for this connector is not cheap by mass-market auto standards and it's one more place where they're trying to control costs. I'm sure the wiring is in place for the backup camera and solar panel on the SV as well. They were just clumsy in how they handled this feature on Apr 20. I hope and expect that by May 15-June 30 we'll learn that us early adopter types can switch colors, options and lease vs buy freely right up until sign-off.
 
sparky said:
During my reservation process, I selected the SV. Before I went to the next step, a message came up and mentioned the Quick-Charge connector was only on the SL and would I want to upgrade to SL? I switched to SL and noticed that the Quick-Charge wasn't mentioned in the additional options list for the SL.
Thought it was kinda weird but I agree with the earlier post that Nissan seems to be making up some of this stuff as it goes along.

They don't make this connector, and may not have had supplier agreements about pricing signed-off yet. So, the current pricing that Nissan was anticipating for this connector is not cheap by mass-market auto standards and it's one more place where they're trying to control costs. I'm sure the wiring is in place for the backup camera and solar panel on the SV as well. They were just clumsy in how they handled this feature on Apr 20. I hope and expect that by May 15-June 30 we'll learn that us early adopter types can switch colors, options and lease vs buy freely right up until sign-off.

I reserved the base model and got no such popup.

The "extras" listed for the SL didn't sound all that important to me, hence the decision to go with the base model. But I've had this nagging concern there will be other "little touches" on the final SL that weren't listed, like maybe nicer fabrics or other trim (I'm not interested in upholstery fabric made from woven seaweed or post consumer wood chips). I've been meaning to get back to Nissan and get some confirmation whether I can revise my decision once the final feature content of each version is specified.

At this point it almost seems like they are floating trial balloons on some of this stuff.
 
I also "reserved" the SL, and got no L3 message.

The L3 connector itself, in large-quantity purchases, should not be very expensive. The L3 communication, control, high-cutrent wiring, and the safety interlocks might already be in place, but could be more expensive than the single L3 connector.

We might be charged $400 for one connector at the service department, but in 25,000 quantity they might only cost $4 or so to make.
 
garygid said:
I also "reserved" the SL, and got no L3 message.

The L3 connector itself, in large-quantity purchases, should not be very expensive. The L3 communication, control, high-cutrent wiring, and the safety interlocks might already be in place, but could be more expensive than the single L3 connector.

We might be charged $400 for one connector at the service department, but in 25,000 quantity they might only cost $4 or so to make.

I guess I see now why they would have two connections, one for AC and one for DC charging: If the DC port is wired straight to the batteries and the AC (1772) port goes to the AC onboard charger wouldn't it take a monster relay (or two) to switch between them if you wanted to do it all through a single connection?
 
Yes and no. The J1772 standard calls for up to 9 separate pins in the connector, including two dedicated to AC and two dedicated to DC. (The others are for grounds and control/data communication.) But the Yazaki connector being used only has five of those pins, and does not include the DC pins.
 
Is the "9-pins" in some early version of (or proposal for) the J1772 standard?
Or, perhaps for the older "square" connector?

I believe the latest version has only 5 pins, one ground, two for AC power, and two for "control".

One control pin appears to tell the car that the EVSE is alive, and what maximum current is available. On the same wire, it appears that the car can signal at least "charging" (or "not"), by loading the signal line with a resistor (or not).

It appears that the second "control" line does not go to the EVSE at all, but just just provides "connector inserted" and "connector latched" indications from the plug to the car (done with one switch and simple resistive loads).
 
So it seems unclear where they are with the standards, but fundamentally you could apply a variety of voltages in either AC or DC through just two pins on a single connector as long as the handshaking tells the car what it's going to be getting. That process had better robust though so the car is damn sure what it's going to be getting. If there was a screwup in that process and the car closes the wrong relays it won't be pretty, for example applying 600V DC to the input of the AC charger, or applying 240V AC directly to the battery.
 
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