Need buying advice Phoenix!!

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

hpoulter

Member
Joined
Mar 1, 2017
Messages
16
Hey all, I've been lurking in the forums for a bit. I am looking to buy a 2014 Nissan Leaf S with the 6.6KW charger, DC fast charge port. The car is from Southern California and still shows 12 bars. Hoping to pull the trigger on this in the next few days as its coming off lease and is incredibly cheap at the moment but I have a few concerns.

1) What kind of range are Phoenix area Leaf owners seeing on their 2014 Leafs? This leads to my second concern below


2) I drive 90 miles a day round trip currently and I want to ensure that in the next 3-4 years I can still drive this distance in the leaf. I have access to a level 1 120 volt charger at work. I am at work for approx 8.5-9hrs a day. I will also be installing a level 2 charger in my garage. So I would be driving 45 miles in the morning from 4:45 am to 5:30 am and then 45 miles home at approximately 2:30-3pm daily. When I arrive at work we have 12-14 charging stations and none are in use yet so I am not worried about charging the car at work as I will always be there before anyone else. I also work a few minutes from a fast charger at Pinnacle Nissan and my house is 10-15 mins from a fast charger at Auto Nation Nissan in Chandler and there are an additional 2-3 fast chargers on my route home. So am I pushing it to close to the max range everyday or should I be fine? I have a second car that I drive for long distances/weekends. My interest in the Leaf is just to commute back and forth to work. I spend $216 a month on gas currently and the leaf would save me a lot of money vs the car I am currently driving.

I have read all the info on what to look for (Dc fast charger, level 2 charging port) how to check the batteries using leaf spy and an OBDII tester, etc.. Is there anything else to watch out for?
 
So your 12-14 charger stations at work are only L1 :? or they just 120v outlets? If the first are you sure they are only L1, never heard of a L1 charging station. Either way I believe you should be fine with 8hrs of charging at work, even L1. Note if they are just outlets do you know the amperage? If a 20a outlet you could purchase a $299(or less) 16a L2/L1 portable EVSE that would give you faster charging than the OEM 12a Leaf EVSE.
Again I see no problem even with the OEM EVSE but a 16a model would give you more room for stops after work or a shorter charge time.
Another option for the short term, with the use of something like a Quick220 you can plug into 2 different 120v outlets and get yourself 240v(or probably 208v in commercial outlets) and with that you'd probably get your battery back to 100% with no problems as at 16a @208v you get about 15%/hr charge rate, 7hrs and you'd be back to 100% even with a totally discharged battery which you should never see.
 
Yes it's a 120 volt outlet at work. I don't know the amperage but I can find out tomorrow. That quick 220 is genius!!! What portable 16amp charger do you recommend? I don't think I could use the quick 220 at work as I'd be hogging two charging stations but I could definitely use it at home until I get a L2 installed at home. Depending on the breaker that's on the 120 outlet in my garage.
 
So your 12-14 charger stations at work are only L1 :? or they just 120v outlets? If the first are you sure they are only L1, never heard of a L1 charging station.

L-1 charging stations exist. In fact, the Clipper Creek L-1 I bought as a refurb from Ebay 3 years ago just died.
 
LeftieBiker said:
So your 12-14 charger stations at work are only L1 :? or they just 120v outlets? If the first are you sure they are only L1, never heard of a L1 charging station.

L-1 charging stations exist. In fact, the Clipper Creek L-1 I bought as a refurb from Ebay 3 years ago just died.
I was thinking more of a commercial L1 station, one you'd pull up to and charge.
OP, The Quick 220v device is nice to use in a pinch but they aren't for everyone. They won't work on GFI outlets(which often times outside outlets are, for sure commercial ones) and both circuits need to be mostly free of other loads, for sure larger loads.
The cheaper 16a EVSE I used to recommend(and I have, the Ebusbar) seems to be no longer available. Amazon, Ebay and even 2 members on MNL sell very similar 16a L1/L2 EVSEs, most places sell them for $299 but the guys on MNL often times discount them to around $250. Note these EVSEs come with a 240v plug and to use them on 120v you need an adapter plug, a female plug on one end thats the same as the male on the EVSE, a small piece of 12g wire and a male 120v plug on the other end. Both the guys selling on MNL also sell adapter plugs already built if you don't like to DIY, expect to pay several times the cost of the parts for the convenience of purchasing a custom made adapter cable.
Lastly, these EVSEs will charge at 16a 120v so make sure the outlet you plan on plugging into is 20a, a 15a breaker would blow in short time with 16a.
 
Another question the 2014 Nissan Leaf S I'm looking at has 41,000 miles on it. The battery ahr in Leaf spy is 55.6 and the SOH is 85% but it's showing 12 bars. That seems off to me? The range says 72 miles with a 99% charge. Is this good?
 
jjeff said:
So your 12-14 charger stations at work are only L1 :? or they just 120v outlets? If the first are you sure they are only L1, never heard of a L1 charging station.

Although the OP meant he or she has access to a 120 volt outlet, there have been commercial public EVSE's that are L1 only. Many older ChargePoint commercial EVSEs which look like they can only accommodate one plug-in car actually can accommodate two. In addition to the visible J1772 handle and cable which is an L2 connection, behind a silver door below the display screen is an additional 120 volt outlet. When you scan your card for access, if you push on that door it will open up for you.

7e7f5b_1cdb4b81bb7a472b9b914aba8e6ddaab.jpg_srz_2592_1936_85_22_0.50_1.20_0.00_jpg_srz


You know if a particular ChargePoint station has this feature if it has that silver door and the J1772 holster is labeled "2" (the hidden 120 volt outlet is "1").

Personally I think for workplace charging L1 is better for most employees than L2. Most of the time you're at work for 6-12 hours a day, so unless you have a pure electric and you arrive at work with a low SoC remaining that should be sufficient to get you back home again. It allows for more cars to be plugged in simultaneously and a standard 120 volt grounded outlet is far cheaper than a dedicated EVSE.
 
hpoulter said:
Another question the 2014 Nissan Leaf S I'm looking at has 41,000 miles on it. The battery ahr in Leaf spy is 55.6 and the SOH is 85% but it's showing 12 bars. That seems off to me? The range says 72 miles with a 99% charge. Is this good?

The first bar is worth 15%, the remaining ones are 6.25% each. So if it's at 85% it's on the verge of losing that first bar.

You can't go by the Distance to Empty gauge, aka the "Guess-O-Meter" to judge battery health, as it relies on only very recent driving behavior to come up with its calculations. If the car was only driven on the dealer lot it will have a high miles/kWH calculation as opposed to one driven at real speeds.

Also some unscrupulous dealers will reset the car's computer to make it show 12 bars, but eventually the gauge will reflect the actual SoH and by that time you likely will have lost any return window opportunity if allowed in your state.
 
Ok so I bought the car. I have an OBDII tester arriving tomorrow and I have a 5 day 250 mile period in which I can return the car. Is it possible to test the battery adequately using leaf spy in this period to know the true state of the batter? I am driving to work tomorrow (90 miles roundtrip 8 miles are surface streets the rest are all highway) and I will be at work at least 12 hours so I have plenty of time to charge it on a 120V charger.
 
Based upon the Leaf Spy numbers posted, the 2014 S you are considering is close to losing the first capacity bar. Since your work is near Pinnacle Nissan and home is in Chandler, I am guessing you will be driving on the freeways and it is probably a bit uphill on your way to work. If so, I think you would be fine with L2 charging at work, but will be marginal when the battery drops to 9 or 8 capacity bars with only L1 at work. You can probably make L1 work if you are willing to take surface streets one way to increase overall round trip efficiency once you lose battery capacity. Commercial QCs in the Phoenix area are rather expensive to use on a daily basis, but offer options to deal with occasional extra trips. Pinnacle does not charge for their QC (and they fully support the LEAF program--both of mine were purchased there), but the commercial units along your route would likely be about $7.00 per charge. You would also need to stick with Bridgestone Ecopia tires inflated to 44 psi to get the range you need to make this work. A 2016 with 30 kWh battery would give you a little more reserve to deal with the return trip.

You posted while I was typing. LEAF Spy Pro will give you good data on battery capacity by looking at the AHr, SOH, and Hx numbers on the screen that shows the cell-pair voltages.

Gerry
 
Gerry,

Leaf Spy Pro said that AHR was 55.6, SOH was 85 and the Hx was 83.6. Pinnacle Nissan is a few mins from my work, Auto Nation Nissan in Chandler has a fast charger as well. From Auto Nation Nissan Chandler it is 8.7 miles to my house (I live right near Power Ranch). I am installing an L2 charger within the next week or so.

I drove 23 miles tonight from the dealer to home. When I left the dealer the battery was at 94-95% and when I arrived at home it was at 69%. That was 19 highway miles going 70mph and 4 miles of surface driving going 50mph. I will monitor the battery over the next 220 miles or so with Leaf Spy pro and see how things go.

My home is at 1,200ft elevation and my work is at 700ft elevation so its downhill.

Forgot to mention that we have 12-14 120 volt chargers at work currently, and they are about to install another 12-14. I am going to petition the Engineer responsible for the project to install more chargers and hopefully I can convince them to put in 220V outlets so I can get one of those portable L2 chargers for work.
 
cwerdna said:
jjeff said:
never heard of a L1 charging station.
http://www.powerpostevse.com/products.html
Interesting, you guys were more on the cutting edge than my area where we've only recently started getting public EVSEs and all have been 30a 240v L2. If we have 120v work outlets they are mainly meant for plugging in your ICE when the temps get below zero to heat the engine block, of course the same 120v outlets would work just fine for EV charging albeit 120v and I'd probably not charge over 12a although I suppose they could be setup for 20a(16a continuous).
 
Back
Top