Other Leafs in Iowa?

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Psyclonus

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 31, 2013
Messages
53
Location
Omaha, NE
We've had our Leaf about three weeks, in Cedar Falls, Iowa. I saw a newspaper article that mentioned there were 39 others in the state before we bought ours, and at least one more in our county, but I've yet to see one in the wild, or find any place to charge here other than the Nissan dealer... Are there any other Iowans lurking here in the forum? :)

http://wcfcourier.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/iowa-dot-jumps-costs-for-electric-car/article_81f49d90-8e4d-5bb5-be8a-bdf496670827.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
Congrats! I hope to double the number of Level II chargers in the area next week. Cedar Rapids would be within Leaf distance if I could find something to do near a level 2 charger for 5 hours... :)

There is a charger in downtown Waterloo, but not sure if it is public yet or what, working on finding out...
 
Cool. Not really much to do here in Cedar Rapids especially for 5 hours unless you made a movie day of it. The only L2 chargers I'm aware of here in Cedar Rapids is one at the Nu Beau (could be spelled wrong) market, a couple at electrical companies, one at Kirkwood Hotel, and the one at the dealership. None really near a movie theater.
 
Level dos charger at the Nissan stealership here in Des Moines. No L3s around that I'm aware of.
 
How's the other Leaf's doing in Iowa? I'm really enjoying driving mine around. The heater really sucks alot of power with this cold that lurking around way to long. I'm also charging off the L1 cord included with the vehicle, L2 would be so much nicer, but will have to save a little money to get my evse modified. Are you guys charging L1 or L2?
 
We went the first 5-6 weeks on just Level 1, and it was fine for our use, as we only live a couple miles from work, there were only one or two times on the weekend when we had run the battery pretty far down and had to wait a bit before venturing out of town. We just had a GE Wattstation installed in the garage, and are on Plugshare, in case you're ever in Cedar Falls and want to charge up. :) This was definitely a "luxury" type of thing though, I don't think we really "needed" the Level 2 EVSE, but I do now only charge to 80%, whereas I was doing 100% before, simply because it took so long...

The single-digit degree days are absolute killers on the battery, definitely. The biggest limitation is that there really aren't enough Level 2 chargers around to take our car much out of town, so we're mostly confined to Cedar Falls/Waterloo/Waverly for our driving. Cedar Rapids will be in range when it warms up, but I'd need to find something to do for several hours near a Level 2 EVSE for it to make any sense. My family is from the Clear Lake area, but making it to the dealer in Mason City would be a nail-biting range trip, I think, and the Kwik Trip in Charles City has only a 120 outlet for their EV charging station, so the idea of sitting there for 2-3 hours to add enough range to guarantee me getting to Mason City...where I wait another 2-3 hours to add more range would turn a 2 hour trip into an 8 hour trip, and isn't really all that appealing. I'll just have to rent a second ICE vehicle for when my wife and I both need to be out of town on the same weekend.

I have written a few local businesses and groups advocating for some more EVSEs to be installed. Was actually surprised to get phone calls and emails back from almost all of them, was called by a VP from Hy-Vee who said they'd put some in at their store in Des Moines, but that they had seen very little use so they were not really wanting to expand at this time (which is fair). While I'd love to see more EVSEs around the area, quick chargers along Hwy 20, I-35, 380, 218, etc. would be faaaar more useful to me. So far, College Square Mall in Cedar Falls has said that their company is considering putting EVSEs at all their malls, which I would definitely use, as at least the movie theater is there, but it's not so far from the house that range is really an issue...
 
It's been a while since anyone has posted in the Iowa room. I'm just seeing if we have any new members and/or Leafs in Iowa? I know the 13 model has been out for a while which is what I originally wanted but I couldn't afford the payment so I took a 2012. So is there any new leaf owners in Iowa?
 
Well I actually just saw for the first time yesterday 5/16 another Leaf driving in Cedar Rapids right in front of me. His was white, mine is grey. It was kind of funny that we ended up being together going down the road. Not sure if the other driver is on here or not, but I don't see to many other Leafs around here.
 
I had to take our 2012 Silver SL in to be looked at for hail damage by State Farm yesterday. $1555 was their damage estimate. :( Most of the adjusters working had never seen a LEAF before, so they spent about 20 minutes asking me questions before they priced out the damage. Then this morning, as I stopped at a convenience store to grab some soda to take to work, I came out to find someone waiting by the car who wanted to ask me questions, though he said he was planning on getting a Volt, not a LEAF, due to the range limitation.

I'm starting to feel like I should just carry an FAQ around in my car to hand out to people, as even the insurance guys had to ask me THREE TIMES if it really didn't use any gas.
 
Surprisingly I haven't really had too many people asking about mine yet. Maybe that's because they don't know it's all electric even though it has the zero emision, no tailpipe, and a weird small hood thing on the front (aka the charge port) which are all clues but I guess not to everyone. It's kind of funny with the story about State Farm. My wife actually works at a body shop as a detailer and she drove my car to work one day cause she was out of gas in her car. Everyone at work was like "what the hell is that"? They had no idea and they work at a body shop fixing damaged cars all day. Granted it is a dealership body shop which is not our local Nissan Dealer, but you would think being a Dealer body shop they would know what one is. $1,500 is quite a bit for hail damage. Must have taken quite a beating which sucks.
 
It's been a while since there's been any activity in the Iowa area. Any New owners in Iowa? I know we aren't a prime selling area, but I guess I figured there would be at least a few. Maybe they just aren't on here?
 
Cool. Welcome BlueZero. Did you buy from Dave Wright Nissan? That's where I leased mine. I won't buy it, strictly a lease for me. Haven't seen yours around. I have a '12 Silver SL. I'm all over town so you might have seen me, but I live on the NW side of Cedar Rapids.
 
I'm wondering does the owner of a Black Leaf that must go to the Tama casino frequent these forums? I always see a black leaf parked in the old K-Mart parking lot off of 16Th Ave where the bus picks up the gamblers off to Tama.
 
Am I the only one that posts from Iowa? Come on there has to be others. Anyways has any other leaf owner ventured up to Shellsburg? According to plugshare, there is a Quick Charging station there. I've been tempted to make the drive myself just to see but I haven't yet. Has anyone else and can verify that there really is one there and it actually works?
 
I live in Treynor, Iowa. I haven't seen any other leafs here on this side. I have seen a few in Omaha though. You all might want to take a look at the thread 900 mile Christmas trip. I'm going to be completing that marathon Christmas week. Going to come up through Des Moines and up to Humboldt (just north of Fort Dodge)
 
IraqiInvaderGnr said:
I live in Treynor, Iowa. I haven't seen any other leafs here on this side. I have seen a few in Omaha though. You all might want to take a look at the thread 900 mile Christmas trip. I'm going to be completing that marathon Christmas week. Going to come up through Des Moines and up to Humboldt (just north of Fort Dodge)


Yeah I read your trip idea of 900 miles. I think your crazy in a Leaf, but wish you the best of luck. I'm uncomfortable even planning a trip to Des Moines and back which would be roughly 250-260 miles round trip. I have taken mine to Coraville and back a few times, but I'm not willing to push the range that far. I do have the upgraded EVSE from EVSEUpgrade but with a 2012 model and a 3.3 charger, my charge times are still longer than the 2013. I have actually seen a few others. I know that black one I mentioned before is running around, I've also seen a Blue one and a White one. There was one time that a guy came off the interstate and with the luck of the stoplights was right in front of me in a Leaf exactly the same as mine, so there were two leafs right in front of each other one being mine.
 
CRLeafSL said:
Yeah I read your trip idea of 900 miles. I think your crazy in a Leaf, but wish you the best of luck. I'm uncomfortable even planning a trip to Des Moines and back which would be roughly 250-260 miles round trip. I have taken mine to Coraville and back a few times, but I'm not willing to push the range that far. I do have the upgraded EVSE from EVSEUpgrade but with a 2012 model and a 3.3 charger, my charge times are still longer than the 2013. I have actually seen a few others. I know that black one I mentioned before is running around, I've also seen a Blue one and a White one. There was one time that a guy came off the interstate and with the luck of the stoplights was right in front of me in a Leaf exactly the same as mine, so there were two leafs right in front of each other one being mine.
There must be plenty of them in CR area by now. Last time I wanted to charge at New Bo market both places were used by Leafs! I had to wait few hours before I could go home :)
 
You all got all kinds of charging stations. Wish Omaha did. It's good that they're catching on there (leafs and charging stations). Platesmouth just south of Omaha built a new hyvee with a charging station. Going to check this weekend and see if it's up and running.
 
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