Des Moines, Iowa LEAF Owners!

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IowaShocker

Active member
Joined
Sep 2, 2014
Messages
34
Greetings!!! I have had my 13 Black SV for a month now, and I LOVE IT! I have only met one other LEAF owner who lives in Huxley (he has 2!). I know there are others out there. I live in Ankeny, and I see another black LEAF charging at the Hy-Vee I visit every other day to charge my car, get groceries, and a couple drinks at the bar.

I know that Bandit Burrito in Ames has 2 (I think...or possibly 3) LEAF's for delivery vehicles, and I see a white LEAF here at the office complex I work at in West Des Moines.

Love to see if we could get the word out, and possibly all meet some weekend!

Ken
 
Ken, welcome to the world of Leaf! We have formed a group in Iowa to promote the adoption of EVs in our state; EVIowa! Most of our owners are in eastern Iowa but we'd love to find more Leaf owners all over the state. We are holding an event this weekend on Sunday, Oct. 19 in the Iowa City area. We will be offering test rides in a Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf, BMW i3 and Tesla Model S. Visit http://www.EVIowa.info" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; to learn more.
 
Thank you! Would love to drive over for it...but I am not finding any viable charging spots between here and Iowa City! But still a possibility!

Thank you for the link!!! Much appreciated!
 
Grinnell would be a perfect spot for all here in the Des Moines area...this would allow us to make trips to Iowa City and Cedar Rapids!
 
Yes indeed! It is perfect. I also have attended several environmental presentations in Grinnell over the years. Now, with my EV, I am really loathe to go anywhere I can't get to in the Leaf. But ... with no charger in Grinnell, I had to drive our Mini Cooper to Des Moines to attend a 2015 planning session for the Clean Cities Coalition. I would much rather have taken the Leaf! :D

I still have hope. They have a nice public library in Grinnell. I bet I could eventually get the Library to accept a Level 2 charger.
 
Do you have a contact you may have worked with? I can do my best campaigning for us LEAF'ers!

I actually have monthly meetings at a coffee shop in Grinnell....would love to take the LEAF!
 
I don't have a good contact. I emailed about 5 folks from the Grinnell college site on an environmental group and one contact that had set up a meeting on Climate Change in the library in Grinnell. Mostly, that got a pretty low interest sort of response. I think it is simply pretty early in Iowa to generate much enthusiasm for EV chargers. Cedar Rapids and Iowa City are both lucky that we have a few, pretty good options. A parking deck in Coralville (by shopping, dining and hotels) has eight Level 2 chargers. The mayor of Coralville is quite forward looking and active. We are holding our "EV owners test ride" event there this Sunday.

Ya know, it wouldn't have to cost that much to install a single, outdoor charger at a Library; maybe $1000? Seems like we could do some fund raising from area Nissan dealers, possibly Chevy dealers and get that kind of money together.
 
I am the Huxley owner you referred to in the initial post with two Leafs. I have a relative in Ankeny who also owns a Leaf. My boss has a Tesla and travels to Iowa City / Cedar Rapids frequently. I know that if some coffee shop / restaurant simply installed a basic 220V charger, we would both use it (and eat / drink there while waiting). The cost of electricity would be a fraction of what they would receive for food / drink. A basic charger is less than $800 - we'd probably help pool some money to get one purchased (of course, installation may be expensive, depending on where / how it's installed).
 
Sometime, maybe you could ask you boss if he'd like to connect with other EV owners in the state and send him over to http://www.EVIowa.info" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; to get plugged-into the community. :) I'd like to find a few Tesla owners that might wish to be involved with Iowa EVers.

I do think we could do some modest fund raising/pooling of our money and get a level 2 charger installed in Grinnell. Heck, Tesla has an active plan to install such chargers at places that make sense. The hard part I've had is getting a local property owner to even consider a donated EVSE.
 
I know there are several "crowd funding" options out there to raise quick money. The road block I see is getting the word out to all the Iowa City / Des Moines / Ames area EV owners. Maybe your web-site would be a good source? How many folks are you aware that know about these efforts?
 
We haven't found a way to get in touch with EV owners. The event we are holding this Sunday may flush out some. We'll see. We only have a list of about 10 EV owners so far. Pretty darn small! http://www.EVIowa.info" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
Trying to stir up some interest in the Iowa group. I'm considering buying a used LEAF to avoid the steep depreciation, then upgrade to a newer, used LEAF in 2-3 years. LOL

Hope to see more conversation here. I'm in Cedar Falls.

Sue C
 
SueC56 said:
Trying to stir up some interest in the Iowa group. I'm considering buying a used LEAF to avoid the steep depreciation, then upgrade to a newer, used LEAF in 2-3 years. LOL

Hope to see more conversation here. I'm in Cedar Falls.

Sue C

Please read this used Leaf buying guide, first.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=26662
 
We've seen some real horror stories about people buying Leafs with degraded batteries, and I wanted to try to prevent that. Feel free to share it, unaltered.
 
FOR SALE - 2016 Nissan LEAF SL 13k miles. (30 kW battery, EPA range 107, practical range 80 mi) , top trim level (leather, etc). Very good condition. 12 bars, battery rated at 87.5% state of health. Exterior Coulee Red, interior black. More Pictures coming soon..

Available: Mounted snow tire set with Tire Pressure Sensors. Used two winters. Paid over $1500 total for tires, wheels, sensors and mounting. Selling for $750.

2016 Nissan LEAF sales brochure
https://cdn.dealereprocess.net/cdn/brochures/nissan/2016-leaf.pdf Less
 
I bought a 2019 LEAF SL Plus with 4k miles on it for $29k at Wayzata Nissan (Twin Cities). And still eligible for Fed tax credit because they had never been registered to a private owner!

I was going to wait a couple of years, but I couldn't pass up that price combo.

Sue C
 
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