New owner intro

Just bought a new 2017 Leaf S with the 6.6W charger upgrade. I've been looking at these for a few years but was previously put off by all the extra fees when the bottom line was tallied up. Turns out our local electric company (Excel) had a $10k rebate in place and had extended it from the original June 30 expiration to July 31. Somehow, I found out about this on Friday July 28, thought about it over the weekend and then drove down to Tynan's Nissan after reading about them here. They had the exact model (S + 6.6W charger) in the exact color (blue) that I wanted right on the lot so I bought it on the spot. I had previously test driven a Leaf up here in Boulder so I knew I wanted one.

Went back yesterday to pick it up, dodged an extension ladder on the freeway while driving home at dusk (was looking at all the cool gauges too much and saw it at the last moment :shock: ) and have to say I really love it. My commute is about 10 miles one way so I'll probably go home tonight and come back tomorrow before charging it for the first time. There is a 4-bay L2 charger here at work so for now I'm not even planning to charge at home although I'll probably plug it into the wall once it gets cold.

Looking forward to learning even more and I have to say thanks to all the active members for sharing your knowledge as I've already learned a lot here. I'm an EE so the charging stuff is pretty basic for me and I've been using Li batteries on my bike lights for years so I'm familiar with their behavior, care and feeding. I've done a lot of wrenching on my ICE cars but I have to say they look primitive now in comparison.

Hope to be able to contribute something in the future once I'm up to speed on things. I'm looking at the OBDII apps and adapters at the moment since I like to tinker but I'm still low on the learning curve with most of this stuff.

Congratulations on your purchase and welcome to the forum.

Congrats!!! We just bought one too and picked it up today Dark blue Leaf S with the quick charge. Drove it off the lot today and love it!

T

Congrats to the OP and also to tanyaviola for their new purchases.

To the OP: regarding workplace charging, make sure that you have at least a round trip's battery level left when you leave the home each day. Reason for that is the workplace units could all be occupied, ICEd (occupied by non EV's), or worst of all broken, and if you let the battery get too low you might not have enough charge to get back home. With a 10 mile one way commute you can definitely stick with L1 (120 volt) charging at home, providing you have an outlet near the car's parking space that is robust and not shared with any other high-wattage appliances.

Suggestion.. If you are relying on public charging, then you may need to have a 20 ft. (or more) j1772 extension cable. If a car is blocking the charger, you would be able to park quite a distance from the charger, and not let imbeciles leave you stranded. I have a nice EMOTORWERKS extension cord I got for $200, and there are better and longer ones at the $3-400 level.

I think every Leaf owner should have one. Very cheap insurance against getting stranded. You can even use that as an extension cord for your OEM Leaf 120v charger...

powersurge said:

Suggestion.. If you are relying on public charging, then you may need to have a 20 ft. (or more) j1772 extension cable. If a car is blocking the charger, you would be able to park quite a distance from the charger, and not let imbeciles leave you stranded. I have a nice EMOTORWERKS extension cord I got for $200, and there are better and longer ones at the $3-400 level.

I think every Leaf owner should have one. Very cheap insurance against getting stranded. You can even use that as an extension cord for your OEM Leaf 120v charger...

Click to expand...

Somebody should make a parody Mentos commercial regarding being ICEd and being able to get around this using a J1772 extension cord while popping a Mentos.

I now carry a L-1772 extension cord in the OEM EVSE bag, and the EVSE in the spare tire compartment under the false floor, right under a hinged "door." Hopefully with my Leaf 2 all I'll need is the extension.