Driving off with the Charger still connected..oppps

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jopeters

Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2011
Messages
17
Just curious does the Nissan Leaf have a something (like not being able to turn on your car) if you charger is still plug in?
I see myself or my wife doing this one day. Has this ever happened to anyone?
 
You can start the car when plugged in, but you can't put it into drive or reverse. However, you CAN put it into neutral AND let the handbrake off, so watch for that if you have a garage floor or driveway on a slope!
 
mwalsh said:
You can start the car when plugged in, but you can't put it into drive or reverse. However, you CAN put it into neutral AND let the handbrake off, so watch for that if you have a garage floor or driveway on a slope!

Thanks for the info, I was hoping Nissan did something to prevent that from happening.
 
mwalsh said:
You can start the car when plugged in, but you can't put it into drive or reverse. However, you CAN put it into neutral AND let the handbrake off, so watch for that if you have a garage floor or driveway on a slope!


"Start" or "Turn on" not that it matters but I thought it only went to ACC not full on.
 
EVDRIVER said:
"Start" or "Turn on" not that it matters but I thought it only went to ACC not full on.

I'll double check tonight. I know you can put your foot brake and hit the power button once, just as you would do if you were starting the car. But I don't recall exactly what happens when you try to select D or R. By that I mean I don't know if it beeps at you like when you're in the real ACC mode.
 
OK, what happens is when you start with your foot on the brake while plugged in you get a "fakey" version where it does seem to drop you into ACC, in that you get the same audible beeps when you try to select D and R. You also get a message in the dash "Can't Start While Plugged In", or something real close to that. However, it does let you select N (actually it puts you directly into N when you try to select D or R), you can let the hand-brake off, and the car will roll if on an incline.
 
smkettner said:
What if the LEAF is already running and in gear to go. Someone plugs you in.... does that disable the car?


And you drive off over that person who plugged you in or you missed them doing it:) I think the safety features are more than adequate for intelligent folks, even those half awake.
 
smkettner said:
What if the LEAF is already running and in gear to go. Someone plugs you in.... does that disable the car?

the car does not charge. i thought my Carwings was defective as it was not detecting and saving charging points. but i was just pulling up. plugging in and recording GPS data and then unplugging and moving on while leaving car on.

it was not till i got to my 4th station that i realized the other ones were not on the list.
 
Definitely a design error. As mwalsh point out, when the car is plugged in you can put it in neutral, which will result in a problem if the car is parked on an incline. The bigger problem is that the car will go automatically slip into neutral if you try to put it in gear. This means that if someone starts the car when it's plugged in, and slips it into reverse, then if the car is on an incline, which is very common since for flood prevention most houses are raised above street level, then it can roll right down the incline and result in a nasty repair job at best and a bad accident at worst.

That's just really a bad design. People will try to drive with the car plugged in. Guaranteed. If the car is plugged in then there shouldn't be any way to get it out of Park which, BTW, seems to be the spec.
 
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