New Guy looking at possible LEAF purchase in NC

Hey all,

It is a pleasure to be here. Been reading up on all the very useful info on this site. Hope to join the EV club very soon

My wife and i are looking at a possible LEAF purchase in Mooresville, NC area soon.



I hope to learn more from all the knowledge and experience here as well.

Jim

Welcome,
Check out these threads!
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=1138
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=7081

jimelston said:

Hey all,

It is a pleasure to be here. Been reading up on all the very useful info on this site. Hope to join the EV club very soon

My wife and i are looking at a possible LEAF purchase in Mooresville, NC area soon.



I hope to learn more from all the knowledge and experience here as well.

Jim

Click to expand...

Jim if you are still on the fence, let me tell you after having the car for a couple weeks it's a blast and you won't regret it. Since you are married and presumably have another car in the household you should be very happy with it, as you can take the other car in situations where you need to go more than 70 miles.

Also, get CarWings and/or PlugShare (Android Apps) (reduces range anxiety ) (btw I'm in NC too)

Get in on the Duke Energy - Charge Carolina Electric Vehicle Charging Station Installation program - and if it is a simple installation you will get your L2 (240v) charger for free. Otherwise, if your breaker box is a long distance from the L2 charger, then, you will get $1,000 off the price. Sweet deal if you get in on it and you are a Duke customer. It has an antenna so they will be monitoring usage/time/hours/etc but that's ok considering the amount of money off for this unit.

Once you go electric all other cars will seem inferior.

Hi Jim,

This is Matt .... near Brevard. I drove a Leaf around 2 months ago .... the dealer is in Hendersonville. I loved the car but then discovered this site. I was bothered by the fact that cold weather really appears to degrade the DTE and that the Carwings software was rather buggy. Also the defrosting issue and the whole topic of the "quirky" nature of the climate control ... which seems to NOT be intuitive. I forwarded these concerns to the salesman weeks ago, and even included a link to this forum .......and he has yet to address them. Also I started thinking about having to upgrade to a smart phone and the learning curve about using it etc.

So .... I've lost some interest since I drove the car. I'm beginning to think it isn't worth the trouble.

Matt

Mattcinnc said:

Hi Jim,

This is Matt .... near Brevard. I drove a Leaf around 2 months ago .... the dealer is in Hendersonville. I loved the car but then discovered this site. I was bothered by the fact that cold weather really appears to degrade the DTE and that the Carwings software was rather buggy. Also the defrosting issue and the whole topic of the "quirky" nature of the climate control ... which seems to NOT be intuitive. I forwarded these concerns to the salesman weeks ago, and even included a link to this forum .......and he has yet to address them. Also I started thinking about having to upgrade to a smart phone and the learning curve about using it etc.

So .... I've lost some interest since I drove the car. I'm beginning to think it isn't worth the trouble.

Matt

Click to expand...

Matt - It may not be the right car for you at this time.

Just to clarify a few things for you that a salesman may not be able to.

Carwings is fun, and while not wholly accurate it is a pretty good indicator of your driving habits. You don't have to use it at all.

Cold weather is a concern if you are driving 50 or more miles in a day, and want to keep the battery between 20 and 80% charged. While the DTE will make you nervous, it is often a worst case scenario based on current energy use - so many reports here are based on that - which is not a very good indicator of reality. An example is if you kick the heat up to 90 it draws 4.5 KW, and the DTE uses that to indicate how many miles you are "losing" due to heater use. When the cabin heats up or you reduce the temp setting to 80, the power use drops to 3KW, and the DTE trys to adjust the number to the new energy draw, but not until after you have seen the other higher number which can add stress that is not really needed. Hence why a SOC meter is desired so people can make calculations without using the DTE.

The same thing is true for driving habits, so if you lead foot it for a several minutes it sends the DTE into OMG mode, and you will see a very low number although you may have a lot of charge left to drive with. To get off oil and have a quiet ride, some habits may need to change, although if your commute is average (Under 40 miles RT) none of this will matter at all, just drive it.

The bells and whistles like the smart phone stuff are again, optional to use. I don't own a cell phone, and the Leaf meets my needs well. If you don't use the pre-heat/pre cool options, the defroster issue isn't an issue at all. The heater works well, and the defrosters also work well.

This chart will give you a good idea of what range is possible, and what variables affect range:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=101293#p101293" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

cold weather range should be a concern but all in all, its all really dependent on how much you want EVs to work. sure right now, its a tough road. it will require compromise.

i can get 70 miles during winter on a charge but i drive it at 55-60 mph. i do it because i want to get where i am going. SO does 64 mile RT commute. in Summer, she has A/C blasting away doing 65-70 mph (its about 56 miles freeway) gets home with 15-20 miles of range left.

in winter, she has to drive slower and gets home with less than 5 miles left.

but it STILL CAN BE DONE. other than that, there is other benefits to driving electric that really cannot be fully conveyed on paper.

good luck on your decision!

You have gotten a lot of good information here about strengths and weaknesses. One other thing to consider, if (for instance) your wife got a pair of shoes for her birthday that she really liked but they were too big. She went to the mall 25 miles away to get the right size. But they were out of her size. The people at the mall said that there was another store at the next mall that had her size. But it was 15 miles farther away. What do you do? Take the chance that you would be able to make the 80 mile round trip or return home to get ice car? Spontaneous driving is not the forte of owning a Leaf. All of your driving needs to be planned. If you are good with this scenario then the Leaf is the car for you. If not I would look elsewhere.

Mattcinnc said:

I was bothered by the fact that cold weather really appears to degrade the DTE and that the Carwings software was rather buggy. Also the defrosting issue and the whole topic of the "quirky" nature of the climate control ... which seems to NOT be intuitive.

Click to expand...

These are all valid concerns. Having had some experience with the car though:

1) Unless you are planning on regularly pushing the range envelope, the cold weather concern is not all that bad (especially here in NC--if I still lived in NY or VT where the weather was 4 degrees last week when I was visiting, it may be a different story altogether). But even on cold days with lots of trips planned, I've been able to easily go where I needed to, racking up over 133 miles in one day alone (with a partial mid-day recharge). I've been able to go 60 miles on an 80% charge with 2 bars (around 15 miles) left on the gauge. So yes, I think the cold weather does have an effect, but it can be managed if your situation allows. If you're regular day consists of 70 or more miles between charges, you'd be pushing it in the winter.

2) Carwings may be buggy, but I think the bigger concern is that it's almost useless. It really doesn't do a whole lot, and there are many things it doesn't do that I wish it did. Sure it's nice to be able to pre-heat the car from your phone, but the limitations of remotely starting HVAC make it more attractive for me to just use the timers built into the car itself. Having said that, I don't think Carwings is buggy per se, but I think it has a long ways to go before it will be worth subscribing to once the 3 year "trial" is up.

3) The climate control interface is problematic, but IMO, once you figure it out and get used to its idiosyncrasies, it's not too bad (kind of like the shifter puck that I thought was silly, but now I actually prefer). Sure, you end up having to hit several buttons, and there is no easy way to tell whether it's on or off in the mode I usually run it in without clicking a button to check, but once you learn the routine (it takes maybe a day or two) you'll get used to it.

Upon further consideration, I'm not sure I was clear enough in my response to your Carwings concern. The point I was trying to make is simply this: don't decide to buy or not buy the car based on how buggy Carwings is, because it's simply not all that useful even when it's working perfectly. You may make your decision based on THAT statement, although to be honest I'm putting Carwings in the same category as the solar panel: it's a neat gimmick to show your friends, but for your day to day use, it may not be all that critical.

lpickup said:

Upon further consideration, I'm not sure I was clear enough in my response to your Carwings concern. The point I was trying to make is simply this: don't decide to buy or not buy the car based on how buggy Carwings is, because it's simply not all that useful even when it's working perfectly. You may make your decision based on THAT statement, although to be honest I'm putting Carwings in the same category as the solar panel: it's a neat gimmick to show your friends, but for your day to day use, it may not be all that critical.

Click to expand...

I agree 100% with the above comment. I do not use Carwings at all. It's just a PITA gimmick, IMHO. I love this car, and enjoy it more every time I drive it. My energy consumption is equivalent to 100+ mpg over the last 5000 miles.

Disclosure: I'm a "super senior" citizen, who is generally intimidated by fancy new technology. But---with the Leaf---, I just get in, drive it, and enjoy it.

Hi Jim,

I'm not sure who your power company is in Mooresville, but if it's Progress Energy, you should know that they have a program going that might install a Level II Aerovironment charger in your garage free of charge - a $2100 value. If you're interested, I can tell you who to call.

iamchemist said:

Hi Jim,

I'm not sure who your power company is in Mooresville, but if it's Progress Energy, you should know that they have a program going that might install a Level II Aerovironment charger in your garage free of charge - a $2100 value. If you're interested, I can tell you who to call.

Click to expand...

Duke Energy also has a similar program and I believe Mooresville is in their territory.

iamchemist said:

Hi Jim,

I'm not sure who your power company is in Mooresville, but if it's Progress Energy, you should know that they have a program going that might install a Level II Aerovironment charger in your garage free of charge - a $2100 value. If you're interested, I can tell you who to call.

Click to expand...

I signed up for this but haven't heard back yet. How long should I wait before becoming concerned? The longer it takes the longer before I can order my leaf.

I don't think you need to wait to get your L2 installed in your garage before buying the Leaf. I bought the Leaf two weeks ago and now I am even thinking perhaps I will not get an L2 for a long time. L1 charging works fine for my needs.

martel said:

I signed up for this but haven't heard back yet. How long should I wait before becoming concerned? The longer it takes the longer before I can order my leaf.

Click to expand...

I would've hoped things would've improved by now, but when I went through the process (admittedly BEFORE the first LEAFs even arrived here in NC) I had to bug them over and over again. So yeah, I would give them a call and see where it's at.

mkjayakumar said:

I don't think you need to wait to get your L2 installed in your garage before buying the Leaf. I bought the Leaf two weeks ago and now I am even thinking perhaps I will not get an L2 for a long time. L1 charging works fine for my needs.

Click to expand...

So you just called and got a waiver for the home assessment?

martel said:

mkjayakumar said:

I don't think you need to wait to get your L2 installed in your garage before buying the Leaf. I bought the Leaf two weeks ago and now I am even thinking perhaps I will not get an L2 for a long time. L1 charging works fine for my needs.

Click to expand...

So you just called and got a waiver for the home assessment?

Click to expand...

You'll probably need to do that anyway if you're going through Progress (or Duke) to get a free charger as it that doesn't go through Nissan anyway.