Import used 2011 Leaf from US to Canada

[tivollix]

I have done 2 winters in Montreal, also the last one with the Polar Vortex, and the car did fine without the battery heater.
Charging and driving the car usually heated up the battery to -10C when it was -25C outside.

The lowest temperature seen on the sensors (Leaf Spy) was -18C, we had nights at -30C. -18C is at this temperature that the heater will come on if I had one and it stops at -10C.

So the heater would have been used a couple of nights during the worst winter. My car is outside all the time as we dont have a garage.

As an important note, buying a seat heater is an important accessory if you need the full range and saving on heating.

I can't speak to the various import issues, but if you are looking at a 2011 (per the original post) make sure you get the CW (cold weather) version that was made available toward the end of the model year. It has heated seats, steering wheel, and mirrors plus a battery heater for extreme cold.

+1. For Montreal, the most important part of the Cold Weather package would be the battery heater to prevent the Li-ion battery from freezing at -20 C. That could be fatal! The battery heater is just for protection at very low temperatures, not for improved performance.

Actually, my 2011 does not have the winter package, so it's something we will need to be carefull with. I will be parking it in a heated garage overnight so the only concerning scenario will be work through the day. We may often get wind chils of -20 but not often throught the day in absolute degrees. Short durations I'm hoping we will be fine due to the mass and insulaltion of the battery pack.

I actually went looking for stories of frozen batteries and only heard of one anectodal through a local Nissan sales guy who was trying to convince me to buy a new one. We'll see .

Dave

[muus]

That's great news. I came very close to importing a 2013 back in April. A GM dealer was selling a silver 2013 advertised as an S however from the pictures the wheels were from an SL. I asked them to send me a video of the car to verify (leather seats, Bose sound system) however in the video the car was charging and from the dash I could see that the battery was completely dead. They had the car for several months and who knows how long the battery had been sitting there dead. I didn't want to risk it and ended up buying a 2014 off the lot locally. I got a great deal (below invoice) which I didn't think would be possible. This is my first new car (I'm 40) and I'm loving it!

Hi all

I eventually did import one and thought i would answer some of my own questions for the board.

...

All in all it went very smoothly and I'm the proud owner of a 2011 Nissan Leaf SV. The only hiccups were that the daytime running light mod was a litte more complex than I figured and I needed an extra mechanical inspection for Quebec ($90) above and beyond the RIV inspection. Also, Quebec taxes the import fees (doh).

Btw, so far we are loving the car.

Thanks all

Dave

[Rezilient]

Hi Dave. These are the best instructions I could find on the forum for importing a U.S. Leaf into Canada. I want to give my Leaf to my father so we need to do this. Some questions below if you can pls help.

Answer:
Bought a really nice Philips kit with a smart relay that is supposed to figure out when the engine is on and turn on the lights. Also has a tap you hook up to a regular light which will then shut off the lights when the regular lights are on (Canadian requirement). Turns out whatever mechanism the smart relay uses to detect that the car is on (AC noise ?? ) doesn't work on an electric car. Anyway, was able to figure out something using a normal relay and directions on this form. Cost me about $100 and a full day of running around, but managed.

Thanks for this info. Which instructions on this forum did you follow? I see one that requires installing external LED lamps is that suitable and approved by Canada for DRL requirements?

6) Dealers - Do they typically know what paperwork is required. I assume I would need to pay cash No ?

Answer:
The dealer I dealt with had not done it before, but was keen and did what was needed (recall clearance letter sent to RIV, title sent to US border). Biggest hangup was coordinating the shipping to a border location where I could drive it home from

Assuming I have the title in hand, do I just need to get recall clearance letter? Where do I get that, Nissan?

Once you get it to the border what do you need to provide to Canada border/customs and what are the costs?

Thanks!!

[Rezilient]

Hi Dave. These are the best instructions I could find on the forum for importing a U.S. Leaf into Canada. I want to give my Leaf to my father so we need to do this. Some questions below if you can pls help.

Answer:
Bought a really nice Philips kit with a smart relay that is supposed to figure out when the engine is on and turn on the lights. Also has a tap you hook up to a regular light which will then shut off the lights when the regular lights are on (Canadian requirement). Turns out whatever mechanism the smart relay uses to detect that the car is on (AC noise ?? ) doesn't work on an electric car. Anyway, was able to figure out something using a normal relay and directions on this form. Cost me about $100 and a full day of running around, but managed.

Thanks for this info. Which instructions on this forum did you follow? I see one that requires installing external LED lamps is that suitable and approved by Canada for DRL requirements?

6) Dealers - Do they typically know what paperwork is required. I assume I would need to pay cash No ?

Answer:
The dealer I dealt with had not done it before, but was keen and did what was needed (recall clearance letter sent to RIV, title sent to US border). Biggest hangup was coordinating the shipping to a border location where I could drive it home from

Assuming I have the title in hand, do I just need to get recall clearance letter? Where do I get that, Nissan?

Once you get it to the border what do you need to provide to Canada border/customs and what are the costs?

Thanks!!

[minispeed]

Assuming I have the title in hand, do I just need to get recall clearance letter? Where do I get that, Nissan?

Once you get it to the border what do you need to provide to Canada border/customs and what are the costs?

Thanks!!

go to www.riv.ca for general info on bringing any car into Canada.