Welcome to the forum and Leaf ownership I have almost the same Leaf as you and am quite satisfied. In single digit temps and lower the range does take a big hit, can be almost in half, but even the heatpump Leafs would be similar at those temps as at those temps it basically uses it's resistive heater like on the S models.bicyclist said:I drove home 65 miles from the dealership where I bought my 2014 Leaf S this afternoon. Because of range anxiety, I trundled along at 60 ish with the AC and radio off :lol: , but made it with 22 miles of range showing. That's probably the longest trip it will ever make as its intended use is local travel. I'm retired and hope the thing will last until I'm ready to quit driving and an autonomous vehicle can take its place to haul me to the grocery store and the doctor's office.
It spent its former life as a leased vehicle in PA and was sold at auction in PA as a lot of them seem to be. I've been looking for awhile and not very happy with some of the dealers I've visited. They seem to think it's perfectly OK to publish a price on their website and then tack on outrageous "fees" when you sit down to buy. I don't argue; I tell them what I'm willing to pay and to call me if they change their mind. They always call with a better offer, but still higher than their advertised price. So, it was a pleasure to find a dealer who had what I wanted, was willing to honor their published price and the additional discount on their site and was less expensive than everybody else.
The S should serve me well. It has the Charge Option, which is the only extra I wanted. I don't need nav and cruise control to drive around town. This week's project is to wire a 240 outlet for Level 2. Meanwhile, I might run down to the free charging station a mile down the road. I saw a Leaf plugged in there one day when I was pedaling by and stopped to talk to the owner. She gave me a tour of the car, let me take a hot lap around the parking lot, and said that the roof of her business was covered with solar panels. Gotta find out the etiquette involved with charging.
AFA 240v, I'd suggest either a 14-50 outlet if you want to future proof or a L14-30 if your OK with 30a, basically the max your Leaf can charge anyway, the Leaf maxes out at 27.5a. I like outlets as you can use different EVSEs or unplug yours if you want, although some like to hardwire theirs. It may be hard finding a EVSE with a L14 or even L6 plug, I ordered mine directly from China where they'd put on any plug I wanted so I chose the L6-30. On my other EVSE I simply cut off the supplied end and wired on a L6-30 plug(about $10 on Amazon).
The cheapest L2 EVSEs are portable 16a ones, starting often times <$300. My Chinese ordered portable is 30a(adjustable) and was right around $400 with shipping and a longer cord than normal(8m).
The nice thing about a L14-30 outlet is you can easily find extension cords or even Y adapter cables that have a L14-30 plug on one end and 2 120v heavy duty outlets on the other(one for each circuit). The down side of the L14-30 is other than having your EVSE custom made, you'll probably never find a EVSE with that kind of plug already attached. The down side of the L6-30 outlet is you don't have 120v accessable, to use a Y cable like I mentioned above. The 14-50 and L14-30 plugs have two hots a neutral and ground where the L6-30 only has two hots and a ground. L2 EVSEs don't use the neutral, in that case you just don't use that pin on the plug, which is just fine and safe.