EVDRIVER
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2010
- Messages
- 6,753
drees said:Frankly, I think they are doing the Nissan Leaf customers a disservice if they plan on charging everyone around $2200 regardless of the complexity of the install as they appear to be doing.
Face it - a 20A 120V plug is dead cheap to install and will provide 1.9 kW of charging power allowing you to charge your Leaf from dead empty to full appx 12 hours. For a simple install, you will be able to get an electrician to install this for a couple hundred bucks in just about any garage that has a service panel in it. An EVSE that will plug in to this will be available for $500 or less by the time the Leaf comes out - worst case you live with the 1.4 kW trickle charger that's included and wait for AV to stop ripping people off thanks to competition. Service panels are more likely to have room for an additional single-pole circuit breaker - having room for a fixed double-pole is a lot less likely in any house more than 20 years old. And many garages may already be wired with a dedicated 20A 120V circuit.
Charge times with a 20A 120V EVSE won't be whole lot longer than the 8 hour full charge from the Level 2 3.3 kW charger and will be more than sufficient for the fast majority of uses. A charge rate of 7.6 miles/hour (1.9 kW) compared to 13.2 miles/hour just won't matter that much for most home use.
Now, if the Leaf was shipping with a 6.6 kW charger - then we might have a real incentive to install a fixed EVSE, but by that time I suspect that Level 2 EVSEs will just about be a commodity item - you'll be able to get them for a couple hundred bucks and have it installed for a couple hundred more.
This is mostly accurate and the install labor is very high for some specific customers, not to mention Nissan blew it by not offering a 6.6kw charger and early buyers will feel this pain charging, spending bucks for an EVSE and on resale as well.