LEAF in Kansas City

[ericvoll]

DANGER

Prepare to be gouged. The SemaConnect stations (the ones at Walgreens' locations in town) appear to have changed their pricing structure again. Get this, it looks like they are now $8.00 per hour with a $2.00 minimum.

My email to their customer service tonight:

I've been a loyal customer for well over three years. Uhm...charged $2.00 for charging 7 minutes and using 0.000857 kWh of energy? I don't think so! Please close my account and refund my credit balance of $7.49 to my credit card on file. Thank you.

I don't mind paying to charge, but really??? Considering the one station in Liberty has been broken for well over a year, and the state of the units, I wonder if SemaConnect might be circulating the drain.

 

[eclecticflower]

Haven't used L2 since they began charging fees (except the free one @ Price Chopper on Barry/Oak), since I'm too close to home to waste time on "opportunity charging" for the 5-10 minutes I'm ever in Walgreens. Great to know, though, Eric. If that fee isn't a fluke, then it's over for L2 charging unless you're extremely desperate. Am I? Never...

 

[Deleted member 15586]

I received an email form Nissan on 8/20/2015 about a National Drive Electric Week, September 12 -20. There are two events in the KC metro area. Are any of you attending these events or volunteering to run the event?

Wednesday, September 16, 2015 - 4:30pm-8:00pm
https://driveelectricweek.org/event.php?eventid=393

Friday, September 18, 2015 - 9:30am-2:00pm
https://driveelectricweek.org/event.php?eventid=382

 

[MobileEV]

Are any of you attending these events [...] ?

I was planning to go to both of those. Al Pugsley, who runs the Mid-America Electric Auto Association (see also www.maeaa.org or the more active Yahoo Group: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/MAEAA/info ) mentioned some additional events at the meetings that are not listed on the NDEW events page. Here's the list he sent out to the Yahoo group a while back (which includes the two above):

September 5 & 6
Zona Rosa
Saturday 5:30-9:00
Sunday 9:30 -2:00
Second level NW parking garage

September 16
Village Church NDEW
6641 Mission Rd
Prairie Village, KS
4:30-8:00 pm

September 18
Black & Veatch NDEW
11401 Lamar Ave
Overland Park, KS
9:30- 2:00

September 18
Longbranch Saloon NDEW
9095 Metcalf
Overland Park, KS
5:00-9:00

September 26
Living Green Expo
500 W Pacific Ave
Independence, MO
10:00-2:00

 

[eclecticflower]

Karl, thanks for posting the other non-listed events (which I wouldn't be going to).
I will go to this one:

September 5 & 6
Zona Rosa
Saturday 5:30-9:00
Sunday 9:30 -2:00
Second level NW parking garage

 

[MobileEV]

Al asked me to get the following word out:

"The Zona Rosa and 9-26 events are full for EV cars but people can attend to visit."

Not very appealing to me personally. If you have questions, he can be reached at:

apphs58 _at_ yahoo _dot_ com

Karl, thanks for posting the other non-listed events (which I wouldn't be going to).
I will go to this one:

September 5 & 6
Zona Rosa
Saturday 5:30-9:00
Sunday 9:30 -2:00
Second level NW parking garage

 

[MobileEV]

I wonder if these folks ( http://greentecauto.com/ ) who sell refurbished hybrid battery packs will start getting into the aftermarket LEAF battery business? Maybe if enough of us ask...

Related article: http://evworld.com/focus.cfm?cid=289

There's even a KC location.

 

[MobileEV]

I wonder if these folks ( http://greentecauto.com/ ) who sell refurbished hybrid battery packs will start getting into the aftermarket LEAF battery business?

Well, I already got a reply from them:

Karl,

Yes, we do plan on working on rebuilding Nissan Leaf batteries. Currently, the market is not ready for batteries to be rebuilt.

Prior to us officially launching the rebuild batteries to the market. We will be sure we get the proper certifications to work with Nissan batteries.

Be sure to keep us in mind when you need to get the battery replaced.

 

[ksnogas2112]

Re- EV Week - I'll be at the Wednesday 9/16 show. I'm tempted to pile all the camping gear in it to show what it can hold. All the others are on campout weekends.

Tom

 

[ericvoll]

DANGER

Prepare to be gouged. The SemaConnect stations (the ones at Walgreens' locations in town) appear to have changed their pricing structure again. Get this, it looks like they are now $8.00 per hour with a $2.00 minimum.

My email to their customer service tonight:

I've been a loyal customer for well over three years. Uhm...charged $2.00 for charging 7 minutes and using 0.000857 kWh of energy? I don't think so! Please close my account and refund my credit balance of $7.49 to my credit card on file. Thank you.

I don't mind paying to charge, but really??? Considering the one station in Liberty has been broken for well over a year, and the state of the units, I wonder if SemaConnect might be circulating the drain.

So, I don't know if this changed again or what, but now they look like they are $2.00 / hour with a one hour minimum. What concerns me about these SemaConnect stations the most is not the price but how poorly their stations and network are managed. The station at the Walgreens in Liberty has been broken for over a year, and has been reported multiple times. If you visit their website, the information is more often wrong than correct; according to their website I've been doing a lot of charging in Kansas City, KS apparently. That's interesting because I don't ever visit those neighborhoods. Also, my request for a new card a few months ago took about 3 phone calls and about 1 1/2 months to fix. My latest request to close my account has been out for several weeks now, still with no resolution. I'm not sure if/when it is going to be taken care of. I guess I'll have to call them. The ChargePoint network, in contrast, really has their act together.

 

[MobileEV]

Speaking of charging to charge, I parked and charged at the Kauffman Center today and subsequently got a nastygram from ChargePoint about my form of payment not being current in the account. I guess I didn't read the fine print on PlugShare (http://api.plugshare.com/view/location/5706) and the station when I plugged in: $1 per hour with a $1 minimum. Not as big a deal as the $8 event parking, but as I was opportunity charging (I had plenty to get home), I could have avoided that.

Just interesting that the free charging is not a given, even at ChargePoint stations. On the bright side, the spaces were not ICEd or filled with plug-in vehicles not charging. I suppose that's one benefit of charging to charge.

On another note, is KCP&L done with their EVSE installation? I haven't seen many more stations pop up lately.

Happy autumn!

Karl

 

[cdherman]

Speaking of charging to charge, I parked and charged at the Kauffman Center today and subsequently got a nastygram from ChargePoint about my form of payment not being current in the account. I guess I didn't read the fine print on PlugShare (http://api.plugshare.com/view/location/5706) and the station when I plugged in: $1 per hour with a $1 minimum. Not as big a deal as the $8 event parking, but as I was opportunity charging (I had plenty to get home), I could have avoided that.

Just interesting that the free charging is not a given, even at ChargePoint stations. On the bright side, the spaces were not ICEd or filled with plug-in vehicles not charging. I suppose that's one benefit of charging to charge.

On another note, is KCP&L done with their EVSE installation? I haven't seen many more stations pop up lately.

Happy autumn!

Karl

Yes, Kauffman has been $1/hr forever, and its kind of annoying, given the fact we paid to get in, in the first place. I think it was an underhanded attempt by the developers to make sure that the EVSE's were not being used there so that they could later justify removing them.

As for it not being ICE'd, well that's good that you had that experience. They were ICE'd just about every other time I have been there. I suspect that there is a certain clientele there that is not too much into renewable energy..... Sadly....

I too have not seen many more new EVSEs. Still a lot better than it was!!!!!

I am now working mostly at St Luke's on the plaza. Wish they had an charging station like the one I could use at Truman in the UMKC parking lot. Oh well..... I do have good proximity to the Quickcharge on the Plaza from SLH though.....

 

[MobileEV]

My son's 7th-grade teacher invited me to speak as part of a STEM program, so I've decided to speak about Electric Vehicles and sustainable transport with a show and tell. So I'm planning to put together some slides that tells a bit about how ICE cars work, how EVs work, the efficiency, emissions (i.e. the gas doesn't just disappear), sustainable energy (I have solar panels), quiet operation, and then do a show and tell with my Tesla and our LEAF (my wife is coming as well) in the parking lot. I'm not sure we can give everyone a ride as there will be about 35 kids.

Any advice on what to include and what to omit to keep the attention of 12-13 year olds?

 

[eclecticflower]

Truman Medical Center is in the process of installing EVSEs and they should be up and running soon, thank you KCPL! There are 4 spaces in the multi-level secure lot with two stations serving them, just inside the 23rd street entry and to the right. They wiped out some of the handicap parking stalls to place them there. I understand there's an installation going into the Hospital Hill Center ground floor, as well. I don't often go over there, but that one should be publicly accessible. The others are badge swipe into the private garage. Not that you want to park in there unless desperate (hit and run/playing bumper cars).

Carwings was inaccessible to me yesterday saying my user name and password were wrong. After several attempts on my phone, I figured it was down. This morning the message indicated no vehicle associated to the account and go to the owners portal. I think I have been kicked to the curb...will check there later today. I didn't get the letter Eric got allowing him to keep his subscription for free. Hmmm....

Kathy

 

[Deleted member 15586]

Carwings was inaccessible to me yesterday saying my user name and password were wrong. After several attempts on my phone, I figured it was down. This morning the message indicated no vehicle associated to the account and go to the owners portal. I think I have been kicked to the curb...will check there later today. I didn't get the letter Eric got allowing him to keep his subscription for free. Hmmm....

Kathy

I got an email from [email protected] yesterday with the subject "FINAL NOTICE: changes to the LEAF Owner Portal & app". It says that the LEAF Owners Portal has been merged with the Nissan Owners Portal plus there is a new name and app for CARWINGS. This is the content of the email.

-----
HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO DO TO ACCESS YOUR ACCOUNT:

Click on the My Nissan Owners Portal link to access your account. Log in with your current username and password and follow the prompts to complete the registration process, including selecting an email address as your new username. Then you'll be all set to manage your LEAF on the new site!

You'll find Quick Reference Guides, videos, FAQs and more. If your LEAF is CARWINGS-equipped, you can check status, activate charging and operate climate control remotely. Plus you can manage multiple Nissan vehicles from one place.

NAME CHANGE AND APP UPDATE COMING FOR
CARWINGS-EQUIPPED VEHICLES.

In other exciting news, CARWINGS is now called NissanConnectSM EV1 and will soon include an updated smartphone app. The new NissanConnect EV app will be pushed out in the coming months if your phone is set for automatic updates, or you'll receive a notification if it's set for manual updates.

After you receive the updated app, look for NissanConnect EV on your smartphone and log in with your new username.

>>Please note that the old Nissan LEAF app will expire on November 30, so update to the new version before then. If your LEAF is CARWINGS-equipped and you don't currently use the app, download it now for iOS or AndroidTM.
-----

I was able to access the new portal today. https://owners.nissanusa.com/nowners/

 

[eclecticflower]

Thanks so much, Henry! Karl had sent me an email regarding the same message that he'd received. I haven't been getting any messages from Nissan, other than sales promos or maintenance notices. I didn't know I was missing anything until Eric's note about continued Carwings access was mentioned here.

I tried unsuccessfully to get this resolved all morning. I was able to get to the new owner's portal and can even get a state of charge updated there. The app I downloaded still shows my car as disconnected. I tried several times to add it and it doesn't recognize my VIN and keeps pointing me back to the owner's portal. Nothing much I can do there; since registering using my email address instead of my old user name, everything else appears to be up-to-date.

I'm stubborn, but I finally called support for a fix and she advised this app rolled out last night and to give it 24-48 hours and try again. I asked about the missed communications and she identified there was no contact information in their system for me, but could not identify where that went wrong or if it got wiped (whether my dealer didn't set it up initially or if it got deleted systematically somehow; she didn't want to place blame). Curious how my contact information wasn't available for them, but it has been in tact at the owner's portal for over 3 years.

Coincidentally, I didn't get an email that there were 2 messages here from September 27, but noticed them when I logged in this morning. I received an update today with Henry's note; maybe it took a login to bump it awake for me. Technology....

Anyhow, good luck to those of you who are happily using the new app. It appears it does a few things more than the old one? I appreciate all the help offered!

- Kathy

 

[mjblazin]

If you need immediate IOS access, get the old App and use new ID/password. It still works for me. I suspect Nissan has to do some fixes on back end to get the new app to talk to vehicles set up in new portal. Probably will fix over next few days. Based on my experience with portal, would not recommend any further action to add vehicle. If you could add, may screw up the database.

Nissan eventually got that data to portal. I expect it would eventually do same to section accessed by the IOS App.

 

[eclecticflower]

Thanks for the response, mjblazin. I tried the old app with both the old user name/password (gave me a user ID/password error) as well as the email login and password (gets me there, but says no vehicle registered to the account). Got tired of being sent to the owner's portal where I can't do anything to affect that right now. Guess I'm out of luck for 24-48 hours until they finish migrating or they fix their bugs!

Kathy

 

[MobileEV]

The 12V battery on my LEAF had already died once while in a friend's care last year, but I recharged it and kept using it. Lately, I noticed that the cabin lights were significantly dimmed when you unplugged (and thus presumably the DC-to-DC converter switched off). Since my dear wife will be driving the LEAF through the winter, I figured it was time to upgrade the 12V battery so as not leave her with a bricked car.

For those that don't know, your 12V battery drives much of the ancillary devices in the LEAF including all the usual stuff a 12V does in an ICE, but most importantly, it drives the computer control system that allows the car to start. It's also continuously run down by the cell phone system that's part of CarWings. So if you have a dead 12V, you have to get a "jump start" to get doing again irrespective of the State of Charge of your Li-Ion traction battery.

When I first checked for availability at the local car parts chains some months ago, nobody seemed to have the LEAF in their vehicle database for part lookup. This has changed for the better. Advance Auto Parts as well as Auto Zone both have the LEAF in their car database and list 12V batteries. O'Reilly does as well, but their only choice is an expensive gel cell. Since we're not concerned about cold cranking amps, I'm not too inclined to go for the high-end battery choices.

I ended up with a Duralast 51R-DL from AutoZone, the closest store to me. It was about $130 overall once I installed it and brought back the core. I know Advance will do the installation for you, but I wanted to do it myself (I'll explain below). I got the usual goofy looks pulling up with an EV and the clerk proceeded to tell me that he had not seen one of these kinds of hybrids before. [Eye roll] Then again, he didn't even know what time the store closed today, so I didn't try to go into full-tilt education mode.

So back to the installation: I wanted to avoid losing any settings kept by the the 12V battery constant power, so I hooked up a 12V deep cycle battery with jumper cables before I unhooked the old on-board 12V. I shielded the (+) terminal with cardboard to ensure no touching the (-) ground anywhere. The bracket that holds down the battery into the tray can be removed by loosening (no need to completely remove) the nuts holding the threaded rods. In fact, the rods on either side have a J-hook that could completely drop down if you remove the nut. You have to be careful not to touch any metal grounded surface while loosening the (+) terminal clamp to avoid shorting things out, but if you remove the negative terminal first, that shouldn't be an issue.

The new battery went in without a hitch, and I reattached the leads, then tightened the retaining bracket back down and then dropped the jumper cables. Success! No loss of memory.

Next project: my horn mysteriously died, so I'm going for an upgrade to a dual horn unit for a few more decibels. I've already learned that the access to the horn is best done differently for the 2012 and earlier versus the 2013 and later. More on that after I tackle it and take a few pictures.

All this reminds me that we're about due for another technical and social session. Somehow the summer flew by.

 

[ksnogas2112]

Thinking for getting the dinner together again. There are 3 devices, 6 cables, at Antioch Park in Overland Park.

6501 Antioch Rd, @ Antioch Park
Mission, KS


Just sayin....