Hey guys,
After lurking the forum for a few weeks and gather information about leafs in general, i finally decided to pull the trigger and buy a new leaf '15. !
The reason I registered today is because of three things mainly : 1) To thank you guys for providing valuable info and data, 2) BECAUSE I LOVE MY LEAF SO MUCH. ITS AWESOME. and 3) I have a few questions that are left unanswered even after a lot of google search and whatnot.
But first, a bit of backstory about me (since it's my first post!):
I'm 23 years old. I'm currently working full time in computer science (R & D) and study in the evening at a university named UQAM (Université du Quebec à Montréal). Before that i got a college degree in computer science with a minor in management.
For the past 6 years i've driven a toyota corolla 98 (it was my first car). That thing was a tank but.. stuff started to break at an alarming rate. Like literally, for the past 6-12 months, i had a least 1 part that would break each month (just on top of my head : gas tank & shifter cable had to be changed). Since i hate tinkering with gasoline cars (they're dirty as ****) and the bills kept piling up for garage work / parts, i decided that it was enough and started to shop around for a new car. I then stumbled upon EVs in general. It really interested me but the cars were downright expensive and kept telling myself "no way in hell i can afford that / want to spend that kind of money on a car".
But... I started to do the math.
Apparently my state (or province as we call it here in canada) give us 8K$ when you purchase a new EV car with a battery that's larger than 7KW. What's great though is that contrary to what i've read here from people who bought the car in the US, our incentive is a cash rebate. It is NOT a tax credit. This means that as soon as you sign for the car at a dealership, the 8K$ is automatically removed from the car's price.
After searching the forums for a bit, i quickly figured that i didn't want a S as it lacked basic features like the rear-view camera and, more importantly, the QC port / 6.6kw L2 charger. So i went with the SV instead (SL was too expensive).
I negotiated with the dealership for a bit and got what i think is a good price here in quebec. I went to 3 different dealerships and picked the one that had the best service / price ratio.
Basically, i got : Nissan leaf SV 15', cargo cover + cargo organizer, very good winter tires, the winter package (heated steering, etc) (which i think is included in all canadians models?) and a parrafin anti-rust.
The dealership also applied an instant rebate of 5K$ since i paid half of the car's price in cash and combined with the province's cash return, i got a final price of 24K$ (excluding taxes).
Keep in mind that we have no federal tax credit / cash returns and that it's in canadian dollars. Since our dollar is weak, stuff cost way more sadly... Especially electronics :'(.
After doing the math, i concluded that i use, in average, 3900$ in fuel per year. Including the maintenance cost of my previous toyota (parts + mechanics time), i average well over 5000$ a year JUST to use that car. Bloody hell. And i'm not even counting the time i spend doing oil changes myself and all the annoying stuff that comes with gasoline cars!
24K$ / 5K$ means that i repay the car in 5 years! That's insane.
Oh and i forgot to mention... My employer just installed 2 L2 station outside about a month ago and it's free for employees... That's just really cool. Thanked my boss for that
. Free electricity!
Here's 2 pictures of my car that i took at a friend's house when i just got out of the dealership with it
:
http://imgur.com/a/E20be#0
That's about it for the intro!
Now.. if you don't mind, i have a few questions about my leaf. I did try to search for all of them beforehand, but i either found posts about an older version of the leaf OR posts where people kept arguing and nothing came out of it. Like no real "tangible" answer.
Questions :
#1 : I connected my car through the carwings service and can now remote control with the leaf application (i'm on android and i use a third party app, not the official one). I tried to turn on climate control remotely (which worked) but to my surprise. it was draining the battery! The leaf was plugged in a L2 station at 100% so i'm bummed as to why it takes electricity from the battery instead from the grid. I read somewhere on this forum that 1) the AC on the '15 model takes a bit more of energy than heater, which is fine... and 2) that since the AC is less efficient, it has to draw current from both the grid and the battery itself to compensate... HOWEVER. i have a hard time believing this. My company's L2 station is monitored through a bacnet controller. I have access to how much current i draw from the grid itself. When my leaf is idling at 100%, the bacnet controller reports that it draw a total of 9% of it's capacity. When turning the climate control ON, i can see "live" that it jumps to a mere 12-15%. So what gives? It can't take more current that what a L2 station provides as it's ONLY using 6% more than in idle.
So TL;DR : why is the battery draining even when plugged in with the AC ON? Is this normal behavior?
#2 : I just want to make sure, but If i have the QC port, my SV also came with the 6.6kw charger, correct? Is this why my leaf charges in about 4 hours from 20%?
#3 : Storing the leaf outside for long period of times... This seems to have a lot of "in my opinion, charge it to 80% yada yada". Here's a bit of context : Quebec has, in general, harsh winters. My leaf will be parked outside as i do not have a garage. It will have access to a 120v plug. I use it daily. HOWEVER, what should i do if i have to leave the leaf barely used for a few weeks outside in cold weather? Let it plugged in so that the battery heater use the electricity from the grid? Plug it in, charge it to 100% and then unplug it until it drops to 40% due to the battery heater and plug it back in after that? Some people mentioned having dead 12v batteries after a few weeks due to the 5 day recharge cycle. Has this been fixed?
Also, with the 2013 apparently you had timers and a way to set it to charge to a max of 80%. This doesn't seem to be the case with the 2015. I can set a timer but it "disappears" after it triggers. Any cues about that?
TL;DR : What should i do if i want to store my 15' outside in -20 celcius for long periods of time and prevent the battery from draining? Also, what should i do with the 12v battery? Unplug it?
#4 : Some people recommended buying a solar 12v battery maintainer. I found this one on amazon for a good price : http://www.amazon.ca/Sunforce-50102-Solar-Battery-Maintainer/dp/B0091I1OBQ/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8
Does it helps? Is it a myth? Do i really need it?
#5 : Aftermarkets mags (or wheels as you call it in the US / EN canada, i think?). What should i look for when purchasing aftermarket wheels for the leaf SV? I've tried a few tools online but none seems to be consistent (i.e : some say that X wheel is compatible while some say it's not). Where would you recommend me to get aftermarkets wheels?
#6 : Ok, this one might be a bit weird. I was planning to get a magnetic cellphone holder and put it on the windshield (upside down) instead of putting it on the dash. I did this with my previous toyota with no problems, however one of my friend told me it's quite bad for the windshield and apply too much force on it. I searched on the net to no avail and did not find concluding evidence that it's the case, but just to be sure :
Is it bad to "stick" a cellphone holder on the windshield? Should i put it somewhere else instead?
------
Ugh... I think that's all for the moment. I'm going to take a break after all this typing x).
Thanks a lot for providing so much valuable information & thank you in advance for answering my questions
.
Have a nice day / weekend.
z99
After lurking the forum for a few weeks and gather information about leafs in general, i finally decided to pull the trigger and buy a new leaf '15. !
The reason I registered today is because of three things mainly : 1) To thank you guys for providing valuable info and data, 2) BECAUSE I LOVE MY LEAF SO MUCH. ITS AWESOME. and 3) I have a few questions that are left unanswered even after a lot of google search and whatnot.
But first, a bit of backstory about me (since it's my first post!):
I'm 23 years old. I'm currently working full time in computer science (R & D) and study in the evening at a university named UQAM (Université du Quebec à Montréal). Before that i got a college degree in computer science with a minor in management.
For the past 6 years i've driven a toyota corolla 98 (it was my first car). That thing was a tank but.. stuff started to break at an alarming rate. Like literally, for the past 6-12 months, i had a least 1 part that would break each month (just on top of my head : gas tank & shifter cable had to be changed). Since i hate tinkering with gasoline cars (they're dirty as ****) and the bills kept piling up for garage work / parts, i decided that it was enough and started to shop around for a new car. I then stumbled upon EVs in general. It really interested me but the cars were downright expensive and kept telling myself "no way in hell i can afford that / want to spend that kind of money on a car".
But... I started to do the math.
Apparently my state (or province as we call it here in canada) give us 8K$ when you purchase a new EV car with a battery that's larger than 7KW. What's great though is that contrary to what i've read here from people who bought the car in the US, our incentive is a cash rebate. It is NOT a tax credit. This means that as soon as you sign for the car at a dealership, the 8K$ is automatically removed from the car's price.
After searching the forums for a bit, i quickly figured that i didn't want a S as it lacked basic features like the rear-view camera and, more importantly, the QC port / 6.6kw L2 charger. So i went with the SV instead (SL was too expensive).
I negotiated with the dealership for a bit and got what i think is a good price here in quebec. I went to 3 different dealerships and picked the one that had the best service / price ratio.
Basically, i got : Nissan leaf SV 15', cargo cover + cargo organizer, very good winter tires, the winter package (heated steering, etc) (which i think is included in all canadians models?) and a parrafin anti-rust.
The dealership also applied an instant rebate of 5K$ since i paid half of the car's price in cash and combined with the province's cash return, i got a final price of 24K$ (excluding taxes).
Keep in mind that we have no federal tax credit / cash returns and that it's in canadian dollars. Since our dollar is weak, stuff cost way more sadly... Especially electronics :'(.
After doing the math, i concluded that i use, in average, 3900$ in fuel per year. Including the maintenance cost of my previous toyota (parts + mechanics time), i average well over 5000$ a year JUST to use that car. Bloody hell. And i'm not even counting the time i spend doing oil changes myself and all the annoying stuff that comes with gasoline cars!
24K$ / 5K$ means that i repay the car in 5 years! That's insane.
Oh and i forgot to mention... My employer just installed 2 L2 station outside about a month ago and it's free for employees... That's just really cool. Thanked my boss for that
Here's 2 pictures of my car that i took at a friend's house when i just got out of the dealership with it
http://imgur.com/a/E20be#0
That's about it for the intro!
Now.. if you don't mind, i have a few questions about my leaf. I did try to search for all of them beforehand, but i either found posts about an older version of the leaf OR posts where people kept arguing and nothing came out of it. Like no real "tangible" answer.
Questions :
#1 : I connected my car through the carwings service and can now remote control with the leaf application (i'm on android and i use a third party app, not the official one). I tried to turn on climate control remotely (which worked) but to my surprise. it was draining the battery! The leaf was plugged in a L2 station at 100% so i'm bummed as to why it takes electricity from the battery instead from the grid. I read somewhere on this forum that 1) the AC on the '15 model takes a bit more of energy than heater, which is fine... and 2) that since the AC is less efficient, it has to draw current from both the grid and the battery itself to compensate... HOWEVER. i have a hard time believing this. My company's L2 station is monitored through a bacnet controller. I have access to how much current i draw from the grid itself. When my leaf is idling at 100%, the bacnet controller reports that it draw a total of 9% of it's capacity. When turning the climate control ON, i can see "live" that it jumps to a mere 12-15%. So what gives? It can't take more current that what a L2 station provides as it's ONLY using 6% more than in idle.
So TL;DR : why is the battery draining even when plugged in with the AC ON? Is this normal behavior?
#2 : I just want to make sure, but If i have the QC port, my SV also came with the 6.6kw charger, correct? Is this why my leaf charges in about 4 hours from 20%?
#3 : Storing the leaf outside for long period of times... This seems to have a lot of "in my opinion, charge it to 80% yada yada". Here's a bit of context : Quebec has, in general, harsh winters. My leaf will be parked outside as i do not have a garage. It will have access to a 120v plug. I use it daily. HOWEVER, what should i do if i have to leave the leaf barely used for a few weeks outside in cold weather? Let it plugged in so that the battery heater use the electricity from the grid? Plug it in, charge it to 100% and then unplug it until it drops to 40% due to the battery heater and plug it back in after that? Some people mentioned having dead 12v batteries after a few weeks due to the 5 day recharge cycle. Has this been fixed?
Also, with the 2013 apparently you had timers and a way to set it to charge to a max of 80%. This doesn't seem to be the case with the 2015. I can set a timer but it "disappears" after it triggers. Any cues about that?
TL;DR : What should i do if i want to store my 15' outside in -20 celcius for long periods of time and prevent the battery from draining? Also, what should i do with the 12v battery? Unplug it?
#4 : Some people recommended buying a solar 12v battery maintainer. I found this one on amazon for a good price : http://www.amazon.ca/Sunforce-50102-Solar-Battery-Maintainer/dp/B0091I1OBQ/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8
Does it helps? Is it a myth? Do i really need it?
#5 : Aftermarkets mags (or wheels as you call it in the US / EN canada, i think?). What should i look for when purchasing aftermarket wheels for the leaf SV? I've tried a few tools online but none seems to be consistent (i.e : some say that X wheel is compatible while some say it's not). Where would you recommend me to get aftermarkets wheels?
#6 : Ok, this one might be a bit weird. I was planning to get a magnetic cellphone holder and put it on the windshield (upside down) instead of putting it on the dash. I did this with my previous toyota with no problems, however one of my friend told me it's quite bad for the windshield and apply too much force on it. I searched on the net to no avail and did not find concluding evidence that it's the case, but just to be sure :
Is it bad to "stick" a cellphone holder on the windshield? Should i put it somewhere else instead?
------
Ugh... I think that's all for the moment. I'm going to take a break after all this typing x).
Thanks a lot for providing so much valuable information & thank you in advance for answering my questions
Have a nice day / weekend.
z99