Carwings is a "server" application that can communicate with
your LEAF car, once a Carwings account for your car's VIN
has been set up, usually using the Nissan owners portal.
There, you will have a login ID and password to access the Carwings
account from a suitable browser. You can register a car by entering
the VIN, then give the car a nickname, and set some preferences,
primarily about how Carwings will communicate with YOU, via
Email, text messages, or not at all. It also gives you a "password"
to enter into your car, so that your car can communicate with Carwings.
So, the second step, after setting up the Carwings account for your car,
is to setup the Carwings "client" in your car. Basically you enter the
account "name" and "password", and the Carwings "client" (assuming
sufficient "cell phone" service where your car is parked) will
communicate with the Carwings server. There are Carwings-related
preferences to setup in the car, mostly having to do with what
information your car will send to, or get from, Carwings, and when.
For example, if you have told your car to alert Carwings whenever
charging is completed, AND set the Carwings server preferences
to send you an email whenever charging-completions are reported,
then an email should be sent to the email address that you specified
for the Carwings server to use.
Using some Web or smart-phone app, you can communicate with
the Carwings server, but not directly with your car. Your car and
Carwings can communicate with each other, whenever one of them
wants to do so, as long as the Carwings server is working properly,
your car has sufficient cell coverage, the car's Telecommunication
Control Unit (TCU) is working properly, and your Carwings account
does not get "scrambled". Yes, all of these have happened to some
of us.
Except for the unusual circumstances that the car's TCU (or related
component) is broken, you can do the entire setup yourself, in
perhaps 10 to 20 minutes, depending upon your skill level.
Yes, it is not always obvious what to do, and the terminology
is not always consistent, or easy to understand. So, getting
help from someone who has done this two-part setup before
is usually a good idea, unless you are good at Japanese puzzles!
In some cases it has been necessary to contact Nissan LEAF
Customer Support to get them to "un-scramble" a Carwings
account, or in rare cases, delete the account (losing any
stored data) and create a new Carwings account.
So, the first step is properly creating a Carwings account
using a browser on the Web, not doing anything in the car.
The second step is to properly setup the car with the
Carwings account and password information, so that
your car can successfully do the security handshake
with Carwings.
The third step is to get the Carwings server and car's
preferences set to your liking.
Finally, you can learn to use Carwings, and decide if
it was really worth all the effort. The car will work
fine without Carwings.
Carwings Benefits:
1. You can get updated info on (some, not all) charging
station locations.
2. Your car can inform Nissan if it feels too much internal
stress or indigestion, Nissan calls your dealer, and the
dealer calls you to bring in your car for examination.
3. Your car, through Carwings can inform you of some
status conditions, like Charging or not, Charge-Bars,
or Charge completion. This could be much better, but
Nissan apparently chose to make it minimal.
4. Carwings can gather some statistics about your driving,
but not always as accurate as it could be. But, usually
interesting for the beginner.
Will you be willing to pay for this Carwings service after
the first free three years are up?
It remains to be seen, depending upon the price, and
any new functionality that they might add.
Hopefully, this will help you.
Cheers, Gary
