Nissan DCQC frustrations

[Darren]

I am getting increasingly frustrated with the Nissan DCQC setup. I am curious if anyone else is having similar frustrations. 1 & 2 are mostly just me venting. 3 & 4 are very real issues that I curious if they are affecting others besides me.

1) The key fob. It is inconvenient enough to have to charge publicly as often as I do. At some dealerships, I have spent as much as 15 mins just rounding up someone to turn on the DCQC. Why would Nissan make it more inconvenient by requiring the dealership have the only key fob? Why can't customers have their own fobs like ChargePoint, Blink and others?

2) Dealership hours. I realize that Nissan installed these at dealerships for several reasons but on more than one occasion I have had to reschedule my plans to accommodate the dealership hours. Knowing that if the dealership closed, I wasn't making it home.

3) Charging to 80%. I know other DCQC units such as the Eaton can charge beyond 80% if you need to (albeit at a slower rate). I am assuming Nissan wants to try to maximize battery life but that brings me to #3.

4) The Nissan DCQC units won't let me get an 80% charge. If I plug in with a completely empty battery (one bar and <5 miles range), it immediately reads that I have a 20-25% charge. Then when it shuts off at 80%, I am typically 4 bars low. I tested it with an dealership employee the other night where we let it go to 80%, it shut off and we immediately plugged it back in and restarted it with the fob. It then showed 70%. We then took it to 80% through repeating the process several more times.

I have not lost any bars of capacity and several different dealerships are telling me that the car is behaving properly with the current software.

Thank you in advance for any thoughts or insights.

 

[jackal]

+1.

Nissan please get rid of key fobs! or paraphrasing..allow Nissan Leaf key fob to enable it!

 

[mwalsh]

At least allow the Nisssan One-to-one rewards RFID card to activte it. That way you can also bill us (a modest amount).

 

[LEAFfan]

At least you have Nissan QC. I would love to have those problems, but none of our 10 dealers will have them.

 

[TomT]

3) Charging to 80%. I know other DCQC units such as the Eaton can charge beyond 80% if you need to (albeit at a slower rate). I am assuming Nissan wants to try to maximize battery life but that brings me to #3. The dealership can change this if they want. One dealership in the area allows 90% for example...

4) The Nissan DCQC units won't let me get an 80% charge. The QC reads about 8% low. An 80% charge on the QC equates to about a 72% charge on the Leaf... Since other QCs from different manufacturers do a similar thing, I assume it is a Leaf software issue...

 

[Darren]

At least you have Nissan QC. I would love to have those problems, but none of our 10 dealers will have them.

I feel for you and understand. We didn't have any but a few private ones up until a few months ago.

My frustration is simply why Nissan seems to be struggling with deployment and implementation of THEIR system.

I am right now typing this while charging at a private paid Chargepoint station simply because I couldn't get an 80% charge from Nissan.

 

[Darren]

3) Charging to 80%. I know other DCQC units such as the Eaton can charge beyond 80% if you need to (albeit at a slower rate). I am assuming Nissan wants to try to maximize battery life but that brings me to #3. The dealership can change this if they want. One dealership in the area allows 90% for example...

4) The Nissan DCQC units won't let me get an 80% charge. The QC reads about 8% low. An 80% charge on the QC equates to about a 72% charge on the Leaf... Since other QCs from different manufacturers do a similar thing, I assume it is a Leaf software issue...

I figured that the 80% setting was dealer changeable but I have asked everyone I can think of at Tustin Nissan and nobody seems to know anything about how to adjust it. I think they would if they knew how as they are typically helpful.

Glad to know I am not alone in it reading high. I have experienced some deviation in the past but has anyone ever had it be 20% off?

 

[LEAFfan]

3) Charging to 80%. I know other DCQC units such as the Eaton can charge beyond 80% if you need to (albeit at a slower rate). I am assuming Nissan wants to try to maximize battery life but that brings me to #3. The dealership can change this if they want. One dealership in the area allows 90% for example...

4) The Nissan DCQC units won't let me get an 80% charge. The QC reads about 8% low. An 80% charge on the QC equates to about a 72% charge on the Leaf... Since other QCs from different manufacturers do a similar thing, I assume it is a Leaf software issue...

Keep in mind this % discrepancy is only with the '11/'12s. The 2013s are spot on.

 

[Darren]

3) Charging to 80%. I know other DCQC units such as the Eaton can charge beyond 80% if you need to (albeit at a slower rate). I am assuming Nissan wants to try to maximize battery life but that brings me to #3. The dealership can change this if they want. One dealership in the area allows 90% for example...

4) The Nissan DCQC units won't let me get an 80% charge. The QC reads about 8% low. An 80% charge on the QC equates to about a 72% charge on the Leaf... Since other QCs from different manufacturers do a similar thing, I assume it is a Leaf software issue...

Keep in mind this % discrepancy is only with the '11/'12s. The 2013s are spot on.

That explains why the 2013 guys I have talked with look at me strange.

I'm at a Fuji Electric DCQC right now it shut off at a 89% charge on my 2011 which was 10 bars.

 

[EVDRIVER]

I am getting increasingly frustrated with the Nissan DCQC setup. I am curious if anyone else is having similar frustrations. 1 & 2 are mostly just me venting. 3 & 4 are very real issues that I curious if they are affecting others besides me.

1) The key fob. It is inconvenient enough to have to charge publicly as often as I do. At some dealerships, I have spent as much as 15 mins just rounding up someone to turn on the DCQC. Why would Nissan make it more inconvenient by requiring the dealership have the only key fob? Why can't customers have their own fobs like ChargePoint, Blink and others?

2) Dealership hours. I realize that Nissan installed these at dealerships for several reasons but on more than one occasion I have had to reschedule my plans to accommodate the dealership hours. Knowing that if the dealership closed, I wasn't making it home.

3) Charging to 80%. I know other DCQC units such as the Eaton can charge beyond 80% if you need to (albeit at a slower rate). I am assuming Nissan wants to try to maximize battery life but that brings me to #3.

4) The Nissan DCQC units won't let me get an 80% charge. If I plug in with a completely empty battery (one bar and <5 miles range), it immediately reads that I have a 20-25% charge. Then when it shuts off at 80%, I am typically 4 bars low. I tested it with an dealership employee the other night where we let it go to 80%, it shut off and we immediately plugged it back in and restarted it with the fob. It then showed 70%. We then took it to 80% through repeating the process several more times.

I have not lost any bars of capacity and several different dealerships are telling me that the car is behaving properly with the current software.

Thank you in advance for any thoughts or insights.

1) Because many dealers need to control access for good reason and issuing and managing fobs would be a costly nightmare.

2) Dealers are not intended to be public charging places.

3) You are upset they are protecting your battery?

4) It could be a heat issue which again is protecting your pack.

5) I really think dealers are going to regret these QC's on their property.

 

[TomT]

Since he has no info on his car listed, I had no way to know what model year he had... (hint, hint)
But you would have thought that Nissan WOULD HAVE FIXED THIS WHEN THEY UPDATED THE CHARGER SOFTWARE, WOULDN'T YOU...

Keep in mind this % discrepancy is only with the '11/'12s. The 2013s are spot on.

 

[Darren]

Since he has no info on his car listed, I had no way to know what model year he had... (hint, hint)
But you would have thought that Nissan WOULD HAVE FIXED THIS WHEN THEY UPDATED THE CHARGER SOFTWARE, WOULDN'T YOU...

Keep in mind this % discrepancy is only with the '11/'12s. The 2013s are spot on.

One would think that would be an easy enough fix...

Does the discrepancy affect only the DCQC or all EVSE's?

 

[TomT]

EVSE's don't have a percent setting or such a communication between the car and EVSE so, no, it doesn't affect it...

Does the discrepancy affect only the DCQC or all EVSE's?

 

[Darren]

EVSE's don't have a percent setting or such a communication between the car and EVSE so, no, it doesn't affect it...

Does the discrepancy affect only the DCQC or all EVSE's?

But if you set the timer for 80%, would it be accurate? Or even at 100%, couldn't it be possible for it to shut off early?

 

[Darren]

I am getting increasingly frustrated with the Nissan DCQC setup. I am curious if anyone else is having similar frustrations. 1 & 2 are mostly just me venting. 3 & 4 are very real issues that I curious if they are affecting others besides me.

1) The key fob. It is inconvenient enough to have to charge publicly as often as I do. At some dealerships, I have spent as much as 15 mins just rounding up someone to turn on the DCQC. Why would Nissan make it more inconvenient by requiring the dealership have the only key fob? Why can't customers have their own fobs like ChargePoint, Blink and others?

2) Dealership hours. I realize that Nissan installed these at dealerships for several reasons but on more than one occasion I have had to reschedule my plans to accommodate the dealership hours. Knowing that if the dealership closed, I wasn't making it home.

3) Charging to 80%. I know other DCQC units such as the Eaton can charge beyond 80% if you need to (albeit at a slower rate). I am assuming Nissan wants to try to maximize battery life but that brings me to #3.

4) The Nissan DCQC units won't let me get an 80% charge. If I plug in with a completely empty battery (one bar and <5 miles range), it immediately reads that I have a 20-25% charge. Then when it shuts off at 80%, I am typically 4 bars low. I tested it with an dealership employee the other night where we let it go to 80%, it shut off and we immediately plugged it back in and restarted it with the fob. It then showed 70%. We then took it to 80% through repeating the process several more times.

I have not lost any bars of capacity and several different dealerships are telling me that the car is behaving properly with the current software.

Thank you in advance for any thoughts or insights.

1) Because many dealers need to control access for good reason and issuing and managing fobs would be a costly nightmare.

The dealers claim these fobs are $500 a piece. My question is just why they used these fobs in the first place. Use a setup like any other public setup (RFID, bar code, magnetic strip, or even Nissan One-to-One).

2) Dealers are not intended to be public charging places.

I completely agree with this. I'd honestly rather have it just about anywhere other than the dealer but Nissan turned the dealers into public charging places and with the hours limitation made charging their vehicles even less convenient.

3) You are upset they are protecting your battery?

I'm not upset they want to protect the battery. It is more #4 that I can't get an 80% and I can't make their charger hit 80%. Tonight I had to use a Fuji Electric charger. It went to 89% before shutting off which was actually an 80% charge. I was perfectly fine with that.

4) It could be a heat issue which again is protecting your pack.

Referring to #3, I guess it is possible the Nissan unit is more sensitive to heat than the Fuji Electric unit.

5) I really think dealers are going to regret these QC's on their property.

I honestly hope that the infrastruture builds out quickly enough that neither dealers nor customers regret having them there. The thing is that Nissan chose to put them there instead of other locations and now they should help, not hinder adoption.

 

[DaveEV]

I am getting increasingly frustrated with the Nissan DCQC setup.

1) The key fob.
2) Dealership hours.
3) Charging to 80%..

4) The Nissan DCQC units won't let me get an 80% charge.

<insert tongue in cheek>
A. You are getting free charging. You are getting what you are paying for.

1. See A. If you pay for charging, you may get to enable access yourself.
2. See 1. If you pay for charging, you may get more access.
3. See 2. If you pay for charging, you may get more options on when to terminate the charge.
4. See 3.
</insert tongue in cheek>

OK, a bit more seriously:

1. 1 bar 5 miles really equals about 20-25% SOC. The car goes into turtle around 8% SOC. There's nothing wrong with your car or the DCQC.
2. The '11-12 LEAF will only let you charge to 80% if you start charging from below 50% or so. This is to protect the battery. The car does this by lying to the charger about how full it is when starting a charge from below 50%, so even if the charger let you charge to 100%, you would only get 80%. If there is an option, always choose to charge to 100% on a '11-12 LEAF if starting the charge below 50% SOC.
3. Access - when there is free charging infrastructure, requiring an employee to enable the charger is a good way to prevent abuse of those free resources. See how Tesla is learning this the hard way.

Superchargers to be limited in future?

 

[Darren]

I am getting increasingly frustrated with the Nissan DCQC setup.

1) The key fob.
2) Dealership hours.
3) Charging to 80%..

4) The Nissan DCQC units won't let me get an 80% charge.

<insert tongue in cheek>
A. You are getting free charging. You are getting what you are paying for.

1. See A. If you pay for charging, you may get to enable access yourself.
2. See 1. If you pay for charging, you may get more access.
3. See 2. If you pay for charging, you may get more options on when to terminate the charge.
4. See 3.
</insert tongue in cheek>


I apologize if I ever came across like I was complaining about free service. I want to make it clear that I would gladly pay for any alternative to this setup. Unfortunately, in most situations these dealer locations are the only option (free or paid).


OK, a bit more seriously:

1. 1 bar 5 miles really equals about 20-25% SOC. The car goes into turtle around 8% SOC. There's nothing wrong with your car or the DCQC.
2. The '11-12 LEAF will only let you charge to 80% if you start charging from below 50% or so. This is to protect the battery. The car does this by lying to the charger about how full it is when starting a charge from below 50%, so even if the charger let you charge to 100%, you would only get 80%. If there is an option, always choose to charge to 100% on a '11-12 LEAF if starting the charge below 50% SOC.
3. Access - when there is free charging infrastructure, requiring an employee to enable the charger is a good way to prevent abuse of those free resources. See how Tesla is learning this the hard way.

Superchargers to be limited in future?

All of this is very insightful. Thanks.