Philadelphia and Southeastern PA

[tps]

The Leviton is only 16A.

The LEAF will not draw more than 16A at 240V no matter what EVSE it is plugged into. The only time it draws more than 16A is if its on a lower voltage, such as on 208V it will draw around 18A.

 

[yeswaydude]

Got it, tps. But I'm hoping for after-market upgrades!

 

[tps]

Got it, tps. But I'm hoping for after-market upgrades!

But will you be needing to charge your LEAF that fast at home? I'd like a bigger charger, too, but only for public charging. I can't imagine needing to charge that fast at home.

 

[charlie1300]

Yeswaydude, why didn,t you have your local electrician do the whole job? His pricing is clearly so much better tha AV. And if you look around on this forum, you will see that AV pricing is uniformly high. Don't blame the local contractor, they are getting peanuts, and AV is taking the majority of the install cost for their "overhead and expertise". The postings by forum members in tier 1 were so negative, that I didn,t consider using AV for a minute. IF you want a 30A unit, you can get one at home depot for $900 -$1000, add in maybe $200 for your local electrician to hook it up, and you are still way under the AV quote.
I can't remember any post on the forum where AV quoted under $2000 for even the simplest install (right next to the panel or subpanel).

 

[yeswaydude]

Wow! I guess I should have checked the boards for the other regions before I spent my $100 on the assessment and wasted a month that was worth a $1,000 tax credit from the federal government!?!

Argh!

Which region is up next? We should start warning them to steer clear of the whole assessment before they get stuck too!?!

 

[tps]

Wow! I guess I should have checked the boards for the other regions before I spent my $100 on the assessment and wasted a month that was worth a $1,000 tax credit from the federal government!?!

Argh!

Which region is up next? We should start warning them to steer clear of the whole assessment before they get stuck too!?!

AV's pricing model is the same one that sells $20 cables (which cost $2 to make) with $2000 TVs. It's not the worth of the cable, it's the worth of the video system it's connected to. In a like way, it's not about the worth of the EVSE, it's about the worth of the car it's connected to. Electricians are more expensive than DIY, but AV has taken it to a whole new level!

Sorry to see another one get taken for the $100 "sucker fee" Maybe the tax credit loss is not as bad as you think. My installation was $1300 for parts and electrician, so I'll see a bit more than $400.

One of the guys at my Nissan dealer was worried that I wasn't using the "approved" AV solution, that it would void my warranty, etc. I checked. The warranty requires a "compatible" EVSE. The owners manual says compatible means it complies with SAE J1772, which all of the major brands do. This guy was not the LEAF specialist. I had the EVSE waiver enabled when I placed the order, and the LEAF specialist asked me which EVSE I'd be using; I said Leviton, and that seemed like a satisfactory answer.

 

[tps]

Got an email from Peruzzi Nissan; it's here! How many car dealers send you a picture of the car on the truck? The people at Peruzzi Nissan take care of me.

 

[charlie1300]

Yeswaydude, check out the EVSE sub forum here. It has user reviews of all the currently available EVSE so you can pick one that best suits your needs. I'm going with forum member Phil's 240V upgrade of the EVSE that comes with the car.
Definitely the least cost option. But that's the benifit of this forum: all the info you need to make an informed decision.s

 

[BobE]

tps, Good things come to you when you are patient. Nice picture! When is delivery? I drove mine in eco this evening not so bad once you get going. Pulling out I prefer "D". I now have 300 miles driven.

 

[tps]

tps, Good things come to you when you are patient. Nice picture! When is delivery? I drove mine in eco this evening not so bad once you get going. Pulling out I prefer "D". I now have 300 miles driven.

Wow you almost have me beat. I drove 325 miles in the Hertz rental LEAF. Delivery was this evening. I drove home in the LEAF! I've kicked my gasoline habit! The LEAF had 9 miles on the odometer when I picked it up. Now it has maybe 35 (I wasn't paying that much attention). Right now it's plugged into the Leviton charger, happily sipping PECO electrons.

The guess-o-delivery date changed to "Week of Feb 14" this morning, but what does it know? Strange...

 

[BobE]

Enjoy being ICE-less. Now you can learn far you can go depending on the outside temperature. I have a meeting tomorrow night that is 60 miles round trip. I am not sure I can make it with current temperatures. If it was summer, i suspect no problem.

 

[kmp647]

i drive 64 miles RT to work everyday and make it
you can do it if you are careful

heck I drive 70mph on the highway for 10-15 miles on my way to work
then drive home the back highways at 50 to 55 and still make it fine

2-4 bars left

 

[BobE]

Thanks for the confidence builder. I just have to believe.

 

[tps]

I haven't been posting to MNL much the past week as I've been very busy at the office, but I've also been spending time driving my LEAF. What a great experience. I think I've had more fun this past week with the LEAF than I've ever had with a car. I'm extremely glad I got it.

 

[jms]

Did those of you in SE Pa have delivery date problems?

So far I've had the following delivery dates:
January 31, 2012
February 2, 2012
February 3, 2012
February 6, 2012
February 8, 2012
February 10, 2012
February 14, 2012
February 16, 2012
February 20, 2012

And they told me my car was in Virginia on it's way to the dealership as of February 3rd. I'm trying to figure out if it is the dealership or Nissan who dropped the ball on my car.
Thanks

 

[tps]

Did those of you in SE Pa have delivery date problems?

So far I've had the following delivery dates:
January 31, 2012
February 2, 2012
February 3, 2012
February 6, 2012
February 8, 2012
February 10, 2012
February 14, 2012
February 16, 2012
February 20, 2012

And they told me my car was in Virginia on it's way to the dealership as of February 3rd. I'm trying to figure out if it is the dealership or Nissan who dropped the ball on my car.
Thanks

Since mid-December, I had "Week of February 06". A few days before Feb 6, the delivery date began to dance around; now it's on "Week of Feb 14". But my LEAF was delivered on Feb 7, so they should have just left it at "Week of Feb 06". I haven't looked at the delivery papers closely, but I'm almost positive mine came through FAPS Elizabeth NJ (New York/Newark), which is about 65 miles from the dealer, Peruzzi Nissan. Mine had 9 miles on the odometer at delivery.

It was really frustrating to watch the estimated delivery date dance around and not know why (and I had it easy compared to some). If there's one thing Nissan could fix, it would be to give us customers more visibility to the delivery process. I'm sure some department at Nissan knows exactly where each car is as it makes its way to the dealer. They need to find a way to share that information with us. Just knowing would make things a lot better, because you could tell if your car was continuing to move ever closer or it was "stuck" somewhere.

The LEAF is awesome to drive. I think I'm just now starting to come to terms with the fact that this LEAF is mine to drive as long as I want, as opposed to the Hertz rental LEAF, which I had to take back after 48 hours. After the long wait between reservation and delivery, I still have to pinch myself once in a while to be sure I'm not dreaming.

 

[jms]

The LEAF is awesome to drive. I think I'm just now starting to come to terms with the fact that this LEAF is mine to drive as long as I want, as opposed to the Hertz rental LEAF, which I had to take back after 48 hours. After the long wait between reservation and delivery, I still have to pinch myself once in a while to be sure I'm not dreaming.

Glad you got yours. I had to drive to Columbus, OH to test drive mine on the Drive America Tour. The turn signal was the thing I though was odd. It seemed so loud, even though I'm sure it was the standard turn signal. Otherwise it is a fun car to drive. Not as fun as my convertible but pretty close. I'm mostly dreaming of not pouring $500 a month into the gas tank.

 

[BobE]

I was fortunate that my Leaf came a week early. My delivery date changed several time but always in the beginning of February. It would change from the 6th to the 8th, the 9th and then back to the 6th. My Leaf was at the dealer on January 25th and picked it up January 27th.

Driving the Leaf is a whole new experience. It is so quiet and smooth. I like music on while I drive and I find myself turning it down because I can actually hear and understand the music at a lower volume. I get that wow experience whenever I switch from my ICE car to the Leaf. My only concern is range. I am still trying to get a feel for how far depending on temperature, speed, and type of driving. I guess I just don't want to run out with no charger near. Happy Leafing!

 

[tps]

Driving the Leaf is a whole new experience. It is so quiet and smooth. I like music on while I drive and I find myself turning it down because I can actually hear and understand the music at a lower volume. I get that wow experience whenever I switch from my ICE car to the Leaf. My only concern is range. I am still trying to get a feel for how far depending on temperature, speed, and type of driving. I guess I just don't want to run out with no charger near. Happy Leafing!

I let my co-worker Harkirat drive the LEAF a few miles after lunch today. As we were pulling out of the parking lot, he said "Oh my God, this is so smooth". i seem to have plenty of range for my daily routime, so i haven't tried to hypermile. I've been running the heat as needed for comfort, which seems to draw 4 kW until it gets warmed up and 2 kW thereafter, recirc set on "outside air" even with sub-freezing temps. In short, the range seems fine so I can drive it fairly normally and still get home with 10 - 20 miles left. The LEAF is hands down the best driving experience I've ever had.

I think I might take a trip over to KofP mall this weekend and scope out the situation in anticipation of a Leafers meetup in a couple months.

 

[yeswaydude]

You guys are making me so envious!?!

My date originally said February then said March 2. I spoke with the salesperson at Ardmore Nissan recently (another customer also got an outrageous quote from AV), and he said they also had March 2nd as the target date.

I'm continuing to look at charger options as AV and the local contractor have yet to send me a reduced quote. I might just end up going with evseupgrade.com, but I'm planning to talk to EATON, Schneider (which has an outdoor model that is not sold at Home Depot), and the BLINK people. I'll be tempted to spend a couple hundred dollars more for one with metering built into it so I can better track my usage.

I also need to look into cheaper financing than what Nissan is offering. I saw ads that offered 0% financing on certain models as part of the President's Day sale -- of course the LEAF wasn't on that list. I think I read that BobE leased his -- what about you, tps? Anybody else buy theirs?

I look forward to a meet-up sometime soon!