Our very own forum

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Hi,

Nice to hear of some LEAFs selling in Montreal. I believe they are selling two or three a week here in Ottawa (at least recently) but I'm sure Montreal will eventually pass us. You might have a hard time passing Vancouver though.

Are you loving it? I'm still trying to find excuses to drive somewhere because it's so much fun! :D
 
Same here ! :p

My dealer sold 3 last week.

People in Quebec are quite "pro" green cars, and electric fees are low ...

Fellows from Aerovironnement told me the were overwhelmed by the number of EVSE ordered in only 3 months !!!
 
I am also on the South Shore of Montreal.
I got mine at the end of October.
I just past the 2,000 Km, no problem at all.
We had a few days below -10 C, but not enough to really test it in the cold.

If there is enough people in Quebec in this forum, shall we have a French section?

Thanks,
 
Hey guys,

Also from Montreal here.
Only got 1,000 km on the odo on mine, since I got my LEAF on Oct. 25... I work too close from home!
I don't even have a 240v outlet yet; I have the modified EVSE from EVSEupgrade.com, which allow both 120/240v charging, but I've been using 120v exclusively.

I started to keep track of the mileage & kWh I use daily since almost 2 weeks:

Mileage since I keep track: 174km
Car says I used 45kWh: 174km / 3.9km/kWh, per the car dash.
The Kill-A-Watt I have plugged between my EVSE and the outlet says I used 75kWh to charge.
75kWh * 0.0751 cents/kWh (Hydro-Quebec) = $5.60 = 3.23 cents/km

For anyone speaking French, La Presse interviewed me some weeks ago, and published an article on Dec. 7:
http://auto.cyberpresse.ca/actualites/nissan/201112/06/01-4475190-temoignage-sur-la-nissan-leaf-des-attentes-un-peu-trop-elevees.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
Hi Guillaume.. I read your article when it was released !!! Used it to show people around I wasn't crazy !

Hi rlav... Where did you buy your car ? Mine was at Boucherville Nissan. If you have yours since 3 days, why didn't wait til jan 1st and have de 8000$ instante rebate ?
 
ve2maa,

Basic warranty only. Having 5y/100Km on powertrain and EV system and 8y/160Km on battery is pretty good. Looking at this forum with people that have done more than 20,000 miles without problem is pretty good. Some tire and break issues but not likely for everyone.

I am located in Longueuil and drive downtown Montreal daily for round trip distance of 36 Km. A few time to P.E.T. Airport for 80 Km total. Remaining is local travelling on the south shore. I will most likely do 15,000 Km per year with the LEAF (we named her Electra).

What about you?
 
Hello to Canuk Leaf owners from the Caledon Hills
We're 40 km north of the Toronto Airport. I work right beside the airport and love driving the Lead.
At current temperatures, I have not taken the challenge of a round trip without a recharge at work.
It will be close. Maybe I'll try it soon. Maybe I'm used to being disappointed by the "Leafs"
and fear getting home "next year".

At Ontario Hydro off peak costs I'm calculating between 1 and 1.1 cents per KM .. on snow tires
and of coarse with a little heat on. Must be more challenging in Ottawa or Montreal.

I got a complete new 16 amp EVSE from the EVSEUPGRADE guys in California. I get home and plug in.
The timer starts at 7:10 in the low rate time slot and is done to 80% by 9:45. In the morning I use
Carwings to pre-heat for 15 or so minutes. That also kicks the charge up to about 90% and the car inside
temp is not warm .. it's very warm. That heat lasts half way to work.

I figure the SUV I was driving cost about $ 12. a day in gas. The Leaf has just hit $ 13. with daily comuting
since delivery Dec 5. less than $ 1.00 a day. LOVE IT.

Best of luck to the rest of you.
 
The same...
I do about 80km a day (Ste-Julie to Montreal (Cremazie and St-Laurent). Shouldn't be a problem with the battery range. Even on cold days.

I hesitated a lot about de warranty. New technology and stuff were getting me a little nervous. But realized that the basic battery and EV system warranty were more than the 3 yrs for the normal stuff. That should be more than enough. Well, unless i'm very badlucky.
 
Hi Brent
brent said:
At Ontario Hydro off peak costs I'm calculating between 1 and 1.1 cents per KM
Yeah, after 1250km I'm seeing about the same rate - cost a little under $15 so around 1.2cents/km

brent said:
I got a complete new 16 amp EVSE from the EVSEUPGRADE guys in California.
Out of curiosity, did they charge you extra because the wire wasn't the same gauge as the US charger? Did you get the upgraded one and then send yours back? I've heard they were adding a fee to the Canadian returns since they would need to beef up the wire in these units in order to resell them.
I was really considering taking this route, but I've held off since I can easily get to 80% in the 12hrs of off-peak electricity. Maybe when it's easier to get it done up here without the hassle of the border crossing.

Steve
 
brent said:
I got a complete new 16 amp EVSE from the EVSEUPGRADE guys in California.
Out of curiosity, did they charge you extra because the wire wasn't the same gauge as the US charger? Did you get the upgraded one and then send yours back? I've heard they were adding a fee to the Canadian returns since they would need to beef up the wire in these units in order to resell them.
I was really considering taking this route, but I've held off since I can easily get to 80% in the 12hrs of off-peak electricity. Maybe when it's easier to get it done up here without the hassle of the border crossing.

Steve[/quote]


I got a complete new unit with the American heavier wire already in it. One downside to this 16 amp unit is that there is no possibility to have anything else running off the breaker or it will overload. The actual amp reading is about 15.6 So if you travel and plug in anywhere that there is a marginal circuit breaker 120 or 240, ( or in hot weather ) you my trip it. I am now thinking seriously of sending the Cdn unit to them for 12 amp 220 V upgrade. This will still plug in to 120 V so it gives lots of flexibility.
I lived with the 120 V rig for a few weeks before I got the 16 amp 220 unit. While it worked, there was no flexibility. Go to work, charge most of the day, get enough juice for the trip home, charge most of the night for the trip to work. No side trips during the day, which I ocassionally need and none in the evening. With the 220 unit, I'm fully charged at work before lunch, and with low rates at 7:00 at night, it's finished charging 10' ish. One hour charge while eating supper and I'm good to go for a short local shopping run. I still have the Lexus in the driveway but at 10X the cost per Km I hate to start it.
 
myev said:
brent said:
I got a complete new 16 amp EVSE from the EVSEUPGRADE guys in California.
Out of curiosity, did they charge you extra because the wire wasn't the same gauge as the US charger? Did you get the upgraded one and then send yours back? I've heard they were adding a fee to the Canadian returns since they would need to beef up the wire in these units in order to resell them.
I think I was the first Canadian customer who sent them a Canadian unit, at which point they learned of the smaller (16) gauge wire on Canadian units. They charged me a 50$ extra, and said it would cost them 200$ to change the wire, but since they and I didn't know about it, 50$ seemed 'fair'.
I received an upgraded US unit before sending them mine.
They are probably charging some extra upfront for returned Canadian units, but I don't know how much. They are pretty responsive when using their contact form, so you should be able to get exact figures if you contant them directly.
 
This is great having a Canadian forum! I subscribed to the RSS :)
There is also a facebook group, but it is getting a little crowded.

I am creating a new thread for Canadian EVSE related discussion as I have a reply to a post here.
 
BC is getting Leafs now too. I think a few were delivered a couple months ago but seems only to corp customers (local governments like City of Vancouver, City of Surrey, etc). I believe I'm the first in Langley with a privately owned one. Even though I signed up in the first wave out here in September and ordered in October, my Leaf arrived Dec 23, 2011. Red SL with the high speed charger (even though no where in BC to use it............yet). I've ordered the big Zero Emissions (or something like that) lettering for the side of the car from my dealer and should be here in a week or two. Also read elsewhere about a company on eBay that sells very similar lettering (raised plastic/chrome-coloured) that spells out "ELECTRIC" for the back of the car, either in the middle or right side of the hatch back door. Looks very similar to the current "Leaf" that is back there now. I've seen others' pictures of ones they ordered and put on. Very cool. I want that and the side panel lettering because the car looks so normal, 99% of people who see it have no idea it's electric.

Vancouver/area has a few public charging stations and are planning a bunch more but after driving around and trying a few of them, clearly more are needed and more thought needed. For example, most of them are simply 120v outlets in parking lots. Yes, it's a start but I gotta say, I'm not plugging in my expensive 120v cable (and the only one I have) into that and go away for 2 - 4 (or all day) with the strong possibility that someone is going to come along and steal my cable. We did go to one location with a 240 v charging system (the only public one in Vancouver other than at Nissan dealers and one in Surrey) behind Vancouver City Hall. Actually there are three charging stations there. All three are 240 V and all three have pay as you go ($1 per hour) and take Visa, etc and have a nice permanent cable and everything. However........it was after hours on a Friday and a City of Vancouver Mitsubishi was sitting there plugged in and charging and I was pretty sure no govt employee was going to be showing up later to unplug it and move it to a non-charging stall in the parking lot. The next stall was reserved only for "Modo" vehicles and had a Modo-Leaf there charging and had two solid blue and one flashing charging lights on it's dash so likely almost done. But it was written all over that the stall and the charger were for Modo only. The third stall had an error message on the charging station screen about a "Possible open breaker" or some such thing. So after waiting for more than 30 minutes and no one coming to move or disconnect the two vehicles sitting there hooked up, we saw the Leaf had reached full charge and the charging station switched off. So we did the only option left to us. We disconnected it and carefully closed their charging door on their hood, swiped our Visa card and used that station to charge our Leaf for half an hour and start the 60km trip home. Clearly some standards on how to deal with these situations are going to be warranted. I don't think we did anything wrong but I sure felt uncomfortable unplugging someone else's vehicle to plug mine in, even though both their dash lights and the charger itself said they were fully charged and no longer charging.

Anyways, learning lots and getting even happier by the day with our Leaf and what it can do. Love our Leaf!!!!!
 
No, don't worry, I think you did the right thing, it is OK to unplug a fully charged vehicle, you probably did them a favour too since it is costing "per hour", which implies they are getting billed to be plugged in, whether charging or not.

What is a "Modo"-vehicle?

kinggeorge13 said:
The next stall was reserved only for "Modo" vehicles and had a Modo-Leaf there charging and had two solid blue and one flashing charging lights on it's dash so likely almost done. But it was written all over that the stall and the charger were for Modo only. The third stall had an error message on the charging station screen about a "Possible open breaker" or some such thing. So after waiting for more than 30 minutes and no one coming to move or disconnect the two vehicles sitting there hooked up, we saw the Leaf had reached full charge and the charging station switched off. So we did the only option left to us. We disconnected it and carefully closed their charging door on their hood, swiped our Visa card and used that station to charge our Leaf for half an hour and start the 60km trip home. Clearly some standards on how to deal with these situations are going to be warranted. I don't think we did anything wrong but I sure felt uncomfortable unplugging someone else's vehicle to plug mine in, even though both their dash lights and the charger itself said they were fully charged and no longer charging.
 
Modo seems to be a Vancouver thing. You can read about them at http://www.modo.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. Here is an excerpt from their site. I don't have any problem with them at all but I don't really understand how/why they warranted their own private 240v charger in a city that has only 3 available for public use (other than dealers/private companies) and looks to me like it was installed the same place/way/equipment as the two city-supplied chargers.

(excerpt from their website):
Modo, formerly The Car Co-op & The Company Car, is a not-for-profit carsharing co-operative incorporated in 1997 to foster carsharing and raise awareness about the benefits of sharing cars over individual ownership. Modo is an excellent environmental and economic mode of transportation.
Today, we are meeting the sustainable transportation needs of over 7,000 members with a variety of vehicles at over 200 locations in Metro Vancouver and access to an annual transit pass - encouraging more walking and cycling along the way.
 
Ah, never knew there was a Canada section here! I'm on the Facebook page (which is how I just learned about the Canada section here). Good stuff! Loving our Leaf... no snow tires though so we drive our other car on "bad weather" days.
 
Back
Top