Just joined the EV revolution... Help with Nissan Connect App?

Well, I've finally done it.

I've sold my beloved 2003 AMG E55 and bought a nearly-new 2020 Leaf e+ 3.Zero.

It's an alright bit of engineering really isn't it? Quite well equipped too with the faux-leather, heated seats & steering wheel, 360 degree camera and Bose audio.

I mean, it'll do almost as many miles on a battery as my E55 did on a tank of jungle juice but at least it only costs £12 to refill as opposed to £100+ on the E55 these days when using 98 RON E5 petrol.

I did have one question I hope you can help with - as Nissan support are OK, but not offering personalized advice, just canned responses.

Nissan Connect EV App - I've registered an account and associated my car with it, which it is connecting to just fine, as the app shows me the odometer reading.

I've received an email from Nissan confirming my subscriptions are all active, over six hours ago, but the app still doesn't allow me to use any of the remote features - it just shows me the odometer reading. No battery status, remote climate control, or any other toys.

Anyone experienced similar? Any advice? I've re-installed the app on my phone to no avail.

When I had this issue I was told I had to drive the car for a while. About 15 minutes as I recall. I took it out for a drive that was longer than that and it worked fine when I got back home. I didn’t check the phone while I was driving of course. One other Thing you can do to check the functionality I’d call the SOS button above the mirror, or whatever Nissan calls it, tell them it’s a non emergency when they answer, then ask them if the cam identify your cars location. That may sound weird but it tells you the telemetry is working correctly. Those are things I had to do when I ran into snags when seeing my app up. Zero issues since then.

Interesting. I know that people have trouble with the app at first (and then later as well, as the servers are often down), but I hadn't seen the 'Just drive it for a while' fix. Thanks. Welcome to the forum, izools.

I wonder if connecting the car to your home wifi might help with the initial handshake & data transfer. There is a wifi connection option somewhere on the car settings screen. If you enable this the car is supposed to be able to get updates if and when Nissan release them. I also think this is how the app would connect to the car perhaps a little more readily since wifi is faster than the onboard SiriusXM connection which is the underlying data transport mechanism for telemetry etc. Hope this helps.

I've been asking the same questions myself as I just got my 2022 SV Plus. Apparently the Nissan "Telematics" are dependent on the cars built-in Cellular connections. I live in a valley and usually have to drive half-way into town on a ten mile trip to get a good cell signal. My area is a "dead zone" for any of the cell Carriers around my area. Sometimes it looks like the Leaf can pick up a very sporadic signal and "phone home" when parked in my drive.
Wifi does connect well for me here at home, but looks like when the ignition is off, the wifi is off too. So its just Cellular for any data links to the car.

fester said:

I've been asking the same questions myself as I just got my 2022 SV Plus. Apparently the Nissan "Telematics" are dependent on the cars built-in Cellular connections. I live in a valley and usually have to drive half-way into town on a ten mile trip to get a good cell signal. My area is a "dead zone" for any of the cell Carriers around my area. Sometimes it looks like the Leaf can pick up a very sporadic signal and "phone home" when parked in my drive.
Wifi does connect well for me here at home, but looks like when the ignition is off, the wifi is off too. So its just Cellular for any data links to the car.

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If you have a good internet connection, you might consider a "micro-cell" for the home, should be able to reach outside to the Leaf. At least it's a good work around for poor cell coverage.

I thought that that was a good idea as well - I just had no idea whether such devices exist, or not.

I know about cell booster systems (some fairly expensive), but when better weather comes round, perhaps I may try something like mounting a yagi type directional antenna at 10-20' and connecting that to an omni antenna near the Leafs roof antenna that would be a passive or simi-passive system depending on wether the directional antenna has a pre-amp. Wouldn't know till I tried.
Currently (very dependent on local conditions), I can get a sporadic signal the the Leafs system can use. Might be once an hour, time will tell, but I would like to know the charge state when I'm doing my trickle charge.

LeftieBiker said:

I thought that that was a good idea as well - I just had no idea whether such devices exist, or not.

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I know some people resort to buying AT&T micro-cells on e-bay to get 3g to work with their Gen 1 Leaf, but no one knows if those micro-cells will work after February 2022 when they turn all the 3G off.

fester said:

I know about cell booster systems (some fairly expensive), but when better weather comes round, perhaps I may try something like mounting a yagi type directional antenna at 10-20' and connecting that to an omni antenna near the Leafs roof antenna that would be a passive or simi-passive system depending on wether the directional antenna has a pre-amp. Wouldn't know till I tried.
Currently (very dependent on local conditions), I can get a sporadic signal the the Leafs system can use. Might be once an hour, time will tell, but I would like to know the charge state when I'm doing my trickle charge.

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Yeah, the ones that work with all carriers are very expensive. I'm sure it's possible to connect a much higher gain antenna to the Leaf, just never researched it much myself or taken anything apart to examine it.

I'm sure it's possible to connect a much higher gain antenna to the Leaf, just never researched it much myself or taken anything apart to examine it.

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Should we be warning your wife to lock her car and hide the keys?

LeftieBiker said:

I'm sure it's possible to connect a much higher gain antenna to the Leaf, just never researched it much myself or taken anything apart to examine it.

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Should we be warning your wife to lock her car and hide the keys?

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No, he can use his own car for testing while he is testing the battery heater!

Seriously, I have a cellular booster set that works with all carriers and most cellular bands which I use at remote construction sites. It has an external antenna, internal antenna, and two-way booster amplifier between them. It works great if there is a weak signal available from the desired carrier. There are several different brands available--the one I have now is Smooth Talker and Wilson Electronics also makes good units.

LeftieBiker said:

I'm sure it's possible to connect a much higher gain antenna to the Leaf, just never researched it much myself or taken anything apart to examine it.

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Should we be warning your wife to lock her car and hide the keys?

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LOL :lol:
If she saw me trying to pry off the back of her antenna or take her dash apart, I would never hear the end of it. :shock:

knightmb said:

I know some people resort to buying AT&T micro-cells on e-bay to get 3g to work with their Gen 1 Leaf, but no one knows if those micro-cells will work after February 2022 when they turn all the 3G off.

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That would be a "no"
@GerryAZ nailed the solution for those that have poor cell coverage.

I worked with someone who previously worked at a place that made the femtocells used by Sprint. They used IP as a backhaul to the carrier's network. The 3G signal they locally provide is totally separate from the 3G tower service. It would be technically possible for the femtocell to continue to operate after the towers are turned off; all it requires is the carriers servers to continue to accept the incoming VPN connections from the femtocells. However, since turning off the 3G service is all about recovering bandwidth allocations, the FCC wouldn't want them to continue to allow the femtocells to operate, even if they are very low power.