Philadelphia and Southeastern PA

yeswaydude said:

5-20 120V is a standard outlet, right? That's plenty of juice given that I was in NYC for more than 21 hours.

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Yep, a standard 120VAC outlet. They have 4 of them... And there's a huge solar array on top of that garage, so you'll get true zero emission charging there!

I have a question about range that's specific to the area and the type of driving and weather around here:

Would a daily round-trip commute between the Fort Washington area and Malvern be realistically do-able for the LEAF? It's just about 50 miles round trip. Approx 80% of the drive is on I-276 or US-202. I'm concerned that it would be cutting it close during the winters if there was no chance to re-charge at work.

Thanks for any input!

tps said:

And there's a huge solar array on top of that garage, so you'll get true zero emission charging there!

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That would go nicely with my LEAF's usual diet of wind-generated electrons!?! ;-)

durgil said:

...50 miles round trip. Approx 80% of the drive is on I-276 or US-202...

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I think this is easily do-able.

Yes, I work in Malvern and I'm bummed that none of the property managers has yet seen fit to install a charging dock anywhere. :-(

But, my commute is over 19 miles each way -- mostly back roads with a little bit of 202 if I think that's going to be faster that day -- and I haven't had any problems on an 80% charge.

I charge to 100% on days when I volunteer in Northeast Philly. I did the whole roundtrip to work, the Northeast, then back down the Boulevard to home again on a single charge a week ago. The trip odometer read 80.7 miles when I got home, and the guess-o-meter said I could drive 5 more miles. But all of that was without the climate control. Fortunately, there's a free Sema-connect charging station at a Walgreen's next to where I volunteer, so I pick-up a 2-hour charge there during the winter so that I can travel in comfort and still get where I need to go.

It would be really nice to have a charger somewhere in my section of the corporate center, but I've made do without it so far!

You might just think twice about running to the King of Prussia Mall at lunch hour to do some quick shopping. Even though there are free charging stations outside of Nordstrom, you can only pick-up about 12 miles worth of charge in an hour, which doesn't counterbalance the 16 mile trip there and back from Malvern.

I did a new trip yesterday (home -> work -> West Chester -> home) and wondered if an 80% charge would be enough. I could've plugged it into the on-line route facility provided by Nissan, but I just went ahead and took a chance. It was fine. I think the guess-o-meter still had 20 miles on it when I got home last night.

It's a little unnerving for people to watch their gas gauges go down, but I find that the guess-o-meter is actually much better the closer I am to home -- maybe it's just downhill to home from wherever I've gone, but surely that couldn't be the case! I've read that Nissan is supposed to make their navigation systems more elevation-aware. That will make a nice enhancement! But I don't find highway driving to be that much more KWh intensive than regular stop and go driving once you figure how much farther you're going by highway.

Sorry to ramble! Hopefully that helps!

Definitely helps. Thanks for the input.

durgil said:

I have a question about range that's specific to the area and the type of driving and weather around here:

Would a daily round-trip commute between the Fort Washington area and Malvern be realistically do-able for the LEAF? It's just about 50 miles round trip. Approx 80% of the drive is on I-276 or US-202. I'm concerned that it would be cutting it close during the winters if there was no chance to re-charge at work.

Thanks for any input!

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Definitely do-able.

If you charge 100%, and don't go nuts, you won't even cut it close.
And, you have options if you find yourself once in a while getting nervous.
Get off 202, and your range will climb dramatically.
Go 55 instead of 75, and things change dramatically.

I drove up 476 to a meeting at 75+ mph for 30 miles at least.
The GOM was not happy.
I drove home at 55, and the GOM said I got home with 16 miles up my sleeve.
I regularly drive 16+ miles into Delaware at 75mph on I95, then run errands, and chose my route and speed home accordingly.

Devon Station, Devon Nissan, Radnor Station, King of Prussia Mall and PECO Energy Level II chargers are all literally
on your route if you got in serious trouble, or needed to deviate.

I guess the bottom line is this.
If I drive like an idiot, I think I could still make your commute.
If I drive conservatively, I'm sure I can still drive one direction of your commute like an Idiot.
Use the ECO mode. (It still goes 75 :roll: )

I'm actually sort of jealous.
I think your commute is probably right in the Leaf's sweet spot.
Range doable, but long enough that you can really see $$$ savings over driving an ICE vehicle.
A 7 mile commute won't cut it, but 250 miles a week, 1000 a month, 12000 a year.....
That's nice.

Good Luck

Might want to check out this thread as far as range in Winter goes.
Pittsburg :lol:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=8839" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It was a pretty mild winter, so hopefully a prolonged, actual winter won't impact the performance much more than what's already been seen. Thanks for the input. Both of yours plus the link to the other thread.

My current commute is only 7 miles coincidentally enough, but that is likely to change in the next year.

Update after just over a month of driving my Leaf:

- Love it!
- I've driven just over a 1,000 miles during the first month I've had the car. I'm using the car to get to and from work but we're getting most of the mileage during the evenings and weekends by running all of our errands in the Leaf. It's great to take miles off of our other car, an ICE.
- The state $3,500 rebate is still available. I purchased my Leaf on April 24th, mailed the paperwork the next day, and received the check back today (May 31st).
- We haven't had any problems at all charging to 80% using the supplied Level 1 charger and standard electric outlet. I've only charged using a public charger one time, out at the King of Prussia mall. I've only charged to 100% one time, the night before a day of 70 miles of driving.
- Anyone going to the KOP mall should know that there are two chargers on the upper deck, outside of Nordstroms. There are also press releases stating that four chargers are, or would be, available but I couldn't find the other two. I wrote to the mall management and they confirmed that there are only two -- no word on when the two additional chargers may be added.

Did anyone else get an e-mail from the service department right after they bought their LEAF?

I just happened to remember the date when I got into my car one morning earlier this week, so I stopped by the dealer and asked if they had me on the schedule for an appointment. The woman kind of gave me a funny look after finding my name on the schedule. She conferred with her colleague service manager who is in charge of the LEAF technician, and he just laughed and said, "I'd love to change the oil on your car today, but you don't have any!"

I'm 3 months in and have over 3,000 miles on the car. And, I'm still loving it! But, it was still fun to drive my Smart ForTwo convertible today -- it's a completely different feeling driving a tiny open-air ICE and not having to fixate on the guess-o-meter! By comparison, my LEAF feels like a big, quiet, gadget-filled, "gas"-guzzling luxury car!

I'm finally going to get a L2 charger. I cashed in a bunch of credit card points for Lowe's gift cards, and I'm going to get the GE WattStation. And, just today, I get an e-mail about Ontility selling the WattStation for $750! With shipping and tax, it still comes to about $850 -- which should be about the same as the discount I got on the Lowe's gift cards + the Lowe's 10% off coupon + not having to pay shipping. But if anyone else is still looking, it sounds like the best deal out there right now. They even have one of the wall-mounted commercial-grade models for $610. I still want the one with the power-off switch, as I'm currently used to unplugging my L1 when I'm not using it.

For those of you in PECO territory (like me): https://peco.com/Savings/ProgramsandRebates/Residential/Pages/SmartDriver.aspx

Basically, they'll give you $50 for giving them your personal info.

They also created other programs to give $1,000 for the creation of a new commercial or non-profit public charging station and $3,000 to counties for the creation of a public charging station.

Now if someone would only put a fast charger somewhere on Rt. 1 in Delaware so I could get to the beach and back . . .

Thanks for posting about the PECO offer!

Over the July 4th weekend, I finally joined the club.

Been loving it so far.

Congratulations, durgil!

And welcome to the club!

If there's anyone here in more central PA, can you report on whether or not the Sheetz stations got their quick chargers yet? I think they were estimating that the installation was supposed to be completed by the end of June. Once they get them going, we should plan a meet-up!

I'm not sure if anyone here heard about the EVProject coming to Philadelphia. To announce it, they put a separate posting under the Eastern USA section as opposed to adding to this thread. I found out about it because one of my friends sent me the following article from the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Posted: Thu, Aug. 2, 2012, 3:01 AM
ECOtality offers free electric-car-charging stations
By Andrew Maykuth
Inquirer Staff Writer


A California company, infused with millions of federal dollars, is offering to install free charging stations in the homes of some Philadelphia-area owners of electric vehicles.
In return, it wants your data.
ECOtality Inc. announced Wednesday that it was expanding its federally funded EV Project to Philadelphia, as well as Atlanta and Chicago. The two-year-old project, which is now in seven states, is aimed at developing the infrastructure to support the electric-vehicle market, while also gathering data on how EVs are being used and recharged.
Each program participant gets a free, wall-mounted charger valued at $1,500 and a $400 credit toward installation. It's available only to owners of Nissan Leafs and Chevy Volts, because those vehicles are equipped with communications equipment that transmits driving data to the company.
"Now, people interested in electric transportation in the Philadelphia region can join the EV Project and help us build a nationwide network of electric-vehicle-charging stations," said Don Karner, chief innovation officer of ECOtality, which is based in San Francisco. It also is recruiting commercial partners to host the charging stations.
ECOtality received $115 million in U.S. Department of Energy grants in 2009 and 2010, part of the Obama administration's push to stimulate green-energy projects. The grants finance about half the EV Project's cost.
ECOtality's federal funding has become the target of Mitt Romney's campaign, which has likened it to Obama's support of solar-manufacturer Solyndra before it went bankrupt.
The negative publicity has not helped ECOtality's stock price, which closed Wednesday in NASDAQ trading at 49 cents a share, down 92 percent since it went public last year at $6.40 a share.
Karner said the company was being unfairly tarnished during the "political silly season" and maintained that the "project is viable and vibrant."
The rollout of charging infrastructure is one of the obstacles holding back the EV market, along with the cost of the vehicles and their limited range.
There is no shortage of competitors to ECOtality that are building out networks: General Electric; Coulomb Technologies; Better Place; and NRG Energy of Princeton, which operates the eVgo Network. Philadelphia entrepreneur Norman Zarwin also is building out a local network under the U-Go brand name.
ECOtality calls its system the Blink Network, which is connected to the Internet and allows customers to remotely schedule charging via mobile devices. In areas where hourly electric rates are in effect - next year for Peco Co. customers - the charger can also determine the best times and rates available for charging.
Customers who get the free ECOtality residential-recharging stations will have the option to join the Blink Network and pay a fee to use the company's high-speed public charging stations, which are now limited in Philadelphia to two Center City parking garages and Temple University.
In other parts of the country, ECOtality has established partnerships with businesses such as Best Buy, Ikea, Macy's, Sears, and Wal-Mart to host its chargers.
For more information on the program, visit http://www.theEVproject.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; or contact ECOtality's Blink Network at 1-888-998-2546.


Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/busine...tric-car-charging_stations.html#ixzz22OReeiuQ

I went to their website and signed up (since I'm just using an evseupgrade). I'll post more details here if I hear anything back from them.

BTW, I posted on a different thread that a deer ran into my car and smashed the rear door and quarter panel. State Farm estimates the repairs to cost about $3,800 with replacement of the door skin and the rear quarter panel. I picked a repair shop approved by State Farm since State Farm will guarantee the repairs, but I still don't have a warm and fuzzy that they know what they're up against with a giant pack of Lithium Ion batteries right next to a chunk of steel that they're going to be cutting out and re-welding.

Has anyone else here in the local area had bodywork done on their car yet?

Let me know; my car is scheduled to go under the knife on August 15th. :-(

While my wife and I were riding bike on the D&L canal trail through Bethlehem we stumbled on the Musikfest. They had two Leafs there for test drives.
The web site for the Musikfest says they have two chargers there. I'm guessing these may be actually for the casino.
http://www.musikfest.org/info/green.php

A few random thoughts and updates:
- As per Carwings, my lifetime average is 4.88 miles/kWh -- most of my driving is on suburban roads (Carwings average is just under 25mph), to include climbs and descents with decent elevation changes in between West Chester, Wayne, Malvern, and Frazer.
- PECO mailed me a $50 check for registering as a residential customer with an electric car. About a week after I registered I received a PECO postcard about a follow up appointment to have an electrical contractor come out to my house. When I called PECO to say that I didn't need anyone to come out they sounded flustered because they were getting many similar calls. Nothing heard from PECO since.
- I submitted registration information for the EVProject and was told to expect to hear something back within 24-48 hours. That was almost two weeks ago so I'm not sure what to make of the delay, I will follow up with a call this week.

Is anyone here planning on going to the National Plugin Day event at the Franklin Institute Sept 23? Have you registered? What are you planning to do there? The web page really isn't specific as to exactly what registration gets you. If I go, should I drive the LEAF or take the train?

I was in that area this past weekend to visit the data center on Locust Street where my company's servers are located. It's a nice 20 mile drive down 611 from Warminster, where I live.

Hello All,

Just wanted to give a quick update for a charger in the Central PA/Lehigh Valley Area. There is now a working Level 2 charger at the following address: 1578 State Route 903, Jim Thorpe, PA. It is just one spot attached to a light pole in the parking lot of an electrical provider called WB Electric. The owners are extremely nice and they are also looking into getting a parking spot in downtown Jim Thorpe complete with solar panel, they are just waiting for the city to tell them which spot they can have. It is a GE charger and is very nice, I used it twice this week while charging. Unfortunately the only thing around at all in this area is a restaurant/bar named 'Dom & Ally's' across the street, and a Shell station across the street as well. The Shell station has a wooden park bench thing in the shade which was nice, but only the restaurant has a public bathroom. There is a pool table in the joint and the food was decent. They are open 7 days a week. The guy who owned the charger at WB Electric said to call them if you need to use it because they don't leave it on all the time. Free. Thanks all, and I've called every Sheetz on the press release last week and none of them know when their chargers are coming and what level they will be unfortunately,......I also read that LCCC has some for students now too, but all level 2s. I also have not heard any word on chargers for the exits on the turnpike like we were promised by the end of 2012.......

TPS: I, too, live in Warminster. National Plug In day sounds intriguing, but like you I didn't get much of a sense as to what it would involve, how much fun it would be, etc. Not sure if I could make it anyway, but I was at least thinking about it. BTW, I have not seen a single LEAF in Warminster, aside from those on O'Neill Nissan's lot. Did once see a Cayenne Red being driven on Street Rd, but I assumed it was a potential customer test driving as it was only a few hundred yards fom O'Neill's. Saw a blue Leaf in Doylestown a few weeks ago(and that may also have been a test drive as it was only a few miles from Fred Beans Nissan!). That's the only "sighting" that I have had of any LEAFs in the area. Have seen 3 Volts, consistently, in the Bucks/Montgomery County area.

Very late in the game, but regarding Plug in Day, pasting Franklin Institute information. I'm from Souderton, PA area and planning to attend. Was thrilled to see a red Leaf behind me a couple of days ago, the first other one I've actually seen on the road since late April 2012, when I got mine! Very pleased with the experience overall, perfect for my lifestyle with no range anxiety with a 17 mile one-way work commute. Good luck to all.

12:00PM-4:00PM - "Ride and Drive" opportunities in many of the popular new production electric cars including the Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt, Mitsubishi Miev, Toyota Plug-In Prius, Honda Insight FC, as well as electric motor bikes, scooters, hybrid bicycles, and Segways. Raffles for rides in select limited edition electric vehicles on display including the Tesla Roadster and the Fisker Karma.

12:30PM - Global Warming Science, presented by renowned environmental educator Richard Whiteford.

1:00PM - The Politics of Energy, presented by Former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. Signing of his new book "A Nation of Wusses: How America's Leaders Lost the Guts to Make Us Great" to follow.

2:00PM - City council citation presentation declaring September 23 National Plug In Day in Philadelphia.

3:00PM - "Revenge of the Electric Car" movie screening—a lively and fun documentary about the road we have traveled to get to where we are with electric vehicles today.

12:00PM-4:00PM - Demonstrations of residential and business charging solutions by Ecotality.

12:00PM-4:00PM - The Tesla Science Foundation illustrates the science behind electric vehicles, including a live Tesla coil and wireless power demonstration.

12:00PM-4:00PM - Information and demonstrations provided by PECO energy, Solar Journey USA, Advanced Solar Industries, Mom's Clean Air Force, Clean Air Council and more!