Philadelphia and Southeastern PA

[KillaWhat]

Thanks TPS. I regularly see a Black LEAF on my way to Conshohocken every day almost. The driver drives to LA Fitness, maybe _she_ was the one because she comes from Horsham side...

On another note, Car Charging Group announced that they have an agreement in place to install chargers on the Turnpike, the closest one being at Valley Forge rest stop. I assume that means both E/B and W/B will get them. Although it would be nice to have Level II's, if they don't at least install Level III QC's, then it really won't be that big of a deal after all. I don't even have the QC option, but I can see that having the ability to pull in and get 80% full in 20 minutes is great. Stop in at the rest stop, plug in, use the rest rooms, get a soda and snack and before you know it you are good to go. Oh well, next year when the lease is up, it's QC for sure.

Lou

I read the original proposal / bid a couple years ago.
It was for 2 DCQC's and "several" J1772 L2's at EVERY PA turnpike rest area, both East/ West, and the Northeast Extension.
Was to have been well under way by now.
I guess Blink must have won the bid, and then fell apart.

Looking forward to the DCQC's.
Have to say I'm impressed with how quickly Nissan is getting these Dealer DCQC's up and running after the decided to do it.

I'll be hitting that Concordville unit tomorrow.

So hello again southeast PA EV"ers.
I have bee obsessing lately about these PennDot Chargers and EVSE we were promised, and that they had a GRANT! for, and where things stand.
I just today heard back from my many many letters, emails, and phone calls, with a phone call from "The Guy" at PennDot.

He said that yes, things are moving very slowly, much slower than the original plan, but.... March!
March they will be putting Level 3's (and LII's) into 4 of the Rest Areas.
I didn't catch all the locations (was driving Leafy at the time) but KOP was one of them.

So, there you are.
Some progress.

Enjoying the L3 at the Nissan dealer on 202 near the Costco.
Make a Costco run every Friday now, with Lunch at Booths corner Farmers Market.
Although, the Nissan L3 on 202 is WAY slower than the Blink by the Delaware memorial Bridge.
I have a meter system, and it looks like it puts out about 50% of what the Blink is capable of.

Anyone else noticing this.
Is it the same at the other Nissan chargers?

[GREENEV]

Recently returned from a trip to Philadelphia for a week. Spent a week on the "Main Line" and didn't see one single LEAF my entire stay.

[gatedad11]

Greenie:
I live and work in the North/Eastern Philly suburbs. There are LEAFS out here, as I typically see one or two a day. However, days will go by where I see none. Then I will see a few on the same day. You are more likely to see a Tesla or especially a Volt than a LEAF. And I drive a Mitsubishi I-Miev, those you NEVER see. I spent almost a week last month in Southern California(San Diego and LA) and for some reason saw very few LEAFS. In the past I have seen quite a few LEAFS there, so must just have been the luck of the draw that you didn't see any here. We are seeing Nissan dealers installing QC charging units on site, so there will be an increase in LEAFS(once people see that they can pretty much go wherever they want and not fear range issues).

Lou

[woodgeek]

Thanks to all for a fun read.....I was enthralled back in 2010 with the original LEAF press release, my first time ever excited about a car, but wasn't in a good place to get one. Reading the old thread, I got to see what it would have been like if I had...thanks.

I finally leased a Blue 2013 S+QC back in May, and my whole family has been having a blast with it. Now working on getting a compact spare to carry around.

I'm planning some drives from here (St Davids) to NYC, where we have some family. I'm currently thinking about using the NJCAR QC near Trenton, and then either dinner in Princeton (with L2) or a second QC stop in Brunswick. I figure I can hypermile there with one QC stop, but would rather make two (brief) stops and drive however I like. Anyone done it?

I can also attest that the QC at Conicelli (near the Ikea) works fine (with Chargepoint card), 40 kW charging rate. I went on a Sunday afternoon just to try it out, when the dealership was closed and the spot was wide open.

[OakLeaf]

Well, it's been a good 4 years with our 2012 Leaf SL, but we're getting close to the end of our 1 year extension (late Feb 2017) of the original 3 year lease and need to decide what direction to go next.

Overall, we have really liked driving the Leaf. Our only true complaint is that the battery has not held up - we're down 2, soon to be 3 bars.

The original purpose of the Leaf was to be my daily commuter (37 miles round trip) and to that end it has been entirely successful.

I'm resurrecting this old thread because I'm curious what other Leaf drivers in our area have done.

Have you kept your Leaf, or have you moved on to something else? What else have you moved on to?

My suspicion, based on what I've observed here on the roads every day is that folks have traded in their Leaf for either a Tesla or gone back to an ICE.

Although there may be more choices available in other parts of the country, locally, if we were looking to have a vehicle with an all-weather electric range of at least 40 miles, these seem to be our current options:

Nissan Leaf
Chevy Volt
BMW i3
Tesla S or X

There are some other EV's (such as the VW e-Golf, Kia Soul EV, Chevy Spark EV) possible if we go out of state to NJ/DE/MD/NY, but local service and support for these would likely be unavailable.

In speaking with a local Chevy dealer (Bergey's on 309), they claim they will have some limited allocation of the Bolt in Q2 of 2017 with general availability expected mid-year. It's good to hear it will be available soon, but since it is a bit beyond the end of our Leaf lease, it's not looking like an option either.

Was really hoping that Nissan would have a decent upgrade to the Leaf available at this point. Ideally, a range extender version that would compete with the Volt and i3 or be a SUV/CUV of some sort. From what I gather, we'll have a good chance of an announcement of something substantial at the CES in a few days, but it certainly won't be something that will address our near term needs.

Hopefully, there are still a few locals around and following this forum - thanks in advance for your thoughts!

[lwaz12a]

Hey Oakleaf - thanks for posting. Amazing how time goes by. Wondering if you are a PennView parent. If I recall you have a red leaf. Mine is black and I see a red Leaf in the parking lot from time-to-time. I'm in Hilltown Township, very close to Sellersville. We purchased our 2012 leaf in April 2012. Close to 60,000 miles trouble free. Just got the TCU upgraded at Montgomery Nissan last week - all went well.

All - There is 110V charging available at PreFlight (just outside of Philadelphia International Airport). I used this many times as I used to travel a great deal for work. I noticed this question about charging at airport (what is now several years ago) on this board.

We have just lost one bar of capacity on the Leaf, however I don't feel confident taking any round trip without charging available more than 50 miles - especially outside of the summer seasons.

With next to no wholesale values in Leafs, we will probably just keep the car until it drops. Overall we enjoy driving the car as we do lots of local trips, errands, etc., where no issue with range.

Our second car was a van, but with our oldest off to college this year, some friends were interested in our van as an upgrade for them. Seeing this as an opportunity, we sold them the van, then bought a 2013 Volt from Bergey's in Colmar. The car only had about 5000 miles on it and was fully loaded. Was a $45K car new, so we got it for a fraction of that price. So far we are really enjoying it. Purchased at the end of October, 2016 it came with a full tank. Took a couple trips toward central PA, a couple to the airport and just put in 3 gallons of gas in it this week.

So far, very happy and impressed with the Volt. Would recommend it to others. It makes a good primary car as you get around 40 miles pure electric (which is all we need most of the time), but literally no range anxiety as you have the extender (small ICE) to generate electricity for the electric motor when out of charge. Also, they designed the car so that even when the pure electric is gone, it feels like a hybrid as about half the battery is reserved for electric starts and deceleration and the ICE running for cruise speed.

Would really like the Model S, but just can't justify 6 figures for a car. Maybe in a couple years for a used one, but set for the near future. I know this is long, hopefully didn't put everyone to sleep.... Just catching up after several years.
Happy New Year everyone and hoping 2017 is good to all.

[OakLeaf]

Howdy!

Yes, we are that red Leaf you see from time to time to time over at PennView - glad to finally meet you!

It's interesting that you are down only 1 bar at 60000 miles and we're down 2, getting close to 3 at 45000 miles in essentially the same local environment.

Although my daily commute is only about 40 miles, I used to be able to do 2+ full round trips from home to work back up to the school for the kids performances/lunches and back to work and home again without any issues, even in winter - a good 80 miles or more. Now, we have to swap vehicles or I just entirely drive the ICE on those days.

Occasionally I used to take the Leaf over to NJ when working off-site (about 150 miles round trip from home) and I couldn't imagine doing it without the LeafSpy app. Highly recommended if you don't already use it - it lets you get much better detail on battery state and range.

The lack of reliable and ubiquitous charging locations in the area, especially L3 has been a real issue and I don't see it getting much better around here anytime soon. All the L3's I've regularly used previously for my extended work trips are now down as well as a number of the L2's. I guess that they were put in using grant money of some sort, but there is no funding for repair and maintenance. NRG seems to be the only one building out new locations right now.

Good to hear that the Volt is recommended - it's the most likely candidate we now have for replacing the Leaf as it would cover the daily drive all electric, but also allow range-anxiety free extended trips as well. Originally looked at the Volt before getting the Leaf, but passed on it due to thinking it would not have sufficient all-electric range for the daily drive. Plus, we had car seats at the time and they didn't fit too well in back as well as getting kids strapped and un-strapped was a bit of a struggle. We are passed that stage now, so the needs are a bit different.

The Teslas are nice, and they certainly have the range and charging system in place, but as with you, it's hard to justify the price. You can buy a lot of gas for the price difference between a Leaf/Volt and a Tesla, even a used one. When the Model 3 finally makes it here to the East in any number, it might be worth looking at, but it will be a few years before that's an option.

The other reasonably good option we're looking at is to buy out the Leaf lease (assuming we can get it at a steep discount from the residual) and keep on doing what we're doing for now for another year or so. Our ICE (an Escape) is getting a bit long in the tooth and we're waiting to see what the new Pacifica plug-in Mini-Van looks like. Maybe move over to that and keep the Leaf for the around-town and local errands. It's been absolutely reliable and able to continue to be a work-horse in this role for many years to come.

Haven't yet had the TCU update done, but thanks for reminding me about the Montgomery Nissan dealership. I've been getting in touch with all the local dealers these past few days trying to get the best buyout deal we can get on the lease. So far, they all seem not to understand that the buyout is negotiable - they all keep quoting the ridiculously high residual number.

Thanks again for writing it's been good to hear from you!

Hope you and everyone else who's reading a very Happy New Year and a safe and prosperous 2017!!

[OakLeaf]

In case anyone local is still following this thread and interested, I'll point out that PECO is running a nice rebate off of MSRP for the existing inventory of LEAFs:

http://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=24432

[tps]

I haven't checked in for a while. I've actually been going to Hilltown on a regular basis during the last 6 months; I became a member of the Philadelphia Glider Council, located in Hilltown, and I'm getting close to soloing in a glider. There are two other PGC members who have LEAFs...

I'll be going over to an FAA seminar next Thursday evening at Flying W Airport in Lumberton NJ. This is an easy drive from my office in Bristol, where we have charging. But coming back, especially with the battery degradation on my 6 year / 75K mile LEAF, I will charge at the Walmart between Mt. Holly and Burlington. The have a Chargepoint Chademo spot, and I can shop or eat at the in-store Subway while it's charging.

So far the improvements to the public charging network have made up for the battery degradation I've experienced, but I'm seriously considering whether I should try to get Peruzzi to replace the traction pack before the cold weather comes this year.

[tps]

Well, the unexpected has happened: I got laid off from my job of 20+ years... I will take this as an opportunity to move to Cincinnati to be near my mother, who has dementia. Looking at plugshare, it looks as if they have quite a few DCFC, mainly at Walmart and Nissan dealers. I might try to get my traction battery pack changed out before I leave Philadelphia.