The official "I got my Leaf" thread

[Zurc]

Wow! very lucky indeed.
It's not like the windshield is hard to hit, its huge.
So now I guess we call it the Leaf Bucket because it's good at catching things.
Glad nobody was seriously hurt and you came out better in the end.

Zurc.

[tomstrange]

Took delivery of my 2015 SL on 11/26. Pearl White w/premium pkg. and all of the extra stuff.
Sticker was $38255 with a $8750 discount. 3 yr lease
Bought a Siemans level 2 charger for $649++ and paid an electrician $150 to install the plug and 40amp breaker.

Very satisfied with it so far.

[oakhillsleaf]

Just joined - bought a used 2011 Silver SL with 21.8k miles - VIN #494
$11,888 SF Toyota used dealer advertised it as SV... took it home and realized it was SL and quick charge was there.
Also came with rear/back window tint - almost too dark. Missing one key - cost ~$200 to replace.

Battery details:
54.52AH
SOC 92.1%
SOH 83%
224 GIDs 79.7%
HX 67.65%
Quick Charges 2

Currently charging by 110v and will swap to 220v this month.
Note it usually takes two bars to climb 1500ft to top of Oakland hills in winter's bone chilling 50F

[jpadc]

Hello fellow LEAF owners:

For the record, here are my details. I had been looking to buy this LEAF for some time. I live part time in Indy and part time in Northern Wisconsin and I found a dealer in Iowa City, Iowa (Carousel Nissan) that still had a new 2013 S with charge package that had never sold. I kept trying to get them down to my price for months. During that time I did a lot of research on this and related sites to learn about the cars and what I would need to know if I was going to buy what was effectively a 2 year old car. Thanks to people here I learned about Leaf Spy Pro (already had an android device dedicated to my Prius to run Torque), EVSEs and many other things that would help me as a new LEAF owner.

Well the good people at Carousel finally got to my price (or at least close enough to it ) in late December long after the 2015 had been out. They had driven it some (to keep it healthy) so it had about 700 miles on it when I bought it. I checked the battery before signing the papers and got a AHr = 61.42 and a Hx = 94.64 which for sitting around awhile seemed pretty good to me based on all I read about expected values on a 2013 LEAF on this site. It does seem like the 12 volt battery may not be in as good a shape, but that is what a new car warranty is for, right?

So I signed the papers and towed the car back to Indy. So far its been great except I did have to charge the auxiliary battery after leaving it set for a week between Christmas and New Years while we traveled (Got the dreaded "T/M Vehicle System Malfunction Visit dealer" error, but again doing my homework here suggested charge the auxiliary battery).

So I have my Juicebox Basic Kit built and installed now and trying to work with the local power company about their special EV rates, but that may fail if they insist I mount the device outside the garage (seems crazy to me).

Thanks to the many members here who have provided their their experiences and expertise. I feel like it helped make the new accquisition go as smoothly as possible.

Bob

[Zurc]

So jpadc's Prius has cost him 1697.67 Gallons of gas over 6 years. Don't know what you pay for a gallon of gas so I cant compute that.
But if its converted to liters, and gas is calculated at 1.40/ltr, it comes out to $10,790.39. or $1,798.40/yr. I could buy lots of Christmas presents with that every year.

By contrast, if I charge up from the bottom of the battery every day for a year it would cost me about $584.00. Gotta love that.

Zurc.

[RonDawg]

So far its been great except I did have to charge the auxiliary battery after leaving it set for a week between Christmas and New Years while we traveled (Got the dreaded "T/M Vehicle System Malfunction Visit dealer" error, but again doing my homework here suggested charge the auxiliary battery).

Did you leave the car plugged in the entire time you were away? Leafs are known to drain their 12 volt batteries if left plugged in but not charging for extended periods.

I've left my Leaf for up to 2 weeks unplugged with a half-charge and didn't find a drained 12 volt battery when I came back.

So I have my Juicebox Basic Kit built and installed now and trying to work with the local power company about their special EV rates, but that may fail if they insist I mount the device outside the garage (seems crazy to me).

Are you sure they meant an external mount EVSE and not an external dedicated meter for it? The latter is what I have and was mandated by my municipality even though I don't get a price break on the electricity used to charge my Leaf.

Otherwise the only reason to have an externally mounted EVSE is because that is where the car is normally parked.

Congrats on the purchase. Don't forget to claim your Federal tax credit of up to $7500 (since this is still technically a new car purchase) and any state or local EV incentives.

[jpadc]

Did you leave the car plugged in the entire time you were away? Leafs are known to drain their 12 volt batteries if left plugged in but not charging for extended periods.

No I did not leave it plugged in. What I read here suggested I should not. Not sure how it charges the 12 when not plugged in and turned off. Isn't the main battery isolated then??? Not yet sure how that all works

Are you sure they meant an external mount EVSE and not an external dedicated meter for it? The latter is what I have and was mandated by my municipality even though I don't get a price break on the electricity used to charge my Leaf..

They have now clarified they only mean the meter box. That's good

Congrats on the purchase. Don't forget to claim your Federal tax credit of up to $7500 (since this is still technically a new car purchase) and any state or local EV incentives.

That was a big factor in this decision. No state or local incentives, but I'm eligible for every cent of the federal one and I'll take it

[jpadc]

So jpadc's Prius has cost him 1697.67 Gallons of gas over 6 years. Don't know what you pay for a gallon of gas so I cant compute that.
But if its converted to liters, and gas is calculated at 1.40/ltr, it comes out to $10,790.39. or $1,798.40/yr. I could buy lots of Christmas presents with that every year. Zurc.

Zurc: You made me curious so I downloaded and analyzed the data. I have logged every fill-up on an iPhone app (I'm a data geek). I have added fuel 229 times over the time I have owned the car. The last fill up was at 73285 miles. The dealer paid for the original full tank of gas. I have spent a total of $5339 US dollars (from a low of $1.69 per gallon to a high of $4.16 per gallon) on fuel in the time I've owned it. Cheap fuel in the US is what has kept most here from adopting hybrids and electrics. To date, I have had the car in service for 6.25 years making my fuel costs $854 per year ($0.0728 per mile).

I have replaced the tires once and did my own oil changes every 5k with Mobile 1 synthetic oil and anything but a Fram oil filter. Bought one new 12 volt battery, 3 air and cabin filter changes, a new set of wiper blades, changed the coolant (both engine and inverter once) and topped off the brake fluid. Oh and one FOB (electronic key) replacement battery. That's it for maintenance. By far the cheapest and most reliable car I've ever owned.

I hope the Leaf will do me even half as well. Seven cents a mile fuel costs will be hard to top even if I can get the $0.02 per kWh EVX rates here. Time will tell.

Edit: Name correction - and a small data correction - it was late the first time I ran the numbers

As a side note, many of the 73K miles were acquired in the 600 mile trips between Indy and northern Wisconsin (about 9.5 hours in the Prius). Even if I could find chargers, my LEAF won't find its way to Wisconsin near as much. But for everything else I do, the LEAF will be great.

[Zurc]

Well that shows you how much we pay for fuel up here. My numbers were very rough off the top of my head and cost of fuel was averaged on the high side of the mid point between 87 octane and 91 octane over the entire millage. It's very interesting to see the real numbers.

I'm finding that a full charge is worth $1.61 CDN so that works out to 0.0161 cents per mile assuming 100miles to the charge or 0.02146 cents per mile assuming 75miles per charge. Even at double the power charges it's still less than your Prius so you should do well.

If they get enough level 3 chargers on the highways, that trip to Wisconsin in your leaf may become a reality. Here's hoping.

Zurc.

[desiv]

OK, time to post here I guess..

Got my Leaf.
Silver 2012 SL with about 11k on it. Got it from the Portland area.

Finally got my cards/keyfobs and today was the first day I brought it in to work..

Which for me is a 60 mile drive. Yep, that's one direction, it'll be 60 miles home.

Looks like the Leaf would have made it (at least so far on the battery), but I charged in the middle.
I bought it expecting to have to charge in the middle (if I don't, great, but I am planning for it).

I'm one of the best and worst candidates for an EV.
Best, because what I'm paying for the car now is less than I was paying for my 30+ mpg driver and gas. Actually, it's less than I was paying just for gas. The car payment and oil changes/etc would be on top of that.
Worst, because my commute requires me to charge during the commute (at least once.. Not sure yet how it will work out. One large charge while at work, or 2 shorter charges along the way... We'll see as I get going..)

Yes, there's the electric costs, but I'm in an Aerovironment area, so $20/month gets me unlimited charges while out. I'll still be well under what I was paying for gas..

I expect the bars to drop (still 12 so far, but I'm realistic), but if this car lasts me 4 years it was well worth it.
By then, I'm sure I'll be in the market for something else with a bigger range...

This is a 2nd attempt for me actually.
Years (6?) ago, I bought a kit and an old bug to convert (my commute was MUCH shorter then).
And while the electric work was something I think I could have handled, the car work wasn't. And wife and I then got the house in Lincoln City, Oregon. So I donated the car/kit to the local Community College (in Salem, OR) and put my EV dreams on hold.

But finally bit the bullet.
I'm not quite at Steve Marsh range, but close-ish..

So, it's not all about saving money, as I've wanted an EV for a long time. And that's the real reason. But the numbers helped the justification.
And my wife likes the car! (Although she wanted red. Which they had, but at 24k, not at 11k.)

Hopefully this will be a fun ride for me...

Thanx,

Desi
(p.s. I did order an OBDII bluetooth device, so will be checking out LeafSpy when I get that..)