Greetings from the Mother Lode

[Ancient1]

Just picked up our 2019 SV plus yesterday. We are in California, in the Sierra foothills in what is known as Mother Lode country. I have your new member template, but I am not sure where or how to complete the information and post it. Does it go here, as a new post, or is there another place I should go to? Thanks for your help - looking forward to sharing info on this neat little car!

[LeftieBiker]

You are indeed in the right place, but I may move this topic into an existing one for new Leaf acquisitions a bit later. In the meantime, welcome.

[Ancient1]

Thank you! We were encouraged to look into getting a Leaf by our brother-in-law in Seattle, who has a 2018 SV. My wife drove it when we were up there in July, and she liked it a lot, so we decided to trade in her 2012 Subaru Forester when we got back home and get our own Leaf. We wanted an SL plus in Scarlet Ember, but apparently there are none in Northern California. We settled on the SV plus, and even then had quite a time finding one in the right color. We were directed by the Costco Auto Program to Tracy Nissan, 75 miles from our home, ($1200 discount as a Costco member!) and they found one across SF Bay in Burlingame. It appears Scarlet Ember is the most popular color, and is hard to find. Lots of blue ones and white ones, though.
I have it on trickle charge now, for the first time. I am waiting for my electrician to find time to come out and install a 220-240 outlet, but don't yet know when that will be. Once that is in, I am looking at a Morec EV2 fast charger - anyone have any experience with one? I am also considering a Lectron Tesla to J1772 adapter, as out of 37 charging stations within 30 miles of my location, 35 of them are Tesla only! I would appreciate any input on these, or any other suggestions. My wife drives less than 5000 miles a year, mostly around town, so the Leaf seems perfect for her, but at our elevation (3250 feet) climbing the hills seems to drain the battery pretty quickly. I expect to do most charging here at home, but want to be properly prepared in the event we do need to charge out on the road somewhere.
So far, we are very pleased with the car. At its price point ($40,000) I would like to see a few things on it that aren't available, such as a power close trunk lid (my wife is small and short, and the lid is a little struggle for her), and a memory drivers seat for 2 drivers. I don't understand why the back-up beeper sounds in front, but not in the rear - or would that be too logical? I do find the center console is uncomfortable on my knee, as other taller drivers have mentioned, but since I won't be driving it that much, it isn't a big problem. We are still learning our way around the controls, and the manuals aren't all that helpful. The on-line guides aren't that great, either - is Nissan sure they have enough websites for this car? I am at 3 - and counting. One of my best friends here has a Tesla Model 3, so I am sure we will be doing a lot of comparing. Should be interesting!

[GerryAZ]

What model Morec EVSE are you considering? The ones I found online are portable units. I believe the SV+ comes with Nissan's portable 120/240-volt EVSE so you could use that at home with a 14-50 receptacle. Personally, I recommend an installed EVSE at home so you don't need to unpack/pack the portable unit every time you charge. I highly recommend Clipper Creek units--either HCS-40P or HCS-50P with 14-50 plug would be ideal if you have a 14-50 receptacle installed.

[DougWantsALeaf]

That’s what we did, just install the NEMA outlet and used the included charger. It was a couple hundred to run the 50 amp circuit up to our garage, but still much cheaper then doing that in conjunction with a new charging set up.

If your neighbor has an SR+, I am very interested in hearing about range comparison. In normal driving my GOM sits in the 270s, though you only get about 250, as the car hides some range as it gets low. I have done over 240 miles on the highway, but that is at pretty controlled speeds, say low 60s. 220 miles is now a breeze.

Please send in experiences.

[GerryAZ]

By the way, the portable Nissan 120/240-volt EVSE comes with a wall-mount bracket to install near the receptacle that you should mount if you plan to use it at home frequently.

[SageBrush]

" I am also considering a Lectron Tesla to J1772 adapter, as out of 37 charging stations within 30 miles of my location, 35 of them are Tesla only!"

These adapters are at best unsupported and unapproved by Tesla; at worst they are illegal. You are buying a hack that firmly places all legal responsibility for any damages to your car, the Tesla EVSE, the hook-up and the property due to use of the hack firmly in your court.

You may not care that you are using equipment paid for by Tesla for the use of Tesla cars ONLY but self-interest should make you think twice.

[jlv]

These adapters are at best unsupported and unapproved by Tesla; at worst they are illegal. You are buying a hack that firmly places all legal responsibility for any damages to your car, the Tesla EVSE, the hook-up and the property due to use of the hack firmly in your court.

You may not care that you are using equipment paid for by Tesla for the use of Tesla cars ONLY but self-interest should make you think twice.

I'm sorry, I disagree with almost all of that. Not all HPWCs (destination chargers) were paid for by Tesla - some places actually buy them! I can't imagine anywhere in the US where a J1772-to-Tesla adapter is illegal, either, so adding that is unnecessary hyperbole.

[SageBrush]

These adapters are at best unsupported and unapproved by Tesla; at worst they are illegal. You are buying a hack that firmly places all legal responsibility for any damages to your car, the Tesla EVSE, the hook-up and the property due to use of the hack firmly in your court.

You may not care that you are using equipment paid for by Tesla for the use of Tesla cars ONLY but self-interest should make you think twice.

I'm sorry, I disagree with almost all of that. Not all HPWCs (destination chargers) were paid for by Tesla - some places actually buy them! I can't imagine anywhere in the US where a J1772-to-Tesla adapter is illegal, either, so adding that is unnecessary hyperbole.

.
I look forward to Tesla suing these adapter vendors. Do you really doubt the outcome ? In the meantime, I gather that Tesla has modified their wall EVSE product to block the adapters.

As for your comment, I'm pretty confident that I could use up all my thumbs in counting the number of Tesla Destination chargers placed at businesses that were not subsidized or outright paid for by Tesla ... FOR TESLA OWNERS. I also routinely see signage at these chargers alerting car owners to the fact that these EVSE are for Tesla car charging only. Huh.

[webeleafowners]

These adapters are at best unsupported and unapproved by Tesla; at worst they are illegal. You are buying a hack that firmly places all legal responsibility for any damages to your car, the Tesla EVSE, the hook-up and the property due to use of the hack firmly in your court.

You may not care that you are using equipment paid for by Tesla for the use of Tesla cars ONLY but self-interest should make you think twice.

I'm sorry, I disagree with almost all of that. Not all HPWCs (destination chargers) were paid for by Tesla - some places actually buy them! I can't imagine anywhere in the US where a J1772-to-Tesla adapter is illegal, either, so adding that is unnecessary hyperbole.

.
I look forward to Tesla suing these adapter vendors. Do you really doubt the outcome ? In the meantime, I gather that Tesla has modified their wall EVSE product to block the adapters.

As for your comment, I'm pretty confident that I could use up all my thumbs in counting the number of Tesla Destination chargers placed at businesses that were not subsidized or outright paid for by Tesla ... FOR TESLA OWNERS. I also routinely see signage at these chargers alerting car owners to the fact that these EVSE are for Tesla car charging only. Huh.

I’m not sure I follow. Why would Tesla sue a manufacturer of an adapter. Seems like that would be counter to the mission.

Interestingly enough a couple of the wineries with HPWC’s have the adapter available for clients here. They didn’t realize that not all EV’s were compatible with the HPWC. Lol.

The adapters from quick charge (Tony’s) work well even on the new HPWC’s. You have to wait 30 seconds though.