RULES FOR NEW LEAF OWNERS

RULES:

#1. If you think that it would be fun and exciting to drive your new Leaf 30 miles to Santa Monica to try and find Chargepoint chargers in the Santa Monica Mall for the first time WITH YOUR WIFE AND 2 SMALL KIDS. It won't be. Don't do it.

#2. If you think it will be easy to use Chargepoint chargers without a card yet and it will be so easy to call and use them. IT WON'T BE. The call center is in India and they couldn't get either of the 2 available chargers working for me.

#3. Don't go following those "Electric Vehicle Charging" blue signs. They're paddle chargers and 10 years old.

#4. If you're at home for an hour before you head out and are 2 bars down and your wife says should we plug it in... the answer is YES!

#5. This is the most important. See rule #1.

Thank you Santa Monica Nissan for letting me charge my car for the long surface street ride back to Glendale in ECO. After I spent 2 hours trying to get chargepoint chargers to work and driving around to outdated chargers on Montana and City Hall.

The infrastructure isn't there yet... it's getting there - but we're bleeding edge. But I love my car... it'll just be a while before I attempt that again.

Thanks for the advice, cdub!

We're planning such a trip from Irvine, but...

1. No kids, just two adults who are up for the adventure.
2. I have my Chargepoint card and I'm planning to test it at South Coast Plaza before the trip to SM.
3. I have apps to map my route to charging stations at Santa Monica Place and/or the Pier.
4. SM Nissan was my fallback choice. Or maybe I'll contact one of our SM friends to get a charge from her home EVSE.

I'll report on our experience, as you have.

Well prepared. I was winging it. Bad idea.

Boomer23 said:

2. I have my Chargepoint card and I'm planning to test it at South Coast Plaza before the trip to SM.

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I can assure you South Coast Plaza ChargePoint charging stations are working just fine as I was there this evening.

I can vouch for the Santa Monica chargepoint stations, they work great with a card. Only potential issue I had was there were 2 Volts there when I got there

Cdub, you missed out though, 3 blocks away you could have parked on the Santa Monica pier (would have cost you a couple bucks) and charged for free with the Clipper Creek charger there (or tried to get the Chargepoint customer service to unlock the 120V outlet). It is kinda neat parking on the pier though and being right there at the beach.

-Matt
PS: we keep our chargepoint card in the glovebox at all times, that way it isn't in my wallet or her purse at the wrong time :roll:
PSS: BTW we have done the trip to Santa Monica several times, and we are in Lakeview Terrace (just down the road)

The trip would have been perfect if those people in the Indian call center would have turned those chargepoint chargers on.

My cards should arrive next week though.

How many bars does it take to get back to Glendale on the freeway? I worry about the climb up the 2.

I have only done the climb up the 2 once, and I didn't really keep track of the bars (got sidetracked) but noticed while it eats through the charge the Leaf seems to go up the hill easier then my Honda Insight does .

I'll do it again and actually keep track of bars one of these days.

We usually take the 118 to the 405 down. We can make it there and back easy without charging.

-Matt

Cdub, I drove my LEaf up the Angeles Crest today, started with almost a full charge and went up to MT Lowe (Almost to Mt Wilson) before turning around, heading back to the Angeles Forest hwy, cruising over to the Big Tujunga turnoff, and then going back the way we came. I got back home with 5 bars of charge remaining, started with one down, so it cost me about 6 bars to go 50 miles with a large amount of elevation shift. I have found that ten miles per bar is pretty average and I have done 85 with the AC on up the 2 from the 134 to the 210. The more you get to know the car the more you will trust it. I live a ways up the hill in Altadena, so I don't like to charge to 100%. Might just as well gain energy going down the hill. With an 80% charge the "range" meter says 62 miles, but by the time I get to the freeway it is reading upwards of eighty. I have also found that using eco mode only to slow the vehicle and a light foot in drive mode is actually more efficient.You still regen in drive mode, but you maintain or gain speed going downhill - so let it coast to a little over the speed limit, then eco mode it back down and at most stops. City driving is fine if you can maintain a constant speed, but eats up just as much energy as the freeway if you have a lot of stops. Best mileage in LA is in heavy traffic moving less than 65, so you can now enjoy traffic jams without worry - you are gaining charge while others are using gas.

Caracalover said:

I have found that ten miles per bar is pretty average and I have done 85 with the AC on up the 2 from the 134 to the 210.

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I'm guessing that you haven't gotten the April firmware upgrade, right? I think ten miles per bar is really high with that change. ... But then maybe you do have it, and are just a much better EV driver than I am.

Ray

As I try to tell my wife's kids/grand kids.....an easy life is all in the planning. Not only do you need a plan A, you should always have a plan B. And in some instances a plan C isn't a bad idea either. You seem to realize your mistakes, so I won't rag you on them too badly. But....

You shouldn't have started out for a 60 mile r/t without 100% charge (then you wouldn't have needed to charge at all).

You should have waited for your Charge Point charge card to arrive.

You should have scoped out all the charging opportunities in advance. The thread I made here on my visit to SM wouldn't have been a bad place to start - you would have at least found the info for the charger on the Pier, if nothing else.

Santa Monica Nissan should have always been on your radar as plan C. And, in fact, I would have even put a shout out on here for a plan D - someone in the neighborhood who maybe wouldn't have minded you using their L2 for a few hours, like Mallory for example.

Caracalover said:

Cdub, I drove my LEaf up the Angeles Crest today, started with almost a full charge and went up to MT Lowe (Almost to Mt Wilson) before turning around, heading back to the Angeles Forest hwy, cruising over to the Big Tujunga turnoff, and then going back the way we came.

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I thought the Angeles Crest Hwy was still closed. When did they open it?

Stoaty said:

I thought the Angeles Crest Hwy was still closed. When did they open it?

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Friday.

mwalsh said:

As I try to tell my wife's kids/grand kids.....an easy life is all in the planning. Not only do you need a plan A, you should always have a plan B. And in some instances a plan C isn't a bad idea either. You seem to realize your mistakes, so I won't rag you on them too badly. But....

You shouldn't have started out for a 60 mile r/t without 100% charge (then you wouldn't have needed to charge at all).

You should have waited for your Charge Point charge card to arrive.

You should have scoped out all the charging opportunities in advance. The thread I made here on my visit to SM wouldn't have been a bad place to start - you would have at least found the info for the charger on the Pier, if nothing else.

Santa Monica Nissan should have always been on your radar as plan C. And, in fact, I would have even put a shout out on here for a plan D - someone in the neighborhood who maybe wouldn't have minded you using their L2 for a few hours, like Mallory for example.

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Hey...I think I said all of those "should of"s in my rant... thank you very much.

cdub said:

thank you very much.

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You are quite welcome. :lol:

Caracalover said:

Cdub, I drove my LEaf up the Angeles Crest today.

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We actually drove 5 miles up the Crest highway before our big adventure. Beautiful up there.

Caracalover said:

City driving is fine if you can maintain a constant speed, but eats up just as much energy as the freeway if you have a lot of stops. Best mileage in LA is in heavy traffic moving less than 65, so you can now enjoy traffic jams without worry - you are gaining charge while others are using gas.

Click to expand...

I think going back home using surface streets was a mistake. Santa Monica blvd was a traffic jam... stop and go.

I could have made it just fine using the 10 to the 110, 5, and 2... I'll feel more confident at freeway speeds after a week of commuting to Studio City next week instead of just one commute day on Friday.

Don't forget that if you have a credit card with RFID like AMEX express pay that will also unlock the chargepoints.. I did that with one in Santa And
Ana before I got a pass.

Question on Santa Monica Charge Points. Are they free to use, you just need the card to unlock and start and finish charging? I got the free card during April, but opted not to connect to a credit card. Are the one's at LAX also accessible with the card that requires no credit card attached? Thanks, I just don't see anything on this topic, I guess I am confued, nothing new there.
Just hit 10,000 miles today

planet4ever said:

I'm guessing that you haven't gotten the April firmware upgrade, right? I think ten miles per bar is really high with that change. ... But then maybe you do have it, and are just a much better EV driver than I am.

Ray

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You are right, I haven't gotten the firmware upgrade yet, but I have stopped looking at the range meter, so not using that as a base. I can guess pretty well at this point how much energy I am using, where I can gain some, and how far it is going to take me. I enjoy gaining charge so I do take it easy about half the time, but I am never seen as slow. I have never pushed the limits of the charge (Have only charged to 100% once or twice, never been into the bottom red), but with a 30 mile commute RT for a couple months I have noticed that I get a rough ten miles per bar. Made the 30 mile round trip to Burbank twice in one day, which made the wife a little nervous but I had confidence, even though the second trip was to the Castaway in Burbank. I actually want to put a smiley face sticker over that darn range meter number - it just bugs me and is useless, don't think any fix will help either. Elevation is the factor to consider most, and enjoy the ride, don't just want the ride to be over as fast as possible - you are not in an ICE any more, so punch it and regenerate as much of it back as you can.

cdub said:

Caracalover said:

City driving is fine if you can maintain a constant speed, but eats up just as much energy as the freeway if you have a lot of stops. Best mileage in LA is in heavy traffic moving less than 65, so you can now enjoy traffic jams without worry - you are gaining charge while others are using gas.

Click to expand...

I think going back home using surface streets was a mistake. Santa Monica blvd was a traffic jam... stop and go.

I could have made it just fine using the 10 to the 110, 5, and 2... I'll feel more confident at freeway speeds after a week of commuting to Studio City next week instead of just one commute day on Friday.

Click to expand...

That is what I was thinking, you likley didn't need to charge at all, and starting out 2 bars down is not an issue if you are headed toward the coast. Using the elevation loss to gain some energy on the way perhaps with surface streets, then return via the freeway would be my choice.

The wildflowers are great up the crest, we went up to the first lookout Friday night as well, just as a tester for Sat.