Nissan Leaf

[redpoint5]

My air compressor doesn't communicate with the wall before it draws excessive amounts of energy, nor does it check to see that it's properly grounded. (I got locked out the other day when I left my compressor on, closed the garage door that was on the same circuit, and the breaker tripped while I was gone).

I don't know why EVs are an exception to how everything else works.

[Astro]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

My air compressor doesn't communicate with the wall before it draws excessive amounts of energy, nor does it check to see that it's properly grounded. (I got locked out the other day when I left my compressor on, closed the garage door that was on the same circuit, and the breaker tripped while I was gone).

I don't know why EVs are an exception to how everything else works.

It's normally about then that you realise you had the breaker box installed inside the garage.

I fully understand the need for an electric car not to exceed the current capacity of the charging station/outlet but the most reliable way to do this has always been a physical preventative.
Different pin sizes or configurations for different current capacities.

Spending many hundreds of dollars for a relay doesn't seem like a fair thing.
My personal impression is that for most commercial products it isn't about the cost of manufacture but about what the market will pay.
Electric cars are expensive, people buying them expect them to be expensive so why not sell them an expensive relay as well.

Even the charge cable itself, no more copper in it that a regular car jumper cable. Yet they charge nearly 10 times what the jumper cable costs.

Yes, yes, limited market, need to recoup design costs etc. but it's just a cable!

At work they were discussing a product (not car related) and when a technician asked about the procedure for ordering a replacement power supply the response was. "The entire unit costs us less than $9, by the time you undo the screws to get to the power supply you are already losing us money. Just throw the entire unit in the bin and put a new one in its place."
They sell those products to the public (i would estimate at least a million units sold) for a bit over $360 each!

Must be difficult to make a profit hey?

[sendler]

Originally Posted by Astro

Different pin sizes

Come on you guys! The idea is for every car to have the same plug even though one car has a 10kW charger and another has a 3kW. And one charge station is hooked to a 30 amp breaker and one is hooked to a 50. Adaptability was needed. And its not good to have a 10kW spark arching across the pins in your car a thousand times every time you plug in. So a relay was needed. It a miracle that the whole world was able to agree on a standard connector so fast. And the pricing is not out of line.
.
J1772 Cable 40A Ultra Flexible – OpenEV Store
.

[NeilBlanchard]

The amperage is controlled by the charger in the car, and limited by the EVSE.

The price of anything is what the market will pay. That's the way it works for everything.

[Astro]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

The price of anything is what the market will pay. That's the way it works for everything.

Oh i see that but there are degrees to it.
There is making a profit and then there is taking advantage of people.
The example i gave of the $9 device being sold for $360 is, i believe, leaning more towards the taking advantage of people end of the scale.
It's like paying $3.60 per kW/h for electricity and then finding out that it only cost 9 cents per kWh to produce.

[Astro]

Originally Posted by rmay635703

The volt is arguably not very impressive when the temperature creeps below 25 degrees F.
The battery heater chips away at the range quite massively.
Generally 40 degrees out I get 50 miles on a charge
Below 25 it creeps toward 31 miles (but I can usually eek 40 if its not too cold and if I can avoid erdtt)

Would it be possible to preheat the batteries at home and thermally insulate the battery rack?
If the system already has a battery heater in it then maybe it could be ran from the wall outlet whilst in the garage.
Get the batteries up to a decent temperature without using any of the battery capacity.

[Piotrsko]

imho, it isn't the at home scenerio, it is the sitting around in the snow storm 1/2 charged and you need to get it home one. My batteries are nice and toasty going to work, but they are at ambient on the way home, which led to walking 1/2 mile friday evening to get the laptop to reset the low level warning by 1 volt lower.

[NeilBlanchard]

We charged Forest on a CHAdeMO quick charger for the first time.



It works better to charge when the battery is lower - you get more range in the same time plugged in. We went from 56% up to 82% in 20 minutes, it can go from 0% up to 80% in about 30 minutes. So, next time we will charge on the way home, rather than before getting to the destination.

This was at Quirk Nissan in Quincy MA. There was a Leaf there when we arrived - we waited about 5 minutes - and another Leaf arrived 3 minutes before we unhooked. That driver said there is often a wait at that station - and she hopes they put in a second unit!

Busy place!

[NeilBlanchard]

I should explain for those unfamiliar with driving an EV: I like the PlugShare.com system for finding chargers of all types. I wish they had a way to plan a trip, including to the EVSE's along the way and then save it, so you can load it into your phone to navigate on your drive. Either that, or a GPS company needs to integrate this into their units.

[NeilBlanchard]

I drove the Leaf again yesterday to work, and it may well be the Nokian Hakka R2's on the car, but it coasts a lot better than the e-Golf does on its Continental tires. That is, after I put the Leaf in neutral. A lot better. Both are running at 45PSI.