Nissan Leaf... the well thought out Volt killer

[Clev]

Originally Posted by dday

seems like every one in the electric car club hates the leaf. They never have any thing good to say about it. I don't understand. Of course they want everyone to convert their own car to make it electric. I say why take a perfectly good car and turn it into a pile of Junk that cant even go a 100 miles?

The EVDL has the same mix of people as any other car forum, including this one. They have the equivalent of the "old car people", as in, "I wouldn't be caught dead in one of them newfangled computer-controlled cars. I like one I can fix on the side of the road with duct tape. Now you'll have to excuse me; it's been 7,500 miles and I have to replace my points and adjust my timing again."

The EVDL did have one very good point: charging infrastructure. During the EV1 heydey, there were two charging standards: Magnecharge and Avcon. Both were proprietary, patented and extremely expensive. Magnecharge had the additional disadvantage of being an inductive charger, which had higher losses. The EVDL people believed, rightly as it turned out, that government would require that only those two standards would be allowed, and that old-fashioned NEMA plugs would be outlawed. At one point, it actually was proposed that the NEC would specifically outlaw any electrical car charging connectors that weren't Magnecharge or Avcon. (Don't remember if it actually made it in, but at least one state made such a mandate.)

Along with the Leaf comes another charging infrastructure. If that infrastructure isn't done in a way that's standardized, open and freely available, it will fracture the infrastructure in a way that will make public charging very problematic.

And the reason they pooh-poohed the Prius is because it's not an EV. Until it's plug-in capable, it's still 100% fossil-fueled.

I haven't been following the EVDL lately, so I haven't been privy to the complaints. I assume they boil down to, "give me $32,780 and I'll build you an EV that will run circles around the Leaf."

[Angelus359]

if they made the leaf kind of look like
except prettier colors

with a tiny bit of


and a little bit of


the leaf would be much better

[TomEV]

If you want to test drive a Leaf, you can schedule an appointment here:

https://www.drivenissanleaf.com/event/

The test drives generally coincide with local auto shows.

[Angelus359]

Thats cool

[Angelus359]

unfortunatenly not in my area

[dday]

Yes I agree you have the same group of people every were you go. Only the names and faces change. But you know it is kind of nice to be able to fix something on the side of the road or just file the points and make it get you home. Try filing a transistor some time. The nice thing about electronic is it give you long reliability. But when it breaks and the magic smoke is let out its hard to make it work again.

Charging infrastructure is going to be the problem we need to deal with.


The prius

Very True. But it was still a good step. If I could get my truck started off the line on electric until I was doing 35mph or so it would greatly increase the mpg in town.

Originally Posted by Clev

The EVDL has the same mix of people as any other car forum, including this one. They have the equivalent of the "old car people", as in, "I wouldn't be caught dead in one of them newfangled computer-controlled cars. I like one I can fix on the side of the road with duct tape. Now you'll have to excuse me; it's been 7,500 miles and I have to replace my points and adjust my timing again."


The EVDL did have one very good point: charging infrastructure. During the EV1 heydey, there were two charging standards: Magnecharge and Avcon. Both were proprietary, patented and extremely expensive. Magnecharge had the additional disadvantage of being an inductive charger, which had higher losses. The EVDL people believed, rightly as it turned out, that government would require that only those two standards would be allowed, and that old-fashioned NEMA plugs would be outlawed. At one point, it actually was proposed that the NEC would specifically outlaw any electrical car charging connectors that weren't Magnecharge or Avcon. (Don't remember if it actually made it in, but at least one state made such a mandate.)

Along with the Leaf comes another charging infrastructure. If that infrastructure isn't done in a way that's standardized, open and freely available, it will fracture the infrastructure in a way that will make public charging very problematic.


And the reason they pooh-poohed the Prius is because it's not an EV. Until it's plug-in capable, it's still 100% fossil-fueled.


I haven't been following the EVDL lately, so I haven't been privy to the complaints. I assume they boil down to, "give me $32,780 and I'll build you an EV that will run circles around the Leaf."

Yea I would love to have a buget like that to build an EV.

[Toby]

So... A car with some kind of MS OS that is always connected to a 3g network? Not comforting. If I had a leaf, I would make defeating that antenna my first mod.

Anybody want to guess whether or not the cars will be sending information to Nissan?

I dread the day when I get an email from my tires telling me that if I don't adjust their pressure, they will notify the police.

[Clev]

Originally Posted by Toby

So... A car with some kind of MS OS that is always connected to a 3g network? Not comforting. If I had a leaf, I would make defeating that antenna my first mod.

Anybody want to guess whether or not the cars will be sending information to Nissan?

I dread the day when I get an email from my tires telling me that if I don't adjust their pressure, they will notify the police.

You could make a little hat for it out of tinfoil, I suppose.

[HPEV]

There do seem to be those that stand by their conversions. As for me, I test drove the LEAF and it is AWESOME! I'm a card carrying EAA member and I own an 88 Fiero conversion that I built and drag race but the poor old lead acid batteries don't really give me more than 30 miles range.

The LEAF is a nice practical car and will work easily with all the new public charging stations so as for me I would LOVE to have a LEAF.

In fact at the driveelectric tour I made a funny 30 second video which can be seen here:
https://www.drivenissanleaf.com/Win/...b=PQW97QK7EHHS

If you like it, vote for me and I really could win one!

[HPEV]

I should also mention that with the 80kW Induction drive the LEAF is no slouch. Upon disabling traction control it is quite easy to coax the more than 200 ft/lbs of torque into giving you a little smoke show!