Nissan LEAF – The Good

Posted on August 1, 2011 by jpwhitehome

Here I’ll list the things that are features I really appreciate or am pleasantly surprised to find out as I learn to drive this vehicle. I’ll keep adding to the list as I become familiar with all the cars features, many of which I yet to explore.

1. Rapid and silent acceleration.

Zoom Zoom.

On the very limited test drive I took back in March I realized the car was quite nippy, but the limited drive didn’t let you explore very far at all. With an electric car you don’t have to wait for the engine to reach optimum revs to provide optimum power, the full power of the motor is available immediately resulting in crisp acceleration from a standing start.

Like with any car if you push it too hard from a standing start you’ll end up screeching the tires, however the true benefit of the cars performance comes when wanting to pass a vehicle while on the move. You can nip by very quickly because there is absolutely zero hesitation as you put your foot down. The performance while moving is much more useful and impressive than when sitting at a light.

2. Great camera for reversing.

When reversing, the image from the back-up camera is displayed on the 7″ display in the dash. The camera is very clear and Nissan added a turn ‘predictor’ feature that indicates where Continue reading →

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Nissan Deliver Early – I have my LEAF !!

Posted on July 31, 2011 by jpwhitehome

Despite recently putting my expected delivery date back 3 weeks Nissan called me on the 27th July to say my LEAF had arrived, 2 days prior to the earliest delivery date I had received during the order period. I was on a business trip so it had to wait until Sat 30th to get the car.

As expected the purchase took a long time, the dealer used 3 different staff pushing the Lease on me on the basis that I probably wouldn’t get the $7,500 Federal tax credit as a W2 employee. Plenty of FUD and money shell games were played. I hadn’t realized but Continue reading →

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6th LEAF on the auction block at eBay

Posted on July 25, 2011 by jpwhitehome

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A seller in Washington State is offering a new LEAF for sale on eBay. The seller has a good reputation rating on eBay so should stand a good chance of a sale. With the 2012 model being released for sale any minute now by Nissan, one wonders how well this will sell.

The seller is asking $39,000 which is close to the amount another car sold for a few months back in California. I’m not convinced this one will sell. We’ll all find out in 10 days time 🙂

Update 2011-08-04

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The car did not sell so the seller has re-listed the car at a slightly lower price, he/she only got two offers from the last listing, both of which were rejected.

Update 2011-08-09

The seller ended the sale early without any offers he/she liked. See screen shot below. Selling LEAF’s on eBay is not working out too well for sellers at this time.

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Blink Customer Service is awesome!!

Posted on July 25, 2011 by jpwhitehome

Blink Networks have a really good support network. I had a trivial problem/question with my new Blink Car Charger, so I sent their customer support an email early Friday evening just after 6pm. The next time I checked my email I had a response from them.

I expected a boilerplate acknowledgement. It was good to see a well written personal response to my question with steps to resolve the problem clearly laid out. The tech had clearly read my email and his email had been written to me in response to my question, it wasn’t a Continue reading →

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Recent LEAF’s on eBay did not sell – 2012 Model about to go on sale.

Posted on July 24, 2011 by jpwhitehome

 

 

Recent attempts to sell a 2011 Nissan LEAF have resulted in no sale being made. A few LEAF’s did successfully sell on eBay earlier this year, one went for considerably more than list price.

 

Maybe the interest is fading as the time the 2012 model will be available for sale rapidly approaches. Early rumors indicated the 2012 model would be available for sale starting July 25th. The graphic below captured from the LEAF website details what Nissan say as of July 24th.

The 2012 model will sport improvements over the 2011 model, but the price of the LEAF will also increase by 7-10% depending upon the model chosen. Faster charging is one of the key improvements made to match the charge time of the yet to be manufactured 2013 Ford Focus Electric car.

Nissan have not yet revealed the total number of 2011 LEAF’s that have been manufactured and sold. Initially they planned to make/sell 20,000 in the first year. With sales just over 4,500 half way through the year, the total number may fall short of this initial goal.

Interestingly the Nashville Journal reports that only 28 LEAF’s have sold in Tennessee. I wonder how much this is due to demand or supply. I have been waiting since I ordered in March, maybe Nissan just aren’t delivering here in any volume just yet. They can’t expect to record sales in Tennessee unless they actually deliver some cars. One never knows, the 2011 LEAF may become a sought after collectors item, or just another Edsel. Time will tell.

 

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Public Car Chargers Thin on the Ground in Nashville TN

Posted on July 22, 2011 by jpwhitehome

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Blink Operations center have sent me my Blink membership card and access to their nationwide network. That was quick, the charger was only was installed two days ago. I thought I’d look to see how many charging stations are available in Nashville, there are only two offline public charging stations shown at this time.

I know from speaking with the installers of my charger, that the Lowes Vanderbilt Hotel have their level 2 charging systems. They don’t show on the map. Looks like the quality of data in their database needs to be better before car owners can make use of their public charging stations.

I’m hoping the data on the touchscreen of the Leaf provides more accurate information.

Posted in Blink, Level 2 EV Charger, Review | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Nissan are not Nordstrom

Posted on July 22, 2011 by jpwhitehome

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The common cliche regarding good customer service is “Under Promise, Over Deliver” and is attributed to Nordstrom. Unfortunately this cannot also be attributed to Nissan. Apparently they prefer the maxim Over Promise, Under Deliver.

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I got quite excited when I saw online that my expected delivery date for my Leaf was July 29th 2011. A week later an update showed August 1st 2011. Hey that’s just a  few days, no big deal. Today I get an email indicating my delivery date has been updated, I check the website and now my delivery date is August 23rd 2011!! Yikes – that’s 3 weeks – in the wrong direction.

Several months ago the date was listed simply as August 2011, one would expect as the dates get specific to a delivery week they would be reasonably firm. Not so it appears. Had Nissan just stuck with a generic August my expectations would not have needlessly got raised.

Well that new charger in my garage will have to wait another month before it has a vehicle to charge 😦

Psst… Nissan……. good customer service includes the following elements

1) Use Good Judgment at All Times

2) Listen to the Customer First

3) Under Promise and Over Deliver in Everything

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Level 2 Car Charger Installed, now I need a car

Posted on July 21, 2011 by jpwhitehome

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Please Plug in Your Vehicle…….. says the newly installed charger in my garage.

I took delivery of my electric vehicle charger this week. All I need now is a car!! Which should be delivered to the dealership next week.

ECOtality are installing over 16,000 Electric Vehicle (EV) chargers nationwide as part of a government sponsored EVProject program to promote and study the adoption of Electric Vehicles. The good news is that I qualified for this charger at no cost to me 🙂 The bad news is that I had to agree to allow the charging station to be in constant communication with ECOtality uploading charging and car use data to ECOtaility. A fair trade in my book, the chargers cost several thousand dollars.

Pulling Cable

The install took about 2 1/2 hours. It involves an electrician adding a new new circuit to the house breaker panel using a 220v circuit. Due to Tennessee regulations they are also required to install a separate wall plug the charger plugs into rather than being wired directly to the breaker panel. This adds to the install time and cost and is somewhat unsightly, but the installers are duty bound to follow the local regulations.

The need for a dedicated charging device for an electric car seems unnecessary in my mind. Prior to researching and ordering the Leaf, I had imagined contacting a local electrician to install a 220 outlet in my garage for me to plug my car into. If you search on Google, cables for plugging electric vehicles directly into a house power are available, these are marketed in Japan and Europe. The US have opted for and mandated a more costly solution that will surely cause potential purchasers to pause and reconsider purchasing an EV. If I ever move, it’ll cost me to install a  charger where I move to. I didn’t realize it until the installer came this week that a building inspector may arrange come to inspect the work, a building permit is required to install the charger in your home (ECOtality handled this for me). EV’s can be plugged directly into a 110 outlet without any special charging device, which underlines the unnecessary requirement for a dedicated charging device in the home. It seems to me as the consumer one should have a choice of a  dedicated charger or just a 220 charging cable.

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The installer revealed to me that I am ‘number 48’ on their list of people who signed up for the EVProject sponsored chargers, so I was one of the first to sign up for this option. They’ve installed about 400 home chargers to date as part of the EVProject. The installer remarked that a high percentage of customers he has had contact with are technical, such a computer techs or engineers. he also remarked that he has met a lot of British expatriates during this install process, he finds them more open and eager for this type of technology. Level 3 rapid chargers have not been installed yet, this is due to red tape at the UL Laboratories, ECOtality and the device manufacturer are struggling to get the agency to approve the rapid chargers, the installer said they have customers waiting for these to installed asap as soon as the approval has been acquired. Apparently the delay is over the charging cables, UL have requested modifications.

We had an interesting discussion about the need for US electric companies to encourage customers to use electricity during off-peak times. Plugging in an EV as soon as one arrives home from work is the worst time for the utility company. In the UK the ‘Economy 7’ plans make cheaper electric available to consumers during the wee hours of the night. I did contact NES several months ago, but they have no plans for a special rate or programs for EV consumers. The installer indicated that some US utilities are experimenting with using EV’s as a storage device and source of electric during peak hours, extracting power from the cars and then recharging them later. Maybe now I see why dedicated chargers are mandated 😦 Offering discounted electric during off-peak hours would be more effective way in my opinion of shedding peak electric demand to off peak hours.

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The Blink charger is connected to your internet and can be accessed and configured using a web browser on your home network. I found this much more convenient than using the touchpad at the charger itself. I have entered in the cost per KwH of my electric, so that the charger can let me know how much each charge is costing me. It’ll be interesting to see how that compares to the cost of gas over a weeks commute to and from work.

Posted in Electric Car, Level 2 EV Charger, Nissan LEAF, Opinion, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Third Nissan LEAF listed on eBay

Posted on May 31, 2011 by jpwhitehome

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The third Nissan LEAF to be auctioned off on eBay is just hours away from auction close. The seller is a new eBay user so has no reputation established. This was a major factor in the first LEAF not selling on eBay. The second car listed sold for a handsome profit over MSRP by a well established eBay seller. The seller has lowered the reserve price and is probably getting nervous about the car not selling as he/she had hoped. With just a few hours left it will be interesting to see if the re is a flurry of activity close to auction close or not. The price achieved at the time of writing is equivalent to the MSRP. Time will tell if buyers are willing to purchase from a seller without reputation or not.

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Second LEAF on eBay Motors up for grabs.

Posted on April 21, 2011 by jpwhitehome

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A second LEAF has been put under the hammer at eBay Motors. The first LEAF listed did not sell. It will interesting to see if this one gets any more interest. The seller has a good reputation which should help, in addition the cost of gas has risen since the last auction. Syria may have a change in regime, the Middle East continues to be unsettled which may prompt folks to want an alternative fuel vehicle in their family fleet.

I have mine on order, hopefully just 2-3 months away from delivery. Part of my rational is that should gas run short on supply due to panic buying or some other short term issue, then I’ll have a way to get to everyone in the family too and fro from work and get our groceries. Just as a good data center has duel fuel generator ability, our transportation lifeline (i.e. car fleet) should also be multi-fuel, especially with the ever rising gas prices.

I should also save money over the life of the vehicle if gas prices remain high. The financial case for the LEAF exists, see my earlier total cost of ownership calculation here.

I’ll post the result of the Auction here once it’s over.

Update: 2011-04-24

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The bids have met the sellers reserve amount and the car is now selling for more than list. With over 1 day to go it looks like the seller of this vehicle will make a profit for sure!!

Update 2011-05-03 It Sold!!

The Leaf for sale on eBay did sell for slightly over $40,000, the seller made a profit on the deal and is evidence that there is a demand for this vehicle. The final sale details are in the final graphic below.

Posted in Cost Benefit, Electric Car, Nissan LEAF, Opinion | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments