brucedp5 via EV wrote:
I am happy that Lee got himself an Electric-ride
Well, my *wife* did. She loves the car! I only get to drive it on special occasions. :-(
he did not say what 2013 Leaf trim he bought. I will also assume that the portable EVSE is only a level-1 EVSE
We got the middle "SV" package, which has the 6.6kw charger. Yes, it only comes with the level-1 120vac charge cord. I ordered a retrofitted AVCON powerpak from Cor to provide 240vac charging. I already have a 14-50 outlet in the garage for charging my other EVs.
At one location, there was a Volt pih that wisely used their portable level-1 to charge-n-park all-day, freeing up the L2 for EVs to use. They protected their L1 EVSE from being dinked/messed-with by running a regular extension cord from the EVSE to the L1, and put the EVSE in the trunk with the AC-in cord and J1772 cord-out coming and going from the locked trunk (a pretty smart plugin driver).
Yes, that's the smart way to do it. The Nissan EVSE cord is ridiculously bulky and looks "valuable". Putting it inside and running a normal extension cord outside to the L1 outlet is the way to go.
In Lee's area, he could look up what public EVSE is available by using plugshare.com or use the U.S. Fed Gov site http://www.afdc.energy.gov/locator/stations/results?utf8=%E2%9C%93&location=56377&filtered=true&fuel=ELEC&owner=all&payment=all&ev_level1=true&ev_level2=true&radius=true&radius_miles=55
Most of these are L1, which means perfectly ordinary 120vac outlets. Here in MN, 120vac outlets are everywhere; we don't need an app to find them.
But public 240vac level-2 EV charging stations are all but nonexistent. Our local Nissan dealer is the only one. There are a few in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, but they are out of range for us. There is one at a Chevy dealer, but it's only for Volt owners.
It's also risky to rely on these apps. One of the Twin Cities Nissan dealers is listed as having a charging station. So we checked (in our ICE) -- they don't actually have one. If we had driven the Leaf there, we would have been stranded.
Also, range is significantly reduced in winter. They may claim a 100 mile range, but 80 miles is more like it, and only 50 in winter. Nissan (like most big companies) suffers from Not Invented Here syndrome, which means they ignored EV history and experience and didn't provide battery heaters. (One of my projects is to see if I can add them).
The L1 is so small, light and convenient to use
Hrmph... Nissan's is 7 lbs. A normal 12/3 extension cord of the same length is less than 2 lbs.
-- Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats. -- Howard Aiken -- Lee Hart, 814 8th Ave N, Sartell MN 56377, [email protected] _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
