Nissan Leaf - 7 day test drive - a blog of my experience

[autofocus]

Hi there,

OK 7 day test drive all confirmed with the dealership this morning.

Collecting the car at 9:15am on Wednesday morning this week. Have asked dealer for an Ecotricity card as well so that I can test out the car properly using the charging stations rather than relying on overnight charges.

At the moment the week is looking like this :-

Wednesday
Collect car from Stoke on Trent at 9:15am, trip to Manchester city centre for meetings from 12 midday, leaving there around 5pm to head home
Estimated daily mileage - 120 miles

Thursday
Home (Uttoxeter) to Manchester for meeting at 12 midday, then a few other calls in town and then heading back home around 4:30pm
Estimated daily mileage - 145 miles

Friday
Home to office (just near Knutsford) and back again
Estimated daily mileage - 90 miles

Saturday
General homely stuff, food shopping etc
Estimated daily mileage - 15 miles

Sunday
Heading over to Derby for Mothers Day meal and then home again
Estimated daily mileage - 45 miles

Monday
Home to Manchester for a few meetings and then back home around 4pm
Estimated daily mileage - 145 miles

Tuesday
Home to Manchester for exhibition and then back to drop car off at dealership around team time
Estimated daily mileage - 120 miles

Will update this post at various times throughout my test drive as it might help future purchasers.

Getting excited now as not driven an EV before and I am looking forward to how it copes with my day to day routine.

Regards

Tim

Edited by autofocus on Tuesday 10th March 08:00

[Martin_M]

Looking forward to this - if you have the time, please post up some pics of the car inside and out. I know these are available on-line but it's not the same! :-)

[autofocus]

Hi there,

Yes of course will be taking plenty of pics

Regards

Tim

[hab1966]

My 7 day'er didn't come with a charging card and was told that's the norm. In the end having kicked a fuss up, i was loaned an ecotricity card.

If you're planning on trying to charge at a GMeV point you'll need a cable to connect with, which again i don't think is normally supplied. Alas, you need a GMeV card to activate the charger, though you might be able to do it via your phone. If the car isn't equipped with a 6.6kW charger, its questionable how much charge you'll get in for a few hours stop, unless you are using the Nissan/Ecotricity rapids.

We made use of (main) Nissan dealers to charge the vehicle we loaned (and bought) as most have the rapids but like everything with EV's check with them before hand that (1) they have a charger and (2) its working! Other EV dealers might have them, but i've heard they are either reluctant to let a different make car charge or will charge you for it.

Enjoy your test drive!

[Podie]

Bookmarked. Looking forward to a real world experience of someone who doesn't have an agenda...

[pboyall]

Good luck - that's a very brave itinerary!

And I've been driving a Leaf for ages ...

As noted, I reckon you are going to need several more charging cards than just Ecotricity and it's a bit late to get them now.

[autofocus]

Hi there,

In terms of charging cards, I reckon with Ecotricity for use on the motorway services and the GMEV scheme (for which I don't need a card I can just use pay by phone) I think I will be ok.

http://ev.tfgm.com/

The cable thing concerns me. I assumed that the car will be supplied with the relevant cables, is this not the case ?

Regards

Tim

[tony wright]

On my test drive (allbeit 4 days rather than 7) I was given both an Ecotricity card and charging cable. I already had a charge point fitted at home so the cable was a must. You would imagine Nissan would insist on dealers providing both if they are intent on selling their EV's.

[johnnyreggae]

The car comes with a charger/cable equipped with a 13 amp plug

Could you post your mileage estimates as they stand now for the planned journeys above (like the Saturday : 15) - I think it would be interesting to then see with hindsight whether you had to modify and/or achieved

Edited by johnnyreggae on Tuesday 10th March 06:42

[autofocus]

johnnyreggae said:

Could you post your mileage estimates as they stand now for the planned journeys above (like the Saturday : 15) - I think it would be interesting to then see with hindsight whether you had to modify and/or achieved

Hi there,

As requested have modified the original post to include estimated daily mileage. I will record actual mileage in each daily post.

Regards

Tim

[hab1966]

autofocus said:

In terms of charging cards, I reckon with Ecotricity for use on the motorway services and the GMEV scheme (for which I don't need a card I can just use pay by phone) I think I will be ok.

http://ev.tfgm.com/

The cable thing concerns me. I assumed that the car will be supplied with the relevant cables, is this not the case ?

As standard the car comes with only a 13A plug in brick for home charging. The GMeV points have a type 2 socket so you need a suitable cable. Your dealer might loan you one if you are lucky (they are £340 from Nissan!) We got ours as part of the 6.6kW charger kit.

Whilst I have a GMeV card I haven't used it yet. There is a cost for the card and then its currently free to charge at a point, though they were due to start charging from Summer 2014, but I haven't seen any further info on this. If the charger is located in a car park you normally need to pay the parking fee.

Nothing is simple in EV land.

[LordFlathead]

Bookmarked

[pboyall]

If you don't have a home charge point you'll probably be pretty miserable charging the car up - it'll be at least an 8-10 hour job versus 3-4 on a home charge point with a 6.6 leaf.

I hope you'll be okay with no other cards, but I've accumulated a walletful - I'm thinking you may regret not having the CYC and Plugged-In-Midlands (PiM) ones, as you will miss out on opportunity charging at local places, especially around Birmingham and it's "commuter zone" which is all CYC/PiM. The Phone Apps are also pretty woeful.

Fingers crossed for you :-)

[autofocus]

Hi there,

Question for anyone who has done a seven day test drive. Does the dealer give you login details for the Carwings iPhone App ?
This seems to be the one Nissan link to from their website and I can use it in Demo mode but not sure if I should sign up in readiness for tomorrow.

First appointment is 46.5 miles from where I am picking the car up and it seems there is a 7kw GMEV point on the street opposite with a 62196 Type 2 connector. Will this work assuming dealer supplys a cable ?

Regards

Tim

[pboyall]

It's worth pestering the dealer for their CarWings logon, but I would like to bet 90% chance they haven't set it up.

If it's not already set up with any details, you could always be "naughty" and enter your own credentials (register on the You+Nissan site tonight if you can - assuming you know the demo car registration).

I suspect, however, that the dealer may not even have activated the "Telematics Control Unit". You'll soon find out as there will be an icon of a car with an "axe" through it on the SatNav screen. The dealers tend not to activate the TCUs, even for actual buyers. I had to take mine back after purchase.

Regarding the charge point, it sounds promising but I have a horrible feeling that after twenty minutes faffing with the App you will be very fed up and not so keen on electric motoring :-( As long as the dealer gives you a "Type 2 to Type 1" cable it sounds like you'll be okay. Mind you, those points can be confusing to use, holding the car over it to get the right flap to open. Massively over-complicated for no apparent reason.

Sorry if I'm sounding like a misery, but I've been stood in the rain cursing too many times! Where did you find the charge point details - openchargemap? ZapMap? Plugshare? Some of them have photos of the point which are handy. I generally use ZapMap ...

[autofocus]

Hi,

Not a misery at all, no point parking up next to a charging point and not being able to use it.

Will suss out the dealer in the morning, hopefully they are so efficient they have Carwings Log on, Ecotricity card, cables etc already for me. Well heres hoping

Regards

Tim

[johnnyreggae]

autofocus said:

Carwings Log on, Ecotricity card, cables etc

Good luck but I got none of that and was given the wrong information when I showed the dealer a photo of the plug nearest me ie he said it fitted when it did not and so I fear your may not be able to use the convenient 62196-2

[anonymous-user]

autofocus said:

Hi there,

Question for anyone who has done a seven day test drive. Does the dealer give you login details for the Carwings iPhone App ?
This seems to be the one Nissan link to from their website and I can use it in Demo mode but not sure if I should sign up in readiness for tomorrow.

First appointment is 46.5 miles from where I am picking the car up and it seems there is a 7kw GMEV point on the street opposite with a 62196 Type 2 connector. Will this work assuming dealer supplys a cable ?

Regards

Tim

Is this any use as a back up
https://www.zap-map.com


Also handy for Manchester?
http://ev.tfgm.com/charging.html

There are EV parking bays on Store St
M1 2Wd right near Piccadilly station usually empty

[hab1966]

The car we were loaned didn't have telematics enabled either.

However, the dealer we bought the car off had it all set up ready for us when we collected.

My experience of Carwings isn't that great. There have been times when i haven't been able to access it.

[autofocus]

Hi there,

Full post of today's activity to follow later.

Initial experience so far all ok with a few teething troubles.

Currently on charge whilst I am off to a meeting.

More later

Regards

Tim