Nissan North America Selects AeroVironment To Install Home-Charging Stations for LEAF

[Jason M. Hendler]

Nissan North America Selects AeroVironment To Install Home-Charging Stations for Nissan LEAF:

Link

[rhodomel]

Most of the pics showing plugins have ordinary three pronged extension cable and plug alongside the vehicles. Now they have reduced the price of the vehicles and then try to fleece out more money from the early adopters through these unnecessary charging stations. You can hire a licensed electrician to add a 60A 220V outlet in your garage for less than $1K.

If you're willing to wait 8 hrs then the 110V outlet should be fine as it is, no additional cost.

These scammers are not needed and these parasites obliterated.

[misslexi]

AeroVironment will end up outsourcing to state licensed electricians anyway, then they'll add their markup. Seems they have a great deal of military weapons experience, already an area well know for fleecing the customer. They may as well have chosen the Cali cartel for the job.

[Ambulator]

If you're willing to wait 8 hrs then the 110V outlet should be fine as it is, no additional cost.

A full charge on the Leaf would take quite a bit more than eight hours. If your round trip commute is 40 miles you might not care, but if it's 80 you probably will.

[Texas]

This EV experiment should be very interesting. It's kind of like Lyle's Mini - not much range and no charging infrastructure around. Even if there were, the charging time is ridiculous.

So, nice toy for early adopters but only an EREV, swap or quick-charge vehicle has any chance of replacing the fossil car.

The funny thing is that Carlos Ghosn is in bed with Better Place and fully understands how important the whole system is. Why do they want to come to the U.S. market with such an ugly and inconvenient POS? Probably just for the electrification experience, green cred, U.S. stimulus funding, early adopter toy product, etc. As a real deal vehicle, no way.

This catfish should stay in the pond.


Note: This is from someone who loves EVs and the electrification of transportation!

[LampCord]

This EV experiment should be very interesting. It's kind of like Lyle's Mini - not much range and no charging infrastructure around. Even if there were, the charging time is ridiculous.

So, nice toy for early adopters but only an EREV, swap or quick-charge vehicle has any chance of replacing the fossil car.

The funny thing is that Carlos Ghosn is in bed with Better Place and fully understands how important the whole system is. Why do they want to come to the U.S. market with such an ugly and inconvenient POS? Probably just for the electrification experience, green cred, U.S. stimulus funding, early adopter toy product, etc. As a real deal vehicle, no way.

This catfish should stay in the pond.


Note: This is from someone who loves EVs and the electrification of transportation!

I know what you mean but OTOH, for people in the right situation:

1) IF (big if) Nissan really can produce this thing for about the same cost as an Altima ($20k) presumably after tax rebates.
2) If you are a family that already has a second kid hauler that can be used for long trips.
3) If you have a relatively short commute like say 20 miles each way (so the low voltage charging is an option)
4) If you have a convenient garage where you know you can plug it in every night.

Then suddenly this starts to be a very viable option compared to the Volt. In the end it will all come down to price. If the pre-rebate prices of the two cars are Volt $40k and Leaf $27k I could see me leaning towards the Leaf as a better bang for the buck vehicle since I fit the profile above.

[George S. Bower]

I know what you mean but OTOH, for people in the right situation:

1) IF (big if) Nissan really can produce this thing for about the same cost as an Altima ($20k) presumably after tax rebates.
2) If you are a family that already has a second kid hauler that can be used for long trips.
3) If you have a relatively short commute like say 20 miles each way (so the low voltage charging is an option)
4) If you have a convenient garage where you know you can plug it in every night.

Then suddenly this starts to be a very viable option compared to the Volt. In the end it will all come down to price. If the pre-rebate prices of the two cars are Volt $40k and Leaf $27k I could see me leaning towards the Leaf as a better bang for the buck vehicle since I fit the profile above.

There was a lead article yesterday about Goshen and his plans and how he really thinks he has no competition. The overwhelming response from all the guys that comment after the lead was that the Volt is a much more logical way to go because of the range issue, and, is serious competition for Nissan (of course one would expect that since this is a Volt site.)

However, I will say it again: Nissan should not be sold short. Their car will be significantly less than the Volt and a whole lot simpler and easier to maintain than the Volt......and Nissan is playing this game to win. They are not just pussy footing around like GM and the Volt. Today GM comes out with a statement that BEVs are the course for the long range future. So it's: no advertising for the Volt, Kill the converj, be vague about how many Volts are going to be produced. It leaves me wondering if they have a clue.

Nissan has a clue. They have a plan. They are planning big production numbers......... and they are going to kick but on GM.

You watch.

[LampCord]

I'm just glad they are both going to be available. For one car families the Volt will make the most sense. Maybe for 2+ a Leaf is a viable, cheaper option.

The bottom line to me is that every car running on domestic electricity instead of oil is a step in the right direction.

Its hard to say which model is going to win out but if they BOTH do well, that would be the best for everyone I think.

[George S. Bower]

I'm just glad they are both going to be available. For one car families the Volt will make the most sense. Maybe for 2+ a Leaf is a viable, cheaper option.

The bottom line to me is that every car running on domestic electricity instead of oil is a step in the right direction.

Its hard to say which model is going to win out but if they BOTH do well, that would be the best for everyone I think.

I second the motion.

I think the Volt is an excellent piece of engineering. I just get frustrated with GM management.

[omnimoeish]

GM management has developed a reputation for being so out of touch with the direction the market is going, and so anti competitive, I just don't see why this surprises anyone. They are always looking at the competition and trying to duplicate it while the competition is looking down the road. The Volt is in the sweet spot, it goes 40 miles with no gas, so 80% don't use gas and don't carry around wasted battery, and it takes 8 hours to charge. This makes it perfect for people who charge at work. Yet offers complete freedom and reliability of knowing you and your wife will never be stuck anywhere even if you forget to plug it in, have a power outage, or need to get out of dodge due to a storm warning, what have you.

As Nasaman posted, assuming the Volt battery costs $7,200, the Leaf's 24 kWh battery costs $10,800 for a battery difference of an extra $3,600 in the Leaf. The Volt's gas engine/genset for the Volt will cost GM about that. If the Volt costs any more than the Leaf, it will be because it's engineered to last longer

As far as extra maintenance costs. How much extra maintenance cost can there be in a Volt that has the engine run so seldom? I've got a '98 Honda Accord with 180,000 miles on it and while the tranny is starting to hesitate a little when its cold (even though the fluid is perfect), the engine is still in good shape. Yes I had to spend $90 and replace the radiator a few weeks ago, but if the Volt engine ran 5,000 miles a year, it would take quite a few years before you would start to get up to what's considered high mileage for a modern engine. I bought it from the original owner and the only engine work he ever did was replace the starter at 150,000 and some belts. Yes the Volt engine will require an oil change about once a year (I'll use Amsoil 0w30 for 1 year or 25,000 mile service intervals)

I think really the main maintenance cost in the Volt or Leaf will be the batteries. The Leaf batteries are bigger and will probably cost a lot more to replace, and will last half as long as the Volt's since they aren't as high quality as what LG Chem is making, they are using a bigger operating window, and don't have thermal management. Bottom line is that LG Chem's batteries are from everything I've heard from GM testers and LG Chem, you should never have to replace the battery in the Volt and even at the end of its life, in 20 years or so it will just have the range extender run all the time. The Leaf will probably need to be replaced once in its lifetime.