Welcome new members and Leaf owners to the NICOclub Leaf forum, we're glad to have to you on board!

Please introduce yourself and let us know a bit about yourself and why you're interested in the Leaf. Feel free to search existing threads, contribute often and be sure to start a new topic if it hasn't already been created.

I have posted already a few times, I am Jeff Leeds, I live in the San Mateo Coastside area of Half Moon Bay. Bought a Leaf for my wife to replace her 99' Sentra. I have a 97' Q45 Touring, a 84' 300ZX and 05 XTerra as well.

My Leaf is Ocean Blue SL with 300 miles on her now.

3/18/2012 ALMOST an owner, as my Leaf arrives next week... can't wait.. Scrambling around to figure out the best route at the best price for a charging station. I live in very rural Paso Robles... my nearest charging station at the moment, is 50 miles to San Luis Nissan dealer.. I have a small solar panel charging station and hoping to use that for at least part of its charging..Am open to any ideas, suggestions and expect my feedback on what I do.. Chuck

4/14/2013 Love my Leaf..... It's been a long time since I've been so enamored with a car.. I've been looking at the Leaf for a year now and finally took the plunge.. I was sold on the first test drive.. Wow it actually drove like a real car!!! My wife drives a 2013 Prius , or should I say drove a 2013 Prius. Since we brought the Leaf home the Prius stays parked in the our garage.. My wife has taken over MY Leaf!!!

FYI... Check out Amazon for a home charging station.. $1059.00 for the plug in model by Areoviroment. I just received mine and couldn't be happier..

Hi!

I have a 2013 LEAF SV in silver with the silver cloth interior. I took delivery on 4/9 and enjoy driving it often.

to comment on the above post I have had my EVSE modified by this guy, it works real well and the costs are low when compared to an installation of a home charging station. YMMV

http://evseupgrade.com/

Wake up call & huge game changer here in San Diego (SDG&E) raised our electricity rates over 30% in 2013. My SDG&E statement for 1300 kilowatt hours this month as of Sept. 28 2013 was a $449.00. That's right, nearly $450. Before the Leaf our rates averaged $120-$140 monthly. Just as a comparison, when I first started as a customer with SDG&E back in 1979 I was paying $15 monthly for both gas and electricity. Today I spend $15 daily! $500 is what I was spending at the gas pump 8 months ago for ExxonMobile to fill 3 vehicles monthly. Now we're spending that same amount on just one added Nissan electric vehicle to our household (80-84 miles daily) ... OUCH!!! This winter we’re switching back to our 2012 Nissan Murano (as opposed to the leaf) courtesy of SDG&E. Given the slight decline locally in Exxon gasoline prices, it’s actually cheaper to drive the 6 cylinder 2012 Nissan Murano as of October thru Dec. 2013.

Having serious second thoughts on this 2013 Leaf purchase because I failed to do my homework properly on rising utility rates where SDG&E averages 2-3 times the national average. Probably the most expensive KW hour rates in the entire country .... OUCH! And no I'm not spending an additional $30K on solar panels as if I wanted to double the price of this over- rated toaster in my driveway. 90-100 range is simply false advertising.
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Update: Btw, did I mention very LIMITED RANGE? I tried to get Nissan Acceptance to buy back the lease for this Nissan Leaf based on P#$% poor battery performance and 20% LOSS OF RANGE in only seven months of driving from 92027 to 92037 (that’s 80 to 84 miles R/T) daily. Nissan claims that’s still well within their specs for this particular vehicle and failed to honor a battery warranty when I returned the car for service TWICE. It dropped in range in steps from 116 (new in March 2013) to 94 (3 short months) to 84 miles (6 months used) to only 75 (8 months). I told them it wasn’t within my specs since it has essentially stopped being a commuter car last month and now simply sits in my driveway as the most expensive golf cart I’ve ever purchased! Much too unreliable as a commuter vehicle. Whatever happened to Lemon Law protection? Doesn't exist in CA.
In my opinion, Nissan needs to be slapped with a class action on battery issues and excessive loss of range for the 2013 Leaf.

Lastly, I wish to put in a good word for http://evseupgrade.com (already purchased and worth evey cent in terms of saving time and money on battery charging in about 4-6 hours as opposed to 14 hours) which is about the only item on my vehicle that's still working correctly.

Hi everyone,

I just posted my intro in the general new member area. From NC, considering a LEAF, reading this forum and participating in the discussions to learn more about LEAF before making the decision.

John and Mary would like to announce the conception of their darling BEVerly Leaf SL, who is happily moving along to the completion of her gestation period. We hope she is well, and growing beautifully. Her date of delivery is a little bit sketchy at this time, but her new home will be Niagara Falls, ON CANADA, sometime in September. She will come home wearing a beautiful Morning Sky Blue outfit with matching mud guards, a black bumper cover and rubber mats for the winter season.

Hi - I'm seriously considering buying a Leaf to replace my much-beloved 2003 Honda Insight (dead IMA). If there are any Leaf owners out there in the Detroit area, I would love to talk to you, especially about how your Leaf did with the ridiculous winter we had this year.

Tim from Atlanta, GA suburbs. Just leased a Black 2015 Leaf SL (24 months) for local trips and twice a week commutes to office, 80 miles round trip. I have charging stations in my parking deck at work. Kept my 2001 Lexus IS 300 for longer trips. It has 168K miles. I have been looking at Leaf for over a year and decided to pull the trigger now due to State Tax incentive of $5000. I will also be able to utilize the toll lanes (free of charge) and HOV lanes. The financial aspects of the deal where just too good to pass on, and being an engineer, I definitely over analyzed the numbers. I figure it will cost me less than $100 per month to drive this vehicle 1000 miles per month - all things considered.

Hi, I'm Peter, a new Leaf owner in Auckland, New Zealand. The car is actually for my wife, but the purchase of this Japanese-origin 2012 Gen1 G model was triggered by the recent need to pay unexpected maintenance costs on her 12 year old Audi A3 which were almost equal to the car's current value! Enough!
I have had a longstanding general interest in electric vehicles, and have considered converting a small conventional car to electric, using a superb DIY manual produced by New Zealander Gavin Shoebridge. However, the lack of a dedicated garage for the project has made that impractical, at least at the moment.
I have been running a Vmoto Emax electic scooter for some years, and have found this great. In the meantime, the cost of EV's has gradually reduced and pre-owned Leaf's are gradually becoming more available here, within an attainable price-range. These vehicles are mostly sourced in Japan and imported, while Nissan NZ seems rather disinterested in promoting a second-hand market. The network of charging stations in NZ is still sparse, but now developing at some pace. I feel that it is a good time to enter the EV fraternity, particularly as NZ has abundant renewable sources of electricity.
Anyway, we're just getting to grips with our "new" Leaf. The driving is superb, but it is a challenge to manage the native software, for selection of dashboard functions, despite having an English manual from the US, because they are all written in Kanji. I'm sure we will gradually master this.
All the best.

Hi! I'm Pedro from Lisbon, Portugal. I'm considering buying a second hand Leaf from USA. I learned lot from portuguese Leaf forum about the car, now I want to learn about second hand Leaf USA market. Must be a great buy because the final price will include shipping and import portuguese fees and taxes. Portuguese fees and taxes are applied to the price of the car plus all expenses including shipping and will increase the price and expenses by 35%.
My actual car will became the second car for long journeys witch i take from time to time.

Hi,

I've been lurking on the NICO forum for sometime because I own an infiniti i30 and son owns a QX4. This week we purchased a 2011 Leaf with 34,500 miles and 10/12 bars remaining. My wife will drive the Leaf back and forth to work on a short 10 mile total trip. I have learned a lot about maximizing battery life and have set up the timer for 80% max charge and to end charging at 5:00 am without a start time, thereby allowing the battery to cool off before charging begins and still have it finish charging before wife leaves for work. We live in an area of CA where the summertime temps are often over 100. The car is a lot of fun to drive and I am enjoying learning about our new toy.

Hi,

I'm Doug from Buffalo, NY.

I followed the Leaf from introduction and the reservation process. A combination of the initial pricing and the cost of charging equipment took me out of the process.

I'm now contemplating purchasing a 2012 Leaf SL I stumbled across locally.

The Leaf would suit my need for a daily commuter (25 miles R/T) and allow us to park the SUV for occasional use.

My main concern is battery life. As best I can tell the battery warranty is 5 years/ 60,000 miles, with 24,000 on the used Leaf l'm ok but I'd only have about a year of warranty left. Is that correct? I also read that Nissan won't do anything about the battery until you lose 2 bars. Is that right?

Is there any way to extend the battery warranty? Has Nissan come out with any replacement battery costs?

I read that the 2013 Leaf got a few upgrades but there isn't a used one within 200 miles. Would it be worth the drive or holding off until I can find one here?

Any real time driver/owner advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Thank you all for posting great info AND service manuals . I have a 2012 Nissan Leaf.
My question:

Is this a typo In the 2012 Leaf Owner's Manual ?, Page CH -30:

Charging Troubleshooting guide: Symptom: Charging cannot be performed. Possible Cause: 12 volt battery is discharged; Possible Solution: The Li-ion battery can be charged if the vehicle electrical systems can not be turned on. If the 12 volt battery is discharged, charge or jump start the 12- volt battery.
See "jump starting"in the "6. In case of emergency's section. Page 6-9 states that "jump starting provides power to the 12 volt system to operate. The electrical systems must be operating to allow the Li-ion battery to be charged."

If the 12 volt battery is discharged- where is the 12 volt system getting its power from?
Is it jump start a 12 volt battery if it has more than 9 volts to run the system. That would be a low charged 12 volt battery and not a discharged 12 volt battery.

Thanks for any answers.

Hello. I am Greg Johnson from the Cincinnati Ohio region of USA. I recently purchased a used 2016 Nissan Leaf SL Premium with 400 miles. I had previously leased a new 2013 Nissan Leaf SL. I am currently retired and find that this vehicle is more than adequate for my needs. When I travel, I normally fly. I lease a 2017 Volvo XC60 that I can use for any long distance car trips. My wife likes it, but I feel stupid buying gasoline.

I plan on keeping this vehicle and driving it until the wheels fall off. I like the Bose premium audio system, but I feel that it can be improved. I am in process of upgrading the Bose audio system.

Thank you for posting the manuals online. They are a great help.

New to the board, from just outside Boston. Bought a used 2015 Leaf S a couple weeks ago, loving it so far, though I was frustrated to learn the factory bluetooth on this model is phone-only. Oops. Now looking at aftermarket head units, hoping to retain the backup camera, if anyone has recommendations there I'd love to hear them!

Thanks!

Our used 2014 Leaf will arrive sometime next week
We bought it at Boulder Nissan in Colorado
I think we will be the only Leaf in Billings, MT
It will replace her 1992 Toyota Paseo that has 86K on it
See why a Leaf will work for her!?
I have a 2012 Honda Civic Si

Question: Do I need a dedicated 110/120V outlet or will any garage outlet be OK?
Doubtful we will ever need a 220/240V

We just bought a like new used 2015 Leaf S. I am in the process of dumping incandescent bulbs for LEDs to save a few watts.

Just installed Diode Dynamics H-24 Switchbacks for the front park turn lights so now we have low draw DRLs. Turn signal mode requires a 50W resistor but they are intermittent. With side marker and license plate LEDs its about 30W less draw. IMHO EVs should use only LEDs. Good low draw LED H13 replacements for headlights will take some more research as there is a lot of junk out there.

The Leaf is a perfect local errand compliment to our Subaru Forester.

HJ

Just purchased a used 2013 Leaf sv with 20 k miles.
Have followed its development and test drove one in 2010 on a road show Nissan put on in Raleigh,NC.
I am retired and only drive about 25 miles daily.
Only got one key so I’ll need a spare for safety.
I traded in my 2008 Mazda 3 hatchback.
My grandchildren love the car too!

Just stopping in to say hi. I purchased a 2014 Nissan Leaf SL when it was new, but sadly it was recently totaled in a hit-and-run accident (low speed, no injuries, just hassle). My distance to/from work is 31 miles each way, so it was already at the point where I was having to charge my car at work in order to be make it home, as I had already lost 3 bars on my battery. Fortunately, when the accident happened last month, my local Nissan dealers had just gotten their first shipment of the redesigned 2018 Leaf, with the 150+ mile range. So, I picked up a new 2018 Leaf SV. This thing is a massive upgrade from the old Leaf, and I really enjoy being able to be to go to work, run errands, and make it home without having to charge it.

Unlike my last Leaf, where I knew I was going to eventually trade it in for a longer range car, I plan on keeping my 2018 leaf until I have no choice. Joining the forum because I plan on personalizing the car and wanted to be able to discuss and get advice from fellow Leaf owners.

Hi I bought my 2013 Leaf sl last August. I saw the original leaf when Nissan had a road show around 2010 in raleigh and I got a test drive. Fast forward to 2017 I discovered that 2013 Leafs with 20k miles in great condition were available for nearly what my Mazda3 was worth. So I made the trade and am happy as a lark.
Today when I turn out of the shopping center parking lot a Leaf just like mine turned in! I was so surprised I forgot to wave.
The local community college has a free level 2 charger but I usually charge at home.

Hi New owner of 2018 Leaf
Does anyone have some insight on what to expect or experiences they would like to share?

Just leased a 2019 Leaf SL. Love the e-pedal! Live in Hanover, PA. Charging infrastructure is lacking, but improving. And we head down to MD quite a bit, where there are many more possibilities. Glad to be able to participate in the forum.

Hi: Purchased my 2018 leaf in June and picked it up three days before the Ontario rebate expired. Might have been better if it was cancelled. Not very impressed with the reduction in range due to cold weather. It seems like any trip will have to be less than 50 km one way to ensure I can get back home to recharge. Never would have believed that a reduction of 50% or more would occur when temp was still above freezing. Dealer said that was possible. Hope to find out how others experiences are in the winter. Rick

I am a three time Nissan Leaf owner. I first leased one due to the fears of new technology in the automotive industry. Three years later, I purchased a 2015 Nissan Leaf. Last weekend I purchased a 2019 Nissan Leaf Plus SL. Why change? RANGE. While my everyday commute was never a problem, trips into downtown DC during the winter or even our dinner theater that time of year left me with less than 8% charge left. With the 2019, I can easily go to Baltimore and return on a single charge. I'm even thinking about taking my Leaf to the family reunion this year in West Virginia (over 95 miles each way). There is a Nissan dealership on the way that allows free use of their CHAdeMO charger, making it simple even without activating my No Charge to Charge card (waiting till I REALLY need that before activating).

I love my Leaf. I pull in the garage and the next morning I have a full charge. Ready for what the world asks.

Hello, I am a Michal, leaving in Austria. I bought a 2018 Tekna Leaf in January 2020 and love it so far. Currently working on upgrading the audio system, without overwhelming the electrical system, trying to make it as "stealth" as possible. Hope to find lots of valuable info here Kind regards!

2015 Nissan Leaf S bought at 66,000 miles.
11/12 bars, new 12v battery.
Do most charging w/L1 at home, occasionally a quick charge at one of 2 Nissan dealers.
No problems. Annual battery evaluation rated excellent condition for age (03/15) and miles. The previous owner always trickle (L1) charged at home, used it locally for commuting to his office and stopping by the grocer’s.

Hi Everyone - I’m Dave from Leeds UK, I just bought a new Nissan Leaf 62kw Tekna. Why did I go for the Leaf? Mainly due to Nissan’s commitment to the UK when the UK was in Brexit turmoil. Also, I believe the experience Nissan have with Electric cars counts for a lot - and trumps the new kids on the block efforts. Tesla? well I thought about one, but prefer the more regular car look of the Leaf.

After 100 miles - It’s reporting 3.6kw / 100miles. I like e-pedal around town, I’ve disabled the auto steering and lane departure settings. Overall, I think it’s great, I’ve still to settle into a charging schedule, as I haven’t charged it yet! but all is good and I’ve certainly no regrets.

Dave...