Building A Leaf

[tweety bird]

Lol!

[Duncan]

Needs more r31

c'mon man, even you don't have a 31 anymore! In fact, I think you might have come all the way to the mid nineties by now with an R33?

Does this car go as fast backwards as it does forwards?

It surely does, electric motor and one gear.....lets see a reverse slalom at the next texi

[fatz]

c'mon man, even you don't have a 31 anymore! In fact, I think you might have come all the way to the mid nineties by now with an R33?

It surely does, electric motor and one gear.....lets see a reverse slalom at the next texi

Cries into beer

[Duncan]

haha it's early for beer mate. or maybe late from last night?

[BOZ22N]

That is the coolest thing I have heard, that alone is almost worth buying the car for.

Can you please drive to the shops like that hehe

[Duncan]

Very interesting idea for people wondering if a Leaf could work for their lifestyle; rent one for a week

http://cloud9cars.com.au/

Frankly, I'm enjoying spending $8per week on power instead of $80pw for petrol

[Duncan]

oh, and while we are at it.....an electric Radical SR8

[Duncan]

OK so serious performance mods last week....I've installed the LED kick plates (factory option, but not available in Oz)

from this grey plastic crappy-ness

to this super cool stainless LED rice-ness

[Duncan]

Strangely, while the headlights and brake lights are LED, pretty much everything else were standard incandescent globes. I've changed them all across to LEDs too

I calculated the reduced current draw of 6 indicators, 2 parker lights, 2 number plate lights, and will save approximately f**k all power. But they do look better.

I have also got a lead on some decent lightweight wheels, and some other excellent Leaf mod news. But I don't think I should give that away until its sorted

[XRATED]

any leaf updates?

[Duncan]

ahhh I've been a bit slack updating this lately!

zero additional mods, the rims have been slow arriving and the secret squirrel change may not be possible which is a damn shame.

The car is driven daily and needs a charge every 2-3 days. I have a logger on the power circuit and this is what it is costing, average of $0.52 per day.

Also, the Leaf came first and second (Kel and I) in the June SAU motorkhana, so it is no slouch: http://saunsw.com.au/texikhana-10th-june-2013-times/

[XRATED]

secret squirel mods???

Nismo option 'ecu'... ???

I've been hearing wispers that an a/m controller is currently being tested for tesla... if sucessfull, they're looking at other production ev's. There may be some hardware changes depending how far into it they get though... the leaf's pack and motor are apparently seriously under-utilized, but no one really know's the limmits of the factory inverter or wiring infrastructure yet.

$4 a week on fuel... awsome :-)

[Duncan]

Yep, I'd love to confirm the nismo ECU will work with the Oz delivered car.....still trying to confirm (initial answer was no ) I had heard the same about the motor being under rated, I'd be happy for some sort of "overboost" kind of idea with a temp cutoff for safety.

Also, the local branch of the Leaf club had a meet up on the weekend, a total of 7 cars and a round trip to the Entrance.

Doesn't sound like much for those with a refillable fuel tank, but getting a bunch of plug in cars that far and back took some logistics. And a long lunch at the club. The trip up the old pac was pretty much the same speed of the stagea cruise the month before though

[XRATED]

... eh tow a generator :-)

Have you looked into larger capacity chargers?

[PN-Mad]

Yep, I'd love to confirm the nismo ECU will work with the Oz delivered car.....still trying to confirm (initial answer was no ) I had heard the same about the motor being under rated, I'd be happy for some sort of "overboost" kind of idea with a temp cutoff for safety.Also, the local branch of the Leaf club had a meet up on the weekend, a total of 7 cars and a round trip to the Entrance.Doesn't sound like much for those with a refillable fuel tank, but getting a bunch of plug in cars that far and back took some logistics. And a long lunch at the club. The trip up the old pac was pretty much the same speed of the stagea cruise the month before though

So, you got stuck behind a Rav4 as well?

[Duncan]

lol damn rav4s. and echidnas.

Justin the charging capacity limit is on the car side. It has 2 charging ports, the fast charger takes about 400v and charges the car in under an hour. However, Nissan recommend not fast charging frequently.

So that leaves the Level 1/2 charging port. The charger in the garage support 6.6kw/h but the Leaf's Onboard Charger Controller only allows 3.3kw/h. (The 2013 model upped that to 6.6kw/h but the retrofit is not at all simple.

The option I'm going to go for is adding a second charge controller as a slave to the standard one which will allow about 7kw/h total charging. A few guys in the states have them working but I'm not willing to go that far with a car with so much new technology until it is out of warranty.

[scotty nm35]

Where is the line drawn for working on the electrical system? I realise you need to be a specialist electrical mechanic to work on these electric cars legally, how much can you actually do yourself?

[JZP]

ahhh I've been a bit slack updating this lately!

zero additional mods, the rims have been slow arriving and the secret squirrel change may not be possible which is a damn shame.

The car is driven daily and needs a charge every 2-3 days. I have a logger on the power circuit and this is what it is costing, average of $0.52 per day.

Also, the Leaf came first and second (Kel and I) in the June SAU motorkhana, so it is no slouch: http://saunsw.com.au/texikhana-10th-june-2013-times/

What kind of distances are you traveling? Terrain? Driving style (lead foot?).

Those 'fuel' like running costs are pretty impressive. Obviously excludes other running costs.

[XRATED]

lol damn rav4s. and echidnas.

Justin the charging capacity limit is on the car side. It has 2 charging ports, the fast charger takes about 400v and charges the car in under an hour. However, Nissan recommend not fast charging frequently.

So that leaves the Level 1/2 charging port. The charger in the garage support 6.6kw/h but the Leaf's Onboard Charger Controller only allows 3.3kw/h. (The 2013 model upped that to 6.6kw/h but the retrofit is not at all simple.

The option I'm going to go for is adding a second charge controller as a slave to the standard one which will allow about 7kw/h total charging. A few guys in the states have them working but I'm not willing to go that far with a car with so much new technology until it is out of warranty.

I was thinking more along the lines of fast charging while out on the road (do aussie caravan parks have 3 phase/400v? they do in the US, so some of the EV guys plan they're road trips around stopping there for electrons). Depending where you are, most large marina's will have high capacity outlets for larger yachts/boats... Otherwise, just get everone to chip in and hire a large gen set for the day at your turnaround spot??

Orr... buy 4x honda generators and strap them to the roof racks?

All kidding aside, I want to see a solid EV tuning scene in Aus!

[Duncan]

sorry missed the responses here somehow....

Scotty not sure....but I do know I'm not a qualified mechanic for ICE cars either Nissan would no doubt tell you that you need specialist training and tools, but in practice the only high voltage stuff is charger inlet at front to charger under rear parcel shelf to batteries under floor to motor. Everything is very obvious, large orange cables, and there is a built in kill switch in the rear floor that disconnects the battery.

everything else is just normal mechanical stuff anyway.

Those running costs are for a 30klm daily round trip, plus whatever trips on the weekend - it's been excellent.

Justin the issue for charging on the road is not so much the available power but the actual charging unit. a fast charger runs to $20k plus so there is no business case to put one in. There are portable 15A or 10A (which comes with the car) but that means waiting for hours.

Have confirmed unfortunately through multiple sources that the nismo ECU is not an option or Aus spec cars....so will be waiting some time for the chance for more powah

10,000klm service this week, fixed price $89.12