Spot what's wrong with this picture, other than it being out of focus.

(waits for the smart comment about the car behind mine...)

 

It's parked at a petrol pump.

It's parked at a petrol pump.

 

Yes, I did get a few funny looks in the queue.

 

We have a power cut thanks to trees falling over in the high winds, I've got the generator on.

So we had to make a trip for spare petrol and I didn't want to wake the Yeti as it was cold.

Strange coincidence, just came across this...

 

Going back to a few older points made on here (I haven't read through it all so sorry if it's already been said), most Welcome Break service stations are having charging points fitted now. A man from the company I work for did a challenge of doing about 500+ miles in a day in a LEAF and visiting most welcome break services along the way to charge it up.

My dad was looking at a LEAF because he doesn't use his car for commuting and only uses it sometimes on a weekend to do round trips of about 70-80 miles. He's got a big diesel Volvo S80 and in terms of running costs I thought it would be cheaper to use an electric car, plus I can get a charger master unit installed for free on the drive.

I imagine the i3 will be pretty expensive coming from BMW.

Thanks for sharing your experiences Richard.

Spot what's wrong with this picture, other than it being out of focus.

(waits for the smart comment about the car behind mine...)

 

 

 

Decided to demonstate your PEEVe with folks ICEing the chargers? (Parked Electric Engine VEhicle ... )

 

Sorry, couln't help myself :p

Going back to a few older points made on here (I haven't read through it all so sorry if it's already been said), most Welcome Break service stations are having charging points fitted now. A man from the company I work for did a challenge of doing about 500+ miles in a day in a LEAF and visiting most welcome break services along the way to charge it up.

My dad was looking at a LEAF because he doesn't use his car for commuting and only uses it sometimes on a weekend to do round trips of about 70-80 miles. He's got a big diesel Volvo S80 and in terms of running costs I thought it would be cheaper to use an electric car, plus I can get a charger master unit installed for free on the drive.

I imagine the i3 will be pretty expensive coming from BMW.

Thanks for sharing your experiences Richard.

 

A LEAF like mine is £27k at the top end of the range with the options, but you can get discounts.  I paid £23k.

A closely specced BMW i3 (although they don't allow a heated steering wheel) is going to come in around £6,000 more.  Plus another £3,000 if you want the little motorbike engine range extender.  No discounts on the i3 yet... so it's too expensive IMO.

Richard - Dont forget the extra £5k for the badge on the i3 ( wonder if apple will sue bmw for using the i prefix)

First charging queue today...

 

 

South Mimms services, M25.

 

Turned up there at 4pm.  Beaten to the Rapid Charger by about 5 minutes.  A Gen1 LEAF turned up 2 minutes after me.

 

I wonder how long before this gets more common at the main points on the charging network.

 

So as we were second in the queue and the first guy was just plugging in I jacked into the dual 32A post while I waited and we went in for a pizza.

Overall time for the stop was an hour.  Pizza and 32A charge from 18% to 36% followed by moving over to the Rapid and charging to 70% so we could get home, for about 15 minutes or so.

 

Not too bad, but the Gen1 LEAF only having a 16A onboard charger couldn't get much out of the post so his charging stop will have taken about an hour and a half with the queue...

 

Nissan sold 331 LEAFs in the UK in September, the best month so far.

At this rate they're going to need multiple Rapid Chargers at key locations...

Personally I reckon from what I've seen is that the Leaf is starting to gain sales faster than the rate at which charging points are being installed, I think most of them are probably fleet cars though and the companies using them most likely have their own charging solutions (notably Siemens). I suppose it's one of those chicken and egg situations.

 

I didn't see the Top Gear episode that caused a big stink with Nissan and Lincoln Council -obviously that situation has been remedied as there's quite a few Leafs in town.

The fleet rates are rather good.

I got prices from Nissan Fleet a week or so ago and we will probably end up with 3-5 LEAFs too.

I thought my drive-the-deal price was good...

How do you know where charging points are?

Is there a uk map, and have to plan ahead?

How do you know where charging points are?

Is there a uk map, and have to plan ahead?

 

www.zap-map.com.

 

You can filter out the slow and the fast charge points quite easily to show all the Rapid Chargers in red.

Fast can be handy if you are staying somewhere for a few hours though or as a back up for a broken Rapid to get you onto the next one.

 

When doing a trip I just note the postcodes of any Rapids I might need to use and how far apart they are.

So a little update as I have had the LEAF for two months come tomorrow morning.

 

Miles covered: 4,120.

Longest trip: 270 miles (3 Rapid charges)

Total Rapid Charges: 12 (4 Nissan, 8 Ecotricity)

Money saved on diesel in the Yeti: £557.

Battery Capacity: 1.8% better than new. (284 GIDS, was 279)

www.zap-map.com.

 

You can filter out the slow and the fast charge points quite easily to show all the Rapid Chargers in red.

Fast can be handy if you are staying somewhere for a few hours though or as a back up for a broken Rapid to get you onto the next one.

 

When doing a trip I just note the postcodes of any Rapids I might need to use and how far apart they are.

It's not up to date though, there are two charging points at the same supermarket where you purchased generator fuel, & that's not shown on the map.

 

DC

It's not up to date though, there are two charging points at the same supermarket where you purchased generator fuel, & that's not shown on the map.

 

DC

 

It's the most up to date one out there that I'm aware of.

Possibly the supermarket/garage or it's customers have not added them.

I've not added mine, it's for private use.

Well this morning I've bitten the bullet and ordered our first two LEAFs to add to the fleet.

I have a pearl white one, so I've orderd a blue and a red one.
Seems sensible as they are made in the UK to have red, white and blue.

Both Acenta spec with the optional 32A charger upgrade.

random question but is there any kind of lock where the chargers dock to the car? jusr wondering whether someone could walk off with your charger or as much as it would be bad form unplug yours to stick theirs on charge while at the fast charge locations etc?

Well this morning I've bitten the bullet and ordered our first two LEAFs to add to the fleet.

I have a pearl white one, so I've orderd a blue and a red one.

Seems sensible as they are made in the UK to have red, white and blue.

Both Acenta spec with the optional 32A charger upgrade.

To my mind it seems like a sensible car for this purpose and the best of the bunch available for EVs, having looked round a Renault Zoe you have to wonder what they were thinking of design wise -the Leaf is so much more an everyday car that happens to be fully electric -the interior space available in the Zoe is terrible, considering that it comes from a brand that virtually owns Nissan.

 

Wish you all the best with your fleet Richard

... -the interior space available in the Zoe is terrible, considering that it comes from a brand that virtually owns Nissan.

 

 

The interior space in the Zoé is exactly the same as in a Clio, as they share basically the same chassis. The Leaf is Megane sized. The Zoé costs a lot less than the list price of a Leaf.  So what is your point?

The list price of a Zoe Dynamique Intens is £20,043.33, Renault are advertising it with price after the government grant (which the Leaf also gets), plus you will need to pay out for battery rental -the price gap is not as big as you'd think, given that you can get pretty decent discounts on the Leaf.

The list price of a Zoe Dynamique Intens is £20,043.33, Renault are advertising it with price after the government grant (which the Leaf also gets), plus you will need to pay out for battery rental -the price gap is not as big as you'd think, given that you can get pretty decent discounts on the Leaf.

 

Fair enough. The on paper prices for the two (and their size market segments) would make you believe the Zoé is a LOT cheaper than the Leaf. In terms of looks alone I think the Zoé looks a million years better than the only-a-mother-can-love-its-looks Leaf.

The list price of a Zoe Dynamique Intens is £20,043.33, Renault are advertising it with price after the government grant (which the Leaf also gets), plus you will need to pay out for battery rental -the price gap is not as big as you'd think, given that you can get pretty decent discounts on the Leaf.

 

The top spec LEAF on battery lease is about the same cost, but for me the LEAF is a better car.

Plus Renault don't have a clue about selling them.

The first ones went to dealers charged, which were then run down and as the ZOE doesn't plug into a household plug (no cable supplied) they had no way of keeping them running so they were just parked up...

They need a charging station.

 

Not to mention they are smaller and not as nice inside.

 

You also have to wonder about any residual value.

I certainly wouldn't buy a three year old electric car built in France that I had to sign up to pay £100+ per month for the battery on top of buying the car with no warranty.

Unless they were practically giving them away.

 

By the way, I'm not sure Renault own Nissan.

I think they own 50% of each other.

By the way, I'm not sure Renault own Nissan.

I think they own 50% of each other.

 

"In 1999, Nissan entered a two-way alliance with Renault S.A. of France, which owns 43.4% of Nissan, while Nissan holds 15% of Renault shares"

 

More detail here: http://www.renault.com/en/lists/archivesdocuments/bookletalliance2013_gb.pdf

"In 1999, Nissan entered a two-way alliance with Renault S.A. of France, which owns 43.4% of Nissan, while Nissan holds 15% of Renault shares"

 

More detail here: http://www.renault.com/en/lists/archivesdocuments/bookletalliance2013_gb.pdf

 

They should tell the Renault/Nissan fleet guy that then.