Third fastest selling car in America

No, he's correct.

I didn't hear from anyone at MyNissanLeaf state that public charging should only be used to charge the car the least necessary amount. Having an EV doesn't make you "more entitled" than someone with a PHEV. Yes, if someone needs juice to get home, they can take the cable out of my car, but I'm not going to stop using public charging just because someone might need it more than I in an hour.

 

I believe public infrastructure is exactly for that, topping off or for opportunistic charging. If we're talking about public chargers, as in, paid for by public/government, then wouldnt it better serve the public if, say, 20 people can each grab an hour's worth of charging per day instead of potentially only getting 5 Leaf owners a full charge so they can make the 70 mile drive home?

If a Tesla Model S owner needed to get 8 hours to make the 150 mile drive home, should he/she be allowed to occupy the charger for 8 hours, even though a Leaf may need to get his/her 4 hours to make the mile drive home?

Should Nissan Leaf owners stop using EV parking spots or charging stations once Tesla Model S hit the streets? You never know when a Model S may need the charging station to charge up for 8 hours because he/she needs the juice to make it home.

 

No, I don't think so. A Leaf is 100%, having enough charging stations (open enough of the time) to make this a viable buying decision is worth a lot more than the marginal increase in mileage a plug-in will be getting by topping up. Also, 5 people unable to get home, is a lot more important than 20 paying slightly more to get home. Or put another way, 20 slightly happier shoppers does not compensate for 5 shoppers going somewhere else.

 

My take on it: let Leaf owners use the chargers and avoid any fight. We Prius owners know we made the right choice, we don't have the anxiety that those poor Leaf users have to not know if they will make it back home.

Imagine the stress, every day you have to look for chargers here and there. Every time you have to go for a long drive, you have to get your calculator out, check the outside temperature, wind speed, etc... Or "maybe if I don't turn my heater and radio on, I can make it back home tonight".

PiP owners relax, you've got your 500 miles autonomy right behind your back seat. And gas station at every street corner.

Sure, your MPG might drop a little that day if you can't charge. So what? You're still getting 50+ MPG in a comfortable, spacious 5 passenger car

 

i'm just not buying it. everyone that owns any PHEV or BEV or what have you can charge at home. in fact leaf owners are required to install L2 at home or nissan won't even sell you the car.

also if it was all about opportunistic charging no public entity would install any CHAdeMO ports. how do you reconcile the government/charging companies even bothering to install DC chargers which are a) expensive and b) only compatible with 2 shipping cars if the public infrastructure is supposed to be for opportunistic charging? the existence of public L3 chargers is proof that it's all here to try to make EVs viable, since much more than 80mi range costs serious big bucks with today's technology. not everyone can afford a tesla but many more can afford leaf or ford focus electric.

i never said anything about driving the leaf until it's empty and then monopolizing an L2 spot for 8 hours. personally if i can get in 2 hours of L2 per day then i can go to wherever i happen to need to go in my leaf. i'd expect that with such huge range you aren't going to see too many teslas sitting at L2 chargers for long amounts of time. if i had that range i'd never bother to charge in public.

the problem, as i see it, is that the affordable EVs fall just short of what long-distance commuters need. that's where public charging infrastructure comes in.

 

The PiP sales will be boosted by those wanting them for HOV access as well it seems. So after a few months it'll be interesting to see how the sales continue. Obviously, the Volt sales are boosted by HOV access as well for a while.

Interesting article and quotes in this article:
banished-from-the-h-o-v-lane-prius-drivers-may-be-first-to-embrace-new-plug-in-model/
Banished from the H.O.V. Lane, Prius Drivers May Be First to Embrace New Plug-In Model - NYTimes.com

 

Not true. There are a # of folks who have gotten Leafs w/o any L2 EVSE installation at home. DaveinOlyWA is one of those folks.

 

Over at CleanMPG RightLaneCruiser has done the same. The online system pushes it but it's not required buying off a lot.

 

they definitely wanted everyone that was pre-ordering to have an L2 charger. i qualified for the EV project and so got it all for free, and did not have to deal with their L2 contractors/EVSE providers. it would have taken work to get out of this... i remember that being in the EV project satisfied the online system's requirement to have at least an L2 site evaluation.

i don't have any experience buying a leaf by walking on to a lot.

i'm willing to eat my hat if at least 90% of leaf owners do not have L2 charging at home. my point being that anyone who has had one of these cars over the last (and drives more than 20 miles a day) year needs to have L2 at home due to the dearth of public infrastructure.

 

I think simple math says daily miles are higher than that. If L1 were only 2.5mph then 12 hours charging per day would be 30 miles.

I think there would be plenty of owners who don't need L2 who would be prepared to wait until charger prices stop being insanely high.

Besides, they can buy an upgraded EVSE to allow 240V charging, which allows for faster charging, including using a double-socket adapter. It's not L2, but it's much better than 110V L1, much cheaper than an overpriced L2 charger and portable.