Chargepoint Charging Network

If you own an electric car in North America get the Chargepoint card. There are many charging station on this network and it worth having a card. The cost of getting a Chargepoint card is only the cost of the deposit on credit card. They added $25 to my account and I have used the card at a few chargers in southern Ontario. At the moment in Canada there are no other networks that I am aware. In the US the Blink network and seems to be an up coming network wish they would add some locations in Canada.

The Chargepoint chargers I used were free for now, but I am sure at some point they will ask for a fee.

Highway Driving With The Nissan Leaf

I have tried different strategies to driving on the highway with the Nissan Leaf. The way the bars start to drop and the range gets lower brings on a case of range anxiety. I have only had a few trips where I need to take the highway. If possible I try to drive at 90 KM an hour and in eco mode. It's difficult to stay at that speed when people are rushing by at 120 KM. If I am able to stay in eco for the whole drive I am able to at least feel a little less range anxiety.

The KM in the display are all over the place when doing highway driving. If you are driving on the highway I would make sure to be up to a full charge at the start of the highway trip and to have a map of charging station along the route just in case you need some extra charge.

As I get more comfortable with the car and the technology I will be going on longer highway trips and documenting my findings on this blog.

Reserved Parking Electric Vehicles Only with Symbol

I thought it would be fun to get an electric car parking sign to hang in the garage I found this one on Amazon for $17.95. If you have a business that has a charger installed then this is perfect to place near the charger. If only ICE vehicles stayed out of the EV charging spots.

You can find this sign by clicking on this link!

Hamilton to Toronto Trip In My Nissan Leaf

I wrote last week about my trial run to the half way mark in Oakville. This weekend I made the full trip to my mom's in Toronto about 78 KM away. The weather wasn't the greatest for this trip. On the way there the weather was ideal for driving the sun was out and I did not have to run the heat. The first half of the trip was getting to the Chargepoint charger in Oakville at the Tim Horton's. When I pulled up to the charger I noticed an ICE car parked in one of the two available charging spots. It kind of bothered me that if another fellow EV owner need a charge the spot would be blocked. The guy blocking the spot saw me pull in and did end up moving his car and asking some question about my Leaf's range. At this location I figured a little over half an hour would give me enough range to make it in to Toronto and be able to run the heat and deal with traffic. When I got to my moms house I plugged the car to a regular 110v wall outlet and left the car charging for about 8 hours.

When I left Toronto it was snowing and road conditions were not the greatest. I must say the Leaf handle the winter weather like any other car. I had charged the car at my moms house and was about a bar from a full charge. The charge was just about enough to get me to the Oakville Tim Horton's where I would be able to get the peace of mind charging the car for the rest of the trip home. The weather was much better in Oakville and getting to Hamilton was effortless with the clean roads. The only thing that kind of sucked was that it was below zero temperatures and I was avoiding running the heater. The seat warmer was a great friend on this drive. I was able to pick up enough extra KM in Oakville and it proved the best half way point for this trip. The next time I go down I will probably use the same strategy as it worked out well. There are those who think that an electric car is unable to be taken on long road trips or would be a bit of a hassle, but with a little planning it can be done. The trip only added an extra 90 minutes for charging and taking regular roads and staying off the highway. Not that bad when you consider the cost for gas on the same trip and I got a chance to read a book while I was waiting to charge.  

A Test Road Trip In The Nissan Leaf

I have not taken the Leaf very far from home. The best way to test the waters is take a mini road trip. The trip is my preparation to get to my parents house in Toronto. The start point was Hamilton Ontario and I challenged my Leaf to make it to Oakville about half an hour away. In Oakville there are a few public charge stations that I could use which makes charging easy to gain at least another 20 KM if I was to go into Toronto. This is also my half way point when I do make the trip to Toronto. The car had 154 KM when I left home when I arrived at the Tim Horton's where the ChargePoint station is located I had about 110 KM which was mostly city driving at about 50 KM. Once at the Tim Horton's a few people gathered around the car started to ask me questions. I was more than happy to answer and spread the word about driving an electric car. I waited at the Tim Horton's for about 45 minutes which I figured would be more than enough to top up the battery. If this was my trip to Toronto it would assure me that I could make the rest of the drive. As this was a test run I also checked out a few other locations in case I need a charge on my trip back from Toronto. The Eaton charger is just of the highway in Burlington and makes a great stop to get a quick charge. I spent about half an hour at this charger and kept myself busy writing this blog post. At least I am trying to multi-task when I am at a charger. This is one thing new EV drivers need to accept is that there will be a lot of waiting and you need to find something to when your car is a charger. As far as my test trip goes at least I know I can make part of the trip and will need to plan out the second half which going into Toronto should not be that bad as there are a few car dealers that have the chargers installed and allow electric car owners to use regardless of the brand of the car.

I hope to make the full road trip when the weather gets a little warmer as I do not want to use the heater to get more range at least on the first trip to Toronto. I will update the blog when I make the full road trip.

Range Anxiety in My Nissan Leaf

I have been driving the Nissan Leaf for about two days now and suffered my first range anxiety trying to get across town. I went to visit my father in law and estimated that it would take 40 km to get there and back. When we left my father in laws house we need to make a quick stop at my wife's grandfathers nursing home. This took me out of the estimated range by about 5 km that was just at the limit of us not making it home. I went on Google maps and tried to figure out the correct range from where we were to our house. The trip would be out of range. We got in the car and I set it to drive in eco mode. I made sure to go at a lower speed on express way and prayed that I would make it down the hill and gain some extra energy to get off out our exit and at least be withing waling distance to our house. As luck would have it I did everything right and gained the extra energy we would need to make it home. As I got closer to the drive way the car was pretty much yelling at me to get to a charging station as soon as possible. Lesson learned plan out all trips and make sure to have at least a good amount of extra range just in case. I also learned that driving in eco mode is cool and it extends the range most of the time to get everything you can out of driving your Nissan Leaf electric car.

Nissan Leaf Delivered

On January 24th I picked up my shiny new Nissan Leaf. It was cold out, but no snow for the drive home. It took about an hour and half to work out all the paper work at the dealership and learn the basics of driving the Leaf. After all the excitement of picking up the Leaf I quickly made it up to the nearest Toys R Us to pick up a car seat for my son. With that out of the way I made it down to a mall about 15 minutes away an topped up the car as I had not installed the Level 2 charger at home. With the Car near full charge when I did get it home for the first night it did not take that long to charge it back up with the standard wall plus charger that came with the car.

I must say that driving the Leaf was fun and the car is quick and just drive amazing. The electric engine made no noise accept a little whistle when a pressed the acceleration as it started to pick up speed. After figuring out where everything was located the confidence level of driving this car from the future set in.

As a drive the car around for the next few days I will be updating the blog with any new developments or what I am discovering and learning about electric cars and living with one day to day.