Electric Vehicle (Nissan Leaf experience/impressions)

[oil pan 4]

Those paddle chargers were such a stupid idea.

Take a bunch of pictures and post them up. That vehicle is practically a museum piece.
I personally would like to see how and where the batteries were mounted.

[WyrTwister]

What is a paddle chargers ?

God bless
Wyr

[DEnd]

Originally Posted by WyrTwister

What is a paddle chargers ?

God bless
Wyr

Think of something like a ping pong paddle with an inductive pad built in. Basically the Idea was to not have a direct wired socket, to allow for easy water proofing to greatly reduce the shock hazard. This is Toyota's version: Charging the RAV4 EV

[randen]

A paddle charger was merely a method to charge a vehicle without an electrical connection (an inductive charge) The paddle contained a coil which slid into the front of the vehicle where the slot had complimentary coils and a alternating current was applied to the paddle coil and like an air-core transformer provided current for charging the battery pack without an electrical connection.

It was actually quite neat and worked well. The vehicle side was liquid cooled and provided 6 kw of energy so about twice that of the volt and leaf.

For the GM EV-1 the odd trouble of proximity of the paddle in the car not confirming (ready to charge) and the car wouldn't charge. Otherwise very cool tech. This could have been repaired in the second generation of vehicle. But hey why would a huge automotive manufacture go to those lengths- Just crush-it

Had the EV-1 went into full production paddle chargers could have been standard like the J1772 or Tesla connectors.

I have 2 of the paddle chargers but they are obsolete. Public chargers have the J1772 But in the very new future they will become obsolete because they cannot carry enough current to charge an EV at any speed that some one would be happy. A Tesla or any EV plugged into a public J1772 or level 2 charger would get you 18 miles per hour charge.

Look at it this way. If you took the Mrs. out to dinner, plug the car in and after 2 hrs. you might get enough charge to get you back home.

Over night in your garage is fine for a level 2 and most homes electrical service will be OK to support this without any investment into a larger service panel.

Tesla and Chademo have this thought out a lot better. Tesla almost 400 amp DC supercharge gets you about 220 miles in about 15 min. Now that's how it should be!! Chademo a little less I believe but I'd have to look up the spec. The new batteries handle this current without breaking a sweat. Ideal for public fast charge but for a home not necessary.

But maybe when we start with home battery systems coupled with solar. A battery system could dump all sorts of current quickly into the family EV.


Randen

[oil pan 4]

Think of the most inefficient, indirect, slowest way to charge an electric vehicle.
That's a paddle charger.
I think when I build my own electric vehicle I would use an L14-30 plug.

[randen]

Ok L14-30

But That's only 30 amp. "Level 2 charge rate" and your missing the pilot signal connections to close the contactor and also to prevent you from driving away with this plug in your car.

I have a project charger "stalled" thats input is 240 v 100 amp so 24 kw charger, so about 110 mile per hour rate. My industrial shop panel will handle that but not my home. Totally Not necessary. I charge while I sleep like my cell phone. So both are ready in the morning. The trouble comes when your out traveling around and you need to get home. Waiting at a level 2 public charger to load 100 miles is 3 hrs or more. Not so practical!!

If your just after an EV, a used Leaf is less than the cost of a prismatic Lith. battery pack. I needed a small truck and Tesla is a few years away from building a truck. Building your own EV is a HUGE project.

Randen

[WyrTwister]

There are no DCFC ( DC Fast Charge ) locations in our town or anywhere within 100 miles .

There are some , about 120 -130 miles away , but they are Tesla Superchargers . But they will not work on our Leaf .

Not even at the local Nissan dealer .

God bless
Wyr


So , Level 2 is as good as it is going to get .

[randen]

Wyrtwister

Thats what I'm getting at. Level 2 chargers are not up-to the task. To be a truly useful vehicle a faster more powerful charge is what we need to be more what a gas car had presented. Tesla has it with their supercharge 15 mins gets you there and back. The installations of public charge stations with a level 2 (J1772) are already obsolete.

The battery tech with the Volt and Leaf can handle the riggers of high power charging but the infrastructure isn't there and is so last century.!!

Imagine a fast charge for a Nissan Leaf 24 kph battery with a Tesla like supercharge would be only minutes. LIKE or quicker than getting gasoline!!!

And there is another rub. The Nissan Leaf cannot accept the Tesla supercharge. Elon Musk has stated he would allow other manufactures to utilize Tesla charge structure if they would help invest in the deployment of the systems. And why are they sitting on their hands??? Pony up, make the cars more useful. Leafs are nice cars. Imagine being able to take long trips with them??

Randen

[WyrTwister]

We bought the Leaf as an in town only car . No illusions .

So far , it is working for my wife .

Also , the Leaf battery ( at least the early 24 kwh models ) is said not to tolerate frequent DCFC very well . The batteries are vulnerable to heat .

Level 2 works pretty well for home charging . Probably kinder on the battery .

God bless
Wyr

[DEnd]

Originally Posted by randen

Imagine a fast charge for a Nissan Leaf 24 kph battery with a Tesla like supercharge would be only minutes. LIKE or quicker than getting gasoline!!!

Randen

Not quite. A DCFC ramps up and down it's charging at the beginning and end of the charge cycle, depending on battery charge. A Leaf at a DCFC would probably take about 50-60 minutes to fully charge. Of course that's not how you would actually use a Leaf most of the time. The majority of charging would be done at home and/or work where you have plenty of time, and don't need fast charging, and there is enough range in its battery to do the vast majority of all in-town driving. Where charge times matter is for long distance driving, and the Leaf just does not have the range for that. Tesla's range sort of works for this as you can eat while the car is charging, so for quite a few trips you spend the same amount of time or less getting to your destination.