Building A Leaf

[XRATED]

What are they charging you $89 for???? diff oil? ha ha ha... do you get a free top up with that?

Yeah, regular fast charging isn't so awesome for your pack either.

An easy way to swap packs or adding an additional pack I think will be the way forward for electric racing vehicles and long range ev driving. Pitty the tech is still so expensive.

... I've been reading whispers of a consult style plug in for tuning. But until people start finding the limits of components, it's all going to be a stab in the dark.

[XRATED]

updates updates updates???

[Duncan]

well actually, I did cause uproar in the world of environmentally friendly greenie cars.....

it's now running on these:

a set of lovely nismo/rays wheels made for the nismo leaf. Also I put some Dunlop Sport maxx tyres on them.

the rest of the leaf world were horrified that I had put performance ahead of potential range....I just enjoy how quick the damn thing is now

[XRATED]

Looks great...

A smile on your dial is worth the 200m of range you miss out on per charge!

Any more power yet?

And on that note, have you seen on a Dyno yet?

[Duncan]

Nah haven't hit a dyno yet....I will go along whenever the club organises one but it has been a while now....

and no progress on making more power out of it, that's why I've stuck to handling instead. I'm just don't know anything about making more from an electric motor, and I'm not ready to be a total guinea pig....that's why I'm spewing Nismo didn't release the ECU to suit the Oz model

[XRATED]

no more power yet....??? how are you going to keep up when you throw 20's and airbags under it? ba ha ha (only just saw that thread last night).

Leaf has been out for what, 2 or 3 years? surely someone is trying to hack the stock vcm? I guesss no one really knows how to 'tune' them yet... it's not like you can just turn the boost up, throw some more fuel at it and bump the timing a bit...

... your right though, 'need more wheel spin!'

J.

[MBS206]

No you just throw more volts, less resistance, and a few more winds on the motor and BLAM! Powers...

[XRATED]

.... still can't find a nitrous kit to suit one

[Ryno]

It's a shame you can't upgrade the ECU... I was blown away by how fast the NISMO Leaf was lapping at Clipsal - only 10s slower than the R35 GTR!

[XRATED]

found one... n2o for ev's :-)

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=supercapacitor+car+battery&client=firefox-a&hs=HG0&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=sb&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=2K2sU5fRKY3MkAWE14HwBw&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAg&biw=1421&bih=900#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=iEWIfjVEqKmc1M%253A%3BAxJOmX0rySf4hM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.dvice.com%252Fsites%252Fdvice%252Ffiles%252Fstyles%252Fblog_post_embedded%252Fpublic%252F3-supercapacitor-maxwell.jpg%253Fitok%253DRNvq3EH0%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.dvice.com%252F2013-5-3%252Fsupercapacitors-near-ish-future-batteries%3B625%3B405

[Duncan]

It's a shame you can't upgrade the ECU... I was blown away by how fast the NISMO Leaf was lapping at Clipsal - only 10s slower than the R35 GTR!

Yep, I think they'll surprise a few people once they start getting modified....we came 1st and 2nd at the last texi we entered in ours. And that Nismo Leaf actually runs a standard 80kw motor so it's lap times are pretty impressive compared to 400kw supercar....

No you just throw more volts, less resistance, and a few more winds on the motor and BLAM! Powers...

see now that's the thing....at my level of understanding (basic) that's what I thought. I'm surprised no-one's done it yet so I assume it is harder than that. I guess nothing will ever make extra power as easily as a turboed petrol engine.

[MBS206]

Yep, I think they'll surprise a few people once they start getting modified....we came 1st and 2nd at the last texi we entered in ours. And that Nismo Leaf actually runs a standard 80kw motor so it's lap times are pretty impressive compared to 400kw supercar....

see now that's the thing....at my level of understanding (basic) that's what I thought. I'm surprised no-one's done it yet so I assume it is harder than that. I guess nothing will ever make extra power as easily as a turboed petrol engine.

You will also find a lot of it comes down to how strong everything is around it. As you probably know, an electric motor will make bulk torque at 0RPM. Imagine putting down all of your torque while you're still stationary, you just start bending, twisting and shearing parts off, as well as the fact that at that point in time you're also drawing maximum current which loves to burn out all of your electronics. Someone needs to build up the corresponding control circuitry to avoid you blowing everything up, and this is what is probably lacking for now.

[XRATED]

.... please tell me there are some go faster mods already?

I'll buy one the day I can 'tune' one!

Honestly I don't care too much for range, just torque! And surprising some dirty xr6T's!

[Hertz Donut]

ZOMBIE THREAD!! I'm lazy so not sure if you've still got this car, buuuuut...

After 5 years what sort of issues are you seeing, if any? Your usage seems to be about as varied as anyone can expect. We're organising my in-laws' life for them now that they're getting on a bit and their '98 Subaru is a pile o' crap, so a new car is one of the items on the to-do list. I'm angling towards getting them to buy a Leaf for around town and convincing them that if they want to go on a road trip in a bigger car then just hire an ICE car for a week or so.

I'd rather read it from a long-term owner than rely on comments sections on MSM sites from people who deny Australia exists. Thanks.

 

Also, does it dose?

[Duncan]

Man, I really did let this thread go for a while without updates!

So first mods: .....

Nope, changed absolutely nothing since the nismo wheels in 2015.

Second: Use

Well Kel was driving it every day to work in Sydney and it was super reliable, never needed anything at service. Still ran at about $2 per day average to charge it for a 50klm round trip. Perfect commuter car.

Then the NSW Hillclimb champs created an electric car class, so we decided the only fair thing to do was enter it and take the car racing all over the state.  Kel and I both raced it and were the only electric entrants at most rounds other than a homemade electric "special" that did a couple of them.  Since the championship rewards attending rounds, I won that and Kel came second.  Whole bunch of vids on my youtube if you like quiet motorsport, eg this run from Bathurst 

As far as I was concerned, with a 1600kg, 80kw race car I was happy with any round where we didn't come last. At Kempsey we were top 20 in the wet.

Last year we did the Hillclimb series again, but this time with a set of soft semi slicks (yokos) to go a tiny bit faster. We did end up with quicker times at every track except Huntley which was flat throttle all the way, even on the road tyres.  Again I won the state champs and Kel dished it up to me at one of the rounds too.  And we were 11th of about 120 entrants at Grafton in the wet, the car was a f**king ball. Pretty sad I didn't have the camera on because it was sliding around like crazy and you would have heard my laughter for sure the helmet.

This year we are not going to be able to make every round although we are entered for r4 at Kempsey next weekend.  Also, there is a Tesla Model S racing which is naturally destroying our records from the last 2 years. But we will still go and have fun.

We also did a couple more motorkhanas including the nulon nats where we ran top 10 as well.  So it's no good for top speed but it is competitive in tight stuff.

[Duncan]

The main thing over 5+ years of owning it is the battery has degraded.  They have a battery meter with 12 segments, and owners who lost something like 4 of them in under 5 years go replacements batteries from Nissan; I know of 2 in Australia of the 200 cars (so 1%).  Ours is down to 4 cars now which is about 70% of the original capacity.  If it is linear that suggest it will have 35% capacity after 10 years.

Everything else is perfect, mechanically etc. Motor still gives the same power when it was new which is not something you'd get out of a petrol motor that hadn't been serviced for 5 years....

I think it's wierd but Nissan are not selling retail batteries; they refuse to quote for them. Perhaps the actual price is so high it is just embarrassing to say. 

So basically we get by on 70% of original range (so say 100klm on a charge instead of 160).  Since we've moved out of Sydney the current battery literally gets us to town and back at 110, a round trip of about 70klm which is fine, we just plug it back in until next time we are driving to the little smoke.

Resale has been very strong on these, probably because they are the only really affordable electric vehicles.  Anything new is 40k plus and Tesla second hand is still over 100. They are hard to find under 20k and are all 5 years old.

If you are looking at one the main thing is to understand the battery health as everything else is unlikely to be a problem. You can use one of those bluetooth/OBD (ELM) adapters and leaf Spy app to get a reading on each individual battery and overall health.

If you understand the range and that it will continue to degrade over time, they are a very cheap and trouble free way to get around town.  Even in a few years it may actually be worth to pay $5k+ to replace the battery because you basically get back to brand new performance and range in a cheap starting point.

[Duncan]

And no, it doesn't dose

[GTofuS-T]

Are the charging ports universal? Have you ever used those public/car park recharge stations?

[Duncan]

definitely not universal. actually it's been one of those annoying things where everyone went with their own standards. Tesla are tesla only, and there was one more common in europe and another more common in japan. hacked adapters are available for most things and people who do long / tricky trips just tend to carry a few of them.

Oz Leafs come with 2 ports, standard and quick charge but there are other types out there. I honestly haven't kept track of them all.

We do charge out and about at times, especially overnight when a hillclimb goes over 2 days. 99% of the rest of the time we charge at home and plan/monitor so that we don't need to charge while out. If we stuff up for some reason there is a slow charger in the boot that can work with a standard power point

But realistically you get a lot of control over the range because it is directly related to speed. ie, if you think you are 20% short on range just drive 20% slower, it makes a big difference. You just kind of get used to keeping an eye on range when you start a trip.

Maybe one day there will be chargers everywhere...but even the quickest ones are at least 30min to charge and who wants to stop that long multiple times on a long trip.

[Hertz Donut]

Thanks for the info and update. I've been reading up a bit more and chatting to my wife about this and we're quite likely going to to sell/trade one of the M35s and get one ourselves. She's an accountant (or was til I ruined her with kids) so can see the value in using one for doing the school/shopping runs since she'd rarely go over about 80km in a day.

There's a couple of 24kW 2012 models locally that she's going to try out, I'm guessing the one for $16K is the better option given the better SOH?

https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/nissan/auction-1544057932.htm?rsqid=9f4d2f9c513d4059b8b9db9022cd282c

https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/nissan/auction-1544058197.htm?rsqid=9f4d2f9c513d4059b8b9db9022cd282c

I also see rhdjapan has over 40% off Blitz ZZRs at the moment. Not that I'd mod it or anything...