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I make an average of 15kWh a day from my solar setup, commute to work 25 miles 3-4 days a week, can charge at work for the trip home, and was typically spending over $200/mo in gas. So Getting a Volt will mean the bulk of my driving is essentially free, and I'll be saving close to $200/mo. I'm doing a 3 year lease because I think the residual value is going to be less than stated in the lease due to everyone's leases ending and flooding the market with cheap used Leafs (Leaves?) and Volts. If for some reason they hold their value better than expected, I can still buy it out, but my plan is to penny pinch these 3 years and make the next one a Tesla.
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Jun 16, 2014 13:23
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Did you have the solar installation done before or after getting the Volt? I'm curious how much of the 'drive for free' metric is mental after putting all the house needs back onto the grid.
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Jun 16, 2014 16:32
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I've had it for over 3 years now, and it will have paid for itself in energy savings by the end of the summer. It's semi-mental in that I can allocate the solar to the car and still pay for the house electricity, or pay for the car's electricity and offset some of the house usage. Overall, I make about half of what I use, so I'm definitely not off the grid.
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Jun 16, 2014 16:58
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I wish I understood how modern EVs deal with heating and AC. it seems to me that might be difficult but apparently not. I tried reading up on how the Tesla does it but the explanations I could find are not very good or I am too stupid to get it.
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Jun 17, 2014 11:05
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Heat pumps. It's using a small amount of energy to move heat to where you want it, as opposed to having to use a lot of energy to heat something directly. Think air conditioning "backwards".
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Jun 17, 2014 11:52
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I'm strongly considering leasing a leaf, but the only thing I'm worried about is if living in a rental house will be a problem. There's a 240v plug for the dryer in the garage so I don't think there'd need to be any modifications made, but I can't find solid info on what's involved in the home charging station. Basically if I have to move during the lease term, is moving the home charger around going to be a huge problem?
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Jun 17, 2014 13:29
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Boten Anna posted:I'm strongly considering leasing a leaf, but the only thing I'm worried about is if living in a rental house will be a problem. There's a 240v plug for the dryer in the garage so I don't think there'd need to be any modifications made, but I can't find solid info on what's involved in the home charging station. 220V socket chargers tend to be a little more expensive than an equivalent hard-wired charger, but otherwise, no.
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Jun 17, 2014 13:31
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Thanks MrYenko. I am looking into this more and I didn't realize that the Leaf didn't come with a charger that does more than 110v. I live in an area with decent access to fast chargers, including a Nissan dealership within walking distance of work, and my commute is ~15 miles each way so it seems like I wouldn't have many problems slowboat charging when I get home. Does anyone who has some experience know how much I'll hate life if I forego a home fast charger and rely on public ones in a pinch? This would be the second car in my household and I generally hate driving anyway. Then there's also the issue of the fast charge kit itself, I'm looking at the $2k/$200/mo S model lease deal and I have no idea how much that goes up or if it's even an option with the fast charge kit. Also why are the home charging ports like $999 when all the charging circuitry is on the car 
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Jun 17, 2014 13:57
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Boten Anna posted:Thanks MrYenko. I am looking into this more and I didn't realize that the Leaf didn't come with a charger that does more than 110v. That's my setup. My commute is ~10 miles each way and I only use a 110v at home and occasionally at the office. I've only had to use public chargers when it's super cold out and I need to do a bunch of driving. I voluntarily use them when they are somewhere handy to show there's a demand for them.
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Jun 17, 2014 14:37
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Throatwarbler posted:I wish I understood how modern EVs deal with heating and AC. it seems to me that might be difficult but apparently not. I tried reading up on how the Tesla does it but the explanations I could find are not very good or I am too stupid to get it. A/C on your car is usually done with a belt-driven pump. EVs usually just power it directly with a small electric motor plus a resistance heater (just like a normal space heater but buried in the dash) for backup when it's really cold out. As said before, they usually (base model Leaf does not) have a valve to run the A/C 'backwards' and pump the cold air outside and warm air in. Our Leaf can make all its heat from the heat pump down to about 5*F, then it needs to kick in the resistance. More and more as the temp drops. Boten Anna posted:Thanks MrYenko. I am looking into this more and I didn't realize that the Leaf didn't come with a charger that does more than 110v. EVSEUpgrade will convert your factory Leaf charger to 30A 240V capable, selectable back down to the factory 120V. They also sell pigtails to adapt it to whatever outlet you have available. It's a really slick setup and not expensive at all. I honestly wish I'd gone straight to FedEx from the dealer and sent mine in so it would have been waiting when I got home a week later. Advent Horizon fucked around with this message at 15:46 on Jun 17, 2014 |
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Jun 17, 2014 15:41
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MrYenko posted:Nope. They pretty much prove my point. The Mercury Sable was pretty cool looking for a family sedan back in the day until they ruined it in 1996. Also:  (OK the Italian "fit and finish" is indeed a bit dorfy--the hood fits! Almost!  )
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Jun 18, 2014 02:18
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Welp, heard from the dealership today. Apparently the blue 2015 Leafs won't be available until the end of August. I am seriously considering getting a white one instead, which means I could be driving it next week rather than two and a half months from now.
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Jun 18, 2014 02:19
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Advent Horizon posted:EVSEUpgrade will convert your factory Leaf charger to 30A 240V capable, selectable back down to the factory 120V. They also sell pigtails to adapt it to whatever outlet you have available. It's a really slick setup and not expensive at all. I honestly wish I'd gone straight to FedEx from the dealer and sent mine in so it would have been waiting when I got home a week later. Oh wow thanks for this tip, this looks exactly like what I want. There's even a restaurant within walking distance of my house I could charge at while waiting for it back! Also is there a good rundown of what's good in the 2015 version or know if the lease deals will be extended to those? Wonder if they're worth waiting for or not really. E: Most of the coverage is about color options so assuming "not worth worrying about since none of them are Yellow" Boten Anna fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Jun 18, 2014 |
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Jun 18, 2014 02:34
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Welp. Signed a lease for a 2014 Volt yesterday, and have a guy coming to install a 240v charger tonight. Digging it so far, but trying to not to completely obsess about min/maxing my electric use to the detriment of being convenient. "You want me to come pick you up? I'm only at 30% charge. YOU'RE KILLING MY NUMBERS!"
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Jun 20, 2014 16:24
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GM still using the 'range anxiety' line for marketing? I remember when the first studies came out that Volt owners had it the worst 
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Jun 20, 2014 16:30
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Dunno if they are still using it for marketing, but I've got it bad. I know objectively, that even when running on full gas mode, I am still getting just about double the MPG of my previous vehicle, but... MY NUMBERS!
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Jun 20, 2014 16:51
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Harley-Davidson has thrown their http://project.harley-davidson.com/en_CA Something I hadn't thought about is that because they're so much smaller and lighter than cars, an electric motorcycle with a similar range (H-D says 53 miles for the "Livewire") to a given electric car can recharge to full in less time. Obvious when you think about it, but I wonder if we'll see bikes with ranges above 300 miles and recharge times below one hour before we see cars with those capabilities. Tesla's specialized charging stations notwithstanding.
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Jun 20, 2014 17:08
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ExecuDork posted:Harley-Davidson has thrown their A Tesla motorcycle would be such a glorious thing...
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Jun 20, 2014 17:16
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Doom Rooster posted:Welp. Signed a lease for a 2014 Volt yesterday, and have a guy coming to install a 240v charger tonight. Digging it so far, but trying to not to completely obsess about min/maxing my electric use to the detriment of being convenient. "You want me to come pick you up? I'm only at 30% charge. YOU'RE KILLING MY NUMBERS!" Hey 2014 Volt lease buddy  I'm doing this too, but probably only until I use my first gas mile. It's a second car so I'm mainly using it to commute and I want to see how long I can go on pure electric (auto engine runs for maintenance don't count). Since my commute is only 23 miles one way, I just keep the Volt in Sport Low all the time and drive the hell out of it. My Clipper Creek 240V charger arrives Monday, and I'm working on a design for a custom one to use at work. The 120V one that comes with the car is painfully slow.
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Jun 20, 2014 17:32
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ToxicFrog posted:Welp, heard from the dealership today. Apparently the blue 2015 Leafs won't be available until the end of August. I am seriously considering getting a white one instead, which means I could be driving it next week rather than two and a half months from now. After some discussion with the wife we decided to go with the white one instead. Two weeks from now I should have a Leaf! 
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Jun 20, 2014 18:03
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eeenmachine posted:A Tesla motorcycle would be such a glorious thing... The best part of the e-HD is the amount of teeth gnashing coming from the traditionalist Harley crowd.
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Jun 20, 2014 18:05
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Collateral Damage posted:The best part of the e-HD is the amount of teeth gnashing coming from the traditionalist Harley crowd. LOUD BATTERIES SAVE LIVES
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Jun 20, 2014 18:14
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Collateral Damage posted:Well you already have Brammo and Zero making electric full sized motorcycles. But I want to use the Supercharger network.
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Jun 20, 2014 18:16
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Titling the announcement with a 90s meme was bad enough... They really should have let the joke die there
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Jun 20, 2014 18:28
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It'd be ironic if they hadn't checked on copyright for that image before putting it up. Also, http://xkcd.com/286/
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Jun 20, 2014 21:05
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I did it I got a Leaf yesterday!  Amazing car, drives like electric sex. Unfortunately I got hosed on the trade-in value of my old car (because I was trading in to a dealership and it was a day ending in y  ) and they made me pay the first month which everything I read beforehand said they don't so that killed the cash I had earmarked for an upgraded charging cable but SOON. I even realized that my dryer is 110v so there's just this big 'ol 240V plug in my garage just sitting there happily waiting to charge it.As I only have the base model which doesn't have CARWINGS or anything, does anyone know if the Android app will do anything at all? I signed up on the Nissan site, added my car with the VIN, but when I try to log into it, the app says I don't have any vehicles on my account. I can't tell if it's because I just leased it (at 9PM on Friday) and Nissan has to set up some backend stuff or if it's because everything is through CARWINGS so it will never work. Only complaints so far are pretty minor, like that the bluetooth doesn't do bluetooth audio but that's easily worked around with a cheap AUX cable, and overall I've never been a fan of leasing or purchasing new vehicles so I'll focus on the totally rad stuff I wasn't expecting to have in a car I own for another decade or so, like that I can loving call people just by talking.
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Jun 21, 2014 17:39
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Boten Anna posted:I did it I got a Leaf yesterday! Wait, the bluetooth on the base model doesn't do audio? What a thing to have as an upsell. When I added my car to the site, I'm pretty sure it was instant, but I didn't have the base model.
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Jun 21, 2014 18:41
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duz posted:Wait, the bluetooth on the base model doesn't do audio? What a thing to have as an upsell. Yeah I basically just got a new job and scraped together my first couple paychecks and the tradein to get the $2k down/$200 mo lease (tho mine is $220 for some reason) because that's ultimately what I had already earmarked for fixing up my New Beetle and gas/maintenance for that piece of poo poo anyway. No level 3 charging or bluetooth audio is still better than that hunk o' junk! The Leaf even manages to have a better turn radius, which I was half expecting to be the only thing I missed about the Beetle. Maybe by MY2017 I could justify the upgraded packages but for now I'm just elated that an electric car exists that I could actually get and roughly break even with the costs of owning an ICE car. Hopefully soon they'll start tilting toward cheaper.
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Jun 21, 2014 19:32
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I wonder if you could flash the software or add the Bluetooth audio module somehow. Sometimes stuff like that is possible and sometimes its not even that difficult.
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Jun 21, 2014 20:52
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CharlesM posted:I wonder if you could flash the software or add the Bluetooth audio module somehow. Sometimes stuff like that is possible and sometimes its not even that difficult. The manual seems to indicate that the sv+ models have a different radio entirely. This is the base model radio: 
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Jun 21, 2014 23:07
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Boten Anna posted:Yeah I basically just got a new job and scraped together my first couple paychecks and the tradein to get the $2k down/$200 mo lease (tho mine is $220 for some reason) because that's ultimately what I had already earmarked for fixing up my New Beetle and gas/maintenance for that piece of poo poo anyway. No level 3 charging or bluetooth audio is still better than that hunk o' junk! The Leaf even manages to have a better turn radius, which I was half expecting to be the only thing I missed about the Beetle. Please tell us more about what kind of issues you had with your new beetle.
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Jun 21, 2014 23:07
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Throatwarbler posted:Please tell us more about what kind of issues you had with your new beetle. It was just an expensive to maintain piece of poo poo, I can't complain much because I was duly warned. I wasn't worried when I got it because I only needed something cheap to drive 4 miles round trip a day but then I got a new job with a 30 mile surface street commute and it went to hell quickly. It leaked coolant constantly, the oil pan screw somehow got stripped so it leaked oil too, and the air conditioner just straight up died. Fixing all of these things would cost somewhere close to the $2k down for the Leaf lease. I had to pay almost $500 just to get it running right before trading it in because the engine timing cable just like, stopped working and despite my best efforts otherwise only the dealer could diagnose this; everyone else thought it was the Immobilizer since the engine was turning over fine but then dying after a few seconds. New Beetles are cute as gently caress but horrible money pits and I don't recommend them unless you're ok with pissing away money or you're in a future where you can rip out the entire engine and everything and convert them to electric.
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Jun 21, 2014 23:18
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Boten Anna posted:The manual seems to indicate that the sv+ models have a different radio entirely. This is the base model radio: Aww oh well. Funny story is on my Mazda to enable the trip computer which is supposed to only be on the GT I just had to hold down 3 buttons. I know other cars have features that can be flashed / enabled but I don't know anything about the Leaf.
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Jun 21, 2014 23:52
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Boten Anna posted:The manual seems to indicate that the sv+ models have a different radio entirely. This is the base model radio: Do you have a USB jack near the driver's knee? I prefer that to the Bluetooth connection. The bluetooth sure is fun, though. I was Facetiming with my mom and I set my iPad down to get the car from out of WiFi range and drive it closer - the Bluetooth connected automatically and I could talk to her from inside the car while I was driving it in front of the camera.
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Jun 22, 2014 01:09
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I'm having problems with that USB plug all of a sudden. I used it previously to charge/play music on my Android Galaxy Nexus with no problems. Normal USB to micro USB cord. I picked up a HTC One M8 the other day, and inexplicably if I plug in the new phone, it'll just cycle connected > not connected over and over. I tried it with both the old cord I'd been using and the one that came with the phone. It completely disconnects both charging and music every 4 or so seconds. Guessing a voltage thing, but it doesn't seem to work with every phone. I'll just have to get a splitter for my cigarette lighter and use an adapter there I guess.
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Jun 22, 2014 03:42
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Mortanis posted:I'm having problems with that USB plug all of a sudden. I used it previously to charge/play music on my Android Galaxy Nexus with no problems. Normal USB to micro USB cord. I picked up a HTC One M8 the other day, and inexplicably if I plug in the new phone, it'll just cycle connected > not connected over and over. I tried it with both the old cord I'd been using and the one that came with the phone. It completely disconnects both charging and music every 4 or so seconds. Mine does that too, I wonder if it's trying to read the file system and failing since it's MTP instead of mass storage.
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Jun 22, 2014 04:43
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Boten Anna posted:The manual seems to indicate that the sv+ models have a different radio entirely. This is the base model radio: It is a lot different on the SV and SL it also has navigation. I wish I has a good picture of it. But I think it is 7 inches and all screen not much buttons. Seems odd to not have Bluetooth audio  . The other difference is it has a resistive heating system not a pump,
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Jun 22, 2014 05:42
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I think you mean the SV and SL have heat pumps, the base model is resistance-only. I assume it uses the same compressor as a Versa or something so it can't go both ways.
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Jun 22, 2014 10:34
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duz posted:Mine does that too, I wonder if it's trying to read the file system and failing since it's MTP instead of mass storage. My HTC refused to charge from a car USB connection that was also for media. On the subject of pedantic things that car manufacturers pull from base models... The base Honda cr-v loses the front passenger armrest. Bluetooth is standard though, that's pretty lovely of Nissan.
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Jun 22, 2014 14:06
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Advent Horizon posted:Do you have a USB jack near the driver's knee? I prefer that to the Bluetooth connection. Yeah there's a USB connection I've used to charge, but I have this wacky battery pack on my phone and I don't think any of the other USB features pass through it. I haven't had a chance yet to figure out if it will do USB audio or if it only plays files. I mostly want to play from Amazon Music and other OTA stuff, and also have my phone's navigation play over the music, so if it only plays files I'll just have to stick to the AUX jack. I do need a good handsfree kit or cell phone mount or whatever those things are called though, if anyone has one that they particularly like I'd love suggestions.
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Jun 22, 2014 18:58
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