Nissan Leaf 24kw - 666 Miles with Batt Temp Stopping Charge! UK Rapid Charging

A journey from North Yorkshire to Southampton. 2 legs of 310ish miles and the return journey having a battery temp issue which stops us from charging! Camping in the new forest for a few days but do we get home!?

[@gsmarza]

You have such a lovely family. Thank you for your videos.

[@elektrotehnik94]

That advice at the end about how to charge is very important, it isn't common knowledge. Others would benefit a lot if they knew that charging from lower levels makes less heat :) I know battery technology pretty well and now that i thought about it, it really makes sense to charge that way.

[@Miata822]

Good video. Your wife has a charming smile.

[@duncanharper4466]

You all seem very relaxed with the charge situation, which is my biggest concern. Your planning and matter of fact approach is very reassuring. Thank you very much for all the useful information, it will make me consider a longer journey in the Leaf, I just need to convince my wife!

[@stephaniealdridge4964]

We have a 2015 24kw leaf and travell from the bottom of Cornwall to Derby Doncaster and Peterbourgh a few times a year total journey 900 miles plus and have never had battery temp issues we normally travel at around 60 on motorways, We have travelled in hot weather, the temperature gauge shows a rise but never too the top end I can only guess its down to how you drive these cars. We are very very happy with ours never had range issues and tbh its so cheap to run. Our answer to negative comments is great it means we will have better access to the existing charge points in the near future lol,

[@mucky2hot]

I try to use A roads instead of motorways, takes longer but ive notice i dont get very high temp problems when doing long journeys. little tip

[@BrokebackBob]

Thumbs way up! Your interaction with your daughter is very sweet. Format of video is fine and fun! You're a lucky man.. It was fun to see a Days Inn of which there is one downtown where I live in rural Indiana in the US...

[@narithshan]

enjoy with your Nissan leaf with your family.

[@davidcarter7283]

good video,look forward to the next, very interesting as i am a new leaf owner.

[@spacegreycoralred]

This has to be Ecotricity.. I just Rapid charged my 2016 30kw leaf at EVgo in Las Vegas, NV in 100 degree heat with 2 bars left before Red and it charged fine.

[@colincampbell3679]

On the way to work today, I saw a van parked near where I work and I see it was a Nissan! I thought oh look nice to see a Nissan van it was big too? About double the length of the Leaf car. Then I see that it had the same type of front bonnet design as the Leaf with that 6 sided Panel in the middle with the Nissan Badge on it? I thought that's like the Leaf one? I looked at the back and no tailpipe so wow seen my 1st Electric Nissan van! I was even more pleased because it was a NHS van, So brill their no using electric instead of polluting Diesel vans :) Really good to see?

[@barrierodliffe4155]

I know that campsite having stayed there three times, since I moved away from a little village near to Highcliffe not far away, my brother went to Brokenhurst Grammar school just down the road from the campsite. My wife won't let me forget how far it was when we walked to Beaulieu then caught a train back

[@Salty_reviews]

In 20 years you'll look back on this video and laugh at how primitive the electic car technology is and it's current limited capabilities. Who knows maybe in the next 10 years you'll be able to get 500 miles per charge and pay less than an ice car.

[@CrashUK28]

Ecotricity should have some one oncall 24/7

[@blxtothis]

mgrande11 - and the power companies will be taxed even heavier by the government to recoup petroleum tax losses, then EVs will likewise be taxed heavier, car makers also. That’s how it works!

[@ssssbill]

I love your videos!! Secret gem

[@jacquelinebrunder2384]

Useful information. Thanks. ;o)

[@peterclewes7073]

Hi you have done any video's since Ecotricity charge for there charging point, just waiting to take delivery of my first PHEV. In which we will be going to northern Spain via Portsmouth. looking alone which will have similar journeys.

[@JVerschueren]

If you want to enjoy camping, go down to the very south of France or the East side of Italy. You need something more robust in terms of housing (a caravan or a motorhome(*)) or sheer good luck to have a good result around our parts. (*)Rem.: seriously, one could fit a massive battery into a motorhome.. how come these are still based on diesel vans?

[@Trades46]

Looks like the lack of liquid cooling kind of bites in these situations eh? Guess when you road trip in an EV leap-frogging DC chargers you have to make contingency plans. EDIT: Well, pushing the Combo J1772 plug while using the CHAdeMO plug doesn't help.

[@TRL2303]

Hi Electric Leaf Man, so just to clarify the charging problem at 17:42 - was it just "User Error" in pushing the wrong buttons on the charger and not a problem with the Leaf? Because the error message never actually mentioned Overheating Battery, you just assumed that. Also if the battery was overheating, or any other fault with the car/battery, then surely there would be an error message on the car's display, which there wasn't! Thanks in advance

[@ElectricVehicleMan]

+Tim Leared For it to be user error I would have had to do it wrong 6 times using 2 different Rapid chargers. I'd charged many many times before with no issue including 4 times that very day. The chargers were used by another car later on successfully so they weren't the issue. Heat was the only thing I could think of. The car had no indication what was wrong either.

[@DuncanCunningham]

My home town of Burnley is now famous (let's ignore the football) as you pass it on the map.

[@oxfordshirebaddrivers6162]

You went right through... You know what ;)

[@ElectricVehicleMan]

+Oxfordshire Bad Drivers Right through Oxford?

[@oxfordshirebaddrivers6162]

+Electric Leaf Man you guessed it xD

[@computerbob06]

High temp battery discharge at 66mph! I regularly do proper motorway/highway speeds! I would need an EV with thermal battery management!

[@evbobdemon6994]

At 115 mph my battery goes from 4 bars to 6 temp bars after 20 miles my leaf don't limit the power at 100 mph like most and 0 to 62 is faster than stated in the book don't know why, but I like it . It's like it's got the nismo ecu thingy or VCU what ever you call it lol

[@BrokebackBob]

With a Chevrolet Volt you would not have charge and distance anxiety. The Volt uses a small ultra efficient gas engine to provide power to the electric motors until you can recharge so the effective range is huge. I hope Chevy gets it to the UK.

[@AlanFrance21]

+BobEckert56 ....And the Bolt is not on sale till late 1017...

[@BrokebackBob]

belson alan Well, we will get it to you as fast as we can. I can't wait to check out a Bolt and I am considering leasing a Volt. Several of my friends have them and say they are very well made, comfortable, scared cat fast, and reliable and the warranty shows that the new GM means business.

[@allyourbasekris]

I know this was a few years ago but the Chevy Volt did come to the UK in 2012, it was rebadged as the Vauxhall Ampera. I currently own one and it is a nice car, but it does feel dated versus the new EV’s on the market.

[@BrokebackBob]

What type of technology is used to power those recharging stations or the station at your home?? Nuclear, coal, natural gas, etc?

[@ElectricVehicleMan]

+BobEckert56 Mixture of all. About 30% renewable.

[@DavidNGacuca]

A classic case of #Rapigate if ever there was one... ( To be fair to Nissan, this behaviour of the Charger (resusing to charge) is explained very well in their manual, including the one for the 2018 model, should the battery temperature reach the red zone.)

[@clivelogan7178]

with the same charger on a bmw i3 you can do 100%

[@SNORKYMEDIA]

and have paid twice as much for the car

[@tarassu]

Thumbs down for misleading title. Leaf does not disable charge at that temperature. It will taper off at higher temperature and it will block at very high but it is hard to totally overheat as charging (and discharging aka acceleration) is limited at red bars.

[@ElectricVehicleMan]

+Arnis Tarassu The temp bars aren't that accurate. There are 3 sensors and it only takes one to tell the point not to charge. As such an expert how would you explain it not charging at 2 points? Yet another leaf 5 mins later did charge. I'd done 300miles, it was too hot! I was as surprised as anyone.

[@tarassu]

+Electric Leaf Man bars also show the most extreme sensor data. Most likely either there was a bad connection to the vehicle or wrong buttons were pressed in every attempt OR vehicle was not switched off when charging was starting. Leaf can be switched on when already charging but not while it initializes connection.

[@AndyJHiscock]

Bit of a late addition however. Today in 24c, 10 bars on the battery temp and a freebie charger at Donnington. Changed until 84% then stopped. The charger said "Session ended by vehicle". It took about 30 miles @ 65 MPH before the batt temp dropped one bar allowing another charge.

[@attilab.2818]

@@ElectricVehicleMan Trust me, it wasn’t the temperature. Just done 300 miles with 5 rapid charges, no issues at all.

[@ElectricVehicleMan]

@@attilab.2818 Was it summer when you did it? No.

[@frankstocker5475]

Ev's are far less stress while driving but from all the videos I've looked at everything is focused on a military-style planning looking for food & toilet stops just to make a charge. In the real world, a 60Kwh battery should be the minimum to avoid the stress when you find the charger is not working. I agree with mgrande11, 500 miles per charge plus induction charging at all car parks will change things. The first place to install induction charging is on the M25 thats the biggest car park in the UK.

[@SNORKYMEDIA]

not really the ave journey in the UK is 29 miles

[@kootenayevfamily4208]

Found your video interesting, thanks for posting. We live in the Kootenay region of British Columbia (south east corner), and there is not much in the way of charging infrastructure here. It is only recently that we even got any Level 2 chargers in the area! We did make a 1,150 mile road trip this past summer out to the coast of BC (kootenayevfamily.ca/a-tale-of-two-journeys-part-two/), where there are some DC fast chargers (I think called 'rapid chargers' in the UK?) - it was quite the difference to go from waiting 2 hours per stop for a charge to less than 30 minutes! I am hopeful that we'll be able to make a road trip similar to yours (ie using all DCFC units) within a year or two. One piece of information that would be helpful to me - I would be interested in knowing the distances between the chargers you used, your % that you started charging at and ended at, and how long it generally took. The footage you took didn't really capture that. (Now I see you discuss it a bit around 26:00. I did a timelapse video of fast charging at a station in BC, was able to get to just over 90% in 1/2 hour. kzbin.info/www/bejne/joiYqnqplt6niZY) At 15:00 you ran into a charger that wasn't working, and someone else was using the second charger already. Do you find that most DCFC installations in the UK have more than one charger installed? One issue with the BC network that is starting to be built-out is that they have only been installing one unit at each site, so if it is not functioning or blocked or whatever, you are totally out of luck! Seems a way better idea to install more than one at each site. A note about your situation at 20:00 - I bought the heaviest gauge extension cord that I could at my hardware store (12 gauge I believe, 30' I believe), and that has worked fine for charging when I've not been able to get close enough... though in Canada we have domestic sockets only typically providing 120V/15A. Though I think it is the amps that matter, so if you are using a 240V/13A socket (or whatever you have there!), a similar extension cord should still work. At 22:00, in the lead up to finding out it wouldn't charge, you had the car on. Did you turn it off prior to plugging in? With the stations in BC, they generally won't work unless the car is off when you make the connection. Once charging I have been able to turn the car back on if needed. Hah nevermind, I see at 22:30 what the problem was!

[@AlanFrance21]

+Kootenay EV Family All of Europe runs at 230vac single phase domestic, or 440vac three phase. The US/Canada: 240/250vac normally uses 'dropped legs' on the transformer for ranges and stuff and it's a sort of 2 phase. The only 120/110 outlets in the UK are those in MANDATORY use on building sites, where a mobile transformer must be used for safety reasons. The French just use 230v tools, with exactly the same accident statistics as the British per man-hour and with no safety culture whatsoever, apart from M. le Maire with his stack of safety leaflets going moldy in a drawer someplace. I believe this is due to the Darwin Awards - idiots will drop out of the gene pool no matter what we do. Go figure!

[@WiggumPI007]

have you never hit traffic jams and then find yourself panicking that you will run out of charge sat in slow moving traffic.

[@barrierodliffe4155]

More likely to run out of petrol sat in traffic, if you are in an ev moving slow or stationary you are not using the battery much at all. On a recent short trip of over 60 miles in hilly and winding roads in a 2.5 litre Nissan X trail I managed to average 45.6 mpg but the previous day on a short trip in heavy traffic it was more like 18 mpg.

[@blxtothis]

And that was a holiday? Blow that for a game of soldiers, more like a test of endurance!

[@ElectricVehicleMan]

Wouldn't have been able to afford this otherwise so it was a choice of do this and pay £0 or not go.

[@ObiePaddles]

More reliable than my holidays in the 1970 though where it was 50:50 whether we’d arrive or not! The journey is part of the holiday and these days it would be lot easier.