When Nissan first introduced the LEAF for Europe it was eyebrow raising that Ireland would be first in line to reserve the 100 mile EV (happening now) and second to actually receive their cars. (happening in February of 2011) While, one of the major powers in Europe, the UK, has to wait until September 1st to order, and will not see LEAF #001 land on their shores until sometime in March.
That early nod from Nissan, may likely have come because Ireland has been a strong backer of EV technology and has many programs in place to ‘encourage’ the adoption of electric vehicles, namely:
The Irish Government has committed to providing a grant of €5,000 against the purchase price (bringing the price down €29,995)
An exemption from paying Vehicle Registration tax (VRT) to motorists who buy electric cars
Free installation of home chargers to first 2,000 purchasers of a LEAF (ESB) – this is significant considering Ireland is only 1/50th the population of the US
A full compliment of ready to sell dealers and ‘Fast Charge’ points throughout the country
So basically, Ireland is pretty excited about their EVs, and the LEAF is the perfect mode of transportation for the island nation (being only 300 miles in maximum distance north to south and 174 miles east to west)
This also gives me the perfect excuse to clean out some videos I have of the launch of the LEAF in Ireland, and some other various promotion material (which I personally always get a kick out of):
I will concede that Ireland is the perfect country for BEV. Only question; What is “Fast Charge” 30 minutes? Most long distance driving (between major cities) in Ireland is 100-250 miles. Probably need a charge of some sort on any distant driving. “IF” truly fast charge, then there is no need for VOLT.
http://www.nissan.ie/news/NewsStory.aspx?NewsItemID=1122
Jimza Skeptic(Quote)
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Ireland is a relatively small island about 300 miles long by 200 miles wide, so with the number of charge sites shown on statik’s map at the top, there should be plenty of opportunities for charging.
That is, there seem to be plenty of locations. What times of day they are available, traffic, how long one has to wait for the charge to be done and what to do in the meantime, all those practical things are yet unknown, to me at least. But one has a sense of opportunity there.
RB(Quote)
Just as FYI:
The LEAF’s “roadshow” tour had about 400 public test drives this month and 100 of those driver’s converted to orders. So 25% isn’t too shabby.
If you happen to be any of the 44 visitors we have had from Ireland this month and you missed it, the tour comes back to you in October.
Jay (Statik) Cole(Quote)
Is it 100 orders so far for the entire country of Ireland or is it a 100 orders out of the road test group? If only 100 have ordered the Leaf in the entire country that is not a success.
Stan Stein(Quote)
No, Nissan has not given out any country data for Europe as of yet. The 100 orders was out of the 400-odd attendees for the test drive. I doubt Nissan will break down response by country for Europe, if at all…but hard to say at this point, media works differently there.
Doesn’t really matter though, like the Volt is here, the production of EVs is artificially restrained across Europe for 2011, only in this case, it is so Nissan can sell more in the US and domestically. Ireland reportedly will only receive a maximum of 2,000 cars by 2012, and once again you have the fleet splits, government vehicles, etc. chewing up a lot of those…and some of those will likely be Kangoo commercial vehicles as well as LEAFs (although no one has actually said that officially…just given total expected volumes)
Renault and Nissan are really going to whoop it up there and get serious (and in Europe) in FY 2012, which for them begins April 1st, 2012. LEAF demand will have eased up at home, so Europe capacity should be up, and Renault starts shipping Fluence ZEs into the country as well.
Jay (Statik) Cole(Quote)
My mom’s side of the family live in County Mayo and my cousin has solar panels on their home. I will ping them on face book to see if they heard about the LEAF rollout. I read that there are approximately 17,000 US LEAf reservationists. They said the demand in Japan is higher. Just curious about how many reservations have been taken globally.
James(Quote)
Random useless knowledge moment: Nissan has to be just coming up on 20,000 by now. The last official update was August 11th when they passed 18,000. It has been awhile since we have had a Japan update of any kind as well, but around 7,000 was the magic number then. Global total orders and reservations have to be well north of 30,000, because Nissan does not factor in large corporate/commercial orders, ie) Hertz -500, Enterprise-500, I believe all of the UK’s thousand commercial allotment is spoken for, etc.
Jay (Statik) Cole(Quote)
This is not new news but significant news in the scheme of things.
20,000 USA
8,000 Japan
2,000 UK
30,000 reservations for a car that 90% have not seen and 99.9% have not drove. I would think that 2011 global production (60-70k) will be sold out shortly. This is a prime example of the demand for this vehicle and BEV’s in general. Nissan has set themselves up to be the leaders in EV production for years to come. Go EV’s!!!
James(Quote)
Statik,
I have some questions that maybe you have insight on.
1. When will they really start the tour? Here’s my dilema.
I really want to order my car ASAP.
I live in TN (early rollout area).
I’m part of the Ecotality free charger group and I have already had my charger home That is all great for me to get a car earlier than most people but my problem is that I am around 6’7″ tall and I want to sit in the car and make sure that I actually fit before I order it.
2. I have read various report that the internal car charger is 3.3 kw but that they plan to go to a 6.6kW in the future. The guy that came to my house to inspect for the charger said that they would be putting in a 30Amp service (though he seemed a bit clueless). If this is true then that would barely support the future 6.6kW. Does anyone know for sure what Amperage service that will be installed and whether the charging station itself (not the internal car charger) is rated for 6.6kW?
Thanks for the website. It is extremely informative
Jason(Quote)
Sorry. The comment above should have said “…I have already had my charger home inspection completed”
Jason(Quote)
Do you need the L3 port on the LEAF to charge with the Ecotality Blink charger? The L3 charge port is a $700 upgrade on the LEAF.
James(Quote)
Hi Jason! I will try my best to answer your questions
1. When will they really start the tour? Here’s my dilema.
…but my problem is that I am around 6’7″ tall and I want to sit in the car and make sure that I actually fit before I order it.
While no dates have been given, Nissan has assured everyone who has made reservations in the ‘early states’ they will be given a opportunity to test drive the car. So good news is you get to drive it, bad news is the tour looks like it is not going to kick off in earnest until October.
At 6’7″, you are a big dude. I’m not sure you fit in any ‘compact’ size car very well, lol. However, Nissan has done a lot with this car to maximize the headroom, like delete the sunroof (at least for gen 1). Myself at 6′ has a ton of headroom inside the car, and I’ve seen up to 6’4″ fit in quite nicely, without complaint, although to be fair, a personal width has some effect on perception/comfort (as I am sure you know) and this fellow was fairly slight.
Bottom line: Nissan has said they will get the test drive out before you receive the car/are required to put any money down, so order the car…and if it is not for you, walk away.
2. I have read various report that the internal car charger is 3.3 kw but that they plan to go to a 6.6kW in the future. The guy that came to my house to inspect for the charger said that they would be putting in a 30Amp service (though he seemed a bit clueless). If this is true then that would barely support the future 6.6kW. Does anyone know for sure what Amperage service that will be installed and whether the charging station itself (not the internal car charger) is rated for 6.6kW?
I’m going to put this in the ‘don’t worry about it’ category again, no worries on your Ecotality charger itself, it is going to do the deed once Nissan has a 6.6. So get…don’t worry about it, or your car. That being said, two things:
1-Nissan is a big fat maybe on that, which means in my head at least, long time coming and will be next gen
2-30 Amp is not a problem either really, 240v circuit at 30 amps means a maximum power draw of 7.2 kW in theory-6.1 ish in reality. 6.6 kW charging uses 32amp from the 240v circuit, requires a 40-amp breaker to be in code. 125% of the continuous load
Jay (Statik) Cole(Quote)
Nope
Jay (Statik) Cole(Quote)
Ask them what wire size they are installing. The estimators are all over the map on that. If they wanted they could totally chince on this and save themselves some money.
Put some growth capability in the wire size.
The Tesla can take around 70 amps max @220 (I think)
Anyway don’t settle for anything less than #8 (or number 10 at the min) I don’t have my wire sizing table w/ me so maybe one of the other guys can help us out here.
GeorgeS(Quote)
Thx =)
I think I will pass on it then. Need to minimize cost and I plan on using the LEAF as a commuter car not for long distance trips.
James(Quote)
Statik,
Slight OT. Look into the exorbitant quotes by AeroVironment of the installation costs. People are virtually in revolt of this – and they are going to reject AV quotes and either buy from AV and get it installed on their own or do a group by from Leviton and get it installed on their own.
Interestingly, for people complaining, AV is apparently reducing the quote …
evnow(Quote)
I’ve actually had a email or two about this.
Just my opinion, but It seems to be one of those, ‘it sucks but what can you do?’ situations. They have the deal to get the leads, and they are leveraging it with people who don’t know better or dont have the energy to make it right. I think it is a case of being first and being opportunistic to a degree. Not good business practice probably in the long run.
The Leviton is intriguing really, specifically the plug-in and price, and the DIY/nomimnal labor aspect to some degree. I confess to not being up on it as much as I should be, have they got a eta for sale on them? Or are they available now. Last thing I remember hearing about them was their angle was charging a couple hundred bucks for a wall mount to be compliant…but I could br wrong there (grain of sale and all that).
You have found my weak spot, (=
Maybe you want to do a guest piece or two for me on them? lol
Jay (Statik) Cole(Quote)
How do I contact you (there are good reasons to do this over mail …). You know where to find me …
evnow(Quote)
Hey ev!
You can always drop me a line through the forums (stati), my editor@nissan-leaf.net address is down because we just had to upgrade the server to handle the traffic…and are in limbo. Also, if your email you entered here is accurate, I send you a email so you can ping back to me direct if you like, (=
Jay (Statik) Cole(Quote)
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Yes, that is the email for this persona
BTW, I couldn’t PM you thr’ the forum here. I don’t have the rights needed ….
evnow(Quote)
Statik,
Thanks for the information. I was intrigued by the following comment from you.
“Bottom line: Nissan has said they will get the test drive out before you receive the car/are required to put any money down, so order the car…and if it is not for you, walk away.”
So when I order the car, I don’t have to put money down? Do you have any more information on this? What will the payment requirements/procedures be? Can I really walk away after I order it without penalty? If so, then I have no worries. I will order it as you say, get my test drive and have no risk or worries.
Jason(Quote)
Hrm, thats odd. I know the defaults were set to off, but I swore I fixed that. Maybe it is just on my own account. I will check it out. I think maybe you have to go into your own control panel and change it. I know it defaults to not be able to accept PMs.
I confess my forum/phpBB skills are not ‘l33t.’ I send a email to your gmail account.
Jay (Statik) Cole(Quote)