Longer Trips - Limitations and Solutions

The biggest issue with the Nissan Leaf is the inability to fast charge it more than twice in a day.  For the standard 40 kWh version, with a range of 220 to 240 km or so, it makes trips exceeding 600 km virtually impossible, and trips between 350 and 600 km  should be carefully planned.

As an example, I do take the Leaf to the cottage successfully, but have an interesting way to accomplish it. The cottage is about 460 km from our home, so I leave Tavistock fully charged, and drive 130 km to my parents for a visit. using the 240 v outlet installed in their garage, I use the Nissan EVSE to charge back up to 100 percent (from 30%) in under four hours. then I depart Toronto for either Peterborough or Norwood, fast charge at a Flo DC charger from 30 to 90 percent in about 40 minutes, and continue to the cottage in Barrys Bay with 15 percent juice remaining. It is a long yet easy drive , with a nice stop in at my parents for a visit, and a nice break when I stop to charge up for the last leg.

The use of the level 2 charger at my parents means the subsequent fast charge in Peterborough is always pretty fast and efficient. Once I arrive at the cottage, I immediately plug the Nissan EVSE into the newly installed outdoor wall outlet, as pictured.

 

Fast Charging - On The Road

When travelling, the only real solution to getting from points A to B that are farther apart than the Leaf's range is to stop at a fast charger, also known as a Level 3 or DC fast charger.  Currently there are a fairly large number of different networks or companies that have fast chargers installed in Ontario. Flo, Ivy, and Chargepoint are three fairly established names. Petro Canada also has a network of fast chargers, mainly on the 401 corridor.

Payment at these chargers are usually not as simple as filling up with gas at a station. The majority of charging networks have a subscription plan, where a physical card or app on your smartphone is preloaded via credit card. The specific charge each time you use the account is deducted from the balance, and you simply re load the account as need be.

Some networks such as the Petro Canada one, are set up to accept a traditional card payment method, such as Debit, Visa, or MasterCard.