Avoiding buying old Nissan Leaves(?) without 7kw charging

Northeastman said:

A frustrating thing is that not many used car listings mention what charging rate their 24kw/30kw Leafs have. From the Nissan leaf used car site I get the picture that very few new Leaf buyers went for the option of 7kw charging.

Click to expand...

Back then the batteries were small enough for 3kW being enough to get you a full charge overnight. Unless you were needing top ups during the day it wasn’t an essential thing to pay extra for.

Also for the record it’s LEAFs not Leaves, officially. It’s an acronym so wouldn’t change when referring to the plural term.

Leading, Environmentally Friendly, Affordable, Family Car.

farmergiles said:

7Kw chargers are actually 6.6kw on Leafs (and other EVs)

Click to expand...

Most are actually 7.4kW (32 Amps). The LEAF is in the minority with the 6.6. I think only Kia were the others to copy this in the very early days? Aside from that every other car I can currently think of had a faster 32A onboard charger.

1soupdragon1 said:

I've no idea if I have the 6.6kw charger on board or not - I assume no, but then, its charging faster than a 3.3kw charger should. ie - 20 miles an hour

Click to expand...

Does sound like it's the 6.6 kW. The best way to check is on the display under charging time. If it has two times it is the 6.6 kW, if only one, it's the 3.3 kW. It shows the same on the app or MyLEAF - it will only show a 6 kW charging time if it can actually charge at that rate.

I paid extra for the 6.6kW charger in both my Leafs, but I'm not sure I would again on the 30. On the 24 it was very handy for longer trips (130 miles round, charge at the destination), but for the 30 I think 3.3kW would have been okay. Now I don't think I'd bother paying more for it if I got a second hand one, just depends on your driving needs. Being able to charge at home is essential for those cars I'd say.

I knew nothing of the 3.3 or 6.6kW onboard charging capabilities when I bought my Leaf 30 five years ago. The 6.6kW charger was a £1k option I believe so unless the original owner specified it you got the 3.3 by default. My Leaf was a 3.3kW as I learnt to my dismay a few months after buying it.

Mark I said:

As far as I remember (full disclosure: I can't be bothered to check), for the older models of Leaf and e-NV200, if the model name includes Plus it has 6.6 kW "fast" charging, otherwise 3.something. If the model name incudes Rapid it has CHAdeMO rapid charging. Rapid Plus models have both, but plain Rapid don't have 6.6 kW charging.

Click to expand...

Eh ? I've never seen or heard the terms "Plus" or "Rapid" used on any UK Leaf. Certainly my Leaf 30 has neither of these designations.

As far as I've seen, because it was a build to spec option the only way to tell if a Leaf 24/30 has a 6kW charger is to check the charging time display on the dashboard - if it has two different charging time estimates (for 3kW and 6kW) it has the 6kW charger, if it only has one charging time estimate it has the 3kW charger.

There is no other way I'm aware of to find out if a 24/30 has a 6kW charger - there's nothing in the model designation, no stickers, nothing in the owners manual etc...

And yes, the majority of second hand listings do not indicate whether a 24/30 has the 6kW charger which is frustrating when you're specifically looking for 6kW as I was, and even if they do say it should not be trusted as people seem to get it wrong. (Double check the charge time display on the dashboard display before handing over the money....)

Stinsy said:

Few people “needed” 7.4kW. Most people charge overnight and 3.6kW can do that. Back then many home charging points were 16A so lots of people wouldn’t have been able to take advantage of a 7.4kW even if they had it.

Click to expand...

Unless you want to charge in a 4 hour night rate period as I do. I couldn't fit all my daily charging into a 4 hour period with a 3kW charger.

Also 3kW is slow enough that it's really only useful for overnight charging. 6kW is fast enough that you can do a decent sized top up in a few hours in the middle of the day if you need to do a second longish journey on the same day, something that I do quite often on a weekend. I'm certainly glad I kept looking until I found one with a 6kW charger.

DBMandrake said:

Eh ? I've never seen or heard the terms "Plus" or "Rapid" used on any UK Leaf. Certainly my Leaf 30 has neither of these designations.

Click to expand...

I fear I was getting confused with the e-NV200 labels, which did work that way. Sorry!

horses for courses. we have the earliest of leafs for which 6.6kw charging wasn't and isn't really and option. We have never really seen it as a big issue since chademo has been okay out and about. charging at night even in the 4hrs of octopus go would get most if not a full battery. I can see it being a problem for people with a long commute which they regularly stretch the range of their battery daily. Fortunately i could charge at work when i was commuting so that made things easier. If i were to upgrade i would want to put two extra 3.3 tchip/elcons in and have the option of 6.9kw on single phase or 11kw on 3 phase. Or a model 3 charger might work too.

DBMandrake said:

There is no other way I'm aware of to find out if a 24/30 has a 6kW charger - there's nothing in the model designation, no stickers, nothing in the owners manual etc...

Click to expand...

Yes there is, on the offside of the power head (inverter) there's a sticker saying 3.6 or 6.6. It's just about hidden by a coolant elbow and near to the lifting bracket.
Retrofitting a 6.6 kW inverter is about £500 for the part and £200 for labour although a reasonable DIY job if you are handy with the spanners.