A Leaf in the Wild

I was driving by the Rabobank in Atascadero and decided to check on the charging station there.  I was glad to see a Nissan Leaf hooked up and charging!  I left one of my project cards and wrote "Congrats on the Leaf!" on the back.

The station has a sign explaining that it was installed as a joint venture by Solar City, California Air Resources Board, Rabobank and Tesla.  The goal was to build a series of charging stations between San Francisco and Los Angles.

Here's a closeup of the sign and the Tesla-branded charger.  I believe the charger has been retrofitted from the 2009 model to the recently-introduced J1772 connector.
 

I Saw A Leaf Up Close Today!

My biodiesel club had a spot at the San Luis Obispo Earth Day event, so I drove down in my Beetle TDI and set up to discuss biodiesel with the attendees.  I was parked in the alternative vehicle area along with a CNG Honda from Funride, a Honda CRZ hybrid and then up comes a Nissan Leaf!

It's bigger than I thought it would be.  The styling is great and there's lots of room inside.

The owner has had it for about 3 weeks and has driven it for 300 miles.  No problems at highway speed, going up hills, or handling.  It has the J1772 plug, plus a high-current DC charging plug widely used in Japan; hopefully it will become the DC standard over here.

There's a large multi-function display inside and a small joystick that controls park, forward and reverse.

The owner said he's received notification of a software bug fix.  The battery monitoring system sometimes switches into safe mode and won't restart when the air conditioner is turned on, giving a spike in power draw.  A small setback in what is otherwise a great project.