No Reserve...low Miles...cold A/c...new Nissan Trade on 2040-cars

Auto blog

DC fast charging not as damaging to EV batteries as expected

As convenient as DC fast charging is, there have been lots of warnings that repeated dumping of so many electrons into an electric vehicle's battery pack in such a short time would reduce the battery's life. While everyone agrees that DC fast charging does have some effect on battery life, it may not be as bad as previously expected. Over on SimanaitisSays, Dennis Simanaitis, writes about a recent presentation by Matt Shirk of the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) called DC Fast, Wireless, And Conductive Charging Evaluation Projects (PDF) that describes an ongoing test of four 2012 Nissan Leaf EVs that are being charged in two pairs of two. One pair only recharges from 50-kW DC fast chargers, which the other two sip from 3.3-kW Level 2 chargers exclusively. Otherwise, the cars are operated pretty much the same: climate is automatically set to 72 degrees, are driven on public roads around Phoenix, AZ and have the same set of dedicated drivers is rotated through the four cars. "Degradation depends more on the miles traveled than on the nature of recharging." What's most interesting are the charts on page seven of Shirk's presentation (click the image above to enlarge), which show the energy capacity of each of the four vehicles. When they were new, the four batteries were each tested to measure their energy capacity and given a 0 capacity loss baseline. They were then tested at 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 and 40,000 miles, and at each point, the DC-only EVs had roughly the same amount of battery loss as the Level 2 test subjects. The DC cars did lose a bit more at each test, but only around a 25-percent overall loss after 40k, compared to 23 percent for the Level 2 cars. Simanaitis' takeaway is that, "INL data suggest that the amount of degradation depends more on the miles traveled than on the nature of recharging." The tests are part of the INLs' Advanced Vehicle Testing Activity work and a final report is forthcoming. These initial numbers from IPL do mesh with other research into DC fast charging, though. Mitsubishi said daily fast charging wouldn't really hurt the battery in the i-MiEV and MIT tests of a Fisker Karma battery showed just 10-percent loss over 1,500 rapid charge-discharge cycles.

Evatran, Bosch will sell wireless home charger for as low as $1,998*

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas today, the big news for plug in vehicles is that they can now start to ditch the plug. As expected, the system costs around $3,000 and is available for both the Nissan Leaf and the Chevrolet Volt. For the first 250 customers, though, Evatran is offering $1,000 off the standard price, a 30 percent discount. Deliveries start next month and Evatran says it expects the discounted units to all be snatched up in the first half of the year. The wireless charger charges as quickly as conventional corded systems. Called the Plugless Wireless EV charger, the 240-volt station will be installed by Bosch and needs a specific adapter to be used with the Volt or the Leaf (the Leaf version costs $100 more). So, any two-EV families out there will need to pony up double if there's a Chevy and a Nissan in the garage. Of course, since the Plugless system only works with older Leafs (2010-2012 model years - but with any Volt), any late adopters will not be able to take advantage of the new technology, for now. Evatran says the wireless charger "charges the Volt and Leaf as quickly as conventional corded systems and all vehicle features, such as charge-timers and phone applications, can be used seamlessly with the Plugless system." After the first 250 units, standard prices for the wireless chargers take effect again: $2,998 (Volt) and $3,098 (Leaf). Evatran says it will announce wireless chargers for additional vehicles and model years later this year. Evatran and Bosch offer Promotional Pricing as low as $1,998 to first 250 PLUGLESS™ Wireless EV Charging Customers LAS VEGAS, Jan. 6, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Evatran Group, Inc. ("Evatran"), in partnership with Bosch Automotive Service Solutions, announced today at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show that it is offering reduced promotional pricing to the first 250 customers who opt to Go PLUGLESS with their electric vehicle ("EV") experience. The PLUGLESS system offers a convenient, wireless charging alternative to the repetitive process of unplugging and plugging-in electric vehicles. The reduced pricing includes all charging hardware and is as much as a 30% discount off the system's standard MSRP. The discount is available only to the first 250 customers. Initial shipments of the PLUGLESS system, the first wireless EV charging product in the world available to individual EV drivers, will begin in February 2014.

Nissan Leaf sells 3,186 in best month ever as Chevy moves 2,511 Volts

The end of summer seems to inspire people to go out and buy a lot of plug-in vehicles. Last year, for example, the Chevy Volt had its best month ever in August, with 3,351 sales. This year, the Nissan Leaf is going up to the winner's podium, setting its own best-ever record with 3,186 units sold. This beats the Leaf's previous record by 69 vehicles. This beats the Leaf's previous record of 3,117 set in May 2014 by 69 vehicles and is up 31.7 percent from August 2013. Nissan is once again quick to remind us that the popular EV's record sales streak has now been extended to 18 months in a row. This record is simply noting that the current month, in this case August, had the highest sales that that month has ever seen in the US. Over all, US Leaf sales are up 34.1 percent so far this year. In a prepared statement, Nissan's director of Leaf sales and infrastructure, Brendan Jones, said that the Leaf is selling well on both coasts, including cities like Raleigh, Boston and Washington, DC. "It's what we call the 'cul-de-sac phenomenon,' where once someone in a community buys a Leaf, then friends, family, co-workers and neighbors see the benefits of this fun-to-drive electric vehicle firsthand and are sold on the idea of going electric," he said. The Volt also had a good month - its best of 2014 by almost 500 sales – but the 2,511 Volt sales still represent a drop of 25.1 percent from the excellent sales the Volt had this time last year. In fact, August 2014 represents the Volt's best sales month since, well, August 2013. Apparently, there's just something about the end of summer. As always, we are working on our in-depth round-up of green car sales across the country and will have that up soon.