Long trips with the Nissan Leaf

I thought I would share my experience driving my 40kWh Leaf on long motorway trips recently. I have discovered that it doesn't like repeated rapid charging, apparently because of its air cooled battery temperature management system.

On a recent 400+ km trip in Germany, it charged with its ChaDeMo normally the first time round. For its second rapid charge, it started trickle charging at 2.2 kWh, slowly speeding up to a final 28 kWh. So going from 21% to 98% took 90 minutes... I was warned about this before I bought it by my knowledgeable nephew, but obviously not by Nissan! And nothing like experiencing it yourself...

As it was a really hot day, the weather may have something to do with it as well. I didn't have the same issue when I was driving over initially and did three charges during my trip. One brief charge at Stop 24 in the UK and then two more in Belgium.

On another note about EV driving in Europe, the system worked perfectly for me in the Netherlands and Belgium. The Netherlands especially is really well served with charging points. There were more issues with faulty charging points in Germany, but overall things have improved rapidly.

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