The fastest way to charge your Nissan Leaf without power supply

When you talk about electric cars the first thing people are concerned with is the range and how to get the batteries charged when you run out of power. So Leafplan set out to find a new way of charging a Nissan Leaf: by towing it behind another car and braking to charge the car.

The Nissan Leaf has brake regeneration which means it charges itself during braking. So in theory you can charge the car by braking while you are being towed. However, the Nissan Leaf manual states you 'shouldn't tow an electric car with four wheels on the ground'. The Nissan dealer was a bit sketchy about why that was so we set out to prove the theory and made this video.

As you can see in the video it really does work! However there are some small differences. Because the car is being towed the range computer thinks it's driving ultra economical and calculates the range according to this. So the range the computer calculates isn't the actual range which you will have when you drive the car, it's about 33% less.

However, the car does charge itself while braking, and actually does a very good job. It's about as fast as a fast charger charging the car. You have to be careful though not to overdo the braking; charging only happens in the first phase of braking if you overdo the Leaf will start to use the regular brakes resulting in very smelly brake pads ;-)

Leafplan is a project in The Netherlands set out to find the practical use of the electric car. From how to get a charge point at your house to actual range calculations and experiments like charging the Nissan Leaf while being towed is all part of this year long experiment. On http://www.leafplan.nl/english you can find more information and follow the Leaf via Google Maps, check out the battery life, range and charge stats live from the car, and see live video directly from the car!

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Nissan
• Leaf
• Nissan Leaf
• braking
• towing
• brakes
• charge
• charging
• fast charge
• experiment
• car
• cars
• electric car
• electric
• EV
• electric vehicle
• volt
• test
• testing
• test drive
• Toyota
• Tundra
• Toyota Tundra
• Vincente
• Vincent Everts
• Ronald van Woensel
• Remco Bron
• Leafplan
• Leafplan.nl
• Leaseplan
• Mobileviewpoint
• Triple IT
• car lease
• TopGear
• Top Gear

[norcalgorilla]

A tip from a mechanic: constant braking (the way he was braking as he was towed) wears and heats your brake pads and warps your rotors. Be careful, not careless.

[Leafplan]

@norcalgorilla If you hit the sweet spot in a Nissan Leaf you actually never engage the brake pads; it goes into engine braking which generates power as seen. BUT finding that sweet spot is pretty hard to do...the brakes were smelling kind of bad during the making of this video....so you might have a point.

Don't try this at home kids!

[JackZeroZ]

what language is this?

[Leafplan]

@JackZeroZ This is a combination of Dutch and piglatin ;-)

[chuckz253]

"A typical fuck the world truck!" LOL :)

[mysqueeker]

does the leaf not have regen breaking whenever the accelerator is not pressed? i would think if there is no draw for power and the car is moving the car should recharge the batteries.

[jst31n]

Wow, a car that runs on brake pads. I bet them pads gotta be cheaper than gasoline, NOT!!!!!

[thatscrazy360]

now put a 6.2 V8 in this piece of shit and you might have a cool car here.

[verizonandpcs1]

You talka shit

[ae86boyracer]

@Leafplan Wrong! Its PINGU language.

[llandudnoboy]

That is if you remember to put the thing on charge overnight.

Forget to do that and your Leaf will not be going nowhere.

A car like the Leaf whose economy is so erratic due to weather conditions and road terrain is utterly pointless.

If you have to make a journey of 85miles you will have to charge the Leaf up twice.

Also it costs nearly £28,000, 9000 more than the magnificent VW Golf TDi Bluemotion.

Far too expensive with an utterly pointless range of 80 max

[hypnolobster]

@norcalgorilla You are a mediocre mechanic. Rotors don't warp. Sorry.

[TheWolfHowling]

Sounds like a great way to void your warrenty big time!

[zuzulo56]

NISSAN has never recovered since they changed their name from DATSUN...here in the States. I'd rather buy a crap-box, kimchi-smelling Kia.

[DdgeShelby]

I bet there is spit all over this guys dashboard when talking on a cell phone..