Charging a Nissan Leaf from solar at a static — is 3kW of panels actually enough?

Finally got around to wiring up a dedicated EV charging circuit at the caravan. Running a Victron Multiplus-II 5000 with a 15kWh Fogstar Drift lithium bank and 3kW of panels (6x 500W Renogy on a ground mount, south-facing, roughly 35° tilt). Location is East Yorkshire so not exactly the Algarve.

The Leaf (24kWh, older gen) pulls about 6A on a standard EVSE — I'm throttling it down deliberately so I'm not hammering the inverter. On a decent summer day I'm seeing 12–15kWh of solar yield, which covers maybe 40–50 miles of range on top of keeping the caravan loads happy. That feels okay for my use case (short local trips, not daily commuting).

Where I'm struggling is shoulder season. October/November I'm lucky to see 4–5kWh per day, and the bank gets pulled down meaningfully if I also run the caravan heating. Has anyone found a sensible breakeven point — in terms of panel wattage — where EV charging stays viable through autumn without basically draining your storage? Or is this just a "add more panels" situation with no clever workaround?

Reply by Deano13:

@BayJason 3kW should be workable for a Leaf depending on your daily mileage. The key thing to remember is you're not charging directly from panels — you're cycling through the Fogstar bank, so what matters is how much you're actually putting back in each day.

On a decent summer day in the UK you might realistically pull 12-15kWh from that array. A Leaf doing 30-40 miles needs roughly 8-10kWh returned, so you're not far off. Winter's a different story though — I'd be cautious expecting consistent top-ups between November and February.

One thing worth checking — is your Multiplus-II set up for PowerAssist? That way if you're running the charger it can blend battery and solar rather than hammering the bank all at once.

What EVSE are you using — a basic 13A or something like an Ohme or Zappi?

Reply by Lefty25:

@BayJason Nice setup! One thing worth bearing in mind that nobody's mentioned yet — the Leaf's onboard charger will only pull what it can get, so on overcast days you might find your Multiplus is only pushing 800W-1kW through to the car rather than the full 3kW. Perfectly fine, just slower.

If you're on a 7kW EVSE lead, the Leaf will still cap itself at 3.3kW (or 6.6kW on the 2018+ 40kWh models with the upgraded charger), so your panels are actually a decent match for the older single-phase onboard charger.

What's your typical daily mileage at the static? That'll tell us whether overnight solar replenishment is realistic for your use case. My rough rule is about 4-5 miles per kWh for a Leaf in mild weather.

Reply by Frank1999:

@BayJason Great setup, the Multiplus-II is a solid choice for this kind of thing. One practical tip worth adding — set your Leaf to charge overnight when the battery's already topped up from the day's solar harvest, rather than trying to charge directly through the day. That way you're drawing from the Fogstar bank which has already absorbed your 3kW during peak hours, rather than competing with your general loads mid-afternoon.

Also worth checking your Node-RED or Venus OS dashboard (if you've got a Cerbo GX) to monitor how much of that solar is actually making it into the car versus getting clipped on cloudy days. You might find upgrading to even 4kW would make a meaningful difference come winter. What's your typical daily mileage in the Leaf?

Reply by CliveCrane:

@BayJason Worth mentioning the time of year will make a massive difference here. In summer you could realistically pull 15-18kWh from 3kW of panels on a decent day, which for a 40kWh Leaf is a reasonable top-up assuming you're not trying to charge from near-empty. Come November though, you might struggle to generate 5-6kWh on a gloomy day in the UK.

My suggestion would be to keep an eye on your State of Charge and be disciplined about charging opportunistically during peak generation hours rather than just plugging in whenever. The Victron's scheduled charging feature is your friend for this. Also, what's your panel orientation like? Ground mount gives you flexibility to tilt more aggressively in winter which helps enormously.

Reply by WheresMeWires16:

@BayJason Worth checking what your actual solar yield looks like across the seasons before you commit to a charging routine. 3kW peak is one thing, but in winter you're realistically looking at maybe 4-6 kWh on a decent day in the UK — enough for perhaps 15-20 miles of Leaf range if you're lucky. Summer obviously paints a very different picture.

One thing I'd suggest is setting your Multiplus to only allow EV charging once the battery bank hits, say, 80% SOC — keeps your house loads covered without accidentally draining your Fogstar trying to fill the Leaf overnight. Victron's ESS assistant makes this fairly straightforward to configure. What generation Leaf is it? The 24kWh vs 40kWh makes quite a difference to how achievable a meaningful top-up actually is from 3kW of panels.

Reply by T6Life:

@BayJason The Leaf's onboard charger is only 6.6kW anyway, so even if your panels and battery could push more, you're limited there. The real question is how often you need a full charge versus a top-up. In my experience with a similar setup, I rarely need the Leaf completely full from flat — usually just topping up 20-30% overnight usage, which your 15kWh Fogstar handles easily and the panels recover during the day. Where it gets tight is consecutive cloudy days with heavy Leaf usage. Worth setting a battery SOC floor in the Victron so you're not inadvertently draining it trying to charge the car. What's your typical daily mileage? That'll tell you a lot about whether 3kW is genuinely sufficient for your situation.