Nissan LEAF - General

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17 posts

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#2414755 8-Feb-2020 21:19

I joined the NZ Leaf community last week. Picked up a 2014 Leaf from a business (not car dealer) who had imported it themselves from Japan.

They had done everything to make it NZ friendly, English dash conversion, English infotainment system conversion, new 8A charger, new P6 tyres all around.

They said when they imported it, it had 12 bars but recently dropped to 11. So I figured it was just under 85% SOH.

However, I am not getting the range I am expecting. On Friday I left home with 80% charge, did a 60 km trip and when I got home had 19% charge left.

I plugged it in to recharge to 80%, estimated time to charge on the leaf dashboard was 8+ hours. The next morning, I checked the charging cable's LCD screen. It said it had supplied 10.3 kw and time spent charging was 5 hours and 30 mins.

If 10 kw equals 60% of charge capacity in my battery then I estimate I've only got ~70% of the original 24 kw capacity. Looking for help, trying to understand what is going on here.

DjShadow

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#2414756 8-Feb-2020 21:38

Make sure the tyres are pumped up good, around the 40 psi mark. When we got ours we had the same issue where it just didn't have the range, did a bit of research and found the tyres only had 28 psi in them, pumped them up and instant difference.

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#2414757 8-Feb-2020 21:41

It is possible for a leaf to be reset. (possibly by accident if the 12V battery was disconnected).

In this case it forgets it's number of bar's and defaults to full bar's. Apparently it takes a few weeks for ti to work out its health and drop to it's normal level. I don't know much about it.

Get leafspy, and post the results here and in the NZ EV owners group. somebody will have some Idea what is going on.

gravisus

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#2414758 8-Feb-2020 21:50

Your number looks similar to mine (2014, SOH83%). Battery drained faster when you drive on motorway, especially uphill. Use Eco or B mode, it give you more on recuperation.

Don't rely on guess-o-meter :) I pessimistically estimate 1% battery = 1km.

zenourn

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#2414765 8-Feb-2020 22:25

kamicrazy:

They said when they imported it, it had 12 bars but recently dropped to 11. So I figured it was just under 85% SOH.

However, I am not getting the range I am expecting. On Friday I left home with 80% charge, did a 60 km trip and when I got home had 19% charge left.

I plugged it in to recharge to 80%, estimated time to charge on the leaf dashboard was 8+ hours. The next morning, I checked the charging cable's LCD screen. It said it had supplied 10.3 kw and time spent charging was 5 hours and 30 mins.

If 10 kw equals 60% of charge capacity in my battery then I estimate I've only got ~70% of the original 24 kw capacity. Looking for help, trying to understand what is going on here.

Unfortunately SoC isn't linear with kWh, and you can have more (or less) energy in the top and bottom ends depending on how balanced the cells are and other factors. As an example, if I go to town starting at 100% my Leaf drops to ~79% at destination, if I start at 80% drops to ~52% at destination.

The actual usable capacity of a new battery with 100% SoH is also only 21.3 kWh. So ignoring the non-linearity and charging efficiency, (10.3/0.6)/21.3 ~= 81% of original capacity. Error margins are easily +/- 5 percentage points so could match a car with a 85% SoH.

Properly measuring the capacity of the battery is actually a difficult task. There is a description of one method at https://flipthefleet.org/2018/30-kwh-nissan-leaf-firmware-update-to-correct-capacity-reporting/

gzt

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#2414766 8-Feb-2020 22:44

DjShadow: Make sure the tyres are pumped up good, around the 40 psi mark. When we got ours we had the same issue where it just didn't have the range, did a bit of research and found the tyres only had 28 psi in them, pumped them up and instant difference.

I drove a similar model recently. The sticker on the driver's door pillar indicated 36 all round.

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DjShadow

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#2414768 8-Feb-2020 22:53

gzt:
DjShadow: Make sure the tyres are pumped up good, around the 40 psi mark. When we got ours we had the same issue where it just didn't have the range, did a bit of research and found the tyres only had 28 psi in them, pumped them up and instant difference.

I drove a similar model recently. The sticker on the driver's door pillar indicated 36 all round.

Do you know if the sticker originated from Japan? If so I've had my tyre place say you always pump them up higher in NZ due to us having a different road surface compared to Japan.

gzt

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#2414769 8-Feb-2020 22:57

gravisus: Use Eco or B mode, it give you more on recuperation.

My feeling is B mode tends to use more because there is no coasting. Less micro-regeneration moments during normal travel.

gzt

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#2414770 8-Feb-2020 23:09

DjShadow: Do you know if the sticker originated from Japan? If so I've had my tyre place say you always pump them up higher in NZ due to us having a different road surface compared to Japan.

Most likely Japan. I've always thought the other way around with road tyres. Better road surfaces / use a higher pressure for fuel economy. Bad road surfaces go lower to retain traction on rougher surface. Only a few psi either way tho. And of course actual number is entirely dependent on the tyre specs, style, quality, car, suspension, etc.

Elliemay

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#2415355 10-Feb-2020 08:56

My feeling is B mode tends to use more because there is no coasting. Less micro-regeneration moments during normal travel.

If you are worried about B mode 'slowing' you down too much just don't take your foot off the accelerator pedal so much. Doing that achieves the same as driving in D, with the added benefit of more rapid stopping, and regen, when required.

Dugimodo

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#2415366 10-Feb-2020 09:34

Personally I stick with the manufacturers tyre pressures at 36 all round, maybe go 38 if you don't check regularly to allow for it to average around 36 for longer as it loses pressure. Plenty of people suggest 40+ for fuel economy but I think that risks wearing the tyres unevenly and compromising the handling, not worth it IMHO.

As to fuel economy, yours seems about right to be honest. I also use 1% = 1km when estimating range as someone previously suggested. My leaf is at 80% SOH and gets approx 100km at 100km/h and around 120km at 50-80 km/h round town. In practice I try and stay over 20% charge so it's more like 80km & 100km. Not sure about anyone else but my leaf also reads very low on the speedometer - 107 is actually 100 in mine.

I charge to 100% in the weekend and normally that gets me to work and back for 5 days (10km each way). Sometimes I charge a second time mid week depending on my driving and any extra trips. I was charging to 80% every night but honestly to me it's just inconvenient. When I go on longer trips I want the 100% and I don't want to change the setting all the time going back and forth 80-100%

My longest regular trip is 90km and my leaf just has enough capacity to do it without getting into single digit battery percentages

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kelly42

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#2415374 10-Feb-2020 09:40

Dugimodo: Not sure about anyone else but my leaf also reads very low on the speedometer - 107 is actually 100 in mine.

Mine too! I have a new-to-me 2016 Leaf with 85% SOH and I've just found that my speedo reads 10% higher than my speed on Google Maps. I've seen Maps be accurate in other cars so I'm sure it's the Leaf. I was about to check out the tyres to make sure they're the right size. Bit disconcerting but my lead foot enjoys being able to go 110 on the motorway.

Everyone is new sometime.

wellygary

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#2415418 10-Feb-2020 09:52

kelly42:

> Not sure about anyone else but my leaf also reads very low on the speedometer - 107 is actually 100 in mine.

Mine too! I have a new-to-me 2016 Leaf with 85% SOH and I've just found that my speedo reads 10% higher than my speed on Google Maps. I've seen Maps be accurate in other cars so I'm sure it's the Leaf. I was about to check out the tyres to make sure they're the right size. Bit disconcerting but my lead foot enjoys being able to go 110 on the motorway.

A 10% overread on your speedo is pretty much standard on many cars these days,

(There's a UN mandate that speedos should not read under and regulates how much over read there is)...

Its designed to make you drive slower.

Dugimodo

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#2415477 10-Feb-2020 10:09

You got what I meant but reads high not low, shows me going faster than I am. Every car I've owned does this but the leaf is farther off than previous cars which have all been in the 3-5km/h out range.

wellygary

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#2415482 10-Feb-2020 10:25

Dugimodo:

You got what I meant but reads high not low, shows me going faster than I am. Every car I've owned does this but the leaf is farther off than previous cars which have all been in the 3-5km/h out range.

We've got an Avensis that is a good 10% fast, but what is most interesting is that the trip computer knows what the real speed is...

You can stick it in cruise control , set it at 110km ( according to the speedo) and then reset the "average trip speed" .. after a few moments it pops up with the new reading for the "average trip speed" and its 100km ... so It knows the speedo is lying,

--- Its a plot I tell you :)

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