2015 Leaf with 21k miles should range be greater than 90 miles?

[gdk771]

I have a 2015 Leaf that I purchased at a car auction with 21,800 miles on it. No one wanted to bid on it because of its age but I took a chance on it. It turns out the 12v batter was dead. Once I replaced this the dash had all sorts of warning lights but they eventually went away after about a week of driving. I now have no warning lights but have a few questions after driving it around a little over a month

1. My range went from 75 miles to 90 miles after about a week but is showing around 75-80 miles now on a full charge. Is this normal?

2. The most I have ever driven on it is around 65 miles and the battery bars all went down to zero and the dash was flashing low battery. I guess I misread my range (thought I had another 15-20 miles left). My battery level was down to 5% at that time.

3. How does the battery timer work? I can't seem to get it to shut off after a certain period of time. I usually charge it overnight to between 75-85% with the 110v charger.

4. Does it hurt to fast charge on the Chademo port? I tried it once on a long trip and it charged up very quickly I noticed my battery temp bar went up one bar (to halfway) but I only charged it to 80% (enough to get me back home.

5. is it normal for the battery temperature to stay at 3-4 bars? It seems to be in this range most of the time.

Here is a picture of the dash with the various mileages I am getting to 100% charge.

 

[cornbinder89]

Congrad's I think you got a winner, took a gamble and it paid off. This time of year the range will be less. You didn't say what trim level, it doesn't matter you should be able to set the timer, it just changes on how you set the timer, either the buttons on the left of the steering wheel or from the center Nav screen. You can set the beginning and ending time or just the ending time (it will start itself in time to fully charge).

 

[gdk771]

Thanks for the reply cornbinder89,

I honestly don't know what I have. I put it in a VIN decoder and it says I have a 4 door hatchback style S whatever that means. It is pretty basic. I do have a backup camera however but the timer is accessed via 4 switches on the left side above the headlight control. It does not seem to matter if I select the charging timer, it just charges to full. For some reason it is on military time also (I can figure out how to set it to am and pm).

 

[cornbinder89]

I think by 2015 they all had the rear camera, but could be wrong.
If you look on the left door pillar, there will be a sticker that has not only the VIN, but elsewhere the model number that can be de-coded to tell the trim level.
In 2015 there is no way to set the timer to less than full charge other than by guessing how long that is and setting the stop time to before that.
You can down load the owners manual if you don't have a copy here:
https://owners.nissanusa.com/content/techpub/ManualsAndGuides/LEAF/2015/2015-LEAF-owner-manual.pdf

 

[cornbinder89]

Charge timer has to be set before plugging the EVSE into the charge port.

 

[cwerdna]

The silly number on the right is the guess-o-meter which is based upon recent driving history. That may not have anything to do with your future driving. It should be ignored. See 2013 SL - Range Dropped quickly. You should pay attention to the 1% increment SoC display.

2015 Nissan LEAF Press Kit specs tab goes over the differences between the 3 trim levels. EPA range rating on a '15 Leaf on full charge with new battery (no degradation) was 84 miles. See 2015 Nissan Leaf.

For the dumb temp bars, they each represent very large temp ranges. To see actual battery temp sensor values, you'll need Leaf Spy and a compatible OBD2 dongle for the version of the app for your phone OS. Don't go buying random dongles.

Ever wondered how Hot your battery can reach and still be funtional? - My Nissan Leaf Forum is an example of how hot one can get their pack.

 

[Ez2517]

The battery status bar seems to be at full 12 bars which is very good for a 2015 car. This would mean that the state of health of the battery is at least 85 %.
I have read that some dishonest sellers reset the BMS causing the status bars to 12 even if they have been lower before, but in such case the bar should have dropped again in the meantime. And 80 miles range are consistent with approximately 20 kWh of left capacity at this time of year. So I think you got yourself a good deal

 

[mongrel]

I don’t know how much you paid for it, but I won the same car on a raffle from the local museum last summer. I don’t really need another car, so I gave it to the lady I was singing and playing music with all summer. Come winter, she flew back to Texas to join up with her band, and left the car with me for the winter. I’ve put a few hundred miles on it, and my battery range is consistent with yours. I did some reading about it, and got suggestions from this forum. The past week I’ve seen wind chill temperatures of minus 11 F. We had no snow, and since the ev produces heat much more quickly than my fossil burners, I continued to drive the leaf all week. As predicted, the range was shorter in the cold wx, but I was only running short errands with it. Have fun with your leaf.

 

[saipan68]

hi leafer's,
since batt warr is the subject, can fellow member please explain the 'battery pack failure' return requirements? i have read 80%. also i have read if the soh falls below the 8th bar. other info isnt pertinent.
thank you

 

[w7gz]

hi leafer's,
since batt warr is the subject, can fellow member please explain the 'battery pack failure' return requirements? i have read 80%. also i have read if the soh falls below the 8th bar. other info isnt pertinent.
thank you

Saipan, the minute you drop the 9th bar, drive the car over to Nissan and show it to them. It's no guarantee you'll get a warranty replacement but it's your best shot.

 

[kitra]

Chademo charging is bad for the battery due to heating. We had a 2013 LEAF that was a 2 year lease. I worked in downtown Portland Oregon and the College Campus near my work had free charging. They had Level 2 and Chademo. I quick charged the car every working day. Sometimes the battery temperature would go into the red. When I turned in the car with 16K miles, it only had 10 bars. Nissan was pissed but I showed them the article that Nissan published that quick charging doesn't hurt the batteries. August of 2020, we also leased a 2020 Nissan Leaf SV for $159 a month, no other fees. The Dealer had 111 LEAF's on their lot. Then one we got was manufactured in 12/2019. Sat a long time. Then in October of 2020, they had the SV's for $99. Should have leased a second one. Only wish I'd went for the Plus as I may have kept it. Bought the SV out at end of lease and a Mercedes Dealer offered us $29,500 for it. Crazy high offer so we had to take it. The LEAF was Black and mint. I gave them $100 off for every rock chip as there was none. You have a great car there. Battery looks very good. If you Level 2 charge it whenever possible, you shouldn't have too much degradation of the cells. I bought a 16amp Level 2 Charger for the LEAF off of Ebay for $125. It was great. I wish I'd kept our 2015. I'd probably still be driving it.

 

[gdk771]

Thanks for the link to the press kit. I purchased a recommended dongle and plan to use this leafspy app to get the status of the battery. I'm not sure exactly how to use it yet but hope I can find some posts here on the forum that show how you decode it. I also can't get the free version to work on my android so hopefully the deluxe version will work. I tried to private message LeftiBiker but never heard anything back . I forgot to mention that I am using the heat and noticed by accident one day when I turned it off I immediately gained around 8-10 miles of range. That may explain why I came up short on range the other day.

I won this car for $2300 at the auction so I think I did OK. There is some sort of battery strap recall that the local Nissan dealer said is open on it so I am planning to have that done. He ran my VIN and said the car apparently sat for 6 years and gained 35 miles from March 2017 to Nov 2023 when I purchased it. I guess I am lucky it sat for so long with no battery issues. This also explains why the dash was lit up like a Christmas tree with errors for the first week until I drove it for a little bit. It basically sat at a Nissan dealership and was forgotten about I think (I had to get a court order for the title also, it was lost according to the auction house). The rear hatch was full of leaves that had decomposed into potting soil (I had to get a shop vac to suck it out before I could open it). The front headlights were also frosted over but I manged to polish them back pretty close to new with a headlight polishing kit. Took a good hour to get them back to a somewhat clear state. The inside looks brand new however. Here are some pictures of it when I first got it attached. The tires were brand new looking Ecopia? tires but they were all dry rotted so I had to replace them. Did not trust them with the long cracks all around the edges. They had DOT numbers from 2014 so they were almost 10 years old. It also had a dead 12v battery under the hood which explains why it would not power up initially. The auction house hooked a jump pack up to it to get it to power up and move. When I saw the low mileage I thought I would take a chance on it.

I have to pay a $200 tax each year here in GA which surprised me. Seems they want to recoup the gas tax off it even though I bought it to save money on gas. Also, does anyone know if LeftieBiker is still active on this forum? I think he developed or had something to do with leafspy but am not 100% sure from the posts I saw.

 

[lutefisk]

I have a 2015 with 28k miles that’s lost 1 bar, and the GOM now maxes out at around 85 miles. However, LeafSpy computes that the range at 100% charge (granted, with this cold weather) is about 65-70 miles, depending on efficiency.
I highly recommend getting Leaf Spy and a compatible OBDII dongle. Far more accurate than the car.

 

[gdk771]

Yes I bought this dongle from seeing this YouTube video (hope it is OK to post links on this forum) so I hope it works OK. He mentions using the lite version but it won't work on my Android. Have not had a chance to use it yet with the Pro Version. The lite version issues spooked me a little bit so didn't want to waste money on the paid version if I had issues also.



dongle was here...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...03-20&linkId=87b940523191ea2f676399fc62b85897

 

[pendclocks]

use your level one 120 volt charger and NEVER WORRY about not fully charging your battery.

 

[Wololo]

Hey congrats on the car. I have a 2015 Leaf (purchased when new) with similar miles. How I would answer your questions:

1) The range estimation, or guess-o-meter, is a calculation of your battery health and how efficiently you've been driving recently -- with emphasis on the latter. If recent trips have been high speeds, uphill, climate control full speed, then it will give you a low range estimate. But will go back up if recent trips become more efficient. I usually track the battery charge % instead of the guess-o-meter and do my own estimation. The guess-o-meter for early LEAFs broadly received poor reviews.

2) "Turtle mode" or low battery charge warning is an interesting topic. You'll def not want to judge remaining range by guess-o-meter when battery is low because LEAF will considerably limit your performance, and you won't be able to drive normally. If you get to around 10% battery charge, expect to be affected.

3) Hopefully you got the battery timer figured. There are conflicting views in charging to 100%, which I assume is why you time off charging. I charge 120 at home and charge to 100%.

4) Chademo is prob the hardest you can be on your battery. 2015 LEAF battery is air cooled whereas many other EVs have an active cooling system to manage battery temps during level 3 charging. LEAF is maybe the worst ev for level 3 charging performance. But it can charge level 3(most trims anyway)!

5) Yes.

Also) Since there was discussion on which trim you have here's my understanding. From most basic to best equipped, the trim levels for 2015 LEAF are S, SV, and SL. All are fwd, single motor. I don't think the S level trim included chademo port or touch screen telematics unit. SV has chedemo and touch screen. And SL came with chedemo, touch screen, leather seats, Bose speakers.

Again, congrats on the car. Hope you enjoy!

 

[cornbinder89]

Again, I think you did very well, but you also took a gamble, and that should be rewarded. It could have ended much different. Enjoy!

 

[decimal]

I have a 2015 Leaf that I purchased at a car auction with 21,800 miles on it. No one wanted to bid on it because of its age but I took a chance on it. It turns out the 12v batter was dead. Once I replaced this the dash had all sorts of warning lights but they eventually went away after about a week of driving. I now have no warning lights but have a few questions after driving it around a little over a month

1. My range went from 75 miles to 90 miles after about a week but is showing around 75-80 miles now on a full charge. Is this normal?

2. The most I have ever driven on it is around 65 miles and the battery bars all went down to zero and the dash was flashing low battery. I guess I misread my range (thought I had another 15-20 miles left). My battery level was down to 5% at that time.

3. How does the battery timer work? I can't seem to get it to shut off after a certain period of time. I usually charge it overnight to between 75-85% with the 110v charger.

4. Does it hurt to fast charge on the Chademo port? I tried it once on a long trip and it charged up very quickly I noticed my battery temp bar went up one bar (to halfway) but I only charged it to 80% (enough to get me back home.

5. is it normal for the battery temperature to stay at 3-4 bars? It seems to be in this range most of the time.

Here is a picture of the dash with the various mileages I am getting to 100% charge.

Looks like a good find - got the 6kW charging option too, which is a bonus.

Presume this is the 24kWh battery version, so the likely 85% battery capacity remaining (of 22kWh usable when new) should give you around 19kWh, which is approx 60 miles in winter / highway 60mph driving (3 miles per kWh), and around 80 miles of range for city, stop-start driving, without too many hills, in summer (4 miles per kWh). Average should be around 3.5 miles per kWh on the Leaf. Most of the time you will get less because you will not want to drive down to 'zero', and you don't always want to charge up to '100%' for every trip. I limit my charging to 80% most of the time and can do a 25-mile commute in all weather conditions on that, with spare capacity. It's a short-range EV.. but a fun car to drive.

 

[gdk771]

Thanks for all the suggestions and replies. I am starting to get a feel for how much range I can resaonably get out of this vehicle. I wish I could charge it to 80% but apparently Nissan took this feature out in 2013 or so from what I have read on this forum. I wish someone had a hack for the firmware to put it back in. For now, I am using the charging timer. I have been running it up to 100% slow charging so I am not going to worry about it as much on this system. i really want to get the charge timer working when away from home base.

 

[Martin Hogbin]

I have a 2015 Leaf that I purchased at a car auction with 21,800 miles on it. No one wanted to bid on it because of its age but I took a chance on it. It turns out the 12v batter was dead. Once I replaced this the dash had all sorts of warning lights but they eventually went away after about a week of driving. I now have no warning lights but have a few questions after driving it around a little over a month

1. My range went from 75 miles to 90 miles after about a week but is showing around 75-80 miles now on a full charge. Is this normal?

2. The most I have ever driven on it is around 65 miles and the battery bars all went down to zero and the dash was flashing low battery. I guess I misread my range (thought I had another 15-20 miles left). My battery level was down to 5% at that time.

3. How does the battery timer work? I can't seem to get it to shut off after a certain period of time. I usually charge it overnight to between 75-85% with the 110v charger.

4. Does it hurt to fast charge on the Chademo port? I tried it once on a long trip and it charged up very quickly I noticed my battery temp bar went up one bar (to halfway) but I only charged it to 80% (enough to get me back home.

5. is it normal for the battery temperature to stay at 3-4 bars? It seems to be in this range most of the time.

Here is a picture of the dash with the various mileages I am getting to 100% charge.

I had a 30kWh Leaf and I reckoned that I could pretty well guarantee 100 miles range. I could get more if I tried. Generally I was quite a fast driver.

Temperature makes a huge difference to the range. It will get better in the summer.

Rapid charging does degrade the battery a bit but not enough to worry about the occasional rapid charge.

Driving style is also important. Have you settled into good EV driving habits yet? Try to never use the brake, use the regenerative braking as much as you can by anticipating the need to slow down as much as you can.

Speed is important. You will get significantly less mileage driving more quickly. I tent to characterise motorway driving by lane. Driving fast lane will get you the lowest mileage. Fast/centre will get you more. Sticking to the slow lane will get you the best mileage.