Across the country on a single charge! (kind of...)

[iluvmacs]

My LEAF arrived to me yesterday via car carrier truck (from Fontana Nissan). First LEAF in Wisconsin!

The truck driver took it off the truck, and gave me the keys, and looked concerned. He told me the battery was almost empty, despite it being full when he had picked it up. Sure enough, the GoM said 9 miles remaining. Odd, I thought, but surely a simple explanation for it, right? Sure enough, a short while later, I was checking out all the dash info and noticed that the trip time computer was showing 99 hours. So I'm quite sure that my LEAF was left powered up on the truck, and it drained its battery. Probably not the entire way, since it was taken on and off at least once, but obviously the majority of it. In any case, I plugged it in right away at home, albeit disappointed that I couldn't go out for much of a ride right away.

So there it is, folks: my LEAF made its inaugural trip of over 2000 miles on just under a full charge! Think that puts it at roughly 91 miles/KWh

And it's a damn good thing it didn't drain it completely. I'm not sure how we would have gotten it off the truck at that point... :shock:

Now let's never do that again.

 

[EdmondLeaf]

Congrat first in Wisconsin, I see the weather in WI similar what we have today in OK, so driving will be nice. I simply do not understand how one can leave car on. It is kind of natural to push start stop when you done driving. What kind evse you have, what will be your daily use?
Enjoy.

 

[adric22]

I left my car on by accident one time after parking at work. When I went back out to the car 9 hours later I noticed it had dropped 10 miles on the range-meter. I think what I had done was accidentally hit the button twice in a row when I went to turn it off, not realizing I had turned it right back on.

 

[Weatherman]

The drivers for the transport company may have never seen a LEAF before, so they may have thought it was off because they couldn't hear an engine running (common problem with the Prius, too). Although 99 hours suggests the first mistake took place back in California or Arizona.

The drivers handling the transport of my LEAF from Fontana were good enough to turn the power off.

 

[gbarry42]

I have a plausible explanation. When I try to leave the car without turning it off, it won't let me out, because the doors are locked. I then turn it off, and the doors unlock automatically. Remember that they lock by themselves when you get to 15 MPH. In this case, driving the car onto the truck, it never went fast enough to lock the doors. Fortunately, I might add :lol: .

In the few cases like adric's, I wonder if it involved going back into the car and moving it around in the parking lot or something like this. Also I bet the auto-lock can be defeated. Those guys are on their own.

 

[Volusiano]

And it's a damn good thing it didn't drain it completely. I'm not sure how we would have gotten it off the truck at that point... :shock:

I would assume that at some point it would have shut off by itself if the battery level gets too low, and if you turn it back on again, you'll be in turtle mode and still can drive around a little bit in turtle mode.

 

[planet4ever]

I think what I had done was accidentally hit the button twice in a row when I went to turn it off, not realizing I had turned it right back on.

That's an easy thing to do; I've done it several times. That power switch is not jitter-proof, and my 73-year-old muscles do jitter sometimes.

I would assume that at some point it would have shut off by itself if the battery level gets too low, and if you turn it back on again, you'll be in turtle mode and still can drive around a little bit in turtle mode.

You think so? My guess is that when it powers itself off it is dead until recharged.

Ray

 

[Volusiano]

I would assume that at some point it would have shut off by itself if the battery level gets too low, and if you turn it back on again, you'll be in turtle mode and still can drive around a little bit in turtle mode.

You think so? My guess is that when it powers itself off it is dead until recharged.

Ray

I'm just hoping, but I don't know for a fact. I guess the question is what happen after the car has been on for a long time and eventually goes into turtle mode. Does it stay on turtle mode until the battery is exhausted? Or does it have some smart to shut off the power if the car is not active in turtle mode for so many minutes? You would hope they put some smart into that situation, but you never know.

Would anybody care to experiment?

 

[evnow]

My LEAF arrived to me yesterday via car carrier truck (from Fontana Nissan). First LEAF in Wisconsin!

Congratulations !

Let us know how it works in the cold.

 

[iluvmacs]

Congrat first in Wisconsin, I see the weather in WI similar what we have today in OK, so driving will be nice. I simply do not understand how one can leave car on. It is kind of natural to push start stop when you done driving. What kind evse you have, what will be your daily use?
Enjoy.

Schneider EVSE, scheduled to be installed on Tuesday (been using 120V this week)
My work commute is only 3 miles each way. Most other trips around town are <20 miles round-trip; rarely drive more than 50 miles in a day. So it's perfect for me!

 

[TonyWilliams]

rarely drive more than 50 miles in a day. So it's perfect for me!

That is perfect for the LEAF. Congrats on the first one in your state.

 

[paulwesterberg]

I am a reservation holder in Madison, WI - they are allowing me to order now, but the local dealer wants $900 over msrp so I was wondering how much you paid and which dealer you went through.

 

[dznit]

Was the heater on for the whole trip?

 

[SmilingWhenSailing]

My Leaf did sort of the same, almost. I bought the car in Trondheim, which is 1000 road km from where I live in northern Norway. I decided to put it on a boat and enjoy a 2 days cruise. The car was parked on the cargo deck by the people in charge of the cargo. Fortunately I went to check where they parked it because they somehow did not figure out how to turn it of (I had left the ignition on when I handed the car over). When I fetched the car when leaving they asked me if it was a hybrid... and that in a country where Leaf sales are probably close to 1% of all new car sales for the time being! Had I not checked, the car might have stayed on all the trip.

 

[iluvmacs]

I am a reservation holder in Madison, WI - they are allowing me to order now, but the local dealer wants $900 over msrp so I was wondering how much you paid and which dealer you went through.

I bought an orphan from Fontana Nissan in Fontana, CA. They were doing $2K under MSRP at the time -- not sure what kind of discount Danny is doing these days, though. It was all very easy though!

 

[iluvmacs]

Was the heater on for the whole trip?

Don't think so. That would have killed it a mite sooner...