Am I safe or screwed?

[Caddiac]

I need to go 65 mph for 40 miles the final 20 miles will be at speeds under 50. Round trip is 60 miles. Question is will I get there and back or will I need to charge at work? I am waiting on a delivery date so I have time to figure this out. Plan B, letting my daughter have the leaf and I drive her Hyundai kinda sucks.

 

[mwalsh]

I need to go 65 mph for 40 miles the final 20 miles will be at speeds under 50. Round trip is 60 miles. Question is will I get there and back or will I need to charge at work? I am waiting on a delivery date so I have time to figure this out. Plan B, letting my daughter have the leaf and I drive her Hyundai kinda sucks.

You'll be fine. I do that every day of the week.

 

[smkettner]

Go 70 if you like.

 

[dpodoll]

Not you daughter's lucky day...

 

[thankyouOB]

I agree. If you go 60, you could even charge to 80%.

 

[dday]

SAFE!

 

[johnr]

Caddiac,

I estimate you will use 3/4 charge to go the 60 miles. So you will make it easily with several miles to spare. There is a discussion and a chart here - http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=4295" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - regarding the range that can be achieved at a given speed, it has been helpful to me in trip planning.

 

[TonyWilliams]

I need to go 65 mph for 40 miles
the final 20 miles will be at speeds under 50.
Round trip is 60 miles.

Super, mega easy. Please give us the departure and destination points, so we can determine elevation changes.

You should have 21 miles range remaining at the 3.875 kWh average burn rate (about 60 mph burn rate). This 21 miles is NOT what the Guess-O-Meter will say.

You could do this with an 80% charge (17kWh) and have about 10% range remaining (17kWh - 15.48 kWh burned = 1.52 kWh remaining).

40 miles divided by 3.6 miles per kWh**  =  11.11 kWh
20 miles divided by 4.6 miles per kWh^^  =   4.37 kWh
           -----
60 miles total divided by 
15.48 kWh total burned (of about 21kWh available at 100% charge)
= 3.875 kWh average (about 81 mile total range)

**  65mph burn rate
^^ 50mph burn rate

 

[IBELEAF]

You'll be fine. I do that every day of the week.

Your experience doesn't mean that it will work for everyone and we don't have all the details.. Where I live this would be barely possible with all elevation gains and speeds of 65 and impossible when the temperature drops.

 

[EricBayArea]

40 miles divided by 3.6 kWh**  =  11.11 kWh
20 miles divided by 4.6 kWh^^ =    4.37 kWh
           -----
60 miles total divided by 15.48 kWh total burned (of about 21kWh available)
= 3.875 kWh average (about 81 mile total range)

**  65mph burn rate
^^ 50mph burn rate

I assume you're taking that from your chart? Have you created a calculator yet where you just type in distances and speeds, plus any recharge times and their respective leves, and it calculates what you'll use and what you'll have remaining?

Because if not, seems like it would be a useful tool. Excel would be a start but I could see a mobile-enabled web page

 

[TonyWilliams]

I assume you're taking that from your chart? Have you created a calculator yet where you just type in distances and speeds, plus any recharge times and their respective leves, and it calculates what you'll use and what you'll have remaining?

Because if not, seems like it would be a useful tool. Excel would be a start but I could see a mobile-enabled web page

I personally don't have the skill set to make a mobile app. But, I can do a web page, and fully intend to do so.

Yes, Excel is a good start, since any calculations are very simple. I am gathering data next for elevation change data, which seems like 1000 feet climb will be a 10% penalty of the 21kWh of available battery power. Descent, perhaps half that? I read other folks posts about going up and down hills, and nobody that has done it, has used an SOC meter (that I have).

Speed, elevation, wind, temperature, load, battery degradation, etc, all need to be factored, about in that order of importance.

 

[SierraQ]

I have a spreadsheet that does drive "simulations" as I call them. I'm planning on refining it and sharing it in some form..... as soon as I actually have a Leaf to validate the simulation against! :lol:

It was pretty accurate for a demo Leaf I drove one day, so that was encouraging.

And by the way, to the original question: you should easily make that trip unless you climbing the side of a mountain in sub-zero temperatures.

 

[Caddiac]

I used my GPS to check the change in elevation - it is around 300'. A few small hills, nothing drastic. Winter time temps here can reach in the the single digits but it is rare. Lows typically run in the high 20s to low 30s. I tend to deal with the cold temperatures better than the hot. Running the heater is not a concern for me. If I can't run the A/C there could be a problem. Plant manager is cool with me trickle charging during the day if needed. Does not sound like I will need to.

 

[TangoKilo]

I do that drive every day to work, plus add in the Santa Susana Pass on the 118 freeway. No problem...

 

[PDXLeafer]

Hmmm.... I wonder why my response would be different from everyone else here. I drive ECO mode, my Guess-o-miles/kwhr tells me I am averaging 4 miles/KwHr, but I am invariably getting 60-65 miles per charge, based on hitting around 30-32 at 6 bars remaining. Trickle charge or 240 charge, no difference. Mostly city commuting, some highway, but it doesn't seem to make much difference.

I often have reported range of 105-115 miles in the morning based on the last few miles from the previous day. Yeah, right.

So, my response would be 'you are probably OK, but I would make sure that charging at work is an option'. I did recently read about another member seeing a drop in milage using ECO mode. I am wondering if I should switch back. I didn't use it at all the first few weeks, and it seems like I was getting a better range, even though the miles/kwhr showed a lower number (my first 1500 miles showed an average of 2.8)

 

[planet4ever]

Hmmm.... I wonder why my response would be different from everyone else here. I drive ECO mode, my Guess-o-miles/kwhr tells me I am averaging 4 miles/KwHr, but I am invariably getting 60-65 miles per charge, based on hitting around 30-32 at 6 bars remaining.

There is one misunderstanding, right there. You are assuming that when you drop to six bars you have used half your range. See Tony's table. It says you have only used 42% of your range at that point.
31 / 0.42 = 74 mile range.

However, Tony's table, and our experience in general, says you should have more like an 84 mile range if you are getting 4 m/kWh. In general we don't consider that m/kWh gauge, or the bars, to be a guess, and certainly your odometer isn't. The only factors that would seem to leave as explanations would be reduced battery capacity or errors in Tony's table.

(84 miles) / (4.0 m/kWh) = 21 kWh usable capacity
(74 miles) / (4.0 m/kWh) = 18.5 kWh usable capacity

or, alternatively,
(31 miles) / (84 miles) = 37% of capacity used at six bars

or, of course, I guess there is the unlikely possibility that you are mentally rounding your m/kWh from 3.6 to 4 in your report:
(74 miles) / (3.6 m/kWh) = 20.6 kWh usable capacity

Ray

p.s. Oh, wait, I forgot one other possible explanation. Are you using a lot of auxiliary power? Driving with high beams on? Somehow using both heater and A/C at the same time? Powering a couple of cooler chests in the back seat? I'm not sure that the m/kWh gauge includes such auxiliary power use.