LEAFfan
Well-known member
wescom said:I know this is an old post, but I am replying to it because it captures my disappointment as well, which I have had for nearly two years now. I'm sorry I don't read the forum all the time; I am very busy. Nevertheless, I searched and scanned the forum for a solution, but the search did not find one for me easily.
First of all: My driving habits: 35-38 mph, flat city streets, 12 miles/day, N California weather (generally mild), ECO mode always, charge to 80%, never turn on heat OR A/C, do not slam on accelerator at all, and the onboard indicator says 4.9 mi/kWhr. Car received ~Aug 2011.
I absolutely agree that there is a difference between "Nissan miles" and actual miles. In fact, I record before and after EVERY charge, both the change in "Nissan miles" from the "miles to go" indicator, and my actual odometer miles. The ratio between these two is about 60%, that is, the car actually goes about 60% the miles you would expect if you believed the "miles to go" indicator. So to be safe, I generally divide the "miles to go" by about a factor of two!!
I have had my Leaf serviced by Nissan, and they found nothing wrong, and they did one software update, too.
Thus, to me, it appears that the "miles to go" indicator grossly overestimates the distance available. Why is this? You might argue that, "You are heavy on the accelerator." Maybe so, but it would make the car really hard to enjoy if I CRAWLED out from every light. I accelerate just like the rest of the traffic, without over-accelerating. Anyway, no matter what one might say about my driving habits, my numbers are exact: the "miles to go" display change is far larger than the actual miles driven, even though my driving habits (see above) are near-optimal
Several thoughts:
(a) Given that there are several computers on board, I do not see why the car does not dynamically adjust the conversion factor, say, once a week or once a month. The car has the actual data on odometer miles driven for a certain degree of charge, and it also knows its own "miles to go" estimate. There is really no reason why the conversion factor would not be 1.0; this is just a little programming. This would compensate for many differences between drivers, and the display would be much more accurate.
(b) Could the overestimation be intentional? I know this has been implied before. I don't have an opinion and I don't really care, but it would seem to be in the best interests of Nissan for this display to be accurate.
I am a Nissan Leaf lover, and I tell people about all the nice and wonderful aspects of this car, EXCEPT I tell the truth about the difference between "miles to go" and actual distance one can expect.
regards to all, and I hope I have missing something simple I can do to improve this,
wescom
Only 4.9 at 35-38mph? I would get at least 6.0 at those speeds. Just last week, I drove 53mph (55 on speedo) for about 18 miles (slightly downhill), then at 58 (60 on speedo) for 5 more and ended at the station with 5.8m/kW h. Something doesn't seem right about yours. However, capacity has no effect on m/kW h.