Drained it –One Leaf Owner's Experience

[Herm]

What surprises me about this experience (not unique to our friend, by the way) is how many people treat the 100 mile range as some kind of magic number. We have had other people report driving their car home from the dealer at 65-70 MPH and barely making it. Am I the only one who plans to drive 55 MPH in ECO mode until I get the feel for what kind of range I can expect?

Well said!, start low and slowly work your way up..

http://drive55.org/

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

To flamin' Dave in Oly:

you should of told me you were kidding when you stated that you welcomed flames.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

What surprises me about this experience (not unique to our friend, by the way) is how many people treat the 100 mile range as some kind of magic number.

Amen !!

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/blog.php?u=291

 

[wsbca]

plugging in your car and not realizing its charging for [twenty minutes]

It's worse than that, he didn't realize/notice/check until twenty minutes before departure. He knew when he parked that he didn't have enough to get home and was looking forward to a couple of hours of L1 charging, and yet never looked at the SOC to see if it was progressing. Then still left for home, rather than adjusting for the mistake by sticking around for a while to get a useful amount of charge (or bailing and getting a lift from the friends who ended up following anyway, if time was an issue.)

The whole episode could have been avoided by glancing however briefly at the lights on the EVSE after plugging in (for the first time, which in my opinion should involve at least a tiny bit of extra diligence), and noticing the explicit Fault light. Inexcusable.

It's like filling your car at a gas station and not bothering to notice that the fuel is spilling out onto the ground instead of going into the car, then pulling the nozzle out, heading on your way and then being disappointed when you run out of gas later on.

This is not a flame...really it's not. The "flame" is your original post belittling the car when it did exactly what it was designed to do.

Your entire post should be replaced by one that says "well, I botched the opportunity charge at my destination by not paying the least bit of attention to the device or the documentation even though I had never used it before, tried to make it anyway, and didn't quite get there - my bad".

 

[Coffee_Slurry]

Some folks less informed and less invested than you, might expect a car advertised to go 100, to be able to go 80 miles in eco when the expected range states that it can go 112 miles when they start it up.

And that's really the meat of it. Reasonable and accurate expectations are necessary for widespread adoption of EVs.

Nissan is doing NOBODY any favors by advertising 100 mile range, and providing a nutty range estimate on the dash.

They should be up-front about "Approximately 75 miles" as a go-to-market range.

Underpromise, overdeliver.

 

[malloryk]

to be fair, Nissan stated a 100-mile range with an asterisk.* When people ask me about range, I tell them 65-110 miles and I heavily emphasize the importance of speed, use of climate control, weight, or hills. Someone asked me last night in the laundry room "what if you want to drive to San Diego?" I told him I wouldn't, I'd get someone else to drive. I get that question and the Las Vegas question a lot and they don't always like my answer. I guess people like to do their own driving. But hey, that's what friends are for. I'll chip in for gas and let someone else do the driving!




*Gotta read the fineprint when there's an asterisk

 

[omkar]

I now have a firm figure on my expected driving range from a 100% charge, and that figure is not 100 miles, not 90 miles, and not even 80 miles.

After 2,600 San Diego climate miles (January 4th through today) at 90+% on the freeway, I can say... for freeway driving at 68 mph... do not plan on more than 70 miles range. 65 is a better number to plan on to eliminate the range anxiety. In the rain with wipers and headlights?... a bit less.

Malcolm

Good advice that I agree with based on my experience as well. I'm pretty efficient in town (even when zipping around), but I have a heavy foot on the freeways. :mrgreen:

What surprises me about this experience (not unique to our friend, by the way) is how many people treat the 100 mile range as some kind of magic number..

to be fair, Nissan stated a 100-mile range with an asterisk.*
...
*Gotta read the fineprint when there's an asterisk

They absolutely do. It is a matter of having/setting the right expectations. Personally, I expected to get more mileage than I do. Was I a little disappointed initially? Sure. Do I regret my purchase/lease? Not at all. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the car! I hope I will never have to purchase a non-EV vehicle in the future.

 

[Coffee_Slurry]

IMHO, I think "65-100" is a misleading number to report for San Diego.
I don't expect to ever see 100 miles.

You'd have to be nuts to drive 55 on the freeway here, with typical speeds closer to 68-72. Higher if you go 15 north past Escondido or 5 north of Oceanside.

A/C is required for most of the summer and fall.

I would tell people "about 65 miles", as leafme said.

Look, a Toyota Prius can do 109mpg, but you don't see Toyota stating the MPG as "50 to 100mpg!" or even 75MPG* with an asterisk.

My point is that 100mi doesn't seem to be even close to an average, and Nissan is wrong to advertise it that way.

 

[Beachcliffs]

Someone asked me last night in the laundry room "what if you want to drive to San Diego?" I told him I wouldn't, I'd get someone else to drive. I get that question and the Las Vegas question a lot and they don't always like my answer. I guess people like to do their own driving. But hey, that's what friends are for. I'll chip in for gas and let someone else do the driving!

Swapping cars with a friend or renting are always options, too!

 

[friendnumber1]

you should of told me you were kidding when you stated that you welcomed flames.

Hey, I welcomed flames so that I could reply and set the record straight.

 

[Jimmydreams]

You'd have to be nuts to drive 55 on the freeway here, with typical speeds closer to 68-72. Higher if you go 15 north past Escondido or 5 north of Oceanside.

Then I must be nuts. I drive from Oceanside to Mirimar every day, in the right lane, doing between 55 and 65 with no problems. I would say my range is around 80-85. (my roundtrip is 63.5 miles and I have anywhere from 20-30 miles est. range when I get home.) It continues to amaze me how people say you can't drive at or just under the speed limit on the highways.....I do it every day.

I am confident that if I had the time and took the coast highway all the way down (at 45mph or under) that I'd have right at 100 mile range, if not more. Maybe I'll leave extra early tomorrow and try just that!

It's the highway speeds that kill the range. But just like an ICE driver needing to watch and heed the gas gauge and LOW FUEL WARNING lights, an EV driver must be a little extra diligent in their behavior. Nissan should do a little more to highlight this, IMO.

 

[friendnumber1]

It's worse than that, he didn't realize/notice/check until twenty minutes before departure. He knew when he parked that he didn't have enough to get home and was looking forward to a couple of hours of L1 charging, and yet never looked at the SOC to see if it was progressing.
...

Your entire post should be replaced by one that says "well, I botched the opportunity charge at my destination by not paying the least bit of attention to the device or the documentation even though I had never used it before, tried to make it anyway, and didn't quite get there - my bad".

I don't think that your suggested post without mine would be very informative. But if it makes you feel better, let me state once again that the car was not at fault.

My only prior experience charging was L2 at work and at home. I did have a nagging suspicion that something wasn't right, that is why I took the time to read up and figure out what was wrong about 20 minutes from leaving. I was having Dinner at a Fire Station, so I had a reasonable expectation that their outlet would be grounded properly (that one wasn't so I switched to another one). I also didn't want to just hang out with sleepy kids at a Fire Station that could take a call at any time.

AND... Indications were that it would be close, and it was (two blocks or as Max Smart used to say, "I only missed it by THAT MUCH.").

 

[malloryk]

Yeah I try to keep my freeway driving at 60mph if I have a farther trip to make. Most people are driving faster than that around me and some get PO'd but that's their problem. They can suck it (and they are, they're sucking that gas right up!) haha

 

[kmp647]

You will get used to the car and charging, just like at one point you had to figure out how to fuel your ICE

someone showed you or you watched others, next time you will watch the lights and double check the progress of the charge I know if I ever get a Leaf or other EV and I make a 40 mile trip to dinner at a friends, you can bet I will be L1 for 3 hours while we eat.

like was said, what happened is about like going to a gas station and having the pump click off after 15 seconds, then just plowing on into the low fuel and out of gas on the side of the road 3 blocks from home.

 

[friendnumber1]

Yeah I try to keep my freeway driving at 60mph if I have a farther trip to make. Most people are driving faster than that around me and some get PO'd but that's their problem. They can suck it (and they are, they're sucking that gas right up!) haha

RIGHT ON!

All of us driving a Leaf have shown the strength of character to think differently. We should also have the courage to drive 55 to 60 in the right lane if need be on longer drives.

 

[Bassman]

I think I'll have a bumper sticker made up that says " I'm not driving slow. I'm extending my range!".

 

[rmay635703]

IMHO, I think "65-100" is a misleading number to report for San Diego.
I don't expect to ever see 100 miles.

You'd have to be nuts to drive 55 on the freeway here, with typical speeds closer to 68-72. Higher if you go 15 north past Escondido or 5 north of Oceanside.

Look, a Toyota Prius can do 109mpg, but you don't see Toyota stating the MPG as "50 to 100mpg!" or even 75MPG* with an asterisk.

My point is that 100mi doesn't seem to be even close to an average, and Nissan is wrong to advertise it that way.

No offense but by this logic the prius is wrong to advertise its fuel economy as it does as well. I know more than a few tremendously talented people who have gotten their prius into the 30-40mpg area highway and city.

It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to know that your car gets lower FE when driven faster than the EPA 45mph rating system eh? Figuring the car should go 100miles at 100mph is a pretty lame excuse for range anxiety.

That said Nissan should have a graph right by the car showing the range at any given speed.
But so should mpg be displayed that way. I know one guy getting 18mpg in his new focus, he doesn't complain, seems to me this is no different. If you can't control how you drive you shouldn't expect to get whats advertised either.

Cheers
Ryan

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

I think I'll have a bumper sticker made up that says " I'm not driving slow. I'm extending my range!".

LIKE!!

 

[malloryk]

I think I'll have a bumper sticker made up that says " I'm not driving slow. I'm extending my range!".

LIKE!!

me likey too!

 

[TomT]

Sunday night I had a similar experience only with a slightly different outcome. My wife and I had headed south for an outing and just before we left, there was a slight change in plans that required that we run south about another ten miles before returning home. It wasn't an option, we had to do it.

As we headed home I looked at the number of bars of charge that I had and figured it was iffy at best. It's uphill all the way home. So, stopping at Miller Nissan was my backup plan.

By the time I crested the largest hill I had about 12 miles left to go and had just dropped to 3 bars. I knew I wouldn't make it as I still had about 500 feet of total climb left. So, I pulled off to Miller to take a quick charge, or so I thought...

Miller was closed and they had purposely blocked off both of their chargers with cars so even though they were on, I couldn't access them. All I could do at that point was find an outlet and L1 charge, which I did. About two hours later we headed off and arrived home with 7 miles showing and 1 bar.

I find it infuriating that Nissan Corporate does not demand that EVERY dealer have at least one charger available 24/7 for just such contingencies!