Leaf wimps out on long climb

[RustyShackleford]

Recently my wife was driving to the NC mountains, and our Leaf had a serious issue. She's a little vague about what happened, but seems to recall it was something about "extreme heat" and a need to "reduce speed". The car refused to go more than 50mph.

The stretch of road in question is definitely quite a grunt, being US Hwy 421 between Wilkesboro and Boone NC. As best I can tell from Google Earth, the road gains 2000 vertical-feet in about 8 miles (1500 ft of it in the last 5 miles or so). Steep. But my aging (2006 with 150K miles) Subaru Outback is able to make the climb maintaining 60 mph, although I downshift to 4th gear most of the way.

The air temperature was in the 70s, though pretty sunny.

Is this normal ?

 

[SageBrush]

The elevation change added about 22 kW for the climbing, so the total power consumption was about 37 kW -- well within the power DC charging would pull, and DC charging typicaly leasts for quite a bit longer than the 8 minutes or so of the climb.

Your battery must have already been hot. Was it fast charged not long before the climb ?
A long distance drive in hot weather before the climb might have also been enough to heat up the battery.

I think this approach will work in the future:
Drive slower for 10 miles or so before the climb, to cool down the pack enough to make the climb without power throttling.

In any case, summer is coming to a close so you are probably safe from your wife's wrath until next summer

 

[LeftieBiker]

I think there may also be a code for the motor overheating. I'd check the coolant level and the radiator (yes, it has one).

 

[RustyShackleford]

Your battery must have already been hot. Was it fast charged not long before the climb ?

Bingo !

 

[RustyShackleford]

I think there may also be a code for the motor overheating. I'd check the coolant level and the radiator (yes, it has one).

I check coolant level every month or so. It's always been ok.

With LeafSpyPro maybe I can retrieve what the car was unhappy about ?

 

[Stanton]

Your battery must have already been hot. Was it fast charged not long before the climb ?

Bingo !

With the Leaf, it's all about the heat.
If you get in a habit of letting the battery cool (both before and after charging), you will have less problems in general. Obviously, that's not something you can always do. YMMV.