New 2022 Leaf 40kWh Batttery Poor Performance

[Cyclismo]

Brand new here, just couldn't find a thread so I am starting this one.

I bought a 2022 Leaf with the smaller battery a few weeks ago. I know low temperatures affect battery performance. The salesman and service manager told me to expect 145 miles on a full charge, and, in their words "maybe 10% or 15% fewer miles in the cold."

My experience in single-digit temperatures (F): 50% fewer miles. Barely 71 miles on a full charge brings me below 10 miles remaining, around 6% on the battery meter.

I can find no data or predictions from Nissan about cold-weather performance, other than that it will be "reduced." In classic fashion, the dealership questions my heater use and driving habits. They have so far declined to test the battery, claiming that "it wouldn't tell us anything" if there wasn't already a warning lit up on the dashboard. No straight answers to my questions about other users' experience--even the salesman, who drives a Leaf with the same configuration, is evasive about his cold-weather experience.

Given the sorry state of charging infrastructure in Vermont, and the scarcity of CHAdeMO chargers here, I can't make it from one fast charger to the next in much of the area, in temperatures below 10ºF. In Vermont we typically have 50 or 55 days below 10ºF, and 20 to 25 days below 0ºF. My new car is not very useful; my dealership is not responsive. I'm bumming.

Any advice, forum?

Thanks

 

[LeftieBiker]

Welcome. First, do you have a Leaf S, or a Leaf SV or SL? In frigid weather it doesn't really matter, but in milder Winter temps the heatpump-equipped SV and SL will get better range. Your 50% reduction is on the extreme end of Winter range loss, but it isn't unheard of, especially if it's an S. You can improve things somewhat by running tire pressures nearer to 40psi than to 30, and by employing tactics like driving more slowly and using less cabin heat. I'm going to link the Tips & Tricks guide - that will help.

https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=23297&p=482154

Severe range loss in frigid temperatures is a sad fact of life for EVs, with the exception of those like Teslas that can use their battery temperature control systems to preheat the batteries to extract more energy from them. Even EVs with heat pumps have their range fall off a cliff when the temperatures drop below 20-25F, because of loss of battery efficiency, higher rolling resistance, and even greater air density. While there are heat pumps that can handle sub-zero temps, they aren't yet being installed in EVs.

 

[SageBrush]

It is not difficult to knock off 30% of EPA range in the cold of winter if the drive is short and cabin heating is used.

OP:

Step one is to check your battery with LeafSpy to be sure you do not have a weak cell. If that is excluded, then you get to learn how to adapt to the winter in a LEAF. This has been gone over in dozens of threads here so look around. The main tenets are

• Bundle up. Warm hands and warm feet take the bite out of winter. Some people supplement with a battery or 12v powered blanket. I am partial to my battery powered vest.

• Pre-heat the car on shore charging when possible

• Rely as much as you can on the seat heater and (if installed) the steering wheel heater instead of cabin heating. Cabin heating uses 20x the power of a seat heater

 

[user 24513]

OP you will see that I also live in Vermont, and I also had the same Sticker Shock moments when first driving the Leaf in frigid weather. The people who commented before me are spot on but there is one more aspect working in your favor: the Leaf dash percentage estimate hides a significant amount of power, and miles, at the bottom of the percentage reading. In other words, your car can go quite a bit further than the dashboard will tell you. Only LeafSpy can give you accurate readings, but in my case there are about 20 miles of range left when the car is starting to beep at you. This is tough for my partner to accept but she is gradually beginning to believe me. LeafSpy and the necessary dongle are not expensive, and it really helps with the anxiety factor. Within LeafSpy you can set the amount of battery power that you want it to hide from you (similar to what the car itself does), I set that as low as possible because the car is already hiding plenty, I want to have the most accurate ACTUAL amounts from LeafSpy. Also, there are new DCFC locations popping up around Vermont and Phil Scott has recently pledged to get them every 50 miles along the main corridors.

 

[jjeff]

Also not sure if OP uses ECO or not but enabling it will drop your heat draw by as much as 1/3rd. True you lose around 30% of your heat output but if you can live with that, ECO might be an option.
If you have the ability(L2 charging at home and at work also is ideal) preheating can also help a lot, starting out with a warm car greatly reduces initial heat heed from the battery. I say L2 as even though you can also preheat with L1, you'll also lose a bit of charge using L1 whereas L2 with at least 16a is sufficient to keep up with the heater draw so you don't lose charge.
Yes you can lose up to 50% range in extreme cold vs warm weather but with some planning and a few workarounds, hopefully, you could get that down to closer to 25% or less.
It's one reason I tell people in very cold climates to expect as much as a 50% loss of range in extreme cold, it's a worst-case scenario people should be aware of when determining if a particular battery will work for them, and then there is yearly degradation of the battery......what works today might not in 5 years as the battery degrades/loses capacity.

 

[knightmb]

It's one reason I tell people in very cold climates to expect as much as a 50% loss of range in extreme cold, it's a worst-case scenario people should be aware of when determining if a particular battery will work for them, and then there is yearly degradation of the battery......what works today might not in 5 years as the battery degrades/loses capacity.

It is a good rule of thumb for new EV drivers because:
1) They probably never paid much attention to tire pressure before and even if they did, the default door sticker of 36 PSI is a bare minimum that when coupled with really cold weather basically makes the tires flat which greatly reduces range. I've driven around on 32 PSI tires (because of snow) on the paved surfaces and it eats range like your towing a parachute everywhere.
2) They probably set the climate control to +80F thinking that is the temperature of the air coming in instead of the actual cabin temperature. I know from my wife's *cough* preference for really high temperature settings that having your Heat running at the max (6 kW) all the time will also eat range like crazy.
3) Higher air density, more resistance, less range as a double bonus for any vehicle driving in the cold
4) Heat pump can freeze over in high moisture events. I just discovered this recently, the heat pump radiator can freeze over in high humidity areas even if the temperature isn't under 30F. I've had my heat pump freeze over in just 30F temperatures due to humidity, but once I cleaned out my heat pump radiator, it functioned just fine all the way down to teen range temperatures instead of stopping.

 

[DougWantsALeaf]

If humidity isn't too bad, recircilate asuch as possible too.

 

[LeftieBiker]

If humidity isn't too bad, recircilate asuch as possible too.

This is where Auto/Partial Recirculate is helpful.

 

[Triggerhappy007]

The salesman and service manager told me to expect 145 miles on a full charge, and, in their words "maybe 10% or 15% fewer miles in the cold."

My experience in single-digit temperatures (F): 50% fewer miles. Barely 71 miles on a full charge brings me below 10 miles remaining, around 6% on the battery meter.

What speed were you driving at? The rated range is not at highway speed, it's more like 55 mph in good weather.

When the display say 6%, you have about 16% left. Nissan hides the actual percentage when you get low so you don't get stuck.

 

[kitra]

We "had" a 2020 LEAF for 10,400 miles and 2 years. Out best battery range was when it was 86 degrees outside, didn't use the AC, drove 45 miles per hour and under and when in town timed the traffic lights. Got 135 miles on the battery running and down to 6%. And when we had very cold weather during the ownership, 18 degrees. Left the Car outside. Drove to a Fast Charger with 22% battery. The LEAF would not charge at all.
The Dealership said the batteries were too cold to accept a charge. We have mild weather here in general which is good for the LEAF. On average, driving the LEAF like we do out Petrol Cars, we would get 85 - 90 miles with the charge at an 80% starting point. Nissan had over 12 years to add battery temperature management to the LEAF and never did. We sold ours due to 7% battery degradation in 10K miles and expensive insurance costs.