New to Leaf, and new to forum.

[ElectriCute]

I'm new here and wish to say hello to you all. I live in Arizona and just recently purchased a 2022 Leaf SV. This is my first EV, and I must say, what a great car. I really like the idea of not polluting the air while driving.

I would so appreciate any advice that would help in trouble free driving, especially considering possible battery degradation due to the extreme summer heat here, which is of concern. Has anyone noticed any negative affect of extreme heat on your Leaf's battery?

Thank you everyone. I look forward to my time spent here.

 

[Deleted member 32746]

congratulations on your new car.
my advice to you is drive the car and enjoy it. Yes you will deal with range anxiety till you get comfortable with your car but just keep an eye on the level of charge the battery has left and you will be fine, (sort of like an ice car gas tank).
I would reccomend grabing the owners manual and looking thru them to get familiar with the car you will be suprised how many helpful things you will find in there.
There are a lot of good people in this group so if the question has'nt already been answered I'm sure someone will have an helpful response.

 

[DougWantsALeaf]

Congrats and welcome. If you don't need the full range, just use the car charge timer to charge up to 80ish percent at night (~10% per hour in level 2) .

Enjoy the car and never having to go to the gas station again.

We have 2 Leaf Pluses, both 2019s. (S+ and SV+)

 

[goldbrick]

Earlier Leafs certainly had faster degradation due to the heat in AZ. The later models seem to do better so your car should do well.

The worst thing for degradation is leaving the car 100% charged at high temperature. You can't do much about the temperature but you can avoid leaving the car sit for days fully charged or nearly fully charged, especially when it's hot. Otherwise, don't worry too much about it and enjoy the car.

 

[LeftieBiker]

Finally, if you live in a place where it cools off at night, park the car outdoors, or find a way to get that cool night air into your garage.

 

[knightmb]

The worst thing for degradation is leaving the car 100% charged at high temperature. You can't do much about the temperature but you can avoid leaving the car sit for days fully charged or nearly fully charged, especially when it's hot. Otherwise, don't worry too much about it and enjoy the car.

I would argue that a full discharge + maximum temperature (140F) would hurt more as demonstrated by this owner who frequently abused his battery pack and was able to actually get it to drop a bar on the capacity after +30K miles.
https://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=25773&start=1250
Look for the pictures near the bottom I posted, that is probably the worse way to take care of any battery pack.

 

[goldbrick]

Good point. The standard advice is to not leave the battery at either extreme for a long period of time. Usually this is a problem for high state of charge since when folks run out of charge they usually charge right away when they get to a charger. On the other hand, I'd guess it's more common for the car to be left fully charged (to 100%) so it's ready to go when needed later. Either one is hard on the battery and high heat is a compounding factor in both cases.

 

[knightmb]

Good point. The standard advice is to not leave the battery at either extreme for a long period of time. Usually this is a problem for high state of charge since when folks run out of charge they usually charge right away when they get to a charger. On the other hand, I'd guess it's more common for the car to be left fully charged (to 100%) so it's ready to go when needed later. Either one is hard on the battery and high heat is a compounding factor in both cases.

I agree, being left 100% longer is probably worse than 0% for shorter amounts of time, but we know that high heat helps on neither end of the spectrum. :?

 

[ElectriCute]

I wish to thank all of you for replying. I so appreciate the advice given. I took it for a 35 mile romp on the highway at 88 degrees outside temp. The battery temp was right in the middle. Exact same spot as when I started out. I would assume, then, that I shouldn't have any issues.

I plan on just using the car for necessary trips around town, and make sure I at least use the car once per week minimum.

Thanks again.

 

[ElectriCute]

congratulations on your new car.
my advice to you is drive the car and enjoy it. Yes you will deal with range anxiety till you get comfortable with your car but just keep an eye on the level of charge the battery has left and you will be fine, (sort of like an ice car gas tank).
I would reccomend grabing the owners manual and looking thru them to get familiar with the car you will be suprised how many helpful things you will find in there.
There are a lot of good people in this group so if the question has'nt already been answered I'm sure someone will have an helpful response.

Thank you. I will indeed enjoy it. No too concerned about range as it will be used for around town use. Now if only you can set max charge without hitting 100%.

 

[ElectriCute]

congratulations on your new car.
my advice to you is drive the car and enjoy it. Yes you will deal with range anxiety till you get comfortable with your car but just keep an eye on the level of charge the battery has left and you will be fine, (sort of like an ice car gas tank).
I would reccomend grabing the owners manual and looking thru them to get familiar with the car you will be suprised how many helpful things you will find in there.
There are a lot of good people in this group so if the question has'nt already been answered I'm sure someone will have an helpful response.

Thank you. I will indeed enjoy it. No too concerned about range as it will be used for around town use. Now if only you can set max charge without hitting 100%.

 

[ElectriCute]

Congrats and welcome. If you don't need the full range, just use the car charge timer to charge up to 80ish percent at night (~10% per hour in level 2) .

Enjoy the car and never having to go to the gas station again.

We have 2 Leaf Pluses, both 2019s. (S+ and SV+)

Thanks. Talking about 80%ish, is there a way of having the charger stop around that percentage without reaching max and continue to trickle charge?

 

[ElectriCute]

Earlier Leafs certainly had faster degradation due to the heat in AZ. The later models seem to do better so your car should do well.

The worst thing for degradation is leaving the car 100% charged at high temperature. You can't do much about the temperature but you can avoid leaving the car sit for days fully charged or nearly fully charged, especially when it's hot. Otherwise, don't worry too much about it and enjoy the car.

Thank you for replying. I won't be using the car all that much, perhaps once a week. Being retired, I'm not commuting anymore. So it will be used as a sort of runabout. Is just using it once a week or two weeks OK, or is that not enough? I mostly just walk or cycle.

 

[ElectriCute]

Good point. The standard advice is to not leave the battery at either extreme for a long period of time. Usually this is a problem for high state of charge since when folks run out of charge they usually charge right away when they get to a charger. On the other hand, I'd guess it's more common for the car to be left fully charged (to 100%) so it's ready to go when needed later. Either one is hard on the battery and high heat is a compounding factor in both cases.

I won't be charging it after every use. I'll wait until it gets to around 30% and charge during the night when it's off peak hours.

 

[ElectriCute]

Finally, if you live in a place where it cools off at night, park the car outdoors, or find a way to get that cool night air into your garage.

It does cool off some during the night, but not as much as it used to. Since the valley has grown quite a lot over the years, there is more asphalt and concrete which holds heat. And when the sun goes down, that stored heat is radiated off keeping the temps higher than it was before during the night.

 

[knightmb]

Finally, if you live in a place where it cools off at night, park the car outdoors, or find a way to get that cool night air into your garage.

It does cool off some during the night, but not as much as it used to. Since the valley has grown quite a lot over the years, there is more asphalt and concrete which holds heat. And when the sun goes down, that stored heat is radiated off keeping the temps higher than it was before during the night.

Going by the information you posted, you should be just fine. Use it like a car, but also know that nearly all the Gen 2 Leaf have a "hidden reserve" after you reach 0% battery, should an emergency time ever come up that requires you to stretch your distance out longer than you are comfortable with. For the + models (with the 62 kWH battery pack, it's usually an extra +20 miles or more), for your Leaf, which I think you posted that it was the 40 kWh battery pack model, you'll get a little less. If my wife's Leaf is a good indicator, you get about +10 miles after you reach the 0% battery (not miles) mark. Those miles are driving gentle of course, not high speed freeway driving. It took my wife a while to get used to knowing that even at 0%, she should reach any charger or home in town without any issues.

 

[ElectriCute]

Finally, if you live in a place where it cools off at night, park the car outdoors, or find a way to get that cool night air into your garage.

It does cool off some during the night, but not as much as it used to. Since the valley has grown quite a lot over the years, there is more asphalt and concrete which holds heat. And when the sun goes down, that stored heat is radiated off keeping the temps higher than it was before during the night.

Going by the information you posted, you should be just fine. Use it like a car, but also know that nearly all the Gen 2 Leaf have a "hidden reserve" after you reach 0% battery, should an emergency time ever come up that requires you to stretch your distance out longer than you are comfortable with. For the + models (with the 62 kWH battery pack, it's usually an extra +20 miles or more), for your Leaf, which I think you posted that it was the 40 kWh battery pack model, you'll get a little less. If my wife's Leaf is a good indicator, you get about +10 miles after you reach the 0% battery (not miles) mark. Those miles are driving gentle of course, not high speed freeway driving. It took my wife a while to get used to knowing that even at 0%, she should reach any charger or home in town without any issues.

Thank you for that info. That's certainly reassuring. Nice to know there's a little reserve in the tank, so to speak. Relieves a little distance anxiety.