Reduced Range AND Reduced Charging Time

[tailgate1234]

I have been consistently getting 45-50 miles of range on 100% charge for 6 months or so now. I am in N. California so there are no extreme heat or cold issues that would affect battery life, and my LEAF still shows I have 12 battery segments remaining. It is taking only about 4 hours to fully charge from near empty battery to 100% full, and a little more than 3 hours to 80%. Something seems wrong here - either I have had significant battery degradation not showing up as reduced battery segments (seems unlikely because I am not in Arizona or a similar hot place) or the car doesn't seem to be able to accurately determine when the car is at a high charge or low charge state (seems much more likely to me). I am at about 20,000 miles.

Anybody experience this problem? My apologies if this has been covered elsewhere.

I

 

[kubel]

Has your dashboard miles per kWh decreased? If not, have you left it at 100% charge overnight to allow the cells to balance?

 

[leafwing]

I have been consistently getting 45-50 miles of range on 100% charge for 6 months or so now. I am in N. California so there are no extreme heat or cold issues that would affect battery life, and my LEAF still shows I have 12 battery segments remaining. It is taking only about 4 hours to fully charge from near empty battery to 100% full, and a little more than 3 hours to 80%. Something seems wrong here - either I have had significant battery degradation not showing up as reduced battery segments (seems unlikely because I am not in Arizona or a similar hot place) or the car doesn't seem to be able to accurately determine when the car is at a high charge or low charge state (seems much more likely to me). I am at about 20,000 miles.

Anybody experience this problem? My apologies if this has been covered elsewhere.

I

Are you getting 45-50 miles from 100% to turtle? What is your capacity reading on the display when you get home? What is your average speed and your m/kw?

 

[mwalsh]

Are you going all the way to turtle? What's the mileage on your odo?

 

[tailgate1234]

I am figuring my range to low battery warning/one red segment and single digit miles left, not to turtle. I get higher range - 50 mi - going at 55-60 on the highway and surprisingly lower range, 45 miles or so, in stop and go traffic (my commute). One other strange thing I've noticed is that when my car is parked I can sometimes lose between 1 and 2 segments of charge. My consumption has consistently been about 4 mi/kwh on the car's display and 5 on Carwings (I've never understood why different). I know mileage can vary depending on driving habits, weather, etc... but why I can charge from one red segment to 100% in 4 hours is beyond me.

 

[DaveEV]

Next time you plan on driving from 100% to LBW, take some notes. It's really hard to know for sure unless you have exact numbers.

1. Start with a 100% charge.
2. Reset your a trip odometer and your efficiency meter.
3. Do you drive, make note of how much HVAC you're using and ambient temperatures.
4. When you get to LBW, note trip odometer and efficiency meter.
5. Even better, continue to VLBW and note trip odometer and efficiency meter.

Someone else in the Bay Area a while back noticed quickly dropping range - it turned out he had a bad module which took a couple dealer visits to properly diagnose, but if I recall he was getting much less range than you.

If Carwings efficiency does not closely match your car's efficiency gauge, you need to have NTB-11-041 applied to your vehicle. It will match within 0.1 mi/kWh after the update.

My last couple charges from LBW or just after to 80% took between 3:22-3:30. Going down to VLBW adds about 30-45 minutes (don't have accurate data there since it so rarely happens). Charging from 80-100% generally takes about 1:15. I pretty much never charge straight to 100% - I always use an end-timer to 80% for bulk charging then hit the timer-override button between 30-90 minutes before I leave depending on how full I want it if I need more than an 80% charge to minimize time spent at high SOC. My LEAF is about the same age as yours and I have around 15k miles on it.

 

[planet4ever]

I have been consistently getting 45-50 miles of range on 100% charge for 6 months or so now. I am in N. California so there are no extreme heat or cold issues that would affect battery life, and my LEAF still shows I have 12 battery segments remaining.

I assume you mean 12 battery capacity segments (the skinny ones) not 12 battery charge segments (the fat ones on the right side). No matter how bad your battery is you will always have 12 charge segments when fully charged.

Even here in the Bay Area it has been getting quite cold at night. Do you keep your car outside like I do? Have you ever seen the battery temperature drop to 3 bars? (I have.) It's very unlikely that your battery temp has dropped to 30°F, but if it had, Tony's chart says that alone would cost you 10% in battery capacity. At least that's a temporary loss; hang in there and things may look rosy again next summer.

I know mileage can vary depending on driving habits, weather, etc... but why I can charge from one red segment to 100% in 4 hours is beyond me.

Actually, the last two segments are blue and white, just like the first ten, and there is nothing wrong with using them. If you are getting 4 m/kWh on the dash gauge you could probably go another 10 miles after the last bar disappears. Tony's chart says you still have about 26% of your usable capacity left when you drop to one bar, so think of it as 3/4 of a charge if you go from there to 100%. Even so, four hours is rather suspicious unless the battery is in a deep freeze or you have lost one or more capacity bars.

Ray

 

[Reddy]

I am figuring my range to low battery warning/one red segment and single digit miles left, not to turtle. I get higher range - 50 mi - going at 55-60 on the highway and surprisingly lower range, 45 miles or so, in stop and go traffic (my commute). One other strange thing I've noticed is that when my car is parked I can sometimes lose between 1 and 2 segments of charge. My consumption has consistently been about 4 mi/kwh on the car's display and 5 on Carwings (I've never understood why different). I know mileage can vary depending on driving habits, weather, etc... but why I can charge from one red segment to 100% in 4 hours is beyond me.

You might have a parasitic draw while off, or perhaps have lost some regen ability???? It's always been tough for me to get super high mi/kwh in the city with all the stop signs near me. I would take it to the dealer and have it checked out.

Reddy

 

[smkettner]

I speculate you will lose your first bar in the next 30 days or as soon as it warms up a bit.

 

[KennyLewis]

Some people have had success with disconnecting the negative lead to the 12 volt battery for a few minutes. Settings will need to be re-entered.

 

[mwalsh]

Sorry, I missed where you said you had 20k on your car. Do you use heat? If you do, things don't seem too far out of line to me. If you don't, then it looks like you do have something going on. But it could just be that you're driving without considering economy.

At that last red segment (ie: at or near LBW) I've typically covered 61-65 miles at full highway speeds (65mph). This is without any use of heat. But I drive for economy in that I use ECO almost exclusively too, and get ~4.6 miles/Kwh on average.

But I also know there are 13 miles left once I get to LBW, so it's 74-78 miles total range. According to Nisssan, my pack is 11% degraded at 25,000 miles. My car takes around 4 hours to recharge to 100% from around the last red bar. Hope that helps you in determining if you have an issue.

Perhaps go in to your dealer and demand the figure for degradation (it's called the Gradual Capacity Loss Coeficient)? They can easily pull it using their equipment.

 

[madhaus]

I am also getting faster charges and obviously less capacity, and I assumed it was due to the cold weather we've been having (in the Bay Area). We've had many days where I had to scrape frost/ice off the windshield. Even when it's too warm for frost, I have to run the defroster to get the windshield clear enough to drive safely at 7:30 am. That takes a serious energy hit if I'm not plugged in and pre-condition.

I also have Jim's WattsLeft meter, which is showing I'm charging to 269 gids at "100%" or 210 at "80%" and the percentage readings are coming in 3-5% below expected. With 9000 miles on the car, again I am attributing it to cold because the drop-off happened very suddenly. If it were a capacity loss issue the failure to charge to 280 or 225 should have been a lot more gradual.

And I do park my car on the driveway, so it gets cold. I also don't charge using the car timer but the Blink timer, so it's charging at midnight, done before 4, and has 3.5 hours to sit cold and lose more charge. :roll: