What is the actual miles from a full charge on the freeway

[TonyWilliams]

I did 75 miles today from a full charge. No bars remaining, and about 3 or 4 miles remaining (I don't remember if I got into the dashed lines in place of miles remaining).

About 50% freeway, varying speeds between 60-70, mostly only me in the car, no significant grades (but plenty of ups and downs in San Diego), air conditioning on (but it was a 72 degree day). The other 50% was lots of stop and go city driving.

My average miles per KW meter says 3.8.

 

[Herm]

You have to also look at discharge C levels. Given that Volt has a bigger motor and substantially smaller battery, they discarge the battery at more than 10C (at high power demand). Leaf discharge is much lower. This holds good at any power demand too - Volt is always discharging at higher levels. That will have a marked effect on the battery.
Infact I think that is why Volt needs battery cooling and Leaf doesn't (I've a thread on that somewhere).

Good point..Tesla's Elon Musk also talked about that, a large battery pack is more forgiving than a smaller one.

 

[EVDrive]

I think the pack will do worse than people here think for high DOD and 100% charging. I think it will also age more than expected. Don;t forget those with lead foots and high temp regions. We shall see.

Lead foots won't make 70 miles regularly at highway speeds

I commute 100 miles a day when I drive to work and L2 (once/week). Last week I decided to go 75 - 80mph on the way home (with a full charge minus five miles of putting around town after work). I made it 30 miles before I dropped to 17 miles of estimated range left with 20 miles to go. Oh **** moment... fun over, I slowed down to 50 mph and made it home with a low battery warning and 5 miles of stated range left. On the other hand, I drove 50 miles at 50- 55mph when I first got my leaf and made it to work with 49 miles of stated range remaining. Almost enough left to try to make it home without a charge.

Zenn is the right way to drive this car long distances. I am comfortable with 70 miles at 55mph but more than that I find a way to juice up on the way. Where my worry free fast L3 chargers at?

 

[TonyWilliams]

I am comfortable with 70 miles at 55mph but more than that I find a way to juice up on the way. Where my worry free fast L3 chargers at?

My rule of thumbs are:

* 6/60 (10/100 in metric); 6 miles per fuel bar at 60mph of steady FREEWAY driving.

or

* 7 miles per fuel bar around town (say 25mph - 50mph range, bracketing the 38mph ideal speed)


So, with my drive today, with half the 75 miles driven on the freeway, I would have estimated before I left with a full charge of 12 fuel bars, that 50% of 12 would be 6 fuel bars at 6 miles per bar, or 36 miles.

Then, the remaining 6 fuel bars at 7 miles each would be 42 miles covered. Adding this 42 miles and the 36 freeway miles at 60mph, I could cover 78 miles total, which was very, very close to my actual 75 (with 3 or 4 miles remaining).

Using your 70 mile comfort level at 55mph, is about the same as my 6/60 formula. 12 fuel bars at 100% charge times 6 miles per fuel bar equals 72 miles. At a slower 55 mph, 70 miles of driving would give me a 5 to 10 mile reserve.

For parts of the world with big hills to climb, or heaters to run (much bigger drain than air conditioning), or snow / slush to drive through, or serious cold weather which would affect the battery performance, or heavy loads, etc; you need to adjust for that.

 

[EVDrive]

My rule of thumbs are:

* 6/60 (10/100 in metric); 6 miles per fuel bar at 60mph of steady FREEWAY driving.

or

* 7 miles per fuel bar around town (say 25mph - 50mph range, bracketing the 38mph ideal speed)

That is a clever way to think about it... 6/60.

 

[TonyWilliams]

That is a clever way to think about it... 6/60.

Probably 5/70 also, so about 60 miles (5x12 fuel bars) at 70mph.

Haven't thought of a simple mnemonic for the 7 mile / fuel bar.

5/70
6/60
7/city?

 

[mwalsh]

My rule of thumbs are:

* 6/60 (10/100 in metric); 6 miles per fuel bar at 60mph of steady FREEWAY driving.

or

* 7 miles per fuel bar around town (say 25mph - 50mph range, bracketing the 38mph ideal speed)

From my experience, I think you could probably push that out to 6/65.

I seem to do worse around town than I do on the highway. I don't know why.

 

[evnow]

I get more than 7 in the city - which implies 84 miles total. I've been getting nearly 100 lately (4.6 m/kwh and above).

Ofcourse, the bars are quite non-linear at the top.

 

[TonyWilliams]

Yes, I agree, 6/65 is possible, but I'm talking about the pre-planning, which gives a little buffer for the inevitable. The metric conversion might be a bit better... 10/100 (6.2 miles per bar / 62.1 mph).

So, if I show on Google/CarWings that I need to travel 72 miles on the freeway, with 6/60, I will probably launch assuming there are no variables (uphill grade, heater needed, cold batteries, weather on road for drag, unusual weight, serious headwind, etc).

Once underway, I will monitor my actual miles per KW per fuel bar, and adjust speed to match. I don't want to be stuck with having to SLOW down at the end of the trip just to complete it.

Just reset the mpKW meter and the trip odometer, and make a note as each fuel bar disappears.

The 12th fuel bar goes quickly, but when the 11th bar disappears, I should have covered 6 miles or better, 12 or better for the 10th, etc. My miles per KW should show 3mpk or better, and I can increase speed to 65, or 68, or whatever will more closely match the 3mpk burn rate, and the target miles as each fuel bar is used.

The sanity checks would continue, whereby when I click over the half way point of 36 miles, the sixth bar should be disappearing. If it's already gone, it's time to slow down to get back on track.

 

[rickbecker]

Yes, I agree, 6/65 is possible, but I'm talking about the pre-planning, which gives a little buffer for the inevitable. The metric conversion might be a bit better... 10/100 (6.2 miles per bar / 62.1 mph).

So, if I show on Google/CarWings that I need to travel 72 miles on the freeway, with 6/60, I will probably launch assuming there are no variables (uphill grade, heater needed, cold batteries, weather on road for drag, unusual weight, serious headwind, etc).

Once underway, I will monitor my actual miles per KW per fuel bar, and adjust speed to match. I don't want to be stuck with having to SLOW down at the end of the trip just to complete it.

Just reset the mpKW meter and the trip odometer, and make a note as each fuel bar disappears.

The 12th fuel bar goes quickly, but when the 11th bar disappears, I should have covered 6 miles or better, 12 or better for the 10th, etc. My miles per KW should show 3mpk or better, and I can increase speed to 65, or 68, or whatever will more closely match the 3mpk burn rate, and the target miles as each fuel bar is used.

The sanity checks would continue, whereby when I click over the half way point of 36 miles, the sixth bar should be disappearing. If it's already gone, it's time to slow down to get back on track.

WOW, great information! Thank you!

 

[Herm]

Once underway, I will monitor my actual miles per KW per fuel bar, and adjust speed to match. I don't want to be stuck with having to SLOW down at the end of the trip just to complete it.

Perhaps it would be much simpler just to slow down from the beginning.. 55 is a safe and effective speed to drive at, even in the hwy.

 

[ecoobsessive]

.....So, if I show on Google/CarWings that I need to travel 72 miles on the freeway, with 6/60, I will probably launch assuming there are no variables (uphill grade, heater needed, cold batteries, weather on road for drag, unusual weight, serious headwind, etc).

Once underway, I will monitor my actual miles per KW per fuel bar, and adjust speed to match. I don't want to be stuck with having to SLOW down at the end of the trip just to complete it.

Just reset the mpKW meter and the trip odometer, and make a note as each fuel bar disappears.

The 12th fuel bar goes quickly, but when the 11th bar disappears, I should have covered 6 miles or better, 12 or better for the 10th, etc. My miles per KW should show 3mpk or better, and I can increase speed to 65, or 68, or whatever will more closely match the 3mpk burn rate, and the target miles as each fuel bar is used......

I know you said "assuming no variables" but I think people planning commutes in hot or cold climates really need to factor in outside temperatures. It takes me only 3 bars to get to work in the morning, getting around 5.3 m/kw with 74 F outside and little or no A/C. I reset m/kw when I get to work. The trip home gets me about 4.3 m/kw and will use 4 or even 5 bars, with 97 F outside temp. I was noticing that the both the guess-o-meter and the bars were dropping so much faster on the way home. And I believe that I'm driving slower on the way home since there is more traffic. (It was easy to find average mph per trip in my previous Prius, haven't found that in the LEAF yet, so if it's in some display, please let me know - I've only had the car 2 weeks.) My commute is about 95% hwy trying and I try to keep it between 60 and 65 mph. Turning CC off in the afternoon will net me only 3+ miles according to the car - when it is 97 outside and I have A/C set to 78. (That must also be a guess-o-meter). Regardless, I'm still getting well over 80 miles on a full charge on the hwy- I rarely have to brake while on the hwy. Battery temp. is always 6 bars - in the morning and in the afternoon.

 

[evnow]

I know you said "assuming no variables" but I think people planning commutes in hot or cold climates really need to factor in outside temperatures. It takes me only 3 bars to get to work in the morning, getting around 5.3 m/kw with 74 F outside and little or no A/C. I reset m/kw when I get to work. The trip home gets me about 4.3 m/kw and will use 4 or even 5 bars, with 97 F outside temp.

Here was my commute today.

On the way to work - 8.1 m/kwh. On the way back 1.9 m/kwh for an average of 5.0. :lol:

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

as evnow states, its a roundtrip you have to consider. speed is a factor along with elevation, and prevailing wind directions. i can tell you that driving from Olympia to say federal way (before any MAJOR hills) i get much worse gas mileage than i do driving from federal way to Olympia.

the overall elevation change is minimal (lots of ups and downs) and one direction on a work commute is going against the wind. a 10 mph headwind is no different than driving 60 mph over 70 mph into zero wind.

 

[TonyWilliams]

Once underway, I will monitor my actual miles per KW per fuel bar, and adjust speed to match. I don't want to be stuck with having to SLOW down at the end of the trip just to complete it.

Perhaps it would be much simpler just to slow down from the beginning.. 55 is a safe and effective speed to drive at, even in the hwy.

I disagree. If I have preplanned to be able to drive 60 to 65 mph with my 6/60 formula, that's the speed I want. The cross checks as each fuel level bar disappears is to verify that plan, which may be affected by the many variables that I mentioned, and some I didn't.

As we say in the flying business, plan the flight, and fly the plan.

Driving 55 on freeways in California is a good way to get in an accident, and I won't do it unless I have to. Even 60-65 is iffy.

 

[TonyWilliams]

Made a trip tonight of 35 miles round trip, all freeway, with 6 bars of "fuel" remaining. My 6/60 formula said launch, and I set the cruise control on 65, knowing that I might have to either go slow on the way home, or stop at a Nissan dealer for a few miles of charge (5 minutes of charging for 1 mile on L2).

When I got to the destination, 17.5 miles away, I still had 3 bars remaining (and the crazy meter showed 18 miles). I decided to slow to 55 for the return (rather than charge for 10 or 15 minutes to get 2 or 3 miles).

When I pulled into the my garage, the final fuel bar disappeared, meaning that I still had at least six miles to go (at 60-65). A nice reserve.

 

[evnow]

If I have preplanned to be able to drive 60 to 65 mph with my 6/60 formula, that's the speed I want. The cross checks as each fuel level bar disappears is to verify that plan, which may be affected by the many variables that I mentioned, and some I didn't.

Why not just go by m/kwh instead of keeping track of bars and miles ?

 

[leafme]

It takes 47% more energy to drive at 70 miles per hour than it does at 60 miles per hour. Allow yourself a few more minutes at each end and you'll be fine.

I was taught it's the square of the velocity ratio... (70/60)^2=1.361. That's 36% more. What am I missing?

Malcolm

 

[Herm]

As we say in the flying business, plan the flight, and fly the plan.

Driving 55 on freeways in California is a good way to get in an accident, and I won't do it unless I have to. Even 60-65 is iffy.

Of course you have some reserve fuel in airplanes. Any actual statistics on rear-ended accidents in California?

Perhaps Gov Brown should enact a strict 55mph speed limit on the right lane of major hwys, the increased ticket revenue would be good, the fuel savings would be good and it would be easier to merge from an on-ramp. For the children!

 

[Kenkuramoto]

Thanks to many of the people replying to my post so some clarifications since the questions came up.
I drive 70 miles once per work week and I stay near where I work for 36 hours so I get a full charge before going home with 120 volt outlet.

When I drove to work for the first 20 miles I drove about 65 MPH then for the next 40 miles I averaged about 55 MPH and the last 10 miles I average about 35 MPH. On the way home I knew that the battery would not last so I averaged only 50 MPH and I drafted a truck for 20 miles to use only 5 miles on the battery I made it home with only 10 miles left on the battery. so for the entire trip home I averaged 45 miles per hour according to the digital read out in the car.

I went to the Nissan presentation at Mosconi Convention hall to test drive and watch their presentation. The presentation stated that if someone drove in the Bay Area at the average speed of 50 MPH they should expect to get 100 miles off each charge of the battery.

My other car is an 8 year old Prius and I still get 50 miles per gallon while driving the 70 mile one way trip so I know how to conserve on the battery and car to get the best performance in a car for the ultimate gas mileage. I know how to efficiently drive a energy car so it is not as if I drive like a speed freak. I am conservative and stay under the speed limit of the freeways.

The book may say that the range is significantly less than the actual read out of the car but with a driver like me I should get a much better range than most so for most the range would be even less than what I am getting on the freeway. I was expecting to get a loss of 20% due to the freeway driving, not over 30% loss due to freeway driving.

I have solar panels on my house so the charging of the car does not cost me anything for a full charge. So for my driving around town does not cost me anything except the cost of the car and insurance.