Winter is hard on range!

[DNAinaGoodWay]

+1 charge baby charge!

 

[IraqiInvaderGnr]

if you are in a cold climate charge to 100% for your commute ! use the timer and preheat, charging to 80% and then hitting VLBW is worse for the pack than charging to 100% having a comfortable drive and getting home at 10 to 15%!!!!!!!!!

I just dont see alll the reason to baby a pack and kill your day if you are leasing anyway

I charge to 100% every day and topp when needed during the workday with trickle
34,500 miles and have all 12 cap bars

its winter! its cold ! charge all you can

Completely agree. I have preheat set at 90°F and start the preheat an hour before I depart.

 

[johnrhansen]

Is it that hard on the battery to drain it way down?

 

[EatsShootsandLeafs]

I always 80% but need to go to 100%. The range hit on this car in the winter is frankly monstrous.

 

[Klayfish]

if you are in a cold climate charge to 100% for your commute ! use the timer and preheat, charging to 80% and then hitting VLBW is worse for the pack than charging to 100% having a comfortable drive and getting home at 10 to 15%!!!!!!!!!

I just dont see alll the reason to baby a pack and kill your day if you are leasing anyway

I charge to 100% every day and topp when needed during the workday with trickle
34,500 miles and have all 12 cap bars

its winter! its cold ! charge all you can

Completely agree. I have preheat set at 90°F and start the preheat an hour before I depart.

An hour before departure? Will it stay on that long? I have mine set to preheat, but it seems like it heats the cabin then shuts off?

 

[IraqiInvaderGnr]

if you are in a cold climate charge to 100% for your commute ! use the timer and preheat, charging to 80% and then hitting VLBW is worse for the pack than charging to 100% having a comfortable drive and getting home at 10 to 15%!!!!!!!!!

I just dont see alll the reason to baby a pack and kill your day if you are leasing anyway

I charge to 100% every day and topp when needed during the workday with trickle
34,500 miles and have all 12 cap bars

its winter! its cold ! charge all you can

Completely agree. I have preheat set at 90°F and start the preheat an hour before I depart.

An hour before departure? Will it stay on that long? I have mine set to preheat, but it seems like it heats the cabin then shuts off?

I don't use the climate control timer. I use the car wings app and turn on climate control. I don't think the climate control timer works as well.

 

[Rauv]

I thought that charging to 100% versus 80% wasted energy because the upper 20% was tapered down and full of balancing inefficiency. Maybe I'm dead wrong. Does anyone have a graph of Gids received by the battery vs kwh over a full charge?

 

[LeftieBiker]

I thought that charging to 100% versus 80% wasted energy because the upper 20% was tapered down and full of balancing inefficiency. Maybe I'm dead wrong. Does anyone have a graph of Gids received by the battery vs kwh over a full charge?

I think that you're confusing the much slower end charge that DCQC stations use to prevent overheating with the more sharply-tapering charge you get with L-1 or L-2. The latter seem to slow for the last few percent, not the last twenty percent.

 

[johnrhansen]

When charging to 100 percent, not a whole lot happens to the charge in the last hour. It goes up maybe 1 percent or so. All the while the computer and cooling system are drawing power. I'd imagine that's where most of that inefficiency is.

I thought that charging to 100% versus 80% wasted energy because the upper 20% was tapered down and full of balancing inefficiency. Maybe I'm dead wrong. Does anyone have a graph of Gids received by the battery vs kwh over a full charge?

I think that you're confusing the much slower end charge that DCQC stations use to prevent overheating with the more sharply-tapering charge you get with L-1 or L-2. The latter seem to slow for the last few percent, not the last twenty percent.

 

[MarvGordon]

Winter? how about MINNESOTA Winter?

Was driving my '13 SL in morning/evening temps of -12F to 0ish weather last week. My daily drive (one way) is 37 Miles of mostly 55MPH highway. I was using the seat heaters but had to cycle on the heater for at least half of my drive. We had quite a few days of winds out of the NW at 10-12MPH which is a direct headwind on my way home. I was getting around 50% efficiency. Considering the brutal weather, I was quite happy with the car.

40F is SPRING in these parts :lol:

 

[thankyouOB]

It's been a bit colder than normal here in San Diego (35°F at night, yes I know that's still not "cold" compared to other cities) so I did notice whenever we turned the heater on, we would see a significant loss in charge. Last night I drove about 23 miles at night starting at 55% and ended up at home with 20% while the heater was on through half of that time.

We just purchased our Nissan Leaf 2013 last weekend, but after reading a few posts on this forum, it makes me concerned about the battery degradation throughout time. I've been driving the car for less than a week and all is great so far.
I usually start with 100% charge. (I've read a lot about 80% charge; is it better to be on 80% charge than 100%?).
Are there certain specific things a new owner should make sure to do to try to preserve the battery as much as possible? Or is it an inevitable degradation?

My work commute is 52 miles every weekday (26 each way, 10 mi city / 16 mi freeway). Although I can easily make it now, I've read some people's battery degradation has unallowed them to make their regular work commutes they were once able to do with their Leaf. Will I eventually not be able to make this commute?

Thanks in advance!

there are many factors at work here, especially whether you are in a hot or cool part of san diego.
i would say you will be able to make it for years, though you may have to charge to 100% down the road.
my commute is 51 miles, with slightly more freeway driving, though in LA most of that is around 50-60.

 

[rodkar]

there are many factors at work here, especially whether you are in a hot or cool part of san diego.
i would say you will be able to make it for years, though you may have to charge to 100% down the road.
my commute is 51 miles, with slightly more freeway driving, though in LA most of that is around 50-60.

Thank you. The area I'm in is usually moderate. I mean sometimes we see 90°F but usually its typical san diego weather (60°F - 80°F) (Also very similar to LA, as you know).

But speaking of "charging to 100%", I have been reading about a lot of people charging to only 80%. Is that because of the efficiency of the charger? Or is does it preserve the battery longer than charging it to 100%?

 

[LeftieBiker]

there are many factors at work here, especially whether you are in a hot or cool part of san diego.
i would say you will be able to make it for years, though you may have to charge to 100% down the road.
my commute is 51 miles, with slightly more freeway driving, though in LA most of that is around 50-60.

Thank you. The area I'm in is usually moderate. I mean sometimes we see 90°F but usually its typical san diego weather (60°F - 80°F) (Also very similar to LA, as you know).

But speaking of "charging to 100%", I have been reading about a lot of people charging to only 80%. Is that because of the efficiency of the charger? Or is does it preserve the battery longer than charging it to 100%?

It's for battery life. If you lease there is no reason to worry about it, other than passing on a better car to whoever buys it. If you own or plan to buy off lease, then it's a good idea to only charge to 100% if you will be using the car immediately after it reaches Full.

 

[firtree]

SF Bay Area. We got down to 25 at night (cold for us) and the days were in the 30s. I've given up on my heater -- it never gets warm and eats my range terribly. I keep an old down jacket in the car to wrap around my legs, use the heat seaters and steering wheel heater (when I need it), and wear cold weather appropriate garb: down coat, wool layers, gloves etc. I don't know how you all in "real winter" states manage. I guess your coldness tolerance is probably much higher than mine! Sending you all warm thoughts...

 

[Nuitari]

Been getting -20C/-4F weather here in Montreal.
Day starts out at 1 battery bar of temperature and the range is not that great anymore.
Even when charging at work I now get back home on VLBW.

The climate timer starts the pre heating at least an hour and a half before the departure time.

 

[LeftieBiker]

Been getting -20C/-4F weather here in Montreal.
Day starts out at 1 battery bar of temperature and the range is not that great anymore.
Even when charging at work I now get back home on VLBW.

The climate timer starts the pre heating at least an hour and a half before the departure time.

Assuming it actually pre-heats for more than 15 minutes, why would you want to pre-heat the car for 90 minutes? I find that two or three minutes is enough to make the car tolerable, and it heats more quickly while I drive it. Try 15 minutes.

 

[LeftieBiker]

BTW, I've noticed something strange with my energy usage readings. The one on the dashboard seems to be staying at 4.2 after the last reset a month ago, while the one buried in the center display shows more likely (and appalling) M/KWH numbers. I thought the dash display was just another way to show the same energy use record, but apparently not...?

 

[dgpcolorado]

SF Bay Area. We got down to 25 at night (cold for us) and the days were in the 30s. I've given up on my heater -- it never gets warm and eats my range terribly. I keep an old down jacket in the car to wrap around my legs, use the heat seaters and steering wheel heater (when I need it), and wear cold weather appropriate garb: down coat, wool layers, gloves etc. I don't know how you all in "real winter" states manage. I guess your coldness tolerance is probably much higher than mine! Sending you all warm thoughts...

One does become acclimated somewhat to cold (and I find I have to get used to warm weather in summer). But I dress for winter with multiple layers, including long underwear and gloves (although they aren't really necessary with the heated steering wheel it is nice to have them when outside the car). I keep a down jacket in the LEAF (and also in my ICE car). If I get stranded or have to fix a tire I want to keep from freezing. I also keep a sleeping bag in my ICE car for venturing beyond LEAF range: if I get stuck and have to spend the night in the car I want some survival gear. While it may be unusual to get stuck with modern weather forecasts and road reports it can happen, especially in the moutains.

Like the OP says: "Winter is hard on range!" I got home last night at 9:30 PM in 10-14ºF temperatures with 31 Gids left (60 miles, 2500 feet of elevation change). I couldn't use the heater even to defrost the windshield so I scraped it a bit with my ice scraper; first time I've ever used it on the inside of the windshield. Blowing outside air is usually enough to keep it clear but blowing 10º air on it isn't very effective! If public charge stations existed here I'd have plugged in for a few minutes to heat the car a bit and defrost the windshield, but since that isn't an option I do the best I can. Nighttime drives are particularly risky here due to deer on the highway so later is better: fewer oncoming cars to blind me with headlights and I can drive slowly without impeding traffic, while on high deer alert. (The car my LEAF replaced was killed by a deer, and vice versa.)

Being dressed warmly — and wearing that down jacket — cold wasn't an issue. It was only a forty-five minute drive home after a movie and grocery shopping. Not a big deal. But if it was -10ºF I'd have to come up with a "plan B"; that wouldn't work with my degraded battery.

 

[Berlino]

Assuming it actually pre-heats for more than 15 minutes, why would you want to pre-heat the car for 90 minutes? I find that two or three minutes is enough to make the car tolerable, and it heats more quickly while I drive it. Try 15 minutes.

One case is if you've paid to use a public charging station, would like to pre-heat and plan to return to the car 20 minutes after charging to 100%.

If you wait to activate the pre-heat, the LEAF may send a "recharge complete" message to the charging station, causing it to turn off until you reactivate it for a fee.

It is better in such a case to make sure the heat is turned on before the charge is 100% complete. This wastes energy, so is unfortunate, but it might be the only way to avoid returning to a freezing car (-5°F this evening).

 

[LeftieBiker]

That scenario hadn't occurred to me. I wouldn't do it with a free station, though, or you risk the ire of other EV drivers, and the possible news story "EV Driver Uses Free Power to Overheat Car."