first extended drive in my 2014 Leaf

rawlins02 said:

I've had the car one week. Last night I drove 50 miles to an event. I was aware of a Level 2 charger 2 blocks from destination. Started the trip with 92% charge and GOM at 82 miles. I have all 12 bars showing on this 2014 Leaf S w/ 36,500 miles. Most of the route was highway and I averaged between 55-60 mph. Air temperature in upper teens. I did not run the heater on way there.

After 50 miles the battery was at about 30% and GOM had an estimated 25 miles remaining.

My car has a 6.6 kW charger. Over 3.5 hours at the Level 2 the battery accepted 17.6 kWh, up to 100%. Interesting that the battery showed it had around 30% of a charge but still gained 17.6 kWh. This would suggest it can hold > 22 kWh. The sign next to station said cost was $0.25 per kWh. Chargepoint shows no charge on my account. That would be nice.

I used the heater sparingly on the way home. Takes several minutes longer to warm up than I'd thought. Made 50 mile drive home, in 12 degree weather and light snow going 60-65 mph, up and down hills, with plenty of range to spare. Battery from 100% down to 30%. Averaging around 3.5 miles per kWh.

Pretty pleased with performance on this first adventure.

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Amped said:

By they way, if you have Eversource for your electricity, they are offering a clipper creek L2 charger for your home for $500. http://www.plugmyride.org This is the one: https://store.clippercreek.com/level2/level2-20-to-32/cs-40-32-amp-ev-charging-station it also comes with itron web enabled so you can track your charging.

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LeftieBiker said:

When you talk about the "GOM" do you mean the guestimator on the dash? Because the car has a much more accurate range estimator in the Nav system - assuming it's not an S. If it is an S, then subtracting about 30% from the range shown will give a fairly accurate estimate.

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SageBrush said:

Was the miles/kWh meter reset before the trip ?
I will guess not, since the numbers would not make sense.

Say your battery is in excellent shape and has 22 kWh usable capacity
Since you left home with a SOC of 92%, you would have started with 22*0.92 = 20.24 kWh,
and 1.76 kWh 'empty'

Since the refill accepted 17.6 kWh, the trip consumed (17.6 - 1.76) = 15.84 kWh
That implies a consumption rate of (50/15.84) = 3.16 miles/kWh

It also means you had (20.24 - 15.84) = 4.4 kWh left in the battery upon arrival to the destination
so the SoC should have been (4.4/22) = 20%

Conclusion ?
You drove a lot more efficiently than 3.16 miles/kWh, and I suspect you do not have a 22 kWh battery capacity.

What does LeafSpy tell you regarding Ahr capacity ?

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jjeff said:

With your setup I'd figure ~30%/hr gain using a full power 30a EVSE, ~20%/hr with a 20a EVSE and ~15%/hr with a basic 16a L2 EVSE(or if you had the 3.6kw Leaf charger).
IMO the faster L2 is really worth it in cases like yours, without it in 3.5hrs I figure you'd have only gained ~50% charge, bringing you up to 80%. I guess since it only took ~70% for your one way trip you still would have been OK but I personally like to have more than a 10% cushion if possible and with the faster L2 it was easy to get a nice large cushion like you got, in hind site you could have run heat at a much warmer setting for comfort but again only with the faster L2 charger.

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