The perfect commute

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pipestem

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 26, 2017
Messages
60
Location
North Carolina
I love my 2015 Leaf S. Today I had the perfect commute home in the perfect car. Often of course the GOM will way overreact or somehow an extra 5% charge is lost (could be my driving, ok) This time, charge, GOM, and actual mileage perfectly aligned. I wish I had reset the efficiency meter.
I even had a nice sunset.

Charge: 100-80= 20 %
GOM: 88-72= 16
Actual Mileage: 16.5
Estimated Average speed: (4*30 + 12*65)/16= 56.25

Vehicle mileage: 30627
Recent Health: 86.2 %
Outside Temperature: 72

Did I mention this car is perfect? I swear if Nissan actually promoted these things like they promote their trucks, they would sell a million.

awesome.
 
yes I am replying to my own post. Today was more of the same. I actually drove more actual miles than GOM loss on the highway. This thing is great entertainment.

Charge: 100-80= 20%
GOM: 82-70= 12 (!!!)
Actual Miles: 16.6
Estimated Average speed: (3*30 + 13*65)/16= 58.4
Efficiency: 4.8 mi/kwh (from dash) (!!!)
Outside temp: 79F
 
Nope. I drive 16.5 each way. I fill up at work each day, at home or otherwise only on some weekends. The point is the GOM and the %charge suddenly seem a lot more reasonable, as if the car as turned over a new leaf.

Side note. I have come to realize I should keep it charged out of responsibility to others. A few months ago, an old friend called me at work and asked me to visit his disabled aunt who was in a hospital about 30 miles away. Fortunately I had charged. I realized it could have been one of my daughters calling.
 
pipestem said:
I love my 2015 Leaf S. Today I had the perfect commute home in the perfect car. Often of course the GOM will way overreact or somehow an extra 5% charge is lost (could be my driving, ok) This time, charge, GOM, and actual mileage perfectly aligned. I wish I had reset the efficiency meter.
I even had a nice sunset.

Charge: 100-80= 20 %
GOM: 88-72= 16
Actual Mileage: 16.5
Estimated Average speed: (4*30 + 12*65)/16= 56.25

Vehicle mileage: 30627
Recent Health: 86.2 %
Outside Temperature: 72

Did I mention this car is perfect? I swear if Nissan actually promoted these things like they promote their trucks, they would sell a million.

awesome.

Your mileage/commute is eerily similar to mine, but I've never got the GOM to align with actual mileage. We're even a couple of hundred miles of having the same odometer reading (16.6 commute, I have a 6 mile commute at 45 mph followed by 9 miles at 60-62 mph and then the last little bit is 55, but I have to make a turn, get into parking lot, etc...). My recent health is around 85.9%. It hung around 90-92% until this winter when it just seemed to continuously drop.

Hopefully it will even out a little bit. Love my 2015S, but we're waiting on the Model 3, and at that point, I get the wife's Bolt.
 
For us the GOM has always been pretty much bang on. I think it has more to do with the type of driving we do and where we live. 60 percent highway. 40 percent City. But the speed limits here are rarely over 90 Km/h and many at 80 km/h. At most 100 km/h. If we charge to 190 km on the GOM, at the 50 percent point there is around 90 km left on the GOM.
 
pipestem said:
Nope. I drive 16.5 each way. I fill up at work each day, at home or otherwise only on some weekends. The point is the GOM and the %charge suddenly seem a lot more reasonable, as if the car as turned over a new leaf.

Side note. I have come to realize I should keep it charged out of responsibility to others. A few months ago, an old friend called me at work and asked me to visit his disabled aunt who was in a hospital about 30 miles away. Fortunately I had charged. I realized it could have been one of my daughters calling.

You may want to experiment with charge timers to get roughly 80% of a full charge, if that's all you need. Charging to full and leaving it that way a few hours every day may have a negative effect on the battery down the road.
 
You should not be charging to 100% at night to do a 16 mile one way commute in the morning.... being at 100% for the 12 hours of evening and night will affect your battery long term.

I have that car and that commute. I charge for 1/1/2 hours every morning when I wake up before I leave. I leave the car between 45-65% overnight. It is a little more work, but I think it will really keep your battery for years longer...
 
My commute has changed as well. Now I plug in first thing in the morning charging about 75 mins before leaving for work. RT distance is just under 24 miles. I usually start my 4 day work week with higher SOC around 60-65% but by end of 4 day week, I am down to the mid to upper 20's getting home.
 
I am not charging at night. I charge in the afternoon at work. Minimal RT is 33 miles, and with an errand or bar run I am typically charging 50 to 60%.

Leftie, it would be nice to max it at 80% but I am using a shared L2 charger pool so I take what I can get. We plug each others cars in and out so I don't normally have control over that. It's a good community we have.

But no complaints, the car is great.
 
LeftieBiker said:
pipestem said:
Nope. I drive 16.5 each way. I fill up at work each day, at home or otherwise only on some weekends. The point is the GOM and the %charge suddenly seem a lot more reasonable, as if the car as turned over a new leaf.

Side note. I have come to realize I should keep it charged out of responsibility to others. A few months ago, an old friend called me at work and asked me to visit his disabled aunt who was in a hospital about 30 miles away. Fortunately I had charged. I realized it could have been one of my daughters calling.

You may want to experiment with charge timers
A pretty good estimate is available with minor arithmetic, you just have to know the kW rating of the EVSE and the kWh used per day.
Then time to charge in hours is kWh/kW

E.g,
If 16.5 miles a day takes 4 kWh;
An L2 at 240 v EVSE run at 16 amps charges the battery at 0.240*16= 3.8 kW. Figure 90% makes it to the battery
Then it takes about 75 minutes a day.
 
yeah, math is no problem. walking out to the parking lot several times a day to see if anyone has plugged me in is a problem. first world problem no doubt.
 
pipestem said:
I am not charging at night. I charge in the afternoon at work. Minimal RT is 33 miles, and with an errand or bar run I am typically charging 50 to 60%.

Leftie, it would be nice to max it at 80% but I am using a shared L2 charger pool so I take what I can get. We plug each others cars in and out so I don't normally have control over that. It's a good community we have.

But no complaints, the car is great.

Ah that clears it up. Not good to charge during day but if keeping SOC at 60% that is a very good plan!
 
draftman said:
Nope. I drive 16.5 each way. I fill up at work each day, at home or otherwise only on some weekends.

I have a 24 mile RT commute and only charge to full if planning a 150+ mile drive and then only sometimes. Today I will do about 130 miles. Right now my LEAF is about 60%? I will stop by the QC for a charge and lunch.

Based on past track records, I would avoid higher SOCs at least until we have some baseline user experiences.
 
DaveinOlyWA said:
draftman said:
Nope. I drive 16.5 each way. I fill up at work each day, at home or otherwise only on some weekends.

I have a 24 mile RT commute and only charge to full if planning a 150+ mile drive and then only sometimes. Today I will do about 130 miles. Right now my LEAF is about 60%? I will stop by the QC for a charge and lunch.

Based on past track records, I would avoid higher SOCs at least until we have some baseline user experiences.

2018 LEAF in Question here

I agree that more data is needed but what is the real SOC % to go by, I hear 80% but that's based on previous models with different battery sizes. Why not 90% or 95%, I get 100% is a no-no but as said here but charging to a lower number cuts the distance down and one never knows when they will need to or want to do a spur of the moment trip. Why is 5% not enough breathing room or 10%?

Other pain and my grip right now is having to managing charging as such.
 
All this "charge managing" is in the hopes that not overcharging the battery will add years of life to the battery....

I don't think we really know, but I think all of us are trying crazy charging schemes towards this goal.... I think it is like vegetarians thinking and planning their meals in order to live a longer life.....

I think the key is to not obsess about how many KW you put into your battery... I just try to keep the battery at 40-70% charge every night overnight and charge in the morning what I will use... I don't care that it charges to 100% because I will surely use it up on my way to work...
 
techiefan said:
DaveinOlyWA said:
draftman said:
Nope. I drive 16.5 each way. I fill up at work each day, at home or otherwise only on some weekends.

I have a 24 mile RT commute and only charge to full if planning a 150+ mile drive and then only sometimes. Today I will do about 130 miles. Right now my LEAF is about 60%? I will stop by the QC for a charge and lunch.

Based on past track records, I would avoid higher SOCs at least until we have some baseline user experiences.

2018 LEAF in Question here

I agree that more data is needed but what is the real SOC % to go by, I hear 80% but that's based on previous models with different battery sizes. Why not 90% or 95%, I get 100% is a no-no but as said here but charging to a lower number cuts the distance down and one never knows when they will need to or want to do a spur of the moment trip. Why is 5% not enough breathing room or 10%?

Other pain and my grip right now is having to managing charging as such.

The SOC parameter is not a line in the sand. First off, lets examine the basics.

**Li prefers life at 50% SOC. Obviously this is not convenient when moving electrons is the ONLY state that benefits us. So the SOC swing should have an arc as centered as feasibly possible.

** One of the degrading factors is the effects of voltage on the anode. High voltage apparently degrades the connection reducing its ability to convert which in turn lowers its capacity. This phenomena is slow which benefits us. So the less time at high SOC, the better. Slow might be good but it all adds up.

** Then we have heat. This accelerates any chemical process. So imagine you get home, batts are warm like 100º and you charge to full stopping at an SOC deemed "ok" by the BMS but your charge finishes early and the pack continues to cool so you get up in the morning and batts are now 75º. Is that "safe" SOC still safe?

Finally; Nissan picked a chemistry that is now known as one of the least robust for high SOC tolerance when a little (woefully little) heat is added.

So the synopsis? Its my take that I will not charge to a level more than I expect to need. The small inconvenience of stopping to charge is something I can easily accept over the HUGE inconvenience of a car 5 years from now that barely meets my needs.

The bottom line is really what is your comfort level and your need? Some need a lot of extra range to reduce range anxiety. For me? I spent $50 on LEAF Spy and removed all that. ;)
 
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