Battery % w/o Nissan Connect

[tanyaviola]

I just got a new Leaf and have now charged it twice when in town (we do not have a home charger yet). Is there any way to see what the % of battery you have without being in the car? I know you can do all that if you have NissanConnect, which did not come with this car. I watch the Chargepoint app and I can see approx how many miles it's adding, but it would be nice to see when it hits 80% or so and I can "stop" the charging from the app. Otherwise it's just a guess.

Not a huge deal, but I'm just wondering if there's an app that can connect to the car without Nissan's Connection?

PS- we were told it's not a good idea to charge the battery beyond 80%. Is that a good tip? Obviously, if we need to go on a long trip, we'll want to charge to 100%, but that's rare.

Thanks,
T.

[alozzy]

You can use LeafSpy, but you'll need to buy a ODB2 dongle first.

[webeleafowners]

I just got a new Leaf and have now charged it twice when in town (we do not have a home charger yet). Is there any way to see what the % of battery you have without being in the car? I know you can do all that if you have NissanConnect, which did not come with this car. I watch the Chargepoint app and I can see approx how many miles it's adding, but it would be nice to see when it hits 80% or so and I can "stop" the charging from the app. Otherwise it's just a guess.

Not a huge deal, but I'm just wondering if there's an app that can connect to the car without Nissan's Connection?

PS- we were told it's not a good idea to charge the battery beyond 80%. Is that a good tip? Obviously, if we need to go on a long trip, we'll want to charge to 100%, but that's rare.

Thanks,
T.

Good morning. Maybe I am not understanding but don't all Leafs have the ability to connect to Nissan Connect? It it not just an APP??

If you have a Juice Box EVSE you can also stop and start charging.

[Durandal]

Regarding Leaf Spy, the bluetooth ODB2 connector in my Leaf is strong enough that I can sit inside my living room and watch Leaf Spy while my car charges, so assuming it's less than 20 feet from where you charge your car, you probably can do similarly. What would be really cool is if you could configure Leaf Spy to send text messages to a given phone when certain conditions were met...

[magico13]

Good morning. Maybe I am not understanding but don't all Leafs have the ability to connect to Nissan Connect? It it not just an APP??

Only the SV and SL trims have any sort of remote access. The S trim does not have the ability to use Nissan Connect.

I second the suggestion to use an OBDII dongle. You can use LEAF Spy to monitor it on your phone, or you could try to set something up that talks to the dongle through bluetooth and would either alert you or remotely stop charging via your EVSE. If you have programming experience you could use something like a Raspberry Pi 3 or Pi Zero W for that. I want to do that one of these days but haven't spent the time trying to learn how to interface with the CAN bus over bluetooth.

[jlv]

Don't worry about charging to just 80%. Just drive the car and enjoy.

You might want to update your profile to indicate where you are located and put the details of your LEAF in your signature. By "new LEAF" I assume you mean a new 2017 S with a 30kWh battery.

[tanyaviola]

Sorry...yes, I've got a 2017 Leaf (model S). I don't really need to see what percentage the battery is at while I'm at home. Will LeafSpy work if I'm using a public charging station and I'm several blocks away waiting? That's what I'm interested in.

Thanks for the recommendations!
T.

[VitaminJ]

A) Don't be paranoid, statistics have shown that charging to 100% has no perceptible impact on battery health compared to charging to 80%. Just charge the car and drive it!

B) Leaf Spy and the bluetooth dongle with not work when the car is switched off and charging nor will it work beyond maybe 25ft.

C) Buy a drone and fly to your car and look at the 3 blue dash lights to see how much has been charged there's no other option on an S model.

[Gregoryestes]

I’ve also wondered about this myself as I have a 2015 Leaf S model. I love the car, no issues, but would like remote access. Has anyone researched if you can switch out the factory S trim radio and climate control for the touch screen SV/SL radio? I consider myself a shade tree mechanic and have read where the hook ups are already there. But never done any real digging yet.

[DuncanCunningham]

I’ve also wondered about this myself as I have a 2015 Leaf S model. I love the car, no issues, but would like remote access. Has anyone researched if you can switch out the factory S trim radio and climate control for the touch screen SV/SL radio? I consider myself a shade tree mechanic and have read where the hook ups are already there. But never done any real digging yet.

Interesting thought.