What info would be helpful to you from a high mileage driver

My Leaf has arrived. I will be picking it up next weekend.

My commute is 65 miles each way. I have a Level 2 charger at home and at work and will be charging at both places. My annual mileage has been just under 50K miles a year over last 11 years. I expect this to drop closer to 40K since the weekend trips to Portland and Eastern Washington are better left for the other car. As someone at the Seattle Leaf group meeting said, "I will be the Canary in the Mine". What information would be helpful for you for me to track?

TaylorSFGuy said:

My commute is 65 miles each way. I have a Level 2 charger at home and at work and will be charging at both places.

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Presumably, you have 8-ish hours at work, before returning home? If so, I'd say you're in an ideal situation. Only glitch I can see is if there's some problem at work with the charger, you'd be stuck.

Here is the list of stats I log everyday
- Odo
- Trip Miles
- End Miles Remaining
- Leaf Dash m/kwh
- Leaf console m/kwh
- Heater Used or Not (and if used for how long)
- Temp To
- Temp From
- Trip Type (urban/mixed/highway etc)
- Comments (like where I went etc)

Then, there are charging related things
- Blink Kwh reading after charging (the daily log used to figure out charge per day)
- % Charged (100 or 80)
- M/kwh at the plug (derived)

If you can get your LEAF main battery put on a Nissan diagnostic tester as early in your car's life as you can, that would serve as a good baseline for battery health. Then if you could request and post results of your regular battery checks and the mileage of each, AND your usual charging behavior (ie 80% or 100%, Level 1, 2 or Quick Charge) and frequency, that would be very valuable information.

TaylorSFGuy said:

My Leaf has arrived. I will be picking it up next weekend.

My commute is 65 miles each way. I have a Level 2 charger at home and at work and will be charging at both places. My annual mileage has been just under 50K miles a year over last 11 years. I expect this to drop closer to 40K since the weekend trips to Portland and Eastern Washington are better left for the other car. As someone at the Seattle Leaf group meeting said, "I will be the Canary in the Mine". What information would be helpful for you for me to track?

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This is exactly my situation as well. I've done the same round trip home to work and back 20 some odd times. The first few times I charged to 100% on each direction, but now stop at about 90%. I'm sure I'd make it on 80% charge, but by the time I get to the destination the remaining charge would be too low for long-term battery life. In addition to the 65 mi. range, my trip includes driving over an 1800 ft mountain pass. Congratulations, you can kiss the gas pump goodbye.
-Corwin

corwin said:

Congratulations, you can kiss the gas pump goodbye.

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I think mine will be more of a drop-kick, than a kiss

Hopefully you won't be reporting this for a while, but I'd be curious to see how fast your pack capacity declines. You'll be putting in pretty close to 2 full charges a day. It would be interesting to see how quickly you lose the first segment on the outer ring. As I said earlier, I wouldn't expect this to happen anytime soon, but I'm curious to know that the lifespan of the pack turns out to be.

Thanks Everyone.
I'll check with the dealer on the diagnostic test when I pick it up.
Will advise periodically with the battery check results in this same topic.
Once I have a routine down, I'll let you know.

Appreciate the encouragement as I've been apprehensive about stepping this far out.

TaylorSFGuy said:

My Leaf has arrived. I will be picking it up next weekend.

My commute is 65 miles each way. I have a Level 2 charger at home and at work and will be charging at both places. My annual mileage has been just under 50K miles a year over last 11 years. I expect this to drop closer to 40K since the weekend trips to Portland and Eastern Washington are better left for the other car. As someone at the Seattle Leaf group meeting said, "I will be the Canary in the Mine". What information would be helpful for you for me to track?

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I'll be curious how much range you would have remaining after your commute especially with climate control enabled. I take it it's mostly freeway mileage.

I got as much as 68 miles from 100% charge out of freeway driving on 405 with CC on with 1 bar and 6 miles remaining.

I am just a few days into this with a drive of 63-66 miles each way depending on the route. I am making it with an indicated remaining range of 12-19 and usually 2 bars. Things have been improving so it may be related to the battery break-in. I drive with no cruise or climate control and most displays turned off or way down. For sanity, I listen to the radio and have windows closed. My route has 3 100-150' changes (up and back down) and many smaller ones.

I'm not convinced that drafting larger vehicles makes much of a difference as I spent lots of energy (mine and the car's) trying to keep in place when the other vehicle wasn't steady on speed. Have only tried it a couple of times and recognize that safety is paramount to range maximization at 60+MPH so I've decided not to pursue this.

I'm beginning to sense a sweet spot at 62/64 where I can move in eco mode with 2 dots. I'll play around with this a bit more. Anyone have input?

Having the battery tested wasn't an option at pickup. In fact the dealer doesn't know how much these checks will cost or what exactly is involved. They called a couple days later to say they still didn't have the info.

So far, all charging has been L2 to 100% from near empty in a continuous charge twice a day.

TaylorSFGuy,

So how many miles have you accumulated now?

I surprised myself when I hit the 1000 mi. mark today, after just 17 days of ownership. At this rate, I will hit about 20,000 mi. the first year. I had originally expected to put more like 15k-17k miles/yr on the car.

For me, this just goes to show how practical this car is (for me, YMMV). In addition to my normal commute (65 mi. RT), I use it for occasional side trips during the week, and any weekend trips within range. There has not been a trip yet where I had to leave the LEAF home because I couldn't manage the range (i.e., Range Anxiety). Since I purchased, I don't have a mi/yr limit and/or penalty. I suppose the more miles I can defer from one of our other gas cars, the better.

FYI, the display and the radio don't pull enough power to make more than two hundred yards of difference in total range. Turn them up to whatever level you like and enjoy!

And the AC is surprising efficient if you use Recirc mode and a moderate temperature. Typically a difference of only a couple of miles in total range for me.

TaylorSFGuy said:

I drive with no cruise or climate control and most displays turned off or way down. For sanity, I listen to the radio and have windows closed.

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Have had my LEAF since 29 April and commute 63 miles each way with multiple hills and an overall 1500 foot elevation change (downhill to work). We should start a " High Mileage LEAF Club"! I just passed 3000 miles and I didn't drive the car for about two weeks (vacation) during that time. I drive 60-65 mph now most of the way with A/C on in the afternoon. I usually arrive at work with 3 bars and 21 to 24 miles remaining. When I arrive at home, I usually have 1 to 2 bars and 11 to 18 miles remaining. I charge to 100% at home and work. Gotta love this car.

I just passed 5,000 miles on mine...

5500 miles on mine. Zero technical issues for me, not even the vehicle disable problem associated with pre-cooling. Not run out of juice yet, but have tried my best not to. Only had a couple of occasions where I've felt the LEAF wasn't the right tool for the job - one was a Vegas run and the other was a drive that would have probably been within maximum range, but I couldn't (at the time) be assured an adequate recharging opportunity at the destination without inconveniencing anyone.

I just passed 6000 miles with mine and it has been perfect. I have 80% charged every night except 10 (days I had a longer trip planned). With a little public charging my longest trip (100% charge) so far was 128 total miles (1.5 hours 240V charging at one stop); I arrived home with 20 miles remaining. It has been a great car and I look forward to passing the 100,000 mile mark and keep on driving.

Getting a central place for people to list how long their drive is, brief description of the drive and weather/AC/heat usage and how many bars/range is indicated when they get home would be very helpful for people exploring the range limits of their LEAFs...

I will be at 3,750 tonight with 7 no mileage days since getting the car May 13th. Can't get the miles/kwh above 5 for any period of time except in town. I found that turning off ECO makes no significant range difference in my drive which is mostly freeway. So thankfully, I have stopped using it while driving on the freeway and my drive is much less stressful - I can enjoy the drive instead of concentrating on the car.

I'd be interested in a High Mileage LEAF Club. I suspect Nissan will be finding us as we go along.

I have only had one time so far when the range limitations forced me to drive differently. Morning meeting in Seattle (45 miles RT from home) and then run to work. Ended up stopping off at home and charging for 3 hours. That was ~175 miles for the day.

Still running at 100% charge each way of my commute as I need some of that last 20%. For a while, the first bar was dropping out consistently at 5.4 miles but it has changed a bit and is bouncing around 6. I really don't have anything to add about the impact of headwinds, higher speeds or hills as they all have an impact and make each day slightly different.

Love the economy - at work with lower commercial utility rates, we ran the numbers and it costs $1.40 to get me where 2 gallons of gasoline used to in my Honda and that's measuring the power going to the EVSE. I arrive with usually 3 bars showing (closer to 2 available) and about 20 miles of indicated range. I think the miles/kwh x 20 or 21 formula is a good indication of the total range and found it to be fairly accurate.

I purposely drove the car to turtle mode - it doesn't last 2 miles like I thought - closer to 1/2 mile. Unfortunately, I was 3 uphill blocks from home. Nissan had a truck there in 40 minutes and I was plugged in at home shortly thereafter. Excellent use of technology by Nissan - multiple calls and texts to advise driver status, name of company, confirmation of arrival etc. Only thing better would be the rumored portable AAA units.

I am happy with my choice so far and don't mind the car payment given that I'm saving a good portion of it in operating costs.

TaylorSFGuy said:

I purposely drove the car to turtle mode - it doesn't last 2 miles like I thought - closer to 1/2 mile. Unfortunately, I was 3 uphill blocks from home. Nissan had a truck there in 40 minutes and I was plugged in at home shortly thereafter. Excellent use of technology by Nissan - multiple calls and texts to advise driver status, name of company, confirmation of arrival etc. Only thing better would be the rumored portable AAA units.

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Who do you call when you are stuck - I should probably put this info in a sticky.

evnow said:

Who do you call when you are stuck - I should probably put this info in a sticky.

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1-800-NO-GAS-EV