2015 charging time too high? More usable kWh?

Hi all,

We recently traded in our 2012 for a 2015 (that fire sale was great), but I have noticed that something is odd with the estimated charging time in the 2015 LEAF. For example, I drove to LBW the other day (10 miles on the GoM, 1 bar remaining) and the estimated time to charge using 3.3 kW L2 was 8 hours, and 6.6 kW L2 was 5 hours. With my 2012, it rarely took more than 4 hours to completely charge by the time I traded it in, but then again it could barely get me to and form work any more.

Is this normal? Is there more usable kWh in the 2015 than previous years, or is it just going to take a few charge cycles for the battery controller to "learn" the correct battery capacity and have the estimated recharge times better reflect reality?

Does LEAFSpy accurately monitor the 2015? I recall there being some suspicion that it didn't work as accurately with the 2013 as it did with the 2011/2012.

Thanks!

BoulderLeaf said:

We recently traded in our 2012 for a 2015 (that fire sale was great), but I have noticed that something is odd with the estimated charging time in the 2015 LEAF. For example, I drove to LBW the other day (10 miles on the GoM, 1 bar remaining) and the estimated time to charge using 3.3 kW L2 was 8 hours, and 6.6 kW L2 was 5 hours. With my 2012, it rarely took more than 4 hours to completely charge by the time I traded it in, but then again it could barely get me to and form work any more.

Is this normal? Is there more usable kWh in the 2015 than previous years, or is it just going to take a few charge cycles for the battery controller to "learn" the correct battery capacity and have the estimated recharge times better reflect reality?

Click to expand...

I never had a 2012 but I can say that w/the '13 Leaf SV (both my current and former one), the time estimator for 6 kW is usually too long. For one that's low on charge (e.g. estimate somewhere past 3.5 hours), it'll be done probably 30 mins to 1 hour earlier than the estimate and that's w/me charging on 208 volt L2 30 amp EVSEs at work. In the last hour or so of charging to 100%, not much energy is making it into the battery. It's in its ramp down and bounce phase.

See http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=338038#p338038. One post up is a link to the behavior on a '12, which is quite different.

In the case of your '12 Leaf, since the battery degraded, that also means it takes less time to charge than when new.

cwerdna said:

BoulderLeaf said:

We recently traded in our 2012 for a 2015 (that fire sale was great), but I have noticed that something is odd with the estimated charging time in the 2015 LEAF. For example, I drove to LBW the other day (10 miles on the GoM, 1 bar remaining) and the estimated time to charge using 3.3 kW L2 was 8 hours, and 6.6 kW L2 was 5 hours. With my 2012, it rarely took more than 4 hours to completely charge by the time I traded it in, but then again it could barely get me to and form work any more.

Is this normal? Is there more usable kWh in the 2015 than previous years, or is it just going to take a few charge cycles for the battery controller to "learn" the correct battery capacity and have the estimated recharge times better reflect reality?

Click to expand...

I never had a 2012 but I can say that w/the '13 Leaf SV (both my current and former one), the time estimator for 6 kW is usually too long. For one that's low on charge (e.g. estimate somewhere past 3.5 hours), it'll be done probably 30 mins to 1 hour earlier than the estimate and that's w/me charging on 208 volt L2 30 amp EVSEs at work. In the last hour or so of charging to 100%, not much energy is making it into the battery. It's in its ramp down and bounce phase.

See http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=338038#p338038. One post up is a link to the behavior on a '12, which is quite different.

In the case of your '12 Leaf, since the battery degraded, that also means it takes less time to charge than when new.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info!

And yes. I realize that the reduced charging time was due to a degraded battery.

Still, I thought the max time for any 24 kWh LEAF at 3.3 kW L2 was 7 hours; but maybe the 2013+ charging process is that much different.

BoulderLeaf said:

...Still, I thought the max time for any 24 kWh LEAF at 3.3 kW L2 was 7 hours; but maybe the 2013+ charging process is that much different.

Click to expand...

The estimated time does overestimate somewhat, but reports from owners suggest that 2013+ LEAFs have a longer taper period as they approach "100%", which might be reflected in the time.

Also, aftermarket meters suggest that 2015 LEAFs do allow charging to higher energy levels (I've often seen reports of 292 Gids). I have no idea whether that's because the newer batteries allow more of the capacity to be used (charge to a higher voltage, say) or because the chemistry changes have increased capacity slightly. Or it may just be that the measurement of a Gid has changed. Hard to say.

Usually an hour of that is cell balancing, once the main charge is don it takes about 60 to 30m for it to cell balance the pack.

All so it does tend to over estimate the total charge time, (One hypothesis is it is basing it off the Japan 100/200V Vs our 120 / 240V)

Charge rate on the 2015 tapers a lot. I had to use my 12-ampere EVSE Upgrade for the first charge on my 2015 and it tapered down to almost no current for the last hour even though it was only charging at 12 amperes for the bulk charge. The voltage ended at 395.0 which is higher than the 2011. I noticed that the tapered (low current) portion of the charge cycle becomes shorter after 30 to 50 full charging cycles.

Gerry