LEAFSpyPro Improving Capacity -- thanks to Quick Charges?

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

aminorjourney

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 31, 2010
Messages
92
Location
Porland, OR
Hi folks,

So I'm going to show you a few pictures from LEAFSpy... they're taken in the order displayed, from my 2011 LEAF.


IMG_0569 by aminorjourney, on Flickr

Then...


IMG_0607 by aminorjourney, on Flickr

Specifically, the drop in capacity made me think that I was going to be the first Brit to suffer Capacity bar loss, and I actually penned an article to that effect.

But something weird has happened in the past few weeks: my capacity has gone up quite dramatically, and the only thing I can think of as a cause is QC use.

You see, traditionally, my LEAF got used a lot. And I MEAN a lot (50-90 miles most days for months at a time, because my wife was using my LEAf to commute to and from work. ) But then my Wife sold her Prius and got a Volt, and I got my LEAF back. It went from doing 2,500 isn miles a month to maybe 500 a month. It was getting 20 to 30 miles a day, and partial rather than full charges.

When photo one was taken, that's where my LEAf was. It hadn't done any longer distance trips, and I'd noticed a gradual drop in performance and range.

But when photo two was taken, I'd done a few medium-length trips, including one when I'd rapid charged twice in a day -- but driven very cautiously between two QC locations a fairly large distance apart. (50 mph, no AC on)

In the last two weeks however, Ecotricity -- a UK Utility and charging provider -- finally completed electrifying the ENTIRE M4 in the UK with a DCQC at every_single_freeway_reststop. That's the equivalent of five different places for me to quick charge on the 120 or so miles between Bristol (where I Live) and London.

Last week, I tried it out, driving from Bristol to London. Unlike previous trips, I was able to drive at 70/75, with the heating on. I stopped along the way at most of the DCQC locations, but instead of having to charge form empty to full, I left the DCQC on while I nipped in to grab a coffee or visit the restroom. In those 10 minutes or so at each stop, I gained enough range to keep me going until the next DCQC.

When I got home that evening, I noticed LEAFSpyPro was giving improved capacity, health and SOH. In fact, SOH was up to 86%.

Today, I had to do another trip from Bristol to London and back (about 250 miles this time) and I noticed the readings are getting even better. (Here's what I saw after the final partial charge)


IMG_0685 by aminorjourney, on Flickr

So my car's battery pack is improving? Or are the five or so mini DCQC sessions (maybe adding 10 or 20 miles at each stop) causing the car's on-board battery management system to re-callibrate itself? As you can see, DCQC and L1/L2 count has risen quite a bit, often because we 'partially' charge our LEAF during the day.. and recently have taken to doing quick 'blasts' on a local DCQC if we're unsure about having enough battery power for the day.

Really interested... Hopefully minds far more intelligent than mine will figure it out!

Nikki.

P.S. here's an Elevation profile for today's trip.


Elevation profile. by aminorjourney, on Flickr

Temperatures today varied from +6 degrees Celsius to 0 degrees Celsius (on the higher parts of the trip) Most of the time I was driving at 70-75 mph.
 
The "health" numbers are a little mysterious as far as I have read. I haven't been able to understand all the conversations about it but I know software updates and other factors will alter it. Perhaps my post will bump this to the top and some larger brained individuals will chime in.

PM me if you'd like to share the logs from your drives (assuming you logged the data with LeafSpy). I am going to have a graph of health trends coming soon. The LeafLogger website is discussed here: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=14646" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
I've seen my capacity go up a bit from QC'ing (55.4 to 55.6) but it was soon down to what it was previously (within a few cycles).
 
Your using QC in 0 degrees heats up the battery to optimal temp for charging.

Here in Ca we get much better charge (range) charging at 80F then at 40F. So it just may be that in cold weather, such as yours, the heat QC generates in the battery is just in the right range to give you a "summer" charge.
 
aminorjourney said:
In the last two weeks however, Ecotricity -- a UK Utility and charging provider -- finally completed electrifying the ENTIRE M4 in the UK with a DCQC at every_single_freeway_reststop. That's the equivalent of five different places for me to quick charge on the 120 or so miles between Bristol (where I Live) and London.

Last week, I tried it out, driving from Bristol to London. Unlike previous trips, I was able to drive at 70/75, with the heating on. I stopped along the way at most of the DCQC locations, but instead of having to charge form empty to full, I left the DCQC on while I nipped in to grab a coffee or visit the restroom. In those 10 minutes or so at each stop, I gained enough range to keep me going until the next DCQC.
That is how I imagined the EV Driving Universe here in Los Angeles, CA with opportunity QC all over the place. Not even close.

Lucky you... :)
 
aminorjourney said:
in the past few weeks: my capacity has gone up quite dramatically, and the only thing I can think of as a cause is QC use.
I would not assume the increase is due to QCs. The software that reports this value monitors several things and reports a conservative value. After a QC event, the certainty is higher, so the reported value may be higher. That does not mean that your actual capacity has increased. And as others have mentioned, during this time of year, a QC may bring the pack closer to optimal temp, thereby temporarily increasing the reported value.

My capacity has increased over the last two weeks and I have not done any QCing.

This is anecdotal evidence, please don't confuse correlation with causality. The physics simply does not support that QC events actually increase capacity. There is a lot misinformation out there and if someone with your platform starting saying things like "quick charges increases capacity" it will only add to the confusion.
 
same with my battery,when i bought the leaf ,healt was 90%,now after 30QC and 2500miles the health is 102,77%,after each QC the health and range increase.if charging with 230 volt,nothing happens

http://www.goingelectric.de/forum/nissan-leaf/wieviel-gids-hat-euer-leaf-t2232-60.html#p45009" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.goingelectric.de/forum/nissan-leaf/wieviel-gids-hat-euer-leaf-t2232-70.html#p53929" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
Back
Top