Battery life in Canada (eastern)

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Truro411

Member
Joined
Aug 27, 2016
Messages
13
Location
Miramichi, NB
I am trying to talk myself into a used Leaf my local Nissan dealer brought in in northern NB. The nearest authorised dealer is 120km away in a different city but these guys say they wanted to try one out to see if there was interest. Despite the complete lack of any chargers around this city, I am interested, and I showed the car off to no less than a dozen interested people in the two days I had it.

The vehicle is a 2015 SV that came out of Quebec. My dealer, who does not sell Leafs (Leaves? :D ), has been incorrect about a number of things already (range is NOT 300Km...nor 200Km!) told me it was a demo from Ontario. The nav system shows it was driven by at least three people (all iphones) sharing one home address in the Montreal suburbs. Note to others: clear your nav system before selling...

At a little over 30k Kms I'm wondering about battery life. There were no bars missing when I had it out on test drive. It would trickle charge to 95%/154km range overnight. That 150km range translated to about 90km of mixed 50/50 90k/h highway, 50-60k/h city with 20-30km remaining on the GoM. I did not have a working LeafSpy OBD dongle to see actual SoC nor time to try hitting turtle mode.

That 90km with a big buffer is almost perfect for my trips to town from my rural home (30km to town limits...I've had a few hairy low fuel situations on that road in my ICE car). My concern is winter driving with heat, and/or the overall battery degradation as the miles go on. I'd hate to drop 25k on a car that can only be used during the summer. If, in 4 or 5 years, I could drop in a new 30kwh (or better) for 5-7k, I would do it, if the car was still in good shape. But not too soon.

So....

I'm wondering about others' experiences with the Leaf and the inevitable battery degradation - but here in he Great White North. And I'm sorry, but you tropical lifers in BC needn't bother replying! :) I looking for opinions from the folks in the snowy east - as in east of the Rockies.

Does the cooler climate help us out versus the southerners (even the lizard batteries will suffer from heat, just not like the old days)? Do the cold winter trips really trim that much off the range, or is it manageable by being slightly MORE light footed? Do the cold winters help us fare better?

Thanks!
 
My climate is a lot like yours. You have to worry about two things: hot spells in which it stays warm at night, preventing the pack from cooling off, and Winter driving below about -3C, at which point the heat pump isn't doing enough to keep the range up, and the resistance heater is doing most of the heating. I have kept all 12 capacity bars in my '13 SV despite two very hot summers, in '13 and this year. If you can let the car cool all night in hot weather, and charge in the morning, your battery should be fine. Try to limit pack heating to 6 temperature bars on the dash, and charge at 5 bars as much as possible. Your winter range in frigid temps will be about...whatever 50 miles is in kilometers. ;-)
 
I live in Quebec City and estimate loss of 4%-5% after three years and 36,500 km. 2013 SL.

Capacity loss isn't really an issue in Eastern Canada if you take reasonable care of the vehicle. I see you mention Northern NB, but your forum name makes me think of Northern NS. If you are in NB and are interested in a used SL, mine is for sale. It runs fine, but I now have a Tesla. With the Riviere-du-Loup CHAdeMO coming online today, it's not too difficult to drive from Quebec City to Northern NB.

I am not sure how it works in NB, but in some provinces if you purchase a used car from a private party the sale is exempt from the Federal portion of the sales tax, so there is a savings of 5% compared to buying from a dealer.


http://annonces.roulezelectrique.com/leaf/leaf-sl-13-bien-equipee.html
 
Thanks Berlino and LeftieBiker.

The offer of a 2013 is interesting if only I wouldn't need to stop and charge between Quebec and Riviere-du-Loop, and then 5 more times at Rimouski, Trois-Pistoles, Amqui, Dalhousie, Bathurst and Chatham to get home. Only three of those seven are quick chargers so it would be a two day trip! =-) Someday, I'll afford a Tesla.

Berlino,

I suspected as much on the battery life with our temps. But what is your experience with the heat in the winter? It's a tad colder in QC and just a tiny bit further north here in the Miramichi than it is NY state so I'm curious as to your experiences.

And no offense to you Leftie...cold and snowy you are in upstate NY but I've been there in Jan and Feb, and trust me, it was positively balmy. =-)

I've talked the local dealer down some but the nearest certified service centre is more than one charge away (with no chargers in between) so THAT'S a problem. As well, just last week a 2016 S with <2k on it popped up as well for nearly the same price so now I'm really torn.

The wife thinks I'm nuts, but the geek in me wants this car...
 
And no offense to you Leftie...cold and snowy you are in upstate NY but I've been there in Jan and Feb, and trust me, it was positively balmy. =-)


That's been the case lately, but when I was younger we went weeks at a time with no high temps above -1C. Last Winter we still got quite a few 0 F (not C) nights.
 
Truro411 said:
But what is your experience with the heat in the winter? It's a tad colder in QC and just a tiny bit further north here in the Miramichi than it is NY state so I'm curious as to your experiences....

At -20C you can go about 80 km driving at 90 kph provided the car is preheated. (Easy to do if hooked up to a level two charging station). You can go farther if you drive slower. The worst range I ever had was 60-65km once when -10C, but 40 kph headwinds with gusts to 60 kph.

By comparison, in the Summer you can go 140 km at 90 kph.

Believe it or not, you can go from Quebec City to Miramichi in a LEAF with only one level two charge in Bathurst. The rest would be on the extensive CHAdeMO network in QC. La Pocatiere, RDL, Rimouski, Mont Joli, Amqui and Pointe-à-la-Croix. Of course, if someone from NB were seriously interested, I would be willing to meet them halfway, and the inconvenience to them would be factored into the price.
 
Thanks Berlino!

I got over my range anxiety and bit the bullet. Bought the local after over a month of hemming and hawing about it. So far all signs point to happiness!

Glad to hear about the -20C range. I will (and already do) use the preheat/precool when plugged in. My locale prevents using the app at home due to the useless Rogers network (use to be Cantel...how's your phone working? Don't know, Can't Tell). I have made use of the timers though.

I am going to try one of these days to hyper mile it to Moncton or Fredericton at 90km/h but only if it's just right for no CC. Shouldn't be a problem in October. By using conservative driving habits I'm already pulling 90km out of 60% of battery into and out of town.

I noticed just a few weeks ago that the Gaspe has lit up like a xmas tree on PlugShare with QC. I've already half planned out a vacation wherein the wife and I hop from L2 to L2 to get to QC by going around the NB Acadian peninsula (Tracadie, Caraquet, Bathurst, Dalhousie, Pointe-à-la-Croix) next year...kind of an old fashioned driving vacation unlike todays drive-9-hours-and-we're-here vacations. I enjoy stopping frequently to look around, etc.

Thanks for the info and I look forward to chatting it up int he future.
 
Truro411 said:
I noticed just a few weeks ago that the Gaspe has lit up like a xmas tree on PlugShare with QC. I've already half planned out a vacation wherein the wife and I hop from L2 to L2 to get to QC by going around the NB Acadian peninsula (Tracadie, Caraquet, Bathurst, Dalhousie, Pointe-à-la-Croix) next year...kind of an old fashioned driving vacation unlike todays drive-9-hours-and-we're-here vacations. I enjoy stopping frequently to look around,.

Should be a great vacation. By the way, they are not done yet on the peninsula. At least two more CHAdeMO will be in service very soon in Gaspesie. Also, funds have been approved for CHAdeMO in Temiscouata, maybe 50 km from the N.B. border in the lower St Lawrence river region of QC, but no time-table yet.
 
Soooo jealous...

There are two L2's in Miramichi, three in Bathurst (and two of those are AddEnergie/Flo...so really Quebec). Not a single QC until Truro, NS.

The good news is my newly arrived *working* OBD dongle tells me I have 98% SOH with 1 QC / 981 L1/L2 lifetime. I'm waiting for my L2 to finish it's first charge (been a busy day!) to see what the Ah are at. After L1 charging last night all cells were within 10Mv so happy day...long(ish) range trips are still in her!.
 
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