Ran out of juice last night: a few questions about the trip

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alozzy said:
Where's everyone's sense of adventure! The OP ran out of available pack charge only a mile from home. From that adventure, he/she now has a better sense of the range limits of the car.

Yes I do. I should add that not bringing along the 120v Leaf charger and an extension cord was a mistake. There is a business with outdoor 120 outlets just about 8 miles from home. I'd have pulled over and charged for an hour or so had I been prepared. Might consider buying a second one so I don't have to constantly move it from garage to car and back.
 
LeftieBiker said:
I find it odd that everyone else seems to be ignoring the odd behavior of the SOC display. I'm still wondering if there is a charger or pack issue.

If it's a charger issue it should recur at other EVSEs.

LeafSpy is essential if you're driving at the low end, and will show a bad cell too.
 
rawlins02, Brattleboro has a good QC now, in the High-Grove St. parking lot a couple streets up from that garage with the Clipper Creek. Also one, but older and getting funky, at the Big Y in the Route 2 Greenfield Plaza. When you get a smartphone, download Plugshare.

Stay off 91 and take 5 to 116.
 
DNAinaGoodWay said:
rawlins02, Brattleboro has a good QC now, in the High-Grove St. parking lot a couple streets up from that garage with the Clipper Creek. Also one, but older and getting funky, at the Big Y in the Route 2 Greenfield Plaza. When you get a smartphone, download Plugshare.

Stay off 91 and take 5 to 116.

I'm aware of the QCs in Brattleboro and Greenfield. There is no charge to park in that garage after 6PM, so that's a free charge on the ClipperCreek L2. I see it's just $1 for the QC in Brattleboro, so cost is not an issue. But I've been trying to limit QC to 1-2 times a month at most. I could have stopped in Greenfield on the way home, just thought I'd make it. I suspect if I begin that trip with closer to a full charge, say 95%, drive slower, and recharge at the L2 for a half hour or so I would have 65-70% SOC to make it the 40 miles back home.

I-91 is a fairly straight drive, which I find appealing. Are you suggesting to avoid it because of the high speeds of other drivers? Google maps offers Rt 63 if wanting to avoid the interstate highway. It says taking Rt 63 is 3 miles shorter than I-91 and only 3 minute longer time. Might have to try that, or Rt 5 and 116. Must admit, I really like the idea of efficient driving in this car.
 
63 is good.

Yeah, highway speeds really suck power. There's little traffic on that stretch of 91, so other drivers will just blow by you. Min speed is 45 I think.

QCs won't kill your battery unless it's wicked hot out and the pack temp is high. QC can even improve the battery in some cases. In any case, it's made for trips like that. If you're only going to charge for a half hour, you'll get much more out of the QC, then fly home at 75 if you want to.

How often do you charge to 100% and balance the pack?
 
If the GOM is showing close to (or less) than your distance to destination, slow down! As a rule of thumb every 5MPH speed reduction at highway speeds will get you an extra 10% range. I've managed to limp home a few times...
 
An even better way to ensure that you arrive is to drive conservatively at the beginning of the trip. Then, once you see that you easily have enough range to get home, you can finish the trip in a relaxed manner, driving normally. I now do this in Winter.
 
Aussie said:
If the GOM is showing close to (or less) than your distance to destination, slow down! As a rule of thumb every 5MPH speed reduction at highway speeds will get you an extra 10% range. I've managed to limp home a few times...

I look forward to seeing how range and efficiency differ on that trip at slower speeds. In looking at my route home, I went north a few miles before getting on the interstate and turning south. Those extra miles, several at highway speed, consumed probably 6-8% SOC more than the trip up to the event. That miscalculation made a big difference in ability to manage remaining charge.
 
LeftieBiker said:
An even better way to ensure that you arrive is to drive conservatively at the beginning of the trip. Then, once you see that you easily have enough range to get home, you can finish the trip in a relaxed manner, driving normally. I now do this in Winter.

Agree. I do this often. But on this trip, the charge used on the way out (plus some recharge there) mislead me into thinking I had more than enough to get home. Always nice if the to/from legs use similar amount of charge. This time, the return consumed almost 1/3 more charge than the outbound leg. I hope to learn more about why on my next few visits to that destination.
 
Graffi said:
For your next try at that trip limit your highway speed to 55 mph and let us know the difference. I think you will be very surprised at the result.

I made the trip again last week. I decided to take the Interstate highway, limiting speed. I averaged around 55 maybe 57 mph. Trip north was 43 miles and SOC went from 100% to 55%. That's about 9 kWh used, assuming my battery holds around 20 kWh. Makes sense, as the dash readout averages around 4.8 mi/kWh on highway trips at 55 mph. 43 mi / 4.8 mi per kWh = 8.96 kWh. Spot on!

On return I made it an additional 23 miles to a (free!) fast charger where SOC read 29%. It rained on that return leg. So, let's assume 4.7 kWh average for the 66 total miles to fast charger. 66 mi / 4.7 mi per kWh gives 14 kWh used. 20 kWh available in battery * 0.71 = 14.2 kWh. Close enough.

I made another distance trip a day later. I went 50 miles and used 60% of my charge (81% SOC to 21%). Return was 55 miles using 62% of available charge.

Looks like I'm getting excellent efficiency at around 70 degrees F in good weather. I'm thinking that if I were to use 95% of available (100% to 5%), I could go at least 88 miles at 55 mph, assuming 4.7 mi/kWh and 19 kWh used. My dash is reading 4.9 mi/kWh this month, with a combination of local and highway driving. Also, my odometer just crossed the 40,000 mark, with all 12 capacity bars showing (knocks on wood).
 
@rowlins02 Would you mind running the numbers on the EV trip planner site?

https://www.evtripplanner.com/planner/2-8/

Use the LEAF Beta profile and default values.

Some people say it's not that good, but I've found it fairly accurate. Would be nice to get more emperical evidence either way...

Thanks!
 
alozzy said:
@rowlins02 Would you mind running the numbers on the EV trip planner site?

https://www.evtripplanner.com/planner/2-8/

Use the LEAF Beta profile and default values.

Some people say it's not that good, but I've found it fairly accurate. Would be nice to get more emperical evidence either way...

Thanks!

I kept the default values, except for the speed multiplier, which I set to 0.9. Looks like the trip planer and my estimate agree pretty well. 9.2 vs 9.0 kWh.

Distance 41.7 miles
Driving Time 0:50
Charging Time 0:00
Total Trip Time 0:50
Total Energy Used 9.2 kWh
37 RM
Average Efficiency 220 Wh/mile
Net Elevation Change -66 feet
 
alozzy said:
Nice, thanks for doing that!

Does the reverse trip also match up well?

Not quite as well for the ~23.5 leg to fast charger. I estimate I used about 5 kWh. evtripplanner says it should take 6.7. I may have been going slower that I thought. I'm likely to do the trip again soon, and if I do I'll again check my energy use against an estimate from evtripplanner.

Distance 23.5 miles
Driving Time 0:29
Charging Time 0:00
Total Trip Time 0:29
Total Energy Used 6.7 kWh
24 RM
Average Efficiency 284 Wh/mile
Net Elevation Change -33 feet
 
Thanks! This confirms that EV trip planner seems to be conservative and leaves some margin for error. I'm going to start using it more often.
 
Made another trip on that route. Energy use efficiency was outstanding. I used right around 8.8 kWh to go about 42 miles up and another 8.8 kWh coming back. evtripplanner.com says it should take about 10 kWh up and 11 kWh coming back. This with a speed setting of 0.9, since I drive about 55 mph on the 65 mph interstate. Not sure why software says it takes one more kWh coming back than going out. I used about the same amount of charge each way. So I'm averaging about 4.7 mi/kWh on the highway. Average for the month of August overall was 4.9. I'm pretty sure I could almost make that 84 mile round trip on a single full charge, since I used just under 90% total on that last trip.
 
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