Best practices for charging 30 kWh battery

[Goodbar]

I've gleaned several useful tips on this board since we bought our Leaf a couple months ago. I gather that there have been changes to the Li-Ion cell chemistry over time as well as a capacity increase in 2016. Is there consensus on best practices for maximizing battery health and longevity for the 2016-17 30 kWh battery? A lot of what I've read appears to deal with the early cars and it's hard to tell what applies.

The main things I've picked up (which appear to be common to all Li-Ion batteries) are:

• Avoid SoC extremes, especially sitting at ~100% in high ambient temps
• Minimize DC fast charging
• Keep the cabin cool using A/C and/or parking in the shade because the battery is air cooled

I read that earlier Leafs could be set to stop charging at 80%, but that the option was removed for later MYs. Is that a worthwhile practice for the 30 kWh pack? On days where we don't do much driving (5-25 miles), it's easy to keep the battery between 50% and 80%.

I live in Metro D.C. where the weather is usually not extreme.

Thanks for any input.

[LeftieBiker]

Since Nissan seems to have taken two steps backwards in heat resistance with the 30kwh pack, I suggest you treat it like a 2011-3/2013 pack, especially when it comes to heat. And don't use the A/C to cool the cabin to cool the pack, because that heat usually gets exhausted under the car after it's removed from the cabin.

[joeriv]

Shallow charging (keeping it between 50-80%) goes a long way to maintaining battery health, but heat is the number one battery killer.

[cwerdna]

Monitor the battery temps with Leaf Spy to determine what's best for you in keeping the battery cool, what has less, more and the most effect (e.g. leaving car outside at night, in the shade in the day, etc.) along with a sense for long it takes for the battery to adapt to ambient temp.

The battery temp gauge on the left has huge overlapping ranges: http://www.electricvehiclewiki.com/Batt ... ture_Gauge and thus is virtually useless for the above.

[Goodbar]

Thanks for the input, all. Bummer that the heat tolerance is less good with the newest pack?! At least the warranty is longer.

I have Leaf Spy Pro and will try to get oriented to pack temps.

[cwerdna]

Thanks for the input, all. Bummer that the heat tolerance is less good with the newest pack?! At least the warranty is longer.

Yeah, we already have several 1 to 3 bar losers and even at least 2 or 3 4 bar losers at viewtopic.php?f=30&t=23606 on 30 kWh cars. It is shocking, surprising and disappointing.

In comparison, here's a Phoenician with the '15 lizard battery: viewtopic.php?f=27&t=24407&p=502456&hilit=11+bars#p502456.