2018 Leaf: How to Charge to 80% Only?

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LeftieBiker said:
I saw on youtube lately that one guy was test driving the 2018 Leaf from 100% to 0% on a road test. He got the Leaf Spy connected as well. What he found was interesting. At 100% full charge, Leaf Spy showing 38KWh, there is a 2 KWh reserved room for regen. Nissan apparently never charge the battery to full capacity. May be that is why they said 80% option is not needed.

Also interesting is that at 0% dash indication, Leaf Spy still read about 9% power left. Looks like Nissan already designed the charging unit to prolong the battery life under normal use.

Nissan has always done this, although it used to be about 95% actual SOC at 100% indicated SOC. The batteries still degraded. Let's hope that 91% actual SOC is low enough. If I get one of these Crap-Tastic cars I'll be stopping at roughly 80%.

It was actually between 97.3 - 97.7% so 2.3 - 2.7 from full. 90% is 3-4X difference.

Realize the lower the SOC, the better. The cooler the better. Temperature is going to be whatever its going to be. SOC we can control. Nissan has given us no easy options but its still doable. I did it with 110 miles of range. With 160 miles of range, it should be a piece of cake.
 
Hey guys, I'm new to the electric car world. I got myself a 2018 Leaf and I'm learning little by little about the eletric world. That being said, I'm reading contradictions regarding "full charge" and "partial charge". Some say it's ideal to charge only up to 80% and others says I need to charge it to 100% so that the cells get balanced.... ? I drive my car daily and I use between 11 to 15% of it daily.

what shoud I do? charge it to 80 or charge it to full?

:?: :?: :?: :cry:
 
@DrKemLey you want to do both :)

Basically, try to charge to 80% ish most of the time, but do charge to 100% once a week or so. And don't obsess over this...

However, be mindful that charging to 100% on a hot day is not good for the battery, nor is charging to 100%, then letting the car sit idle for hours.
 
I charge for an hour when the car is below 60%. Before longer trips, usually about twice a month or so, I charge to 100%. Try to time for before departure an hour or so.

Should have the battery between 80% and 50% most of the time.
 
For those just charging with 120v standard plug...I really recommend using a smart outlet. Make sure to get one rated for 15 amps. But it is much easier to set timers and a schedule on your phone than the controls in the car.
 
jjeff said:
I believe the Tesla Model S's have an option where you can choose any SOC you want(within a range) do they still have that option and does the Model 3 have it? If so and Tesla can get away with it, why can't Nissan do something similar :?
Yep on the Tesla Model 3. The charge limit can be chosen in the car or by phone app. Very convenient.

Nissan *could* of course do something similar. They are keeping their R&D to an absolute minimum.
 
Hi, i was reading this topic, and i decide to do a quick english language selection option in an app that i've created. Originally, could only work in portuguese.

In a short description, the app allows to calculate how much time do you have to charge to get desired SOC, depending of several variables that influences the charge, like current, voltage, etc.

This app is in development, i am actually doing a big change in the layout and bringing new funcionalities. I bellieve that this new version will be available middle October. Until then, please use as it is: https://goo.gl/itaZr6
 
Similar to some of the posts in this thread, I also have a JuiceBox Pro 40 and it works great for charging to a specific percentage like 80%. I enter in the amount of charge left on the car when I plug in and can set the iphone app to charge to whatever percentage I set it to. I have a Leaf S but the Juicebox gives me some remote charging functionality of the SV/SL.
 
nrvous said:
Similar to some of the posts in this thread, I also have a JuiceBox Pro 40 and it works great for charging to a specific percentage like 80%. I enter in the amount of charge left on the car when I plug in and can set the iphone app to charge to whatever percentage I set it to. I have a Leaf S but the Juicebox gives me some remote charging functionality of the SV/SL.

A JuiceBox is great for the Smartphone generation. The only way to set its parameters is by the app. Personally I am happy to walk up to my EVSE.
 
GlennD said:
nrvous said:
Similar to some of the posts in this thread, I also have a JuiceBox Pro 40 and it works great for charging to a specific percentage like 80%. I enter in the amount of charge left on the car when I plug in and can set the iphone app to charge to whatever percentage I set it to. I have a Leaf S but the Juicebox gives me some remote charging functionality of the SV/SL.

A JuiceBox is great for the Smartphone generation. The only way to set its parameters is by the app. Personally I am happy to walk up to my EVSE.
+1
Unless it's changed, the only way to adjust the amperage is with the app, no WiFi, no ability to adjust output amperage!
No thanks, I'm happy to use my older JuiceBox where I have a little RF remote :lol:
 
jjeff said:
GlennD said:
nrvous said:
Similar to some of the posts in this thread, I also have a JuiceBox Pro 40 and it works great for charging to a specific percentage like 80%. I enter in the amount of charge left on the car when I plug in and can set the iphone app to charge to whatever percentage I set it to. I have a Leaf S but the Juicebox gives me some remote charging functionality of the SV/SL.

A JuiceBox is great for the Smartphone generation. The only way to set its parameters is by the app. Personally I am happy to walk up to my EVSE.
+1
Unless it's changed, the only way to adjust the amperage is with the app, no WiFi, no ability to adjust output amperage!
No thanks, I'm happy to use my older JuiceBox where I have a little RF remote :lol:

Agreed, there is a little more setup (or capability depending on how you look at it) with a JuiceBox Pro 40 than a dumb EVSE. Just to clarify, it can be configured via the phone app or web dashboard.

It's important to note that the Juicebox can still be used as a dumb EVSE even if wifi or internet is not available. Why you'd want to do that I have no idea but the smart features won't disable the EVSE by any stretch if you can't connect to it for some reason.

For example, my Juicebox Pro 40 is on a 50a circuit and is set to 32a. I can still use it to charge both my cars (Leaf @ 27a and Volt @ 16a) no problem even if I didn't connect it to my phone or my network. So for me, I really don't have a need to play with the output amperage once it's set.

Again, it's all about personal preference and your needs. For me I could never go back to a dumb EVSE after having all the convenient features of the JuiceBox Pro 40.
 
It occurs to me that with my newly installed Nissan EVSE in my garage, I can use that app-controlled, J-1772 plug-connected switch that we all dismissed last year because it wasn't weatherproof. Now, does anyone remember the make and model of that unit?

EDIT: it was here, in this very topic, but they seem to have dropped it. Figures! I'll look for one elsewhere...

https://emotorwerks.com/products/charging-stations/juiceplug?atid=18
 
I find it odd that no L2 EVSE manufacturers have taken advantage of the tapering off of charge current above 80% SOC as a trigger for ending charging before 100%

While using that wouldn't guarantee precisely 80% SOC, it would be close enough.

Here's an L2 charging curve analysis that proves my point:

https://www.johnsavesenergy.com/nissan-leaf-2012-vs-2013

Leaf%2BCharging%2BProfiles.PNG


So, as an example, the EVSE could monitor the charging rate and, if it drops below 1 kW, then stop the charging cycle.

Would seem like a simple way to approximate 80% charging.
 
LeftieBiker said:
Or at least 85-90%, yes.

+1. I will admit to not knowing when my previous LEAFs tapered but on my 2018, it tapers well into the 90's. I think its too high for general purposes unless you are needing that much range.
 
BTW, I just passed this feature request on to the ChargePoint contact over at PriusChat. Not sure if we have a similar contact on this forum, but the more voices saying we need this feature the faster it could get implemented.
 
Last post, sorry for the spam...
Just checked on my ChargePoint app. Best I can tell is that it starts tapering me around 93-94% on my 2nd Gen Leaf. Like you said, not necessarily always super functional, but at least it would prevent it from going to 100% when you forget you are plugged in.
 
I suspect 80% isn't a magical SOC and that low 90% ish SOC charging would still be much better than regularly charging to 100%. If the EVSE manufacturer allowed the user to set the cutoff kW rate, then it would be fairly easy to tweak things to work best for a particular LEAF as there's likely quite a bit of variability.
 
alozzy said:
I suspect 80% isn't a magical SOC and that low 90% ish SOC charging would still be much better than regularly charging to 100%. If the EVSE manufacturer allowed the user to set the cutoff kW rate, then it would be fairly easy to tweak things to work best for a particular LEAF as there's likely quite a bit of variability.

Agreed. It is well established that 90% is better than 100%, 70% better than 80%. Although not practical for such a short range car, its believed that a 20% DOD from 40% to 60% will more than double the life of the pack.
 
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