2013 Low Battery Capacity AHr Battery Degradation

[o00scorpion00o]

I've had my 2015 Leaf almost 8 months now and this is how I use it.

Up until a few months ago my driving was mostly travel about 85 miles per 4 shift days/nights. I would get to work, about 44 miles with about 48-54% battery, I used to charge at the DC charger over lunch to about 80-85% about 20-30 mins now I use a DC charger ln the way home instead and get to that with about 20-25% battery, charge up for 5-10 mins for about 50-54% battery.

I went from a pretty continuous 67.36 AH reading to 63 ah and after about 9,500 miles So I tried to fully charge and run the battery as low as possible a few times which made no difference, I usually get home with between 18-25% depending on how long I stay at the DC charger.

The least few days I charged a lot more at the DC charger up to 70 odd % and noticed my AH reading climbing ever since, now at about 65 AH. Hardly a coincidence ?

Strange DC charging from 25%-50% every day doesn't make the AH reading go up only when you DC charge beyond 70% ? strange.

I will try charge up to 70% % over my week off shift and see if the DC charging indeed is bringing the Ah reading back up.

I tested a 2014 leaf with 50,000 Kms or about 18,000 miles at a DC charger a good few months back and it read 66.4 ah and had about 544 DC charges and over 700 L2 if I remember correctly, I did post the results on mynissanleaf around that time.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

I am over 25,000 miles with ahr running between 91 to 93

Ahr is "91 to 93"? Is that a new Nissan Leaf experimental battery?

My 2013 (12/2013 build 9/2013) at 24K has only 55 Ahr.

guessing I should have said Hx

 

[epirali]

I've had my 2015 Leaf almost 8 months now and this is how I use it.

Up until a few months ago my driving was mostly travel about 85 miles per 4 shift days/nights. I would get to work, about 44 miles with about 48-54% battery, I used to charge at the DC charger over lunch to about 80-85% about 20-30 mins now I use a DC charger ln the way home instead and get to that with about 20-25% battery, charge up for 5-10 mins for about 50-54% battery.

I went from a pretty continuous 67.36 AH reading to 63 ah and after about 9,500 miles So I tried to fully charge and run the battery as low as possible a few times which made no difference, I usually get home with between 18-25% depending on how long I stay at the DC charger.

The least few days I charged a lot more at the DC charger up to 70 odd % and noticed my AH reading climbing ever since, now at about 65 AH. Hardly a coincidence ?

Strange DC charging from 25%-50% every day doesn't make the AH reading go up only when you DC charge beyond 70% ? strange.

I will try charge up to 70% % over my week off shift and see if the DC charging indeed is bringing the Ah reading back up.

I tested a 2014 leaf with 50,000 Kms or about 18,000 miles at a DC charger a good few months back and it read 66.4 ah and had about 544 DC charges and over 700 L2 if I remember correctly, I did post the results on mynissanleaf around that time.

I definitely noticed that using fast DC charging increased the reported AHr every time I did it. And this effect last for a while. And I do know using 80 % charging for a while definitely reduces the reported AHr.

Have no idea whether thus is a measurement/reporting effect or fast charging actually has a real capacity effect.

 

[DaveEV]

It's just a measurement / reporting effect, not an actual increase incapacity.

 

[epirali]

It's just a measurement / reporting effect, not an actual increase incapacity.

Thanks, not surprising at all. The measurements of capacity, etc, has to be significantly effected by various charge methods.

 

[dgpcolorado]

It's just a measurement / reporting effect, not an actual increase incapacity.

Yes, my observations suggest that it appears to depend on temperature. Since I lost my first bar two months ago, at 55.75 Ah, my reported capacity has increased to 56.1 Ah in recent days. It seems to increase as battery temperatures warm and I expect it to decrease as battery temperatures decline in the fall. And stop all together when battery temperatures get below about 12ºC IIRC. The chemistry of batteries is quite dependent on temperature, as we well know. And that affects the measurement parameters used to estimate Amp•hours of capacity.

Of interest to me is that the hysteresis of the capacity bars is such that my lost bar didn't come back despite the 0.5% increase in Ah readings. I was sufficiently below the -15% number (~56.3 Ah?) when the bar dropped (55.75 Ah), that there was no chance that the bar would come back.

 

[asimba2]

It has been a HOT summer in the central valley of California, but not much has changed in the past couple of months:
6/17/2015 - 15,769 mi - 58.64 Ahr - 89% SOH - 89.04% Hx
7/13/2015 - 16,540 mi - 58.11 Ahr - 88% SOH - 87.89% Hx
8/12/2015 - 17,416 mi - 58.26 Ahr - 89% SOH - 88.22% Hx

I mostly charge to 80% and have noticed a bump in all of the numbers when I do a 100% charge and allow time for the cell-balancing. All the above numbers were taken at various state-of-charges, not necessarily after a full charge.

I have not noticed any reduction in range. The car still uses 22% of the battery (each way) on my commute like it did when new. Yesterday I drove 65 miles (with about 60% of that at 72 MPH freeway speeds) and still had 23% of the battery left with the GOM showing 22 miles of range remaining. Original range was listed at 84 miles and it looks like I could have easily driven more than that. If my car does have 11% of degradation as leafspy suggests, I still haven't noticed it and my careful accounting of my trips seems to indicate nothing has changed since new.

 

[lowspeed]

How bad is this?

Thanks!

 

[o00scorpion00o]

Lowspeed, you must be in a hot climate ? I don't see your location .

MY 2015 has lost about 3-4% after 10,100 miles, but it varies by about + - 2-3 AH, seemingly the more I Quick Charge charge the more the AH rises which I don't know why and that's quick charge to 80%. Most of the time I quick charge form 25-50% and it's only when I charge to 75-80 ish % the capacity seems to rise again, can anyone explain this ?

The late 2013+ batteries seem to be holding up very well.

 

[lowspeed]

This is a 2013 SV that was mostly from what i know in N. Carolina.

 

[epirali]

This is a 2013 SV that was mostly from what i know in N. Carolina.

Posted in other thread also:

My 2013 SV, with 20K miles was showing at worse 95% SOH and 63 AHr. But then again I never charged it to 100% and left in high heat, and this was in MD.

 

[o00scorpion00o]

That's a good loss of capacity, I thought the 2013's were doing a lot better ?

I pulled Leafspy data form a leaf here in Ireland back in about January and it was a 2014 with 18,800 miles showing 100% 67.7 ah as new. yeah it's not hot here but still showing a big improvement. It seems that leafs that are DC/Rapid/fast charged or whatever you want to call it are showing higher capacity.

My 2015 seems to vary by about 3 ah and seems to show higher capacity after several up to 80% DC charges.

Today, showed 21.8 kwh and 281 Gids 97% health after 100% charge and 10,100 miles.

 

[Mottyski82]

Iowspeed,
It seems like your battery pack is doing fine. I wouldn't be worried about it if I were you. You don't have much more time with 12 bars remaining, but that is to be expected at this point in your LEAF's lifespan. It's aging about right.

Good luck, and charge forward!

 

[asimba2]

Today's battery pack temperature as read from Leafspy = 108 degrees F. Yeah, that's good for the battery. No QC either. I'm amazed my battery has only degraded 10% in two years at these kinds of temperatures.

 

[Valdemar]

This is a 2013 SV that was mostly from what i know in N. Carolina.

What month was it made in? Look at the label under driver's side door.

 

[mwalsh]

What month was it made in? Look at the label under driver's side door.

I'll lay odds it's an early one.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

the other day we had 2 days of cloudy and rain in the middle of what will end up being record setting Summer and got a weird bump in my readings. I had charged to 100% every day for 4 days in a row then it got cool, rained and I had the day off so didn't go anywhere but my Hx jumped from 93.55 to 95.19%. Normally when I skip a day of charging the stats drop a lot.

 

[Leafitornot]

I've been considering the purchase of a 2013 Nissan Leaf (posted a thread in the buying/leasing forum) and have checked out a few Leafs in Georgia over the last 2 days. Perhaps this info from Leaf Spy Lite will be useful. All cars tested were 2013 models.

Model, mileage, SOH, AHr, voltage?, Hx, QC/L1,L2

SV: 16k, 90%, 59.29, 377.08V, 90.41%, 0/852
SV: 10k, 91%, 59.61, 395.54V, 91.04%, 0/368
SV: 16k, 90%, 58.97, 361.70V, 89.77%, 42/562
SV: 24k, 88%, 57.60, 386.51V, 86.79%, 1/1076
S: 22k, 90%, 59.15, 396.32V, 90.14%, 1/1168
SL: 19k, 88%, 57.83, 394.16V, 87.28%, 26/515
S: 18k 98%, 64.11, 393.96V, 98.31%, 1/652
SL: 18k, 100%, 67.08, 369.02V, 103.15%, 2/1231

Based on the available carfaxes, most of the cars were driven in Georgia. It appears that 90% SOH should be pretty much the norm for a 2013 Leaf.

Maybe someone can explain the Leaf Spy Lite bar chart to me...some were almost all red, others all blue, and some a mix of red/blue. The voltage read (eg 377.08V) is also a mystery to me.

 

[mwalsh]

Maybe someone can explain the Leaf Spy Lite bar chart to me...some were almost all red, others all blue, and some a mix of red/blue.

Cells shunting - Google it - normal behavior.

 

[Valdemar]

^^^ Did you happen to note the manufacturing date for these cars?