bigbearballs said:
It sure is hot, too darn hot. Looks like I got up to 85 miles on a full charge, that's good range right? And I shouldn't be charging the car to 100%, that will damage the battery?
Also, what does turtle mean? I know it's the last part of the battery, but couldn't find anything more specific. I clicked the wiki but the link didn't work.
Turtle mode happens when you only have a mile or two left on the charge. The car normally can do 80KW to the motor, in turtle mode that is limited to 30KW. That will lower your max speed from 93mph to something closer to 30mph.
I've been driving my car for a year now and even when I drove 85 miles on a charge I never saw turtle mode.
Before turtle you will see Very Low Battery Warning (VLBW). When you hit VLBW the miles remaining changes to --- and you still have full power but you only have about 4 to 9 miles remaining depending on all the variables (speed, temp, tires, weather, etc).
Once you hit VLBW the only way you'll know how much range you have is if you have a 2013 or newer and can watch the SOC% on the dash. (Older cars don't have that and have to use leafspy to see SOC%).
The SOC% at time of triggering LBW, VLBW, and Turtle mode will vary based on the capacity of the battery. If you want to be sure, test it by driving around the block near a location you can charge and drive it until you get the turtle, write down the SOC% each time you get a warning and when you hit turtle mode then charge the car back up.
Or take a look at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=101293 for charts of speed vs range and keep that in mind.