Long drive, is it bad for the battery?

[aaad1]

Hello all,

Very new to the Nissan Leaf, in the processing of buying one.

I was wondering regarding people's experience for using for long drives?
If I was to use it for a 250 miles drive, which would require stopping a few times, is that bad for the battery? To have 3 consecutive fast charges?

The leaf will be my 2nd car as main car for long trips is a diesel car.

Thanks

 

[Stanton]

Take your ICE car for long trips; keep the Leaf for "around town".
I assume you will be DC (fast) charging your Leaf, and that will lead to excessive heat and (long-term) degradation of the battery pack.

 

[Drew21]

As Stanton says, if you have another (ICE) car it really makes no sense to use your Leaf for a drive that would require multiple charging stops. For your 250 mile example, you might not even need to make a stop in your diesel vehicle (depending on your back and your bladder).

 

[aaad1]

I see, thanks for the info.

As Stanton says, if you have another (ICE) car it really makes no sense to use your Leaf for a drive that would require multiple charging stops. For your 250 mile example, you might not even need to make a stop in your diesel vehicle (depending on your back and your bladder).

 

[kaiat]

Although I have an ICE (diesel) car as my main car and use that primarily on longer trips, I have occasionally taken my good old 2014 Leaf 24 kWh for a few long trips as well. Often because that damn ICE is in need for repair... Longer trips are doable to put it like that, but the charging stops can be a nuisance.

 

[MasterFlier]

This advice does not bode well for EVs in America where we love our long car trips! I took my 2020 Leaf from Northern Virginia to the North Carolina outer banks, about 270 miles for me. Two stops for fast charging in Richmond and Virginia Beach (free at Nissan dealerships!) and back, and all went well. The scarcity of chademo chargers is an issue which will only get worse over time. I guess I made up for the fast charging with extremely slow charging at a wall outlet at the beach house.

 

[Stanton]

This advice does not bode well for EVs in America where we love our long car trips!

The OP didn't ask about other EVs, he asked about taking his Leaf on a roadtrip...and I answered accordingly.
While I don't "road trip" in my Leaf, that doesn't mean that there won't be better EV options in the future (even now there are some 400+ mile range EVs), but I maintain that it's a small percentage of the target market...and one that can be filled by the millions of ICE cars on the road (and in car rental lots).

 

[DougWantsALeaf]

We drive our Leaf a few times a year.between Chicago and Kansas (570 miles). We do it in a day, and it does take a bit longer (12-14 hours depending on weather) vs the 10.5-11.5 hours it takes us to do it in our ice car. We.usually stop 3 times in either car, but the stops are longer.

 

[Ndp1234]

I have a 2019 Leaf. I make 200 mile trips all the time (probably at least once a month) and I usually just quick charge once on the way and L2 charge once when I get to my destination. My trip has a lot of mountains so I get less range than normal. Rinse and repeat for the return trip.

My main battery is still as good as when I bought it new. I don’t have a Leaf Spy but I just replaced the 12v battery last week after having the car for 5 years, which seems to be very good based on the posts in this forum.

 

[Ndp1234]

[duplicate deleted]

 

[Stanton]

My main battery is still as good as when I bought it new. I don’t have a Leaf Spy but I just replaced the 12v battery last week after having the car for 5 years, which seems to be very good based on the posts in this forum.

Absolutely no way to make that claim without LeafSpy data...and I can pretty much guarantee your main battery pack is not "good as new". The lifespan of the 12v battery has nothing to do (or indicate) the lifespan of the main battery pack.
Just sayin' for those looking evaluate the status/health of your battery.

 

[Dooglas]

This advice does not bode well for EVs in America where we love our long car trips!

As long as we are talking about automobiles in America, I have to insert that most US households own two vehicles or possibly more. I have owned and driven EVs for eleven years now but we have also owned a hybrid over the same period which we use for most trips of any distance. And, as it turns out, we put more miles on the EV than on the hybrid in a year as we rack up more short distance miles. As many others have observed, the LEAF excels at around town and shorter distance driving.

 

[aaad1]

Thanks for the info. Just bought my first EV (30kWh Leaf), it has 75% health.
Was a nightmare with charging at first. The chademo charger got locked in and wouldn't charge. Just the emergency stop on the station to unlock it.
A normal 2 hours 10 mins trip turned into a 6 hours journey.