So, owners what range are you getting ?

[IBELEAF]

I have a 106 miles round trip per day and no charging station at work.
90% highway with cool weather. 55-65 miles all the way on the freeway.
Do you think I can/should use the Leaf for daily commute?

That will not work with Leaf

 

[LEAFer]

I have a 106 miles round trip per day and no charging station at work.
90% highway with cool weather. 55-65 miles all the way on the freeway.
Do you think I can/should use the Leaf for daily commute?

That will not work with Leaf

Right. You don't necessarily need a "charging station" at work, but at absolute minimum you need to be able to plug in for 8-10 hours each work day on a regular outlet. Glad to hear you are considering 55mph though

 

[csriram45]

I got my Red Leaf on April 20th and so far the car has been great. On first day I drove about 50 miles driving back from dealership and giving rides to family and friends. I can back home with about 35 - 40 miles on the DB estimate

Day 1: 100% charge, Blink Unit showing 12.x KwH used.

DB showed range to be about 111 miles on ECO Mode
I was late to start and had to go to a meeting so most of my driving ended up being at 70 - 75 miles/hr. I could see my estimate going down very fast and I reached work 26 miles from Milpitas to Pleasanton through Sunol grade with my DB showing 49 miles range. It was not something I was happy to see but I realized that at 75 I did not help the cause. Of course this was the first long drive of the car as well.
On my way back in the evening I drove more conservatively so I can get an idea on how it is different. I drove between 55 - 65 mostly at 58 - 60 (its hard to maintain speed in eco mode). I reached home with 29 miles showing on my DB. Actual Odometer was at 102 so total distance was 52 miles. I had another friend who has ordered a Leaf and so wanted a ride. Drove around local streets and finally parked the car with DB showing 19 miles.

Day 2: 100% charge, Blink Unit showing Total 30.50 Kwh Used, so 18.xx for full charge
DB Showed a range of 117 on ECO Mode.

Today I drove more conservatively trying to ride between 55 - 65 and mostly at 58 - 60 miles/hr. I did realize that at 60 most of other drivers are not too happy about it even though you are in the right most lane. I reached work (26 miles) with my DB reading 69 miles remaining. So I had an extra 20 mile range for slower speed which was amazing. Funny think was it took me only 8 more minutes than usual that I drive at 70 - 75 miles an hour.
Went out with colleague for lunch etc. In the evening drove back around same speed and reached with DB reading 34 miles. ODO 177 miles.

Day 3: Charged only to 80%. DB showing 93 miles on ECO.

I was out of town for the weekend and so today was going to be the Day 3 of Leaf driving and I was planning to go to work but due to an emergency home repair worked from home. In the evening drove for some errand and now have DB showing 64 miles.

I have not decided to charge today or top of the battery back to 80%. I wonder if its a wise move or not. At 64 miles on DB I know I should be able to make the 52 mile round trip as long as I drive conservatively. It will be interesting to try it out and see how much I can push the car and see at what point the alert or warning shows up. I still feel that I should be able to manage without even reaching the warning stage. I believe regen should work more as well.

Will know more tomorrow so will update this thread.

 

[drlesley]

Hi,
I took 3 people on a 60 mile round-trip jaunt Easter Sunday. I started out with 96 miles available according to the readout. Only a few miles in, it dropped to 62. At this point I switched off the A/C but kept it in regular mode.

Committed, we made the trip but on the way home the mileage dropped to 7 about 5 miles from home. The navigator's voice came on saying "low battery" and there was a light flashing on the dash.

I hurriedly plugged it in to my trickle charge since I had a 35 mile round-trip to work the next day, about 11 hours later. When I returned 11 hours later, it said I had about 62 left and when I got home from work it said 23.

This am it said I had 92 after another 10 1/2 hours of charging.

Not a great even medium distance car.

drlesley

 

[IBELEAF]

What I found during my 2 week ownership is that living in a hilly area greatly affects your range and EPA rating does not take that into account, to counter balance that I am using exclusively ECO mode and getting acceptable range for my commute.

 

[drlesley]

Yes, but in ECO mode up a hill I have to literally "floor it." Then, it just creeps up the hill near my house.

 

[IBELEAF]

Yes, but in ECO mode up a hill I have to literally "floor it." Then, it just creeps up the hill near my house.

That's why you see range drop. Flooring will kill your range pretty quickly in any car and with Leaf it's very noticeable. Also, unless you have really steep hill I don't have any issues with using ECO mode and going up the hill without flooring it. By that I mean I am using power 4 circles using CC, going 35 mph on a 30 degrees hill with two people on board.

 

[DaveEV]

I took 3 people on a 60 mile round-trip jaunt Easter Sunday. I started out with 96 miles available according to the readout.

More importantly - how many bars did you have? It doesn't sound like you started with a full charge?

Only a few miles in, it dropped to 62.

Not surprising. The initial estimate was done on previous driving, but it quickly adjusted to your full load and freeway driving.

Committed, we made the trip but on the way home the mileage dropped to 7 about 5 miles from home. The navigator's voice came on saying "low battery" and there was a light flashing on the dash.

Sounds about right assuming you were driving on the freeway.

I hurriedly plugged it in to my trickle charge since I had a 35 mile round-trip to work the next day, about 11 hours later. When I returned 11 hours later, it said I had about 62 left and when I got home from work it said 23.

This am it said I had 92 after another 10 1/2 hours of charging.

Not a great even medium distance car.

You need to get your L2 EVSE installed and adjust initial range expectations based on battery charge instead of the "guess gauge". Have you had the firmware update done yet?

60 miles on the highway (say 70 mph) needs to be done on a full charge if you want to maintain 10 miles of buffer, especially if you want to run the HVAC.

 

[ERG4ALL]

Here's a bit of trivia that may help when estimating your range. Energy consumed goes up by the square of the speed. Thus a car traveling 70 mph uses four times the energy of one traveling at 35 mph. For other circumstances, let's say the difference between traveling at 60 mph versus 70 mph, 70 squared equals 4,900 and 60 squared equals 3,600. Divide 4,900 by 3,600 and the answer is 1.36 or 36% more energy. For only 10 mph difference the extra energy consumed is considerable. The difference between 55 and 75 is 86% more energy required which is even more sobering.

 

[IBELEAF]

So 19% more energy going 60 vs 55?

 

[Andy]

I went for an 80 mile round trip, mostly flat freeway where I had the Cruise control at 60 mph. The traffic slowed and there were some hills for a few miles (going into the city).
I came back with 2 bars and 14 miles indicated left (not upgraded sw). Eco mode, no A/C, no anxiety.

 

[evnow]

This give a charger (+ other) efficiency rating of 92%.
My actual "wall to wheels" = 3.34 m/kWh. Adding the preconditioning nets me 3.0 m/kWh

Interesting. Carwings reports 160 kwh consumption for March. Blink reports 176 kwh. That gives about 90% efficiency with minimal preheating.

 

[LindaK]

So 19% more energy going 60 vs 55?

That's how I figure it...and since I can see the difference in my "SOC meter" doing my commute at those two speeds, 19% seems about right.

 

[SilverLeaf]

I figured I would try a little 'hyper-miling' tonight on my short round trip to tennis.

I left the house fully charged (just like my T-shirt says) with 105 miles range on the dash.

When I returned (round-trip = 9 miles), the dash range read 111. I LOVE MY LEAF.

Didn't do anything exceptional, just always drove 1-2 miles under the speed limit. Also coasted where possible. Slight uphill going to the courts, slight downhill on the return.

Half the trip was 30 mph, half the trip 45 mph. Entire trip expended 1 bar.

 

[pksd1]

This morning drive to work was typical 24.6 miles, pulled into the parking lot with 75 miles remaining...about 40% of my drive was freeway @60-67mpg, no A/C, just fan running, all in eco-mode. This is my third day of drive to work, so far I am getting 90+ miles per charge. Very pleased with the results so far.

 

[IBELEAF]

speaking of the fan only mode, I noticed that fan takes as much energy as having a/c on, at least range estimator drops by the same amount.

 

[DarkStar]

speaking of the fan only mode, I noticed that fan takes as much energy as having a/c on, at least range estimator drops by the same amount.

I've noticed that too, however after a few minutes the range estimator figures out that I'm only using the fan...

 

[IBELEAF]

speaking of the fan only mode, I noticed that fan takes as much energy as having a/c on, at least range estimator drops by the same amount.

I've noticed that too, however after a few minutes the range estimator figures out that I'm only using the fan...

I would rather have it not do this... any substantial range drops in the estimate scares me :lol:

 

[pksd1]

speaking of the fan only mode, I noticed that fan takes as much energy as having a/c on, at least range estimator drops by the same amount.

I've noticed that too, however after a few minutes the range estimator figures out that I'm only using the fan...

I would rather have it not do this... any substantial range drops in the estimate scares me :lol:

Yes, it does take few minutes to re-calculate, it took me a day to figure that out, before that I was scratching my head.

PK

 

[ERG4ALL]

Because energy expended increases by the square of the speed, here's a little table showing the relative energy expended in comparison to going 45 mph as the base. It is interesting how even 5 mph can make a significant difference.

45 100.00%
50 123.46%
55 149.38%
60 177.78%
65 208.64%
70 241.98%
75 277.78%
80 316.05%
85 356.79%
90 400.00%