Trip in a used leaf with 10bars - how it went - Chademo

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pstarSR

Active member
Joined
Jul 18, 2024
Messages
35
Location
santa barbara CA
I am a new leaf owner, and I know there are a myriad of reviews, stories and nightmares about traveling with a used leaf. or a LOW kWh capacity EV. So I am writing this for any new leaf owner, or new to EV's that has range anxiety. I think they are blown out of proportion and I feel we need (equally) good experiences to review things. both sides.

I needed to travel 41 miles ( one way ) to a family for a birthday party. This car was really planned to be intown transit for me to work and back and errands but........ I like a challenge. It has CHAdeMO and I have been kinda interested in trying it. One of the HUGE benefits I see in owning this leaf is the charge time. both L2 and rapid. they are SUPER fast.

( I have NO idea how this battery was treated from new, 2 previous owners. I have no idea how many DC charges have been run, and if they charged to 100% often.)

My leaf is a 2015 24kWh with 10bars/12 52,000 miles, 75.43%SOH on leafspy. I am 3rd owner and it has CHAdeMO DC fast, and j1772. both work. My factory range was ~82miles new. I get roughly ~70miles at 80-90%, 62ish is more consistently given. I drive 19 miles to a from work, and its been spot on with range for the few months I owned it so I decided to fire up ABRP ( A better Route Planner ) and plug in my destinations. It showed I would not only arrive fine, but I would arrive with 40% capacity!

" NO way! " I thought, no way. The hills, this transit is over a mountain, and into the inland valley from me ( coast ) so its not flat. And no chargers are available till I reach the destination ( 41 miles ). That range anxiety twinge hit. But I used to build cars and I recall the most memorable trips were the ones you partially didnt think you would make it. ;)

( Santa Barbara CA - 85ish deg outside temps - low traffic - A/C definitely used, worked magically! - Bmode eco - cruise control for straights 55-65mph avg)

Ok to the prep, cause this is where it works with an EV, prep! I charged to 75% ish the night before. Woke up ate breakfast and went to the charger and popped it into top it off before the trip. I wanted to try for 100% and see the charger turn off and see what we get. ( It never did that, it pettered at 97% so I stopped it ) so Im topped off, unplug, check temps ( all middle ) and off we go. The route started with ~2000ft elevation rise ( uphill run ) and then all downhill to pretty much the destination. ( I have attached a portion of the route, to show the chart. ABRP is really nice for that. ) As I climb the mountain Im watching my range drop, fast. I have a spot in mind to "TURN BACK NOW" but I push on. I crest the ridge with 32mil range showing ( butt puckered a bit ). buuuuut butttttttt that still should make it as we only have 19 miles left. ( downhill ;) ) I start the downhill. By the time I exit the foot of the ridge, and start my inland portion I'm back to 48 miles ( ~ 60%cap! ). I have maybe 5 miles left in the journey. THAT REGEN!

ALLL range anxiety killed at this point. I landed at the park, had a great birthday with family. (with 44% cap)

I targeted an EvGo CHAdeMO charger and some j1772 lv2 chargers the area incase. I drove to the charger with 36%ish. bout 22 miles. The charger was in a grocery store lot, a smaller farm store. which was nice. SO this was my first CHAdeMO experience, I was nervous. I grab the ANOCONDA cable ( gezzus man, im 44yrs old and not weak, WTH thats GIANT ) and slap it into the CHAdeMO port and start the process of paying. Two Audi Etron suvs roll up and look at me oddly ( this is near the chumash casino area ). I graciously told them I would be only 20min, and that the CCS cable is free, and can run at the same time! ( one driver failed to initiate and left with 80%! why were you chargin? ) the other got it running, and took off. nice folks though. I sat in the car after getting a drink inside, and turn on the radio and A/C ( what a nice feature that you can do that while charging ). Leafspy told me the progress, and I watched it go from 30%-92% in 22minutes ( @100w roughly, tapering ). I was shocked, I noted that the battery temps jumped two bars after ( 90 degree outside air temps ), but I wasnt planning another DC fast charge anytime soon, especially in this trip. plus my cruise on the inland area should run air over the batt for a bit before the climb.

long story short ( is this short?) I ran back, climbed the hill and descended the other side of the mountain. arriving home with 42mile range left ( 48%ish capacity ). A/C running the whole time.

I was, and still am smiling. This did fine, was painless I dare say ( knock on wood ). The etron drivers stated the electrify america charger down the street was being serviced, which is why they came to the one I was at. I also targeted that charger first as it was closer, that could have put a damper on the trip if it was not working.

The spotty charger layout for anything other than teslas is, hugely frustrating sometimes. But you can still make it work. I feel that the leaf is given a bad rap. This thing did fine.

sadly, the biggest hurdle for charging I noticed and continue to notice is other EV drivers. From vehicles on public chargers for 8+ hours, to people leaving completed vehicles in spots with wands still in the car. That will make travel like this difficult.
 

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also, noting this here for others. MY SOH ( state of health read from leafspy ), of the battery increased after this trip to 76.62% ( 75.43%SOH prior )
 
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I think SOH has some firmware gimmicks and magic included. 12 months to the exact date, my SOH is identical to the 100ths from a year ago. 8000 miles and 5-6 DCFCs at 70kW makes this just impossible. HX did change so maybe HX is the true meaning of health (somehow).
 
Glad to read that your trip went as planned. Back in my 24 kWh Leaf days, I made trips as long as +300 miles that took a lot of planning for QC to QC jumping. Had to read all the Plugshare reviews about the QC places to make sure I didn't see any "charger dead" just in case. :LOL: I had some L2 places as backup and a place to stay just in-case, like a motel, etc. In all those trips, I only hit turtle one time because I drove a little faster than I had planned and almost ran out of power just a few miles before my final stop, but even in turtle mode at 30 mph, got all the way to it with only a little to spare. It happened at night, so traffic wasn't a real issue, but I bet a few people passed me wondering what the heck was going on. This was way, way, back in 2013 when all of our EVs had to drive uphill; both ways in the snow. 😄
 
I was, and still am smiling. This did fine, was painless I dare say ( knock on wood ). The etron drivers stated the electrify america charger down the street was being serviced, which is why they came to the one I was at. I also targeted that charger first as it was closer, that could have put a damper on the trip if it was not working.

The spotty charger layout for anything other than teslas is, hugely frustrating sometimes. But you can still make it work. I feel that the leaf is given a bad rap. This thing did fine.

sadly, the biggest hurdle for charging I noticed and continue to notice is other EV drivers. From vehicles on public chargers for 8+ hours, to people leaving completed vehicles in spots with wands still in the car. That will make travel like this difficult.
This has always been an issue since the Leaf first came out, even the Tesla Roadster had to be L2 charged too back then. It spawned a whole social media thing about people leaving ICE vehicles parked in EV charging spots and then other EV owners charging and just leaving their vehicle there for hours or days, taking up the spot too. If you read some of the really early post here at this forum, you'll see plenty of rants and ideas to help with this. Everyone kind of came up with an "EV Charging Etiquette" that was loosely followed, but many new owners didn't read forums so it caused a lot of tension sometimes. The EV forums on Facebook were toxic because most people just wanted to feel entitled for being an early EV owner. It's interesting to see how things have changed over a decade later and that a lot of people today still think that EVs just popped into existence only a year or two ago (today in 2024) in my experience when talking with people not familiar with them at EV shows, etc.
 
I think SOH has some firmware gimmicks and magic included. 12 months to the exact date, my SOH is identical to the 100ths from a year ago. 8000 miles and 5-6 DCFCs at 70kW makes this just impossible. HX did change so maybe HX is the true meaning of health (somehow).
yeah I wanted to document it, cause it going UP after a DC rapid charge was a bit counter intuitive. ( it went up 1% ) so, just leaving it here for record keeping. haha. There is alot of calculations and maths happening here so it could be a bit off haha.
 
Glad to read that your trip went as planned. Back in my 24 kWh Leaf days, I made trips as long as +300 miles that took a lot of planning for QC to QC jumping. Had to read all the Plugshare reviews about the QC places to make sure I didn't see any "charger dead" just in case. :LOL: I had some L2 places as backup and a place to stay just in-case, like a motel, etc. In all those trips, I only hit turtle one time because I drove a little faster than I had planned and almost ran out of power just a few miles before my final stop, but even in turtle mode at 30 mph, got all the way to it with only a little to spare. It happened at night, so traffic wasn't a real issue, but I bet a few people passed me wondering what the heck was going on. This was way, way, back in 2013 when all of our EVs had to drive uphill; both ways in the snow. 😄
the fact that you remember it, means it was a good trip. I enjoy the ones you partially dont expect to finish.
 
This has always been an issue since the Leaf first came out, even the Tesla Roadster had to be L2 charged too back then. It spawned a whole social media thing about people leaving ICE vehicles parked in EV charging spots and then other EV owners charging and just leaving their vehicle there for hours or days, taking up the spot too. If you read some of the really early post here at this forum, you'll see plenty of rants and ideas to help with this. Everyone kind of came up with an "EV Charging Etiquette" that was loosely followed, but many new owners didn't read forums so it caused a lot of tension sometimes. The EV forums on Facebook were toxic because most people just wanted to feel entitled for being an early EV owner. It's interesting to see how things have changed over a decade later and that a lot of people today still think that EVs just popped into existence only a year or two ago (today in 2024) in my experience when talking with people not familiar with them at EV shows, etc.
Its a weird thing for sure. I run into it kinda regularly. there are certain offenders for sure. they just think things are there for them only. I wish they had a handbook they passed out, just like the DMV hands out for driving. but part of my thinks logically, you would already get it. but alas, I give the human race too much credit sometimes.
 
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