Nissan NEVER TOLD ME our Leaf CAN'T DO HILLS !!!!!

I have a 2018 Leaf and just found out we CANNOT travel to Kelowna, BC from Coquitlam, BC because our car overheats on hills and forcing us to stop. Having to stop due to heat on a trip to Nelson, it took us 16 HOURS from Coquitlam to Nelson (a 7-8 hour trip in a gas vehicle). THREE HOURS (5 STOPS) SPENT WAITING FOR THE BATTERY TO COOL SO WE COULD DRIVE. The trip to Kelowna via the Coquihalla Hwy is a much steeper grade than the grade to Osoyoos. So we are SCREWED!!!! Nissan says THIS IS NORMAL AND THE SALESMAN SHOULD HAVE TOLD US !!!!
I will get my revenge on the shady, lying Applewood Nissan (Richmond, BC Canada) salesman who lied about the vehicle. This is the JUST the beginning. I AM PISSED WILL STOP AT NOTHING to discredit Applewood Nissan !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

jovenviajero said:

I have a 2018 Leaf and just found out we CANNOT travel to Kelowna, BC from Coquitlam, BC because our car overheats on hills and forcing us to stop. Having to stop due to heat on a trip to Nelson, it took us 16 HOURS from Coquitlam to Nelson (a 7-8 hour trip in a gas vehicle). THREE HOURS (5 STOPS) SPENT WAITING FOR THE BATTERY TO COOL SO WE COULD DRIVE. The trip to Kelowna via the Coquihalla Hwy is a much steeper grade than the grade to Osoyoos. So we are SCREWED!!!! Nissan says THIS IS NORMAL AND THE SALESMAN SHOULD HAVE TOLD US !!!!
I will get my revenge on the shady, lying Applewood Nissan (Richmond, BC Canada) salesman who lied about the vehicle. This is the JUST the beginning. I AM PISSED WILL STOP AT NOTHING to discredit Applewood Nissan !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Click to expand...

Hmmm. Something doesn't sound right. I have done the Coq in summer a few times and tons of other leafs have as well. There should be no problem doing that route with a Nissan Leaf. What were the symptoms?

On edit. How long have you had the car?. If you just got it return it. It obviously has a problem. Otherwise, its a warranty thing. Just take it to a different dealer.

I have one little hill that eats a bar every time I go up it.
It's a pretty easy equation.
All you need is weight of the leaf and the elevation change and easily figure out how many kwh it takes to go up.

jovenviajero said:

I have a 2018 Leaf and just found out we CANNOT travel to Kelowna, BC from Coquitlam, BC because our car overheats on hills and forcing us to stop. Having to stop due to heat on a trip to Nelson, it took us 16 HOURS from Coquitlam to Nelson (a 7-8 hour trip in a gas vehicle). THREE HOURS (5 STOPS) SPENT WAITING FOR THE BATTERY TO COOL SO WE COULD DRIVE. The trip to Kelowna via the Coquihalla Hwy is a much steeper grade than the grade to Osoyoos. So we are SCREWED!!!! Nissan says THIS IS NORMAL AND THE SALESMAN SHOULD HAVE TOLD US !!!!
I will get my revenge on the shady, lying Applewood Nissan (Richmond, BC Canada) salesman who lied about the vehicle. This is the JUST the beginning. I AM PISSED WILL STOP AT NOTHING to discredit Applewood Nissan !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Click to expand...

So this is your first post...you seem more upset at the dealer than the car?

I don't remember seeing any grade restrictions in the manual....so I would say something isn't right with your post or the car. How many times did you quick/rapid charge? If that is a normal 7-8 hour trip should have been several times and that would be the problem?

I go over vail pass, Guanella_Pass, I was just up camping in Leadville (Turqoise Lake) a earlier this week, I went up to Telluride, it does not care about Alpine visitor center at rocky mountain national park. The LEAF does not give a crap about a big mountain let alone a hill. It does not burn anything so it does not even really slow down at all. It is wonderful and fun.

Now ask me about DCFCs and I can tell you what happens particularly at DCFC3 and worse beyond. How many charges are you doing?

Yes driving fast or up mountains does give some heat to the battery or otherwise keeps it from cooling but the DCFCs are what gets me. I have not seen a LEAF overheat simply going up or over mountains. Tell me about your charging, how many fast charges? Did you charge at all 5 of those stops? Yes even the Plus has a heck of a time.

salyavin said:

I go over vail pass, Guanella_Pass, I was just up camping in Leadville (Turqoise Lake) a earlier this week, I went up to Telluride, it does not care about Alpine visitor center at rocky mountain national park. The LEAF does not give a crap about a big mountain let alone a hill. It does not burn anything so it does not even really slow down at all. It is wonderful and fun.

Click to expand...

Actually is does, depending on the vehicle's speed, i.e. battery current demand - which develops battery heat.

salyavin said:

Now ask me about DCFCs and I can tell you what happens particularly at DCFC3 and worse beyond. How many charges are you doing?

Click to expand...

Yes, another key source of battery heating.

salyavin said:

Yes driving fast or up mountains does give some heat to the battery or otherwise keeps it from cooling but the DCFCs are what gets me. I have not seen a LEAF overheat simply going up or over mountains. Tell me about your charging, how many fast charges? Did you charge at all 5 of those stops? Yes even the Plus has a heck of a time.

Click to expand...

Explain how you determined that battery cooling occurs while driving, given no TMS, the battery's thermal mass and no air flow over it.
Again, excessive battery heat occurs when high battery currents develop, e.g. climbing high grades (>5%) at speeds over 50 MPH.
Remember without TMS, the Leaf can't be driven as one would normally drive an ICEV. Have you forgotten that even ICEVs overheat
while climbing grades?

lorenfb said:

salyavin said:

I go over vail pass, Guanella_Pass, I was just up camping in Leadville (Turqoise Lake) a earlier this week, I went up to Telluride, it does not care about Alpine visitor center at rocky mountain national park. The LEAF does not give a crap about a big mountain let alone a hill. It does not burn anything so it does not even really slow down at all. It is wonderful and fun.

Click to expand...

Actually is does, depending on the vehicle's speed, i.e. battery current demand - which develops battery heat.

salyavin said:

Now ask me about DCFCs and I can tell you what happens particularly at DCFC3 and worse beyond. How many charges are you doing?

Click to expand...

Yes, another key source of battery heating.

salyavin said:

Yes driving fast or up mountains does give some heat to the battery or otherwise keeps it from cooling but the DCFCs are what gets me. I have not seen a LEAF overheat simply going up or over mountains. Tell me about your charging, how many fast charges? Did you charge at all 5 of those stops? Yes even the Plus has a heck of a time.

Click to expand...

Explain how you determined that battery cooling occurs while driving, given no TMS, the battery's thermal mass and no air flow over it.
Again, excessive battery heat occurs when high battery currents develop, e.g. climbing high grades (>5%) at speeds over 50 MPH.
Remember without TMS, the Leaf can't be driven as one would normally drive an ICEV. Have you forgotten that even ICEVs overheat
while climbing grades?

Click to expand...

Well, even aknowledging all the above, I have driven the exact route as the OP a few times with know indication of any overheating. I adhere to the speed limit. Maybe he didn’t. Don’t know. We typically would do 3 stops on that trip. Two for pee breaks and (chihuahua breaks) that we would take at one of the Chademos on the route. Maybe 15 minutes. The other was a half hour to 40 minute lunch break, again at a Chademo. No overheating issues. All summer trips.

Don’t know what to say to the OP other than go to another dealer. Something doesn’t sound right.

OP needs to get off his ranting soapbox and explain a bit more about fast charging and speeds the day of the heating issue.
Since inception in 2011 I have never read a post about the vehicle warning to stop driving solely because they went up a hill.

jovenviajero said:

I have a 2018 Leaf and just found out we CANNOT travel to Kelowna, BC from Coquitlam, BC because our car overheats on hills and forcing us to stop. Having to stop due to heat on a trip to Nelson, it took us 16 HOURS from Coquitlam to Nelson (a 7-8 hour trip in a gas vehicle). THREE HOURS (5 STOPS) SPENT WAITING FOR THE BATTERY TO COOL SO WE COULD DRIVE. The trip to Kelowna via the Coquihalla Hwy is a much steeper grade than the grade to Osoyoos. So we are SCREWED!!!! Nissan says THIS IS NORMAL AND THE SALESMAN SHOULD HAVE TOLD US !!!!
I will get my revenge on the shady, lying Applewood Nissan (Richmond, BC Canada) salesman who lied about the vehicle. This is the JUST the beginning. I AM PISSED WILL STOP AT NOTHING to discredit Applewood Nissan !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Click to expand...

As the others here have said, you need to provide more details because I've driven 4x that distance while towing in 100F summer heat and never had overheating issues that prevented me from driving. My trip went up and over the Smokey Mountains which is +6,600 feet of elevation climbing. Those roads have actual places to pull over vehicles that overheat climbing up those mountains and I passed many cars and trucks that did just that going up while towing and never had any issues. :?

lorenfb said:

Explain how you determined that battery cooling occurs while driving, given no TMS, the battery's thermal mass and no air flow over it.
Again, excessive battery heat occurs when high battery currents develop, e.g. climbing high grades (>5%) at speeds over 50 MPH.
Remember without TMS, the Leaf can't be driven as one would normally drive an ICEV. Have you forgotten that even ICEVs overheat
while climbing grades?

Click to expand...

Easy the LEAF has a battery temperature display, you don't even have to use leafspy (which is how I got 55C). Vail pass which did lower temperatures out of the red zone (barely) just recently much to my relief. This is I-70 in Colorado.

On ICE overheating yes I had an old old Honda that would overheat on some of these high passes, we used to have to roll (yes with a handle) the windows down and turn on the heater and stop for the car to cool. I have experience with old ICE cars overheating. Some old VWs and others I have seen do that, I have not been in a pure ICE (hybrid yes and no temp gauge but did not boil over) in a long time but I don't really see people pulled over with heat issues in a passenger car any more. My suspicion is even ICE cars have better cooling than they did 30+ years ago or maybe I somehow don't notice them like I did a few decades ago. I mainly see smoking breaks from big rigs.

smkettner said:

OP needs to get off his ranting soapbox and explain a bit more about fast charging and speeds the day of the heating issue.
Since inception in 2011 I have never read a post about the vehicle warning to stop driving solely because they went up a hill.

Click to expand...

I can tell you that during the last trip to the dealer, a couple fast charges jacked up my battery temp to the point it was pitifully slow in terms of fast charging. But it never cut my power for driving.

I have also taken my 2018 leaf up a road near me up into the mountains. In 9 miles you go from 2400 feet to near 7000 feet. It may have bumped the battery temp by one bar but it was no problem at all. No power issues.

And I live in a very hot area.

I would think the problem is related to fast charging.

The OP has left the building, never to return...

alozzy said:

The OP has left the building, never to return...

Click to expand...

Indeed. https://mynissanleaf.com/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=31481 says their last active time was the time of their OP. I think it's not worth spending any more time on this until we hear back w/clarification.

^ Makes one wonder about the motivation but the response was certainly interesting. Just another example to show how much FUD and disinformation exists on the interwebs.

EVs rock on hills/mountains, it is one of their strengths lots of torque they are not burning anything so thinning air does not bother them. No adjusting the carborator. We don't lose power as we climb.

Indeed. My Vectrix is limited to 68MPH to preserve the motor (there is a 71MPH firmware update, but I don't see the point of it) but it will happily climb most hills at that same 68MPH.

salyavin said:

EVs rock on hills/mountains,

Click to expand...

Right, only if you drive a BEV with TMS, e.g. Bolt/Tesla/Audi. Love to "cook" that Leaf battery, right?
Get LeafSpy and the tell us about your Leaf's battery parameters when it's a year old.

salyavin said:

No adjusting the carborator. We don't lose power as we climb.

Click to expand...

Haven't become aware of ICE technology advancements is the last 40 years?

Extremely long and steep hills may warm the LEAF battery a few degrees at highway speeds, but generally not. As I have said before, the batteries in all three LEAFs that I have owned actually cool slightly when driven at highway speeds after being heated by DCQC. If the OP's car is heating the battery during highway driving, there is something wrong (unless the heating is actually from DCQC between uphill highway segments).

GerryAZ said:

As I have said before, the batteries in all three LEAFs that I have owned actually cool slightly when driven at highway speeds after being heated by DCQC.

Click to expand...

Define "cool slightly". Then provide some actual data and describe how that can occur, given the lack of air flow, the battery's thermal mass,
and it's low thermal conductivity to ambient. Some need to just accept the fact that the present Leaf without TMS for highway travel is marginal,
and as sure is not comparable to either a Bolt or Tesla for long highway travel.

lorenfb said:

Right, only if you drive a BEV with TMS, e.g. Bolt/Tesla/Audi. Love to "cook" that Leaf battery, right?

Click to expand...

Do you actually have a LEAF? The battery does not cook on mountains, it does cook bad when DCFC though. I also do have LEAF spy, do you?
I have also mentioned I have had the temperature actually drop out of the red zone going over Vail pass (a famous mountain pass along I-70 in Colorado).

On highway travel I will agree with you most other manufacturers from Kia to GM to Tesla will beat the LEAF due to the thermal management allowing it to drop heat better and allowing a succession of DCFC. The Plus starts to have problems from charge 3 in a day this does not apply to Tesla, GM or Kia.