One Year of ownership - 37,750 miles

I wanted to pass along to all that a LEAF can be used as a relatively high mileage commuter.

Today is the last day of year one. I have driven over 37,750 miles and that is with 48 days during the year with no driving. My expected mileage was 40,000 so I'm not that far off.

Today I took the car in for the battery test - 5's all the way around.

This recent article may answer some of the whys and hows. http://www.greencarreports.com/news...iles-in-a-nissan-leaf-electric-car-no-problem

The LEAF isn't perfect but it is doing what I wanted. Thanks to all in this forum that have helped each other with our "experiment".

Congratulations on the anniversary Steve, I see at the article you linked that as of 36k miles you still had all 12 battery capacity tick marks.. is this still the case?

Herm said:

Congratulations on the anniversary Steve, I see at the article you linked that as of 36k miles you still had all 12 battery capacity tick marks.. is this still the case?

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Yes, 12 bars. First one drops out at 5.4 miles which is relatively unchanged since the beginning. There was a bit of movement in the winter.

Congrats Steve! You Ares saving almost enough in gas costs to pay for your Leaf.

As far as the first bars mine also disappear between 4-6 miles

Congrats on the milestone! And another one for having such a long commute that you would tolerate for 12+ years. Personally, I can't stand my 20 mile round trip that takes 30-40 minutes with traffic.

Taylor do you do 80% or 100% charges..

Wow! Thanks for sharing!

mark13 said:

Taylor do you do 80% or 100% charges..

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I'd think that he must do 100% charges, given the distance.

That's amazing!
Keep it up!
Hats down

I hope I'll be where you are (mileage wise) in couple of years, and if battery will be as good as yours, I'll be extremely happy!

TaylorSFGuy said:

Yes, 12 bars. First one drops out at 5.4 miles which is relatively unchanged since the beginning. There was a bit of movement in the winter.

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Are you sure you are talking about the same thing? It sounds like your talking about the state-of-charge gauge. But Herm was asking about the capacity gauge (the tiny little white ticks to the right of the state-of-charge) Those should not change in the way you describe. Once you lose one, it is gone forever.

adric22 said:

TaylorSFGuy said:

Yes, 12 bars. First one drops out at 5.4 miles which is relatively unchanged since the beginning. There was a bit of movement in the winter.

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Are you sure you are talking about the same thing? It sounds like your talking about the state-of-charge gauge. But Herm was asking about the capacity gauge (the tiny little white ticks to the right of the state-of-charge) Those should not change in the way you describe. Once you lose one, it is gone forever.

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this is actually a confusing subject

the "capacity" bars are to the far right and when one goes it does not come back

the "charge" bars are the ones that disappear at regular rates but come back when the car is plugged in

as the battery degraded the 12 charge bars will re-scale.. for example when new the 12th bar would do 5.4 miles, once the battery degrades 15% the 12th bar will do 4.6 miles.. as an example.

Herm said:

as the battery degraded the 12 charge bars will re-scale.. for example when new the 12th bar would do 5.4 miles, once the battery degrades 15% the 12th bar will do 4.6 miles.. as an example.

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Logically, you would think that, but I have a 10-12% loss right now, and I can still get 11-14 miles on the 12th bar and around 10-11 on the 11th. I haven't really noticed much change since the capacity loss.

Perhaps your skills at stretching the charge have grown.

Imagine if people are 3 capacity tick marks down when they try to sell their Leafs, that has to impact the value of the car. Hopefully leasers wont have any issues.

there shouldnt be any issues with turning in a Lease car with reduced capacity bars showing

its "normal" and "gradual" per nissan

so how could they charge you as "damage" when the car is inspected at Lease termination.
it may be common for some 48,000 mile lease Leaf to be down 1 bar

they cant.

thats all there is to it.

Congrats Taylor!

I only drive half what you do, so I’ll be watching the life of your Leaf with great interest. Do you have a GID meter? I’d be really interested to see how many GID’s you have on a full charge. I’d be willing to let you use mine to find out. I live just North of Kent.

I kept searching the news to see if any main news outfit will cover the story. So far there is none except the link in the original post. I would think that a Leaf close to 40000 miles with no issues and virtually no maintenance it will be something that people would need to know. I end up emailing the link to this topic to a bunch of friends.

FairwoodRed said:

Congrats Taylor!

I only drive half what you do, so I’ll be watching the life of your Leaf with great interest. Do you have a GID meter? I’d be really interested to see how many GID’s you have on a full charge. I’d be willing to let you use mine to find out. I live just North of Kent.

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Thanks to FairwoodRed for letting me borrow his GID meter. Over the last few days, my LEAF had readings varied between 272 and 280 at 100% charge. I appreciate his offer and takes some of the guesswork out of the equation.

TaylorSFGuy said:

Thanks to FairwoodRed for letting me borrow his GID meter. Over the last few days, my LEAF had readings varied between 272 and 280 at 100% charge. I appreciate his offer and takes some of the guesswork out of the equation.

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It looks like your battery have very limited or no degradation at all, that is a great news

EdmondLeaf said:

TaylorSFGuy said:

Thanks to FairwoodRed for letting me borrow his GID meter. Over the last few days, my LEAF had readings varied between 272 and 280 at 100% charge. I appreciate his offer and takes some of the guesswork out of the equation.

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It looks like your battery have very limited or no degradation at all, that is a great news

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a BIG +1!

Herm said:

Perhaps your skills at stretching the charge have grown.

Imagine if people are 3 capacity tick marks down when they try to sell their Leafs, that has to impact the value of the car. Hopefully leasers wont have any issues.

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:? Leasers will hopefully be able to recite the "warranty" if there's any questions why they're missing a bar (maybe two :?: ) Sellers are definitely going to have a problem. I imagine Carfax has/will be updated their checklist for the Leaf. I foresee having to wait for hours for a full charge before you can sell or trade your car.