London to Belgium 150 miles in nearly 24 hours

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powercat

Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2013
Messages
24
Location
London UK
Left London at 10.00 and headed for the nearest rapid charge station which was on route to the motorway, there was a car one charge in the bay at Nissan but the guys quickly freed the bay and put my car on charge, about half an hour later the charge was finished and the mileage shows 87 miles left, my GPS showed 53 miles to my next destination where I was going to pick up the new charging cable that did not come with the car, as I got the car through an auction,

set off down the motorway at first driving at about 70 miles an hour, then I noticed the range start to drop so I slowed down to 60 and sat behind the big truck, started to get worried when I noticed I had 20 miles left on the GPS and only 20 miles left in the battery, Aaaaa was about 5 miles away from my exit when the warnings started, I didn't want to run out of charge on the motorway so came off one exit early, on the back roads to my destination, I now had only 3 miles left in the battery and the 3 miles was flashing and not going down to 2 miles even though I had gone much more than a mile so I decided to stop for half an hour thinking the battery might rejuvenate a bit off when I turned the car back on there where no numbers showing only a straight line, (flat lining) decided to drive the car anyway as I was only about 2 1/2 miles from my destination, there was a very big hill just before the Nissan garage and I thought this is where the car will fail, but I made it

Unfortunately the garage is having the rapid charger installed next month, so I had to plug in the new 240v home charger and wait, it was 2.00 and the guy said they closed at 7 so I went in the town had something to eat came back and sat in the showroom until 7 and then we looked at the car range indicator and noticed I only had 50 miles, as I was crossing the English channel to France and then driving to Belgium I wanted to make sure I had at least 70 miles of range and from my previous experience I needed to charge to nearly 100 miles, luckily there was a supermarket nearby that recently put in a charging post, the manager of the supermarket had to come out with a swipe card to activate the charging, all went well for about an hour then there was a click and all the Leds on the charging post turned red and update information appeared on the display screen of the post, the manager tried for half an hour to get the system back on that he couldn't, so I decided to get on the shuttle to France and find a charge over there, as Carwings is not active.

used my laptop and found that they are 3 charging points near the Calais terminal, by the time I found the car park with a painting of an electric car on the wall it was midnight, at least there was no complicated swipe card just a normal socket on the wall, plugged in and started charging and the estimated time to full charge was 6 hours so ended up sleeping in the car, at 7.00 AM I saw I had 96 miles and decided to head to Belgian remembering to stay behind slow moving trucks, arrived at my destination at 9.00 and the battery was nearly empty again.

This car is not good at long distance unless you have rapid charging available on the whole of your journey, and the indicator telling you how much range you have left is an optimist and a liar, on a positive note all the charging was free,
as a new secondhand owner I find the car does everything you want and is fun to drive as long as you don't go on a long journey.
 
Please have a look at the Range Chart link here.

The first "low battery warning" you got is "LBW" in the chart linked above.

The second warning is the "flat lined" (it should look like this ---- ) is called VLB.

Since there's no real elevation changes along your route, the chart should be easy to use. The heater takes a LOT of power, and I recommend using only the seat and steering wheel heaters for long journeys.

Tony
 
Along with Tony's range chart, I strongly recommend that you get an auxiliary battery condition display meter in order to help reduce your range anxiety. The LEAF's standard distance to empty display (we call it the guessometer, or GOM) is misleading most notably at full charge and low charge, times when you are most likely to be relying on it most.
The LeafSpy Pro app for Android devices, along with the required OBDII Bluetooth dongle can be had for under $100, less if you already have an Android phone or tablet. There are other options, including the Leaf DD and the original Gidmeter.
If you use one if these ancillary devices and you learn how your battery behaves at low state of charge, you'll have far better confidence when driving distances.

At the point when your Leaf dash display went to ---, you likely had 10 or 11 miles of range remaining at moderately low speeds on secondary roads without the heater on.
 
Thanks guys great information, this is my first week owning the car and I'm finding out a lot, and of course I have another question, how I can see what size my charger is ?
 
Your trip could have been done in 4-5 hours max with some preplanning. Starting out at 70 MPH was a huge mistake. Drive 55 if you have to. better than walking or sitting all night. Granted the lack of fast charging was really inconvenient and you dont say how much amperage these stations are and guessing its not much if you plugged in 5 hours and did not fully recharge like what would have happened here but one charge stop is all that should have been needed.

Now this all depends on depth of degradation but your area is one of the better ones for that so guessing you probably havent seen much.

The other thing is the Nissan gauges. they are very pessimistic at the bottom end. you probably had a lot more range than you thought.

either way; get the LEAF spy or something. it will be a savior for your sanity and well worth the money.

and think about it. it was an adventure and a bit painful at times but when was the last time you crossed that much territory for free?
 
DaveinOlyWA said:
Your trip could have been done in 4-5 hours max with some preplanning. Starting out at 70 MPH was a huge mistake. Drive 55 if you have to. better than walking or sitting all night. Granted the lack of fast charging was really inconvenient and you dont say how much amperage these stations are and guessing its not much if you plugged in 5 hours and did not fully recharge like what would have happened here but one charge stop is all that should have been needed.

Now this all depends on depth of degradation but your area is one of the better ones for that so guessing you probably havent seen much.

The other thing is the Nissan gauges. they are very pessimistic at the bottom end. you probably had a lot more range than you thought.

either way; get the LEAF spy or something. it will be a savior for your sanity and well worth the money.

and think about it. it was an adventure and a bit painful at times but when was the last time you crossed that much territory for free?

The only rapid charging station was at the beginning of my journey, the plug sockets after that were only 16A, have red that I can buy a larger 30A Nissan brick, but there is no point unless I have a 6.6kw on board charger, as the car came to me secondhand through an auction I have no idea if its the 3.3kw or the 6.6kw if anyone knows how I can find out I would appreciate it.

You're absolutely right about planning the journey but I think it's unrealistic in Europe to travel on motorways and 55 miles an hour, if I drive at 60 I can sit behind a truck all the time. The car is great and not paying for the fuel is wonderful.
 
powercat said:
DaveinOlyWA said:
Your trip could have been done in 4-5 hours max with some preplanning. Starting out at 70 MPH was a huge mistake. Drive 55 if you have to. better than walking or sitting all night. Granted the lack of fast charging was really inconvenient and you dont say how much amperage these stations are and guessing its not much if you plugged in 5 hours and did not fully recharge like what would have happened here but one charge stop is all that should have been needed.

Now this all depends on depth of degradation but your area is one of the better ones for that so guessing you probably havent seen much.

The other thing is the Nissan gauges. they are very pessimistic at the bottom end. you probably had a lot more range than you thought.

either way; get the LEAF spy or something. it will be a savior for your sanity and well worth the money.

and think about it. it was an adventure and a bit painful at times but when was the last time you crossed that much territory for free?

The only rapid charging station was at the beginning of my journey, the plug sockets after that were only 16A, have red that I can buy a larger 30A Nissan brick, but there is no point unless I have a 6.6kw on board charger, as the car came to me secondhand through an auction I have no idea if its the 3.3kw or the 6.6kw if anyone knows how I can find out I would appreciate it.

You're absolutely right about planning the journey but I think it's unrealistic in Europe to travel on motorways and 55 miles an hour, if I drive at 60 I can sit behind a truck all the time. The car is great and not paying for the fuel is wonderful.

you are not alone. Most people think its unrealistic to travel at 55 mph and I am here to tell you, you are wrong. I have done it in several locations including Southern CA where residents claim you will get run over at any speed under 65 mph. They are wrong especially when they continue to support the thing they despise.

Will you continue to support speeding? what is the speed limits in your area? Is there multiple lanes of travel in the same direction?

Keep in mind; I always drive the speed limit when there is only one lane of travel.

But the one thing that jumped out at me is your charging 5 hours and only getting 50 miles of range?? that is wrong, plain and simple

if charging at 16 amps that is 3.8 kwh for 5 hours = 19 kwh at 85% is 16 kwh into the battery.

you were not present the entire time? I think you were unplugged.
 
Thanks for the info, great forum, that means only normal charging and rapid charging for me, no point in buying a level 2 cable.
 
I drove for the first time in the UK this summer and had no trouble doing 55 in the left lane on the motorway. That's the slow lane over there. I think trucks have a lower speed limit too. People had no trouble passing me if they wanted to.

The dual carriage ways were something else. Narrow windy roads with 60 mph limits that would probably be 40 over here. I just pulled over occasionally and let the line blow by me.

And then there's teeny little country roads less than a lane wide enclosed in a tunnel of hedge, with cars flying down them to make the end before someone comes the other way! That was fun.

Just put a big magnetic "P" on the boot and most folk will cut you some slack.
 
A little bit of "question time".


Did you leave home at 10 AM at 100% full charge (12 of the wide bars on the right), if not, why not?

Does the car have all of the capacity bars (the little bars on the right)?

How many miles on the car?

What was the temp outside? How much did you use the heaters?

Have you checked your tire inflation (should be at least the recommended pressure, many people go higher, closer to limit stamped on the tire)?

Did your car come with a charging cable, and is there any volt/amp/watt rating on the labels/instruction?

Given it is a 2011/2012 and highway driving, I would have targeted getting at least 4 miles/KW, so for 150 miles you would have 37.5 KW. Starting with ~20, that would have meant stopping for 3 hours twice, picking up 10 KW each time. (you want to charge it from 3 bars back to 10, get moving, and then do it again down the road, that last two bars takes longer as the charging rate slows down). With experience and learning to choose the scenic route, you can shorten your travel time by going slower, (30 to 40 MPH), which will lead to 5+ miles/KW and only have to charge up once.


Glad you made it! You are braver than most, diving straight away into a 150 mile journey.
 
Yogi62 said:
A little bit of "question time".


Did you leave home at 10 AM at 100% full charge (12 of the wide bars on the right), if not, why not?

no he did not. and the reason is he had no charging cable

the rest? dont know. he stated he had 96 miles on GOM which means one of two things

1) his degradation is not great

2) he lost elevation for several miles before plugging in...
 

A little bit of "question time".

Did you leave home at 10 AM at 100% full charge (12 of the wide bars on the right), if not, why not?
The car didn't come with any charge cable and when I turned the car on there was only about 40 miles let, enough to drive to the 80% rapid charger Where I managed to get the charge showing 87 miles.
Does the car have all of the capacity bars (the little bars on the right)?
Yes
How many miles on the car?
009600
What was the temp outside? How much did you use the heaters?
I can't remember exactly but it wasn't cold war or hot and no heater

Have you checked your tire inflation (should be at least the recommended pressure, many people go higher, closer to limit stamped on the tire)?
did the tyres before setting off and set the pressure at 40 PSI

Did your car come with a charging cable, and is there any volt/amp/watt rating on the labels/instruction?
No the car didn't come with a charger, I've picked one up for Nissan when I got to the channel shuttle service it is 240v 10A charge of that would normally come with the car in the UK, if there is a way of adjusting the unit I would like to know as most of the supplies available to me are over 16A or more.

Given it is a 2011/2012 and highway driving, I would have targeted getting at least 4 miles/KW, so for 150 miles you would have 37.5 KW. Starting with ~20, that would have meant stopping for 3 hours twice, picking up 10 KW each time. (you want to charge it from 3 bars back to 10, get moving, and then do it again down the road, that last two bars takes longer as the charging rate slows down). With experience and learning to choose the scenic route, you can shorten your travel time by going slower, (30 to 40 MPH), which will lead to 5+ miles/KW and only have to charge up once.
I really dislike being overtaken by big trucks and as most tracks travel at around 60 I find it feels safer just to stay behind one, driving the scenic routes is an interesting option and I have noticed that driving in town the range seems more realistic with what is left in the battery.

Glad you made it! You are braver than most, diving straight away into a 150 mile journey.
I did a little research before setting off, I think the saying goes a little information can be a dangerous thing, but I found it a good way of getting to know the car quickly and I'm planning a new journey which has two routes one on the motorway and one on the scenic roads, it boils down to a balance between speed and range, thanks for the advice on the 3 to 10 bars.
 
powercat said:

A little bit of "question time".

Did you leave home at 10 AM at 100% full charge (12 of the wide bars on the right), if not, why not?
The car didn't come with any charge cable and when I turned the car on there was only about 40 miles let, enough to drive to the 80% rapid charger Where I managed to get the charge showing 87 miles.
Does the car have all of the capacity bars (the little bars on the right)?
Yes
How many miles on the car?
009600
What was the temp outside? How much did you use the heaters?
I can't remember exactly but it wasn't cold war or hot and no heater

Have you checked your tire inflation (should be at least the recommended pressure, many people go higher, closer to limit stamped on the tire)?
did the tyres before setting off and set the pressure at 40 PSI

Did your car come with a charging cable, and is there any volt/amp/watt rating on the labels/instruction?
No the car didn't come with a charger, I've picked one up for Nissan when I got to the channel shuttle service it is 240v 10A charge of that would normally come with the car in the UK, if there is a way of adjusting the unit I would like to know as most of the supplies available to me are over 16A or more.

Given it is a 2011/2012 and highway driving, I would have targeted getting at least 4 miles/KW, so for 150 miles you would have 37.5 KW. Starting with ~20, that would have meant stopping for 3 hours twice, picking up 10 KW each time. (you want to charge it from 3 bars back to 10, get moving, and then do it again down the road, that last two bars takes longer as the charging rate slows down). With experience and learning to choose the scenic route, you can shorten your travel time by going slower, (30 to 40 MPH), which will lead to 5+ miles/KW and only have to charge up once.
I really dislike being overtaken by big trucks and as most tracks travel at around 60 I find it feels safer just to stay behind one, driving the scenic routes is an interesting option and I have noticed that driving in town the range seems more realistic with what is left in the battery.

Glad you made it! You are braver than most, diving straight away into a 150 mile journey.
I did a little research before setting off, I think the saying goes a little information can be a dangerous thing, but I found it a good way of getting to know the car quickly and I'm planning a new journey which has two routes one on the motorway and one on the scenic roads, it boils down to a balance between speed and range, thanks for the advice on the 3 to 10 bars.


oh 10 amps?? is it possible the charge you got was also 10 amp service? that would explain the 50 mile range after 5 hours of charging
 
DaveinOlyWA said:
oh 10 amps?? is it possible the charge you got was also 10 amp service? that would explain the 50 mile range after 5 hours of charging

I'm not sure I understand your question fully, the charge I got from the dealer was the Nissan brick and on the label on the back it said 240v 10A. the only charging I did leaving London was with the rapid charger which puts out something like 400 volts DC at about 100A.
 
powercat said:
DaveinOlyWA said:
oh 10 amps?? is it possible the charge you got was also 10 amp service? that would explain the 50 mile range after 5 hours of charging

I'm not sure I understand your question fully, the charge I got from the dealer was the Nissan brick and on the label on the back it said 240v 10A. the only charging I did leaving London was with the rapid charger which puts out something like 400 volts DC at about 100A.

ya no biggie misunderstanding but you did say

powercat said:
The only rapid charging station was at the beginning of my journey, the plug sockets after that were only 16A
 
Thanks for the reply. It makes more sense given you had no cable.

Do they auction cars often? Surprising that a Leaf already turned up. Good deal?
 
Yogi62 said:
Thanks for the reply. It makes more sense given you had no cable.

Do they auction cars often? Surprising that a Leaf already turned up. Good deal?

It was an insurance write off auction specialist, so I was lucky to get a Leaf, the damage was only to body panels and airbags.
 
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