Around town efficiency not as good as highway for me!

[mwalsh]

The last couple of days have really been the first where I've had just around town puttering to do (no highway at all). You know the kind of thing - bank-post office-dry cleaners-WalMart. So I actively decided to see what I would do efficiency wise.

I'd imagined that I'd be getting into LA4 territory of around 8 miles per SOC bar, so imagine my surprise in that efficiency thus far has only been equal to highway speed driving with the AC on!

Yes, that's right, I've been getting only 6 miles per SOC bar used. And this is at speeds of no more than 45mph, with the climate control off, and with driving that is normal to conservative - ie: no jack-rabbit starts and no overly rapid acceleration.

Now 72 miles to a pack is not a massive disappointment to me, because I actually don't drive this way very much at all. I'm just surprised. And I'm guessing that this MUST be an anomaly, since nobody else has been reporting the same thing?

[jhm614]

Did you start off with a 100% charge or an 80%? If 100%, that would take re-gen out of the equation for the first part of the trip. That might push your overall efficiency down...

[mwalsh]

Did you start off with a 100% charge or an 80%? If 100%, that would take re-gen out of the equation for the first part of the trip. That might push your overall efficiency down...

I always start with 100%. So the same would hold true for my highway driving. Even taking that into account, that would mean the best I appear to be doing is the same as highway without climate control.

[Ready2plugin]

I think you would need to do this more often before coming to any conclusions. As for me, I do get better efficiency when I'm just in town on the weekends, or even better yet, stop and go on the freeway. Still too cold for the a/c though. Just a thought, do you have all the windows down when driving in town? Maybe that can put a dent in the efficiency. FYI, I almost always put it in ECO.

[DaveinOlyWA]

i think u r doing fine and would be nearly impossible to do better. i am averaging (per car) 5-5.5 MPK around town.

i always use eco, only rarely am at 100% (carwings texted me to notify me of a full charge at 6:38 AM but it is Saturday and we have a full plate on the schedule.

keep in mind, there is a potential to get high MPK in town which could backfire on you. i have a relatively static commute to work. its 9.1 miles and i drive it at 5:30 AM which means effect of traffic is minimal. but there are still lights on the way and most are traffic controlled.

so, no matter how well i attempt to time them, i frequently can be caught at lights from cars pulling up to the intersection. i can only guess, but i think EACH full stop is costing me around .1-.2 MPK

with only minor variances in speed, temp etc. i have done as little at 4.6 to 6.1 MPK on the car. i reset car efficiency meter daily, so its always at zero in the morning.

the other thing i notice, when i do a reset, unlike any other efficiency gauge, it starts at zero and i must work my way up to a high rating. now, let me explain.

i start up, its 10 mph out of the alley for about 3 blocks, then thru the neighborhood at 25 mph (i rarely stop unless there is other traffic and that happens maybe once a month if that and never on Sunday) with 90% of this time the car is telling me i am doing 8MPK. but the meter starts at zero and slowly builds up.

that is obviously a calculation error amongst several other confusing numbers the car provides.

i opted to get the 240 volt option but i will still use 120 volt charging as my primary option simply because i can track every penny it cost me to run the car which is the ultimate data most people want to hear.

all the rest of the numbers i still like because of the geeky, statistical nature i have, but i would not lose sleep over any of it

[Jimmydreams]

Two things:

1) Was climate control off? I notice that for some reason I tend to overlook it when driving locally. This would impact your range.
2) Try the same 'around town' drive using ECO mode. I've notice large increases when sticking with ECO. After a while, you really get used to it! I jump into D when I need fast acceleration, the right back to ECO.

[EVDRIVER]

I have been harping on the realties of range since day one on the forum. Real world range is impacted by many variables and even the slightest inclines in cities and lights can change range, particularly in a heavy EV like the LEAF. Weight is the enemy in city driving and aero is on the highway in addition to the weight unless you live where everything is perfectly flat and the wind is always behind you.

[evnow]

My daily commute is all urban with roads being 35 & 40 mph limits. This includes an elevation change of some 900 ft. I get between 82 and 110 miles per charge (using the 3.4 to 4.6 miles/kwh efficiency figures shown by Leaf) depending on things like use of pre-heat, use of climate control, temperature and how I drive.

Just like Dave, I always reset the efficiency counter at the start of each day and log it. I then compare that with what Blink says is the energy consumption at the wall and what carwings says.

Last night was a new low - when my wife drove and set the temperature at 78 and it was raining. I'll update this post when I get the number.

Update : On last night's trip my wife "achieved" 2.6 m/kwh This is essentially the same route I take to work everyday where my avg is 3.9 m/kwh.

[garygid]

We know that the CARWINGS miles per kWh numbers are wrong, misleadingly high.

They seem to be more wrong (higher) when more Regen energy is involved.

[ERG4ALL]

Yesterday for us really impressed us. We started with an 80% charge, put it in ECO mode and drove approx. 30 miles on freeway and 24 miles around town. Half of the time the A/C was on. We ended the day at 54 miles with 27 miles showing on SOC. Thus, a total of 81 miles on an 80% charge.

We are currently averaging 4.4 m/kWh. I have had other sessions that weren't near as good. I attribute the improved mileage from several things.

1. When on a 55mph posted freeway, I do 55 mph. When on a 65 freeway, I do 60 in the right lane.
2. When over 50 mph, per the manual, I roll up the windows and use A/C.
3. I nearly always drive in ECO mode and in ECO mode if you get in a tight spot when you floor it you get full power.
4. I've noticed that in ECO mode it does slow you down more, but another interesting thing is that when I approach a stop light, I very lightly put my foot on the brake for as long as I can before I really apply the binders to the rotors. I've noticed that I get more regen that way. I assume that is intentional on Nissan's part.
5. And I do the other things other people have mentioned about jack rabbit starts, etc.

So far we are very pleased and what little range anxiety we had is fading into the background so we enjoy our relaxing rides even more.