I Beat EPA's 2.9 Miles/KWh : Report Your Monthly Mileage

[mksE55]

Find a long gentle descent. Power cycle the car, accept carwings disclaimer. Drive to bottom. Power cycle car, decline carwings disclaimer, return to top of hill, power cycle car....

AHA! Seems like a lot of effort, just to be the champion. That guy's gotta get a life, me thinks.

They should decline any value over 6.0 as not valid and disqualify, those top numbers for cheating. Real champions earn the Top spot.

[TomT]

Yet another reason why I have not even looked at Carwings in months!

They should decline any value over 6.0 as not valid and disqualify, those top numbers for cheating. Real champions earn the Top spot.

[DaveinOlyWA]

Find a long gentle descent. Power cycle the car, accept carwings disclaimer. Drive to bottom. Power cycle car, decline carwings disclaimer, return to top of hill, power cycle car....

AHA! Seems like a lot of effort, just to be the champion. That guy's gotta get a life, me thinks.

They should decline any value over 6.0 as not valid and disqualify, those top numbers for cheating. Real champions earn the Top spot.

ok, going from one extreme to the other

news flash; it is VERY possible to get over 6 miles/k without cheating. i have done it several times along with several other members of the board.

another thing we need to examine is why this is happening and that reason is because of Nissan, not us. there is no reason why they could not design an "always accept" or "always decline" into the car.

[TomT]

I always get it on my way to work. Of course, that is with a gradual 1,400 foot elevation drop... Going home, over a number of steep and long hills, not so much!

news flash; it is VERY possible to get over 6 miles/k without cheating. i have done it several times along with several other members of the board.

[DaveinOlyWA]

I always get it on my way to work. Of course, that is with a gradual 1,400 foot elevation drop... Going home, not so much!

news flash; it is VERY possible to get over 6 miles/k without cheating. i have done it several times along with several other members of the board.

i just did it a week ago and yes it was downhill to downtown Oly AND back. 6.2 miles/K over 22 miles. i have actually done the same trip several times at better than 6 and can only hit 6 if the temps are over 80º. otherwise its my "normal" 5.5-5.8

[N1ghtrider]

Month and Year Grade Rank Energy Economy
Dec/2011 Platinum 574 5.2 miles/kWh
Jan/2012 Platinum 750 5.2 miles/kWh
Feb/2012 Platinum 848 5.2 miles/kWh
Mar/2012 Platinum 769 5.4 miles/kWh
Apr/2012 Platinum 1179 5.3 miles/kWh
May/2012 Gold 2716 4.8 miles/kWh
Jun/2012 Gold 3211 4.7 miles/kWh
Jul/2012 Gold 2591 4.9 miles/kWh
Aug/2012 Gold 4468 4.4 miles/kWh

[dgpcolorado]

August mileage:

Wall-to-wheels: 4.46 miles/kWh

Dash: 5.0 miles/kWh

Charging efficiency at 240 V, 16 A: ~89%

I seem to be locked-in to 5.0 miles/kWh for the summer. It will be dropping soon as the weather cools.

Notes: No preheating used, so charging efficiency can be calculated, although the dash mileage numbers are too coarse for precision. Driving temperatures were mostly 70s and low 80s with some 60s. Battery temps of five bars most of the time with six bars on warmer days after several hours; August was relatively cloudy and cool, as was July, due to "monsoon" season. Elevation range: 8,000 feet to 5750 feet. All driving includes steep hills. No multi-lane highway driving at all. Some of the driving is on dirt roads.

[EatsShootsandLeafs]

I only have a couple hundred miles on this, but it seems to me that EPA substantially underrates its mileage. EPA says 2.94 I think miles/kWh.

On my third gen Prius it was rated at 51/48 and I have to say I found it quite a challenge to get those numbers. It would require me driving very gently and was easy to get worse. In my Leaf so far, also driving very gently, I'm getting a consistent 4.2-4.3 kWh. That's 45% better mileage than EPA. I know it will be worse in the winter, but the Prius was worse in the winter, too (not to mention it, as with all ICE cars, suffers a serious hit in mileage during engine warm up for those first five min).

[dgpcolorado]

I only have a couple hundred miles on this, but it seems to me that EPA substantially underrates its mileage. EPA says 2.94 I think miles/kWh.

On my third gen Prius it was rated at 51/48 and I have to say I found it quite a challenge to get those numbers. It would require me driving very gently and was easy to get worse. In my Leaf so far, also driving very gently, I'm getting a consistent 4.2-4.3 kWh. That's 45% better mileage than EPA. I know it will be worse in the winter, but the Prius was worse in the winter, too (not to mention it, as with all ICE cars, suffers a serious hit in mileage during engine warm up for those first five min).

How are you measuring your 4.2-4.3 miles/kWh? The EPA number of 34 kWh/100 miles (2.94 miles/kWh) almost certainly is calculated "from the wall".

That's not to say that you aren't beating the EPA number, you are, but if you are using the mileage efficiency reading on the dash you are overestimating you mileage somewhat. How much depends on whether you do L1 or L2 charging and any pre-heating or pre-cooling.

Last I checked, at eight months, my cumulative mileage from the wall was 3.8 miles/kWh. That includes all of winter and part of summer. My monthly numbers from the wall:
January 3.23 miles/kWh
February 3.29
March 3.57
April 3.97
May 4.36
June 4.48
July 4.41
August 4.46

The weather (and pre-heating) effect is quite apparent. If I drove freeways—there aren't any within LEAF range here—I would expect my mileage numbers to be somewhat lower and closer to the EPA estimate. If I lived at sea level they would be sharply lower. If I lived in the flatlands they would be higher.

[edatoakrun]

August mileage:

Wall-to-wheels: 4.46 miles/kWh

Dash: 5.0 miles/kWh

Charging efficiency at 240 V, 16 A: ~89% ...

It appears your reported charging efficiency has increased from ~80% to ~89% since you begin your (excellent) observations on this thread. Have I stated this correctly?

I think you might want to consider the possibility that your LEAF is not reporting consistent kWh use figures, and so is miscalculating the dash m/kWh.

Consider what I have seen, using (admittedly less precise) time of charge to 80% observations:

...I did not meter my charge a year ago, but I did record the charge time, and also got an accurate 16 amp 240v recharge time on 9/8/12. It took 4 hours and 16 minutes to reach 80% (and another one hour and 11 minutes to reach “100%”) following this trip.

Assuming a 3.75 kWh/h draw from my 16 a modified Panasonic charger, and the 16.7 total capacity from VLBW to 100% charge, I believe that this would indicate a charging efficiency from ~VLBW to the “80%” level of ~96%, which is implausible, in light of all reports of charging efficiency by others.

This compares to a recharge time of ~4 hours 25 minutes to reach “80%” following my first range test, on 9/7/11, with a reported 18.7 kWh used from 100% to about the same capacity level, ~VLBW.

This would seem to indicate a charging efficiency of from ~VLBW to 80%” a year ago of ~89%. but remember, this was recorded after my LEAF had seen most a of a Summer of use, so my LEAF’s m/kWh use reports might have already started to “drift,”meaning this percentage may already have been somewhat inflated, and the kWh use similarly understated...

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.p ... 4&start=30" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I now wonder if I would have seen results close to (though probably not matching, as I was charging at considerably higher battery temperatures) the ~80% efficiency that you did, if I had monitored it from new, before my first Summer of ownership?