Ability to stop charging on 2014 to avoid 100%

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achewt

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 31, 2014
Messages
63
Location
Nelson, BC
Nissan, I understand the apparent reason that you removed the ability to have the 2014 model car stop charging at 80% (to avoid the way EPA tested range on the earlier model); however, I REALLY NEED THIS FEATURE!

Scenario: I drive to a mountain town a few times per week and have to charge my car in order to complete the return trip. However, I only need 60%-80% of my battery available when I leave. Unfortunately on the 2014, there is no way to have my car stop charging at a certain %. I either have to fiddle with the car charge timer each time and try to anticipate how long it will take to reach a certain %, or I start doing whatever I need to do and send a command to my car to charge via the smart phone app when I think I am 1 - 1.5 hours from being done my activity. This is incredibly cumbersome. I don't want to charge to 100% (or even 85%), because the hill back down to the valley is almost 600m (2000ft) and is only 9km long (average grade of 7%). I need the "head-room" in my battery to be able to use regeneration to slow me down - ideally at 30kW (which only seems possible under about 85%); otherwise I have to use the mechanical brakes on this long hill. I can't be the only person stuck with this scenario.

My suggestions:
1) Reimplement whatever software used on the 2013 or earlier model that allows the driver to select the maximum % that they want the car to be charged to
2) Change the smart phone app such that you can STOP charging remotely, as well as start it

Thank you for your consideration.
 
I agree, I have a similar situation on a smaller scale. If I could go to 90% I could be close to 100% by the time I'm off my hill. I would suggest they have it selectable in increments of 5 starting at say 60%. If they are not suggesting that you charge to other than 100% it shouldn't concern the EPA.
 
All they need to do is make the 80 percent charge feature an option you can choose when you buy the car, or an optional update you can pay the dealer to install if you already own the car. I'm sure this feature can be added with a simple software update if Nissan chooses to make it available.
 
I use this simple rule of thumb:

Every 10 minutes of L2 charging (3.3 kw charging, if 6.0 kw charging need to make an adjustment) adds 3% Gids. Example:

Your Leaf has 30% Gids (from Leaf Spy, in my signature or LeafDD) and you want to charge to 70% Gids - charge for 130 minutes. Pretty accurate, but not as convenient as having 80% charge.
 
whats wrong with charging to 100%? I just got my 2015 leaf and plug it in frequenty cuz I never know how far im going next. is it bad to always top it off to 100 ?
 
a2t said:
whats wrong with charging to 100%? I just got my 2015 leaf and plug it in frequenty cuz I never know how far im going next. is it bad to always top it off to 100 ?
You don't appear to have read the OP.

Try again, and this time read to the end of the 2nd paragraph before giving up reading what someone else has written.
 
I noticed how the charging current tapers off as the battery fills. I wonder if that characteristic could be used to shut off the EVSE when the current starts to taper over a long period, say 5 minutes.
 
It's not a perfect world, but why not use the end of charge time setting on the timer, and rig it by telling the system you're going to leave later than you actually are...

Example, set the timer end of charge to 10am, and plan on leaving at 9am or so...
 
Randy said:
It's not a perfect world, but why not use the end of charge time setting on the timer, and rig it by telling the system you're going to leave later than you actually are...

Example, set the timer end of charge to 10am, and plan on leaving at 9am or so...

Well I'm embarrassed to write that I thought that using the End Timer by itself was only an option on 2013 or older Leafs. I hadn't read the user manual, and when I set the Timer via the Nav system initially, it had a Start Time and an End Time. Imagine my surprise when I just went out to my car to find a line in the manual that noted that if only and End Timer was set, the car would automatically figure out when to start charging! However, it says nothing in the manual on how to accomplish this - a few seconds of fiddling around and I figured it out though, just push the 'Clear' button and it replaces whatever Start Time was set with a bunch of wild card characters (*).

So, for my regular morning commute, I will 'trick' the system by setting the charge timer for 0:40 after I actually plan to leave - my home EVSE allows my car to charge at ~30%/hr, so I should be right around 80% most mornings when I leave.

Still won't solve my initial situation where I go to the mountain town in the afternoon and have varied departure times that I don't know in advance... but less math involved now if I do try to guess. That's something anyways.
 
achewt said:
...So, for my regular morning commute, I will 'trick' the system by setting the charge timer for 0:40 after I actually plan to leave - my home EVSE allows my car to charge at ~30%/hr, so I should be right around 80% most mornings when I leave.

Still won't solve my initial situation where I go to the mountain town in the afternoon and have varied departure times that I don't know in advance... but less math involved now if I do try to guess. That's something anyways.
The end-timer overestimates how long it takes to charge the car (on most LEAFs reported here) so setting it for 40 minutes after you plan to leave may not be enough. And the charge rate tapers as it nears "100%". You will likely have to experiment with the times you choose and bear in mind that it will vary somewhat even when you do settle on a time. Also, if you ever use preheating my experience is that end-time-only charging tends to finish even earlier than usual.

As always, YMMV.
 
This maybe isn't entirely on-topic, but I've found, as I deepen the rut between my off-duty storage location and my cubicle, that the energy required for the daily commute is reasonably consistent, at least under the same weather conditions. I've set a start time in addition to the end time, and by fiddling with the small charging window, I can keep the car above about four bars (which I judge to be enough to cover an unscheduled errand or two). If that reserve wanders too far from the target, I adjust the start time by a ten-minute click or two in the appropriate direction.
 
Well I set the "End Time" only last night and as others noted in the thread, I didn't get what I expected, I've had better luck guessing at the charging start time. I think that this only further proves my point. It is ridiculous to have to play a guessing game in order to regain functionality that was included in the first model of the Leaf.

Nissan: please consider implementing one of the solutions I suggested in my original post.

Bonus points for implementing an option where you input the Start Time and the desired % at which you wish charging to end (in this fashion my car would start charging at 3am, long after I've finished driving, and will stop at 70 or 90% or whatever % I set by the time I want to drive the car at 5:50am - 6:20am. [This assumes of course that I've left adequate time between the Start time and % I desire to be charged.]).
 
Considering the problems Nissan had with the 1st-gen battery, my reckoning is that charging to 100% isn't all that big of an effect on battery longevity. I don't think they would have removed the 80% feature if it had made a significant difference in battery life. They took too much heat [heh] over battery degradation to throw away a feature if it were truly helpful.

Remember, 100% isn't really "100%" of battery capacity, it's 100% of "allowable capacity".

Probably a larger factor is how long the car sits at full charge. And that is still in the owner's control.

It does suck for people who would like to start a long downhill drive with full regen available. I don't see why they don't provide a fully-selectable charge level as Tesla does. EPA doesn't impose a penalty on Tesla for this. They did for Nissan because Nissan claimed the 80% mode was necessary for the car's health. If they would implement it as a convenience instead I think that would solve the problem. It's just software. Unfortunately Nissan rarely seems to be able to summon either the will or the competence (not sure which) to do a decent job with software. It's a rather glaring problem when you're trying to market yourself as the "innovative" car company. By the time Nissan agonizes, bites their nails, engages their Elbonian programmer corps, releases an update and has people take the time necessary to schedule and implement an update at the stealerships, Tesla will have issued a dozen software updates over the air for customers to receive fixes and improvements effortlessly.

elbonia_computer_expert.gif
 
I use Start Time and End time to get to 80%. I use L2 charging and get roughly 1% charge every 2 minutes.
So, if I want to go from 40% to 80% that is an increase of 40 and I set the timer for 80 minutes. My TOU rates end at 5AM so I start the timer at 3:40AM and end at 5AM. I will usually round up to, in this case, 90 minutes just to make the math quick.
 
Nubo said:
... By the time Nissan agonizes, bites their nails, engages their Elbonian programmer corps, releases an update and has people take the time necessary to schedule and implement an update at the stealerships, Tesla will have issued a dozen software updates over the air for customers to receive fixes and improvements effortlessly.

I remember that Dilbert comic, always hilarious! Thanks for your thoughts.
 
It would certainly be helpful if Nissan re-instituted the 80% charging limit choice. I just purchased a 2015 Leaf. My wife and I are retired and drive different distances every day. I have to reset the timer parameters every night to get close to 80%. I use level one, which adds about 6.5% every hour. Not hard to do the math and set the timer, but an automatic 80% button would make life easier and getting to the house from the car quicker.
 
I don't think they would have removed the 80% feature if it had made a significant difference in battery life.

Heh. They had no way of knowing whether it helped or not - it was only there for a single model year. I'm glad it's there, even if mine insists on charging to 79%, instead.
 
Stoaty said:
I use this simple rule of thumb:

Every 10 minutes of L2 charging (3.3 kw charging, if 6.0 kw charging need to make an adjustment) adds 3% Gids. Example:

Your Leaf has 30% Gids (from Leaf Spy, in my signature or LeafDD) and you want to charge to 70% Gids - charge for 130 minutes. Pretty accurate, but not as convenient as having 80% charge.

Problem is that the charge rate varying with temperature. I get anywhere from 33-40% of a charge on L2 in an hour depending on battery temp.
 
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