Help Me Understand What MY Battery Usage Means

jlv said:

Don't believe the GOM ("Battery Range Guage") as giving any useful metric of your remaining range. It just doesn't.

You might want to mention what year and model your used LEAF is, as well as fill in your location (even if just the state) in your user profile. That will matter for any response indicating your possible range.

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Amazing1 said:

I would appreciate everyone helping me understand what travel distance and such I can expect from my brand "new to me" Leaf.
I am writing this post after my very 1st ride home in my car and here is what I discovered from this 1st trip:


1) Drove 23 miles w/ECO Off in city traffic... stop and go traffic, speed mostly between 25 and 50 mph.
(I expect to drive w/o ECO most of the time) BTW - the temperature outside was 59 degrees.

2) Leaving Dealership my Battery Range Gauge showed 72 miles @ a 96% charge level (from gauge directly in front of steering wheel)

3) Once reaching Home the Battery Range Gauge showed 60 miles @ a 70% charge level

So, it appears that the Charge Level of the Battery went down approximately 1% for each mile that I drove.

MY QUESTION: Can I now count on the car being able to drive somewhat near 60 miles at this point since the % of charge is a little bit
higher, or is there some other better way to get a good, reliable feel for how far I can drive my car given the information before me.

Any advice, info, suggestions at this point will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Click to expand...

Lothsahn said:

Amazing1 said:

I would appreciate everyone helping me understand what travel distance and such I can expect from my brand "new to me" Leaf.
I am writing this post after my very 1st ride home in my car and here is what I discovered from this 1st trip:


1) Drove 23 miles w/ECO Off in city traffic... stop and go traffic, speed mostly between 25 and 50 mph.
(I expect to drive w/o ECO most of the time) BTW - the temperature outside was 59 degrees.

2) Leaving Dealership my Battery Range Gauge showed 72 miles @ a 96% charge level (from gauge directly in front of steering wheel)

3) Once reaching Home the Battery Range Gauge showed 60 miles @ a 70% charge level

So, it appears that the Charge Level of the Battery went down approximately 1% for each mile that I drove.

MY QUESTION: Can I now count on the car being able to drive somewhat near 60 miles at this point since the % of charge is a little bit
higher, or is there some other better way to get a good, reliable feel for how far I can drive my car given the information before me.

Any advice, info, suggestions at this point will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Click to expand...

The way the GOM works is by taking the efficiency of the past few miles, the remaining battery percentage, health, and then calculating how many miles it thinks you have left. Like Leftie said, it's terribly inaccurate, typically overestimating the range at the start, and eventually underestimating at the end.

Since you lost 26% charge going 23 miles, you're getting about .88 miles per 1%. That says you have around 62 miles range left based on a 70% charge level. This is a good rough guess (and it fairly closely matches the GOM), but you will have to get used to how your Leaf behaves especially as the battery gets to a lower charge. You could find that as the charge gets less, the battery may deplete slightly faster or slower than at the top. But I would be shocked if your range at 70% is less than 50 miles under the same driving conditions. This means that your battery is likely in great shape.

Keep in mind that changing your driving conditions matters greatly. You'll get significantly less range if:
It's raining
It's snowing
It's cold (<40 F) - The battery gets less efficient
You turn on the heat when it's below freezing outside
You drive fast (the faster you go above 35 mph the faster your range drops, especially 60+ mph)

In general, you'll find slow empty country road driving to be the best, stop and go driving to be good, and highway to be bad for range. In general, if you need more range, slowing down will make your car go farther. Since you have an SL, you should also use the heated seats and steering wheel if you need. They barely affect the range, unlike heating the entire car.

Given you have around an 80 mile range (at side road driving speeds), it sounds you got a good Leaf. Enjoy your car!

Click to expand...

Amazing1 said:

Lothsahn said:

Amazing1 said:

I would appreciate everyone helping me understand what travel distance and such I can expect from my brand "new to me" Leaf.
I am writing this post after my very 1st ride home in my car and here is what I discovered from this 1st trip:


1) Drove 23 miles w/ECO Off in city traffic... stop and go traffic, speed mostly between 25 and 50 mph.
(I expect to drive w/o ECO most of the time) BTW - the temperature outside was 59 degrees.

2) Leaving Dealership my Battery Range Gauge showed 72 miles @ a 96% charge level (from gauge directly in front of steering wheel)

3) Once reaching Home the Battery Range Gauge showed 60 miles @ a 70% charge level

So, it appears that the Charge Level of the Battery went down approximately 1% for each mile that I drove.

MY QUESTION: Can I now count on the car being able to drive somewhat near 60 miles at this point since the % of charge is a little bit
higher, or is there some other better way to get a good, reliable feel for how far I can drive my car given the information before me.

Any advice, info, suggestions at this point will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Click to expand...

The way the GOM works is by taking the efficiency of the past few miles, the remaining battery percentage, health, and then calculating how many miles it thinks you have left. Like Leftie said, it's terribly inaccurate, typically overestimating the range at the start, and eventually underestimating at the end.

Since you lost 26% charge going 23 miles, you're getting about .88 miles per 1%. That says you have around 62 miles range left based on a 70% charge level. This is a good rough guess (and it fairly closely matches the GOM), but you will have to get used to how your Leaf behaves especially as the battery gets to a lower charge. You could find that as the charge gets less, the battery may deplete slightly faster or slower than at the top. But I would be shocked if your range at 70% is less than 50 miles under the same driving conditions. This means that your battery is likely in great shape.

Keep in mind that changing your driving conditions matters greatly. You'll get significantly less range if:
It's raining
It's snowing
It's cold (<40 F) - The battery gets less efficient
You turn on the heat when it's below freezing outside
You drive fast (the faster you go above 35 mph the faster your range drops, especially 60+ mph)

In general, you'll find slow empty country road driving to be the best, stop and go driving to be good, and highway to be bad for range. In general, if you need more range, slowing down will make your car go farther. Since you have an SL, you should also use the heated seats and steering wheel if you need. They barely affect the range, unlike heating the entire car.

Given you have around an 80 mile range (at side road driving speeds), it sounds you got a good Leaf. Enjoy your car!

Click to expand...

Lothsan...... Thank You. Thank You. Your information was awesome and very helpful. I've got a lot to learn about driving and enjoying
our new car, which for the most part we expect to use on trips of no more than 30 miles each way, so it sounds like we'll be good.

The heating idea is also a good one. If you don't mind me asking you "here" .... One of my other questions was about the ability using the Nissan remote "wings" or something like that to be able to heat or cool your car while its still on the charger. Am I correct about that, and if so do you or others also use that feature so that at least in the morning you can get into a warm car and then go?

Click to expand...