Battery reading Wrong?

I just bought a 2011SL. It says it has 12 bars and a full charge starts out claiming 75ish miles. I communte 58 miles at various speeds. Mostly between 25-60 it takes about 80 min. Mostly flat. With only the fan on I end up with the battery stating I have 4-8 miles left. I then plug in to a Nissan Charger and it says I have 15-25% battery but my car only shows 1 bar. I want to know if this is how the vehicle is designed or if there is a way the "Reset" the level battery reading?

Any help with this? I have only ever got 65 miles on a charge and I drive carefully. I have a volt and was able to get upper 30's of battery driving using it. I know I am not hot rodding etc.

One other question, is eco mode good for hwy driving?

75 mile is only an estimate that is known to be imprecise as it is based on only short-time energy economy readings. Which 12 bars are you referring to? The wide bars represent the level of charge, while the thin bars represent the health of your battery. The % number displayed on the Nissan quick charger is a mystery as it never matches the Leaf's and 3rd party instrumentation.

Valdemar said:

75 mile is only an estimate that is known to be imprecise as it is based on only short-time energy economy readings. Which 12 bars are you referring to? The wide bars represent the level of charge, while the thin bars represent the health of your battery. The % number displayed on the Nissan quick charger is a mystery as it never matches the Leaf's and 3rd party instrumentation.

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That's why we call the "range estimate" the GOM (guess-o-meter). It's crap and near useless.

OP, if you have range complaints, please answer the questions at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=275421#p275421 here.

Valdemar said:

The % number displayed on the Nissan quick charger is a mystery as it never matches the Leaf's and 3rd party instrumentation.

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Not true on the '13. I've never found the a Nissan-branded DC FC's % SoC display to be more than 1% off from the dash display. Often it's identical. Of course, this is moot on the '11 and '12 which have no % SoC display.

Shulew said:

I just bought a 2011SL. It says it has 12 bars and a full charge starts out claiming 75ish miles.

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I'm pretty sure that every 2011 out there has some battery degradation, and even if you have all 12 capacity bars, I would guess you are probably close to losing your first capacity bar (-15%), unless it came from a very cool climate, or has had the battery replaced recently.

Shulew said:

I then plug in to a Nissan Charger and it says I have 15-25% battery but my car only shows 1 bar.

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Where are you reading this "15-25%", in the car, or on the charging station? Each charge bar represents about 8% charge, but there is also a reserve at the bottom that you can't access, to keep from damaging the battery pack. Maybe the charging station is counting that reserve?

Shulew said:

Is there a way the "Reset" the level battery reading?

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No.

Shulew said:

One other question, is eco mode good for hwy driving?

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No, ECO mode does almost nothing to increase economy for highway driving, except reduce the A/C draw. It recurves the acceleration pedal, and increases regen, neither of which help in steady-state highway driving.
In short: if you have a 58 mile commute, I think a used 2011 Leaf was the wrong car for you. Did you research it on here first?

Thank you all for your comments. Both sets of bars read 12. I did research and all the reports I read said to expect 70-80+ miles.

The key for me is that my car says I have 6 miles left but when I plug it in the Nissan ?Chamco? Quick charger states my car has 16-22% battery life, not 5% or 8% as I would expect it to read.

Thank you again for all your input.

Shulew said:

Thank you all for your comments. Both sets of bars read 12. I did research and all the reports I read said to expect 70-80+ miles.

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EPA rated range of the '11 and '12 Leaf is 73 miles, on a new battery. If your '11 has its original battery, it has degraded anywhere from somewhat (if resided in a cool climate like Seattle) or a LOT, if it baked in say Phoenix. Hopefully nobody reset the BMS so that it reads high in capacity bars and it still in the process of re-learning like the person mentioned at http://daveinolywa.blogspot.com/2014/11/buyers-beware-this-is-must-read.html. Resolution at http://daveinolywa.blogspot.com/2014/12/update-saga-of-vin-222-resolved.html.

You'd be best getting Leaf Spy (http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=14285) to read battery gids at 100% charge and to get an idea of battery health. Use the Lite version at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=14284 to make sure your setup works. Using Leaf Spy will give you a FAR better idea of your battery state and what efficiency you need drive at (in miles/kWh) to reach your destination.

Also see:
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=10301
http://www.electricvehiclewiki.com/Glossary
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=101293 - the top chart is on a new battery. Drive 35 mph on level ground and no HVAC use (or if you achieve 6.3 miles/kWh) on a new battery should yield 132 miles. Leaf on a NEW battery has about 21-22 kWh usable. If you achieve only 3.0 miles/kWh, a new battery should take you 62 miles, until dead.

Can you update your location info via your user name in the upper right > User Control Panel > Profile tab? That way, we don't need to ask in future posts/threads or do sleuthing to deduce it.

Shulew said:

Thank you all for your comments. Both sets of bars read 12. I did research and all the reports I read said to expect 70-80+ miles.

The key for me is that my car says I have 6 miles left but when I plug it in the Nissan ?Chamco? Quick charger states my car has 16-22% battery life, not 5% or 8% as I would expect it to read.

Thank you again for all your input.

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The SOC bars are a coarse approximation of the real SOC. As I mentioned Nissan Chademo chargers tend to show numbers that don't seem to correlate with charge bars on 2011/12 Leafs. Just ignore the miles left estimate. Many of us invested in LeafSpy and required hardware, which is pretty much a must setup for aging Leafs. It allows you to know exactly how much energy is left in the battery and lots of other useful information. Read more about it here.

Another note, your range seem to be on the low end for a car that still has 12 capacity bars, could be due to your driving style or the capacity gauge has been reset.

BTW, where did the car previously reside? Would give us a better idea of how much the battery should be degraded.

Shulew said:

Thank you all for your comments. Both sets of bars read 12. I did research and all the reports I read said to expect 70-80+ miles.

The key for me is that my car says I have 6 miles left but when I plug it in the Nissan ?Chamco? Quick charger states my car has 16-22% battery life, not 5% or 8% as I would expect it to read.

Thank you again for all your input.

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Since you're going from point A to point B you also have to take into consideration the driving conditions. The GOM uses recent past driving to indicate how much further you can go. It's best to do any range comparisons with the same start and end point. I would assume that you're starting at home with a 100% charge and then going 58 miles to the quick charger. If that quick charger is shortly after a more taxing part of the drive it will assume that you're going to continue driving in those types of conditions. If your home drive is at the end of a very easy part when you get in the next morning it will assume you'll continue driving like that.

I notice this in my daily drive. I live on the top of an escarpment (the Niagara escarpment so think the same height as Niagara falls). When I get in in the morning my last drive was climbing up and the GOM at 100% will read just under 90 miles (2015). Then I start off my drive by going down the escarpment and the GOM will jump up about 20%. Most of the drive is downhill and easier and by the time I get to work (45 miles at mostly 55-60) and charge the car will assume the drive will be like that and I'll charge up to 100% and see a GOM of 110 miles. Since I'm now turning around and driving back the mostly uphill route it'll slowly tick down then right at the end I climb the escarpment and notice a huge change by the time I pull up to my house the GOM sometimes will say 18 miles when I know I could easily drive double that if I kept to flat roads.

We can prognosticate all we want, but based on your range, it sounds to me like you bought an (approximately) 9 bar Leaf that had been "reset" to 12 bars. My range is slightly less (~60 miles) and I am on the verge of 8 bars (and triggering the warranty replacement battery pack). Based on your mileage, that should be your focus. Unfortunately, you should have never been advised to buy a Leaf (especially a pre-2015 Leaf) for a ~60 mile daily commute in all weather conditions.

OP's battery is in pretty good condition. Since there are 4-8 miles showing on the GOM (guess-o-meter) after the 58-mile commute, the car has not yet reached very low battery warning (VLBW). 2011 and 2012 models hide a significant amount of battery charge below the first state of charge (SOC) bar. Also, the battery charge levels shown on the quick charger displays are not very accurate for 2011 and 2012 models. I strongly suggest getting Leaf Spy with a suitable OBDII interface to get detailed information about the battery and have a more accurate display of SOC.

Gerry

I wonder if someone reset the BMS...

Shulew said:

I just bought a 2011SL.

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Shulew said:

I have a volt and was able to get upper 30's of battery driving using it. I know I am not hot rodding etc.

One other question, is eco mode good for hwy driving?

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Only upper 30's? It is super easy to get 40 miles on a Volt and I have made 50 a few times. Keep it under 65 and put some air in the tires to increase range.

Shulew said:

Thank you all for your comments. Both sets of bars read 12. I did research and all the reports I read said to expect 70-80+ miles.

The key for me is that my car says I have 6 miles left but when I plug it in the Nissan ?Chamco? Quick charger states my car has 16-22% battery life, not 5% or 8% as I would expect it to read.

Thank you again for all your input.

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I think a lot of responses ignore your question about SOC% and focus on your ability to have range (how far can you drive on a full charge). I'm going to address a different concept.

The Chademo quick charger is giving you raw SOC% and the dash gives you a modified SOC% (If you have a 2013 or newer). Nissan hides the top few percent and bottom few percent of the pack from you. The car will continue to drive even after the miles go away and are replaced by ---.

You can do one of two things

A. ignore the disparity between charge at bottom or top of pack and the range estimates
B. get an OBDII adapter and leafspy app to view the raw SOC% and have more accurate information to go by.

If you use Leafspy the charge amount given to you by the Chademo won't look so odd and you'll have something more accurate to go by and won't care what the chademo or dash say.

You can drive further without running about of energy either way but relying on the dash only leaves you worried and guessing while you are on the move.

Shulew said:

... I did research and all the reports I read said to expect 70-80+ miles.
...

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Then you missed quite a few on MNL.
I have been pointing out for way more than two years that a used 2011 LEAF is more realistically a 40 to 60 mile range vehicle.
And in cold weather if you like heat a 30 to 35 mile range vehicle.
Not the right choice for OPs commute.