When to charge?

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godlessjarhead

New member
Joined
Jul 25, 2019
Messages
2
I am in about 2 months now on a new 2019 Leaf. I have read differing opinions on what charging habits are best for battery longevity. I charge at home with a Level-2 included with the car (220V). I have a commute that is almost 25 miles downhill. Obviously, that makes the return trip almost all back uphill. The freeway is 80 MPH or die, or stop-and-go, never really a reasonable cruise. I can make it 2 days on a charge, at which time I am down to about 20%. Questions:

Is it better to charge back to 100% every day or every other day? I am worried about the regen, as the first day of a fresh charge downhill barely reduces the charge. Am I pushing the range by going for 2 days?

If my return ends at 20% on Friday, is it better to charge that day and let it sit the whole weekend at 100%, or leave it at 20% until Sunday night?

So far I really like this car for a no-snow commute (95% of the year). I had some anxiety the first few days of not really knowing how far I could go. The 160 mile range claim is not really accurate on my type of commute, but a assumed that from the start. I want to give the battery the most life possible.
 
If you can charge to 90% every day, that would be a little better than 100% every other day, but even that isn't bad as long as you drive the car shortly after charging finishes.
 
Where is this "80 MPH or die" freeway? Heat is probably the biggest factor in the battery's longevity.

20% is fine and probably better sitting there for the weekend instead of 100%, but weigh that agains the utility of having the car ready-to-go if needed. I think people worry too much about this issue and have shell-shock from the awful batteries Nissan put out the first few years. I keep my 2015 topped off at 100% most of the time and it's doing pretty well.
 
40 or 62 kWh battery? It sounds like a 40.

I would use one of the charge timers to charge the car for 1.5 hours each morning before you leave for work & you can "top off" charge as needed or adjust your weekday charge session accordingly.

Aiming for a max charge of around 75% will give you max regain potential & a great battery life since your daily commute is so short relative to the pack size & your winter weather will be comparatively mild compared to the colder states.
 
Definitely don't charge to 100% every day.
Running it down to 40 or so would be better than 20%.
Sounds like you could charge every day to 80% do your thing and run it down to 40% and do that every day for your usual routine.
 
HerdingElectrons said:
I would use one of the charge timers to charge the car for 1.5 hours each morning before you leave for work & you can "top off" charge as needed or adjust your weekday charge session accordingly.

Aiming for a max charge of around 75% will give you max regain potential & a great battery life since your daily commute is so short relative to the pack size & your winter weather will be comparatively mild compared to the colder states.

I agree with using the Charge Timer overnight to get around 75 %. I would say 80%, but the 75% may leave more room for regen for your down hill commute. You may need to use a trial-and-error method to figure out an average (duration) value/setting for the Timer that works for you, since I doubt that you want to change the Timer setting often.
 
Nubo said:
Where is this "80 MPH or die" freeway? Heat is probably the biggest factor in the battery's longevity.

20% is fine and probably better sitting there for the weekend instead of 100%, but weigh that agains the utility of having the car ready-to-go if needed. I think people worry too much about this issue and have shell-shock from the awful batteries Nissan put out the first few years. I keep my 2015 topped off at 100% most of the time and it's doing pretty well.

2015 LeafS Now at 33k miles, lost our first bar around 29k.

I've done the same with our 2015 LeafS. GOM indicated range is still 85-88 at start-up, rarely (maybe 10 times???) do we drop it below 40. We like to keep max range available, never knowing when we might need to run a longer errand after our 10-15mile commute. Deliberately drop it to --- only 3 times, never had the courage to go to turtle mode.


I'm normally OCD about technical details, and strongly considered the 80% limit, decided to just drive it, plug it in, repeat. We're very pleased with the result.
 
gncndad said:
I've done the same with our 2015 LeafS. GOM indicated range is still 85-88 at start-up, rarely (maybe 10 times???) do we drop it below 40. We like to keep max range available, never knowing when we might need to run a longer errand after our 10-15mile commute.
That's similar to how I used my 2013 (except I used LeafSpyPro to know the range, rather than the useless GOM). I was always worried I might need to drive 30 miles somewhere, so I always kept it charged.

It's different when you move onto a car with more range, however. My S at 90% charge (the default) is 225 miles. I quickly realized I don't need to keep it charged that much. I now have it set to charge to 70% or 80%, and I don't start to charge until I'm down to 120 miles (or it's a Monday). That lets me easily charge the car back up to 80% in 4 hours (which is important, since the EVSEs at work are shared by 2 spots and I really only get half a day).
 
Nubo said:
Where is this "80 MPH or die" freeway? Heat is probably the biggest factor in the battery's longevity.

20% is fine and probably better sitting there for the weekend instead of 100%, but weigh that agains the utility of having the car ready-to-go if needed. I think people worry too much about this issue and have shell-shock from the awful batteries Nissan put out the first few years. I keep my 2015 topped off at 100% most of the time and it's doing pretty well.

This commute is in and around Reno NV. Ironically, this is the home of the Tesla Gigafactory. The irony is the roadway mayhem, pollution, and lack of transportation options for the 6,000 or so people out there. The same old roads remain, and law enforcement was not increased. People with bad driving habits moved from all over the country to be a part of the future (Tesla). I finished my Master's in Sustainability Management while working there, specifically looking at the greenhouse gas produced by people building zero-emission cars. The usual flow is about 80-85 until someone wipes out, then I just use the e-pedal. Snow days are even better, because they still think they can drive fast. This will be my first winter with the Leaf, but I will use my ICE Lexus if it's really slick. I wonder why Nissan didn't use the rear electric motors like the Cube had for a version of an AWD Leaf.
 
We've got a 2019 SL Plus. I have a 50 mile round trip commute too, but it's reverse yours in elevation change. I use a little over 20% each day and charge for 2 hours a night (with a L2 charger) which keeps me near 80% to start each day. Now that the weather is colder, it will be interesting to see the difference in power usage. But, I expect I'll have to add a little time to the charge.
 
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