Living in Apartment Building - Charging questions

[alozzy]

What about the battery use becoming more ‘steady’ as it is being used? Is that a thing or am I just being optimistic?

If you are hoping that the battery's state of health will magically improve by following charging best practices, the answer is no.

Short of replacing the battery or doing some aero mods, you're not going to improve on the range you are getting.

Having said that, make sure the tires have 40 psi in them as otherwise your range will suffer.

[SageBrush]

I'd offer slightly different advice: don't worry about charging to 100% as long as you use the car soon after it's charged, and don't worry about driving it down to 10-20%. Running it to an indicated 0% (actually a bit higher in reality) can let any weak cells in the battery trigger a shutdown, even if you have a significant amount of range left. The car will slow and then shut down to protect the weakest cell(s) in the battery.

1+

Sounds like OP has a 3 kW OBC. Between that, and having to use public charging, it will not be convenient for now. OP will be in *much* better shape when he has access to home charging.

[knightmb]

Charging does slow down at the top end of the pack, but the 2011/2012 L2 charging rate is slow anyways so you won't really notice much tapering off until you get to high 90% SOC.

Gotcha, thanks a lot for replying to this. What about the battery use becoming more ‘steady’ as it is being used? Is that a thing or am I just being optimistic?

The closest thing to this would be the onboard BMS learning as close as possible, the true battery capacity. Depending on how convenient it is for you, doing a very deep discharge and then following it up with a full charge helps the BMS learn how much capacity remains. This in turn, helps the GOM do a little better prediction of mileage based on the past driving average. LeafSpy is better in that you can see how much capacity is left and then use it to calculate how much range you have based on real-time usage.

What is means is, if you do did this once every few months (or maybe it happens to be close to this in your daily driving), you will get a better idea of what you "mental" range is in your Leaf. For example, when I still owned my 2013 SV, I knew mentally that I could be anywhere in my home town and always make it home as long as I had at least 6% or more of charge left on the dash no matter if I was running heat or AC, etc. My wife on the other hand, feels like 6% is going to shut down on her at any moment, so she did a lot of "white-knuckle" driving of stress for no reason if she was only a few miles from home.

[Jctz1]

That's exactly what it means. Degradation reduces capacity.

Thanks! Noted.

I don't understand the question, I'm afraid.

As in, the battery drains faster when it's fully charged and once it gets to the 50% ish it kind of plateaus. Based on later responses, I can tell this is wishful thinking.

Short of replacing the battery or doing some aero mods, you're not going to improve on the range you are getting.

Having said that, make sure the tires have 40 psi in them as otherwise your range will suffer.

That's a possibility I am thinking of in the future, perhaps in 2 or 3 years, checking if I can replace the battery for a 30kWh one. Dunno if anyone in the Lower Mainland does that, though.

Ok, will keep an eye on tire pressure, thanks, @alozzy!

Sounds like OP has a 3 kW OBC. Between that, and having to use public charging, it will not be convenient for now. OP will be in *much* better shape when he has access to home charging.

Yeah, this sounds like it's the case. Hopefully by the end of the year we'll have a more reliable home charging situation.

The closest thing to this would be the onboard BMS learning as close as possible, the true battery capacity. Depending on how convenient it is for you, doing a very deep discharge and then following it up with a full charge helps the BMS learn how much capacity remains. This in turn, helps the GOM do a little better prediction of mileage based on the past driving average. LeafSpy is better in that you can see how much capacity is left and then use it to calculate how much range you have based on real-time usage.

What is means is, if you do did this once every few months (or maybe it happens to be close to this in your daily driving), you will get a better idea of what you "mental" range is in your Leaf. For example, when I still owned my 2013 SV, I knew mentally that I could be anywhere in my home town and always make it home as long as I had at least 6% or more of charge left on the dash no matter if I was running heat or AC, etc. My wife on the other hand, feels like 6% is going to shut down on her at any moment, so she did a lot of "white-knuckle" driving of stress for no reason if she was only a few miles from home.

This is interesting. So basically it's like a reset that would let the battery know what the new driving average is, learning faster. I'll think about this, perhaps not the best idea at the moment since we have nowhere to plug it in and fully charge it after it's depleted.

Currently I'm getting roughly 5.2km/kWh on average; we took it on the highway briefly once and it behaved amazingly, and so far I know it doesn't like long hills, going upwards. Going down, the regen loves it. I have been checking A Better Route Planner to have an idea of what the range will be, and actually put in there a trip we made recently and the amount of battery drain is spot on, so so far I trust it.

[LeftieBiker]

The 30kwh batteries are gone, because many if not most of them were terrible. The good news is that since warranty replacements are now 40kwh batteries from the Gen II Leaf, those should be available in another year or two, if not sooner, to buy. You'd be looking at a range of roughly 150 miles with a 40kwh battery.

I suggest you not try a BMS reset, assuming that you can get one done. You'd be looking at months before seeing any improvement, and such improvement would be tiny. Focus on driving the car efficiently. You are already getting fantastic efficiency. I'm going to link our Tips & Tricks document. Many of the techniques don't apply to Gen 1.0 Leafs, but many do.

https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=482154

[SageBrush]

You are already getting fantastic efficiency.

5.2 *km*/kWh is not amazing. It could be explained by the weather, traffic, or hilly city.

[LeftieBiker]

True enough - I forgot to convert from km. All the more reason to read the T&T guide.

[alozzy]

Battery replacement is unlikely, due to ICBC and the salvage market they control.

The best bet is likely in Washington State. They seem to have a perpetual backlog, at EV Works though:

https://www.ev-works.com/

I don't know of anyone who has actually done a battery swap with these guys, but they seem capable:

https://www.precisionautoservice.com/

The hardest part is finding a used, healthy battery pack.

[Jctz1]

The 30kwh batteries are gone, because many if not most of them were terrible. The good news is that since warranty replacements are now 40kwh batteries from the Gen II Leaf, those should be available in another year or two, if not sooner, to buy. You'd be looking at a range of roughly 150 miles with a 40kwh battery.

I suggest you not try a BMS reset, assuming that you can get one done. You'd be looking at months before seeing any improvement, and such improvement would be tiny. Focus on driving the car efficiently. You are already getting fantastic efficiency. I'm going to link our Tips & Tricks document. Many of the techniques don't apply to Gen 1.0 Leafs, but many do.

https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=482154

Been going through the tips and tricks document. The blue e was very helpful! I'll keep it bookmarked for future reference. And I do hope I can find a newer battery in a couple of years. Thanks!

5.2 *km*/kWh is not amazing. It could be explained by the weather, traffic, or hilly city.

I was happy and got brought down back to earth by this one, hahaha. It's fair, it's an older car. We are still figuring out if it adapts to our needs well, which I hope it does, cos I love this car so far.

Battery replacement is unlikely, due to ICBC and the salvage market they control.

The best bet is likely in Washington State. They seem to have a perpetual backlog, at EV Works though:

https://www.ev-works.com/

I don't know of anyone who has actually done a battery swap with these guys, but they seem capable:

https://www.precisionautoservice.com/

The hardest part is finding a used, healthy battery pack.

I saw Precision auto when looking for places that could potentially service the car, before buying it. Which reminds me I have some questions about servicing, but I don't know whether to keep this thread alive with those or start a new one...

Thanks again for your continued input in this thread! It has been super helpful.

[tony17112acst]

When I saw the title, I thought there might be a discussion on wiring up an outlet for you. I am a landlord and wonder how this will play out as more and more people will be purchasing electric cars.

Talk to your landlord and see if they'd be willing to split the cost with you to have an electrician run a new wire from your breaker box (service panel) out on to the wall of the building near where you park. Inform them that electric cars will be more prevalent soon and having the new outlet will make his apartment more desirable. for renters, maybe even get $10/month more for the apartment with the charging outlet.

I have a 12-unit building and am already trying to figure out how to get outlets on the exterior for tenants. It shouldn't be more than $100 for me since I know electric code and do my own wiring, which is legal where I am, as long as it's inspected by the local codes enforcement officer.