So, owners what range are you getting ?

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Did you notice if you had to step much harder on the accelerator pedal? Now your Leaf is pretty new but on my '13 I feel the front and possibly one of the rear rotors occasionally stick, drastically reducing range and making my rotors get very hot and making me have to push harder on the accelerator. These cars have so much power sometimes it's hard to tell you are pushing harder but I believe thats the case with my Leaf. If this happens again and you haven't had to brake hard before stopping, get out and put your fingers around the rim openings on all 4 wheels, if it's hot you might have a stuck rotor. Note I wouldn't suggest putting your fingers inside the rim and touching the rotor, I accidentally did that and almost burnt my finger, rotors can get VERY hot! Coasting will also be dramatically reduced with a stuck rotor but again thats sometimes hard to tell.
 
Quick trip report. Had a nice 205 mile round trip yesterday. Temps around 66 to 69F. Highway driving @ 65mph ProPilot setting most of the time. Tires at 42 cold.

Made it back with 4% SOC on GOM and 12.7% SOC on LSP with about 20 miles indicated as remaining potential before hitting 5% SOC. Hit 4 miles /kWh for the overall trip with 49mph avg speed indicated on dashboard/drive computer. Very pleasant Sunday trip overall and the car performed impeccably. Based on this experience I can safely assume hitting the EPA listed target of 215 miles range on a consistent basis.
 
LEAF now shows ~54 miles on GOM after full charge on L2 in my garage. Temperate weather range is about 45 miles =/- 5 miles. 54 on GOM drops rapidly to about 40 after about 3 miles at neighborhood speeds of 25-35. Regenerative braking shows little or none, sometimes one or two rounds marks after GOM is down to about 20 miles. Car is still good for travel around the town and single stop trips up to Nashville.

Mileage is 51,250. Car always garaged, usually 1 to 3 days between charges. Tire pressure at 40psi.

This is about what I expect since the LEAF is a 2012 model made in Japan and delivered December 2011. No big expenses other than a set of tires at 35,000 miles and a twelve volt battery at 5-year mark.

Paid for since 2013 so I'm not complaining.

Cheers,
Dave
 


2022 Leaf SL Plus.
Approx. Odometer Reading: 5,000 km (3,100 mi)

Starting SOC : 100%
Range (till battery low) : 431 km (268 mi) to 2%
Range (till turtle) : Unknown
Driving : Mostly suburban driving, speeds between 50 to 90 km/h (30 to 55 mph). ECO. No e-pedal. Heater on occasionally.
Climate : General temps 7 to 19 C (45 to 65 F)

As I haven't had the Leaf for very long I'm actually quite astonished as to how I can easily get more than 270 mi to a full charge. Even with the largest battery as in my SL Plus, generally media reviews place the Leaf on the low side of range among EVs. 270 mi is certainly not low at all in my opinion.
 
I'm getting around 250 miles with an 85% charge in these warm months with my 2022 SV Plus (around 4.7 m/kwh). I haven't run the A/C too much, maybe on two days in May. I am very happy so far, but only because the EPA says 3.1 m/kwh and that's what I was expecting. I just had the month of may at 4.4 m/kwh which comes to $35 for 1300 miles! With my 15 mpg Nissan Armada SUV (I need for towing sometimes), I would have spent $440 for that same 1300 miles. So I'm paying 1/10th of the price of gas! My electric is going up steeply soon, though, so that will change.

I should recover the entire price of the car (minus the fed tax deduction) in 6 years. It's the only reason I bought the car, because it'll be free in 6 years if I had kept driving my SUV (which I am keeping).
 
DaveinOlyWA said:
brycenesbitt said:
I get between 2 and 2.5 miles per kWH in mixed city driving, with a 2009 six bar original battery Leaf.

Your pack is less efficient due to degradation along with a less efficient motor. In summer, I hit the high 4's at 65+ mph in my plus; something I couldn't even dream of in my 2011.

I measure at the wall (via JuiceBox) not trust the car's numbers.
 
brycenesbitt said:
DaveinOlyWA said:
brycenesbitt said:
I get between 2 and 2.5 miles per kWH in mixed city driving, with a 2009 six bar original battery Leaf.

Your pack is less efficient due to degradation along with a less efficient motor. In summer, I hit the high 4's at 65+ mph in my plus; something I couldn't even dream of in my 2011.

I measure at the wall (via JuiceBox) not trust the car's numbers.

Whatever works for you but that doesn't work for most people. "from the wall" varies in its efficiency so only works if you charge nowhere else and its not really a reflection of the car...

I charge many different places so I use the car because it doesn't care where the electrons come from.
 
I also measure from the wall since that is what I am paying for. I have been recording data after installing a revenue accuracy meter ahead of my AeroVironment (Nissan) L2 EVSE (a few months after purchasing the 2011). The 2015 and 2019 are more efficient with their 6 kW onboard charger compared to the 3.3 kW unit in the 2011. The efficiency difference is due to the overhead of the control modules being active for longer charging time with the lower charge rate of the 2011. The 2015 and 2019 are about the same efficiency at overall average of 3 mi/kWh from the wall. My last four charging sessions with my 2019 SL Plus yielded the following data (mi/kWh):

3.7 dash 3.24 wall
3.7 dash 3.07 wall
3.4 dash 2.85 wall
3.6 dash 3.02 wall

Distance driven per charge ranged between 141.7 and 168.6. Charging efficiency is higher when battery is deeply depleted because a higher percentage of charging time is at the highest rate before charge rate tapers approaching full charge.
 
We routinely get about 4.3 m/kwh on the dash in the warmer months, and about 3.7 in the winter running winter tires. We do have separate 17" tires for summer and winter on separate wheels. On really cold days we might see 3.2 on the dash in the winter. Overall, we average about 4.0 on the dash across the year. I don't have a way to measure from the wall.

I did see 4.3 on a longer trip just recently across town with the snows on a warm day, so it's mostly about the ambient temperature rather than the tires. The snows are narrower than our all-seasons, partly because a narrower snow tire is preferable in the slick for traction, and partly as an attempt to compensate for the rolling resistance of the stickier tire compared to our all-seasons, which are still the stock Michelins. They're about due to be replaced after 4 years.
 
SoCal user here with 90% freeway use. I usually drive with the traffic flow which means most of the times 70 or 75 mph. Averaging about 3.7 m/kWh
 
DougWantsALeaf said:
That's pretty good for that speed.

Yup. I'm quite happy with the range/efficiency. Usually drive about 100 to 110 round trip and consume about 55% to 60% charge and 5-6 hours overnight L2 at home gets me back to 80% ish... Perfect car for my use pattern.
 
OldManCan said:
SoCal user here with 90% freeway use. I usually drive with the traffic flow which means most of the times 70 or 75 mph. Averaging about 3.7 m/kWh

My numbers from my earlier post are for mostly freeway driving at 65 to 75 mph (keeping with traffic flow, usually toward the upper number) with some local driving at each end of each trip:
3.7 dash 3.24 wall
3.7 dash 3.07 wall
3.4 dash 2.85 wall
3.6 dash 3.02 wall
 
5.2 mi/kWh average (as measured by the dash). My commute is 18.9 miles (one way) at 46 mph.

Tires inflated to 42 psi made the biggest improvement in efficiency.

I shift to Neutral for coasting at zero power when it makes sense, shift between D/B modes when those make sense, and use cruise control as much as possible. Second biggest improvement to efficiency. I don't use ECO mode.

I'm using a 30ah LiFePO4 12V battery which probably reduces some energy loss compared to lead-acid.

Living in Arizona, I carry 3 x 1L pop bottles containing pre-frozen water to reduce energy used by the car's A/C system. These help initially cool down the car more quickly than A/C alone.
 
k9spud said:
Living in Arizona, I carry 3 x 1L pop bottles containing pre-frozen water to reduce energy used by the car's A/C system. These help initially cool down the car more quickly than A/C alone.
Wow, those are some great numbers and I commend you. I do wonder though about the whole frozen water bottle thing. Do you sit on them, place them in front of the dash diffusers, use them to drink, other?? Also why not ECO mode? I always use ECO on mine as it doesn't have a B mode and ECO gives me more regen which I generally want. If I didn't then I might turn it off, that or as you do, ship into N for maximum coasting with zero regen.
 
jjeff said:
I do wonder though about the whole frozen water bottle thing. Do you sit on them, place them in front of the dash diffusers, use them to drink, other??

I just drop two in the center console cup holders and one in the driver side door before departing, then put them back in a freezer as soon as I arrive at my destination. If it's really hot, I might drop an extra one in the passenger side door.

My commute is short enough that they don't really melt enough to drink them during the trip. I run the fan to circulate air around the bottles and usually enable the car's A/C -- the frozen water bottles help pre-cool air being sucked into the car's A/C so it doesn't have to work very hard. Think of the frozen water bottles as like an extra battery -- only this directly puts out cold air instead of electricity and frozen water is dirt cheap compared to lithium.

Also why not ECO mode? I always use ECO on mine as it doesn't have a B mode and ECO gives me more regen which I generally want. If I didn't then I might turn it off, that or as you do, ship into N for maximum coasting with zero regen.

As far as I can tell, ECO doesn't produce any heavier braking power than B mode when slowing down, so what would I use ECO for? I don't like how abruptly weaker the accelerator pedal maps to when speeding up in ECO mode. B mode works smoother and easier to control IMO. If my car didn't have B mode, I'd substitute ECO mode and learn to deal with the accelerator mapping.

My goal is to minimize use of regen whenever conditions allow (you never get back as much as you put out). If braking is necessary, I prefer D mode regen when braking distances allow. I suspect the lower peak current is more efficient.

Avoiding high peak currents is more efficient during acceleration too, to a point. I aim for around 20kW to 40kW power output (four bubbles) during acceleration, then immediately switch to cruise control. Accelerating above or below four bubbles doesn't seem to work as efficiently for me.
 
DougWantsALeaf said:
Do you feel the Lithium Ion 12V really made a difference?

My lead-acid battery was begining to fail, likely due to a small internal short, so that made the difference profound in my case. I remember sitting at a stop light, not moving, and watching my state of charge percentage number slowly counting downward. It doesn't do that anymore.

If your lead-acid isn't sucking power out of your traction battery at stop lights like a hungry vampire, I wouldn't worry about upgrading to LiFePO4.
 
https://electrek.co/2023/07/27/tesla-vastly-overstates-its-vehicles-range-report-states/

For those on this forum with both a gen 2 Leaf (or Bolt) and a Tesla, what are your comparative experience with range and gom readings?
 
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