How much to charge my 2016 Leaf for battery life

[Amazing1]

I've seen in a number of threads on the Forum that many of you Leaf owners charge your battery only to 80% unless planning on driving the car soon after charging the battery to 100%. I have read the manual and see no way to plug in the charger and have it stop at any type of charge percentage, i.e. 80%. Would be very interested in knowing how some of you accomplish that? Thanks

[WetEV]

I've seen in a number of threads on the Forum that many of you Leaf owners charge your battery only to 80% unless planning on driving the car soon after charging the battery to 100%. I have read the manual and see no way to plug in the charger and have it stop at any type of charge percentage, i.e. 80%. Would be very interested in knowing how some of you accomplish that? Thanks

Drive the car until the capacity is about 50%. Takes several days.

Plug in with a timer set for an hour overnight. 3AM to 4AM

6kWh/20kWh = 30%
50% + 30% = 80%

[LeftieBiker]

I've seen in a number of threads on the Forum that many of you Leaf owners charge your battery only to 80% unless planning on driving the car soon after charging the battery to 100%. I have read the manual and see no way to plug in the charger and have it stop at any type of charge percentage, i.e. 80%. Would be very interested in knowing how some of you accomplish that? Thanks

Drive the car until the capacity is about 50%. Takes several days.

Plug in with a timer set for an hour overnight. 3AM to 4AM

6kWh/20kWh = 30%
50% + 30% = 80%

That assumes a 30+ amp EVSE. The same charge with the OEM 120 volt cable would take about 6 hours, and a 16 amp 240 volt charging cable or station would take about 2 hours. The best way to accomplish an 80% charge is to observe how many percent of charge your own home charging system adds per hour, estimate how long a charge is needed based on that, and then either use a charge timer or plug the car in at a time that will make it convenient to unplug it when you've reached about 80%.

[Lothsahn]

That assumes a 30+ amp EVSE. The same charge with the OEM 120 volt cable would take about 6 hours, and a 16 amp 240 volt charging cable or station would take about 2 hours. The best way to accomplish an 80% charge is to observe how many percent of charge your own home charging system adds per hour, estimate how long a charge is needed based on that, and then either use a charge timer or plug the car in at a time that will make it convenient to unplug it when you've reached about 80%.

Not something you see often on this forum, but posts like this make me <3 my 2011...

[LeftieBiker]

You really do get the hang of it, but you never stop cursing Nissan, either...

[css28]

With my Level 2 EVSE, I do a quick mental calculation as I park the car for setting the charge timer for the next morning.

I subtract the battery percentage shown from 80 (my target percentage) and multiply the difference by two. That gives me approximately how many minutes to set the timer for, before the next drive.

Example: If I pull in with 33% battery showing, I want to add 47 percentage points. 47 X 2 = 94 minutes. I round that down to 90 minutes or 1-1/2 hours. This time of year I'm using the climate timer set for 10 minutes later than the charge timer finish time and that seems to continue the battery charging a little longer. With the temperatures we're starting to see right now, that's not a bad thing.

[danrjones]

I concur with all the above. I had a NEMA 15-50 plug installed, and use the cable that came with the car.

Our system now is this:

When the car gets down to less than 45% (usually about 40), I plug it in that night. A timer is set for the car every night of the week from 2am to 4am. It then charges for two hours each time I plug it in. That two hours usually puts me back around 70-80%. It will never be exact, but its the best I can do. Because we are only doing about 400 miles per month that means we charge about every 3rd night. Once in a great while I'll go out around 10pm and click the timer override button to get a full charge overnight.

[Titanium48]

Or you can just let the car do the calculating for you by setting the charge stop time 2 hours (6 kW) or 3 hours (3 kW) after you plan to leave in the morning, and not setting a start time.

I have noticed that the climate control timer seems to override the charge timer though. In the summer when I set the charge timer to 9:30 am the SOC would be in the mid-80s when I went out at 7:15 am (16 A EVSE). Setting the climate control timer to 7:30 am while keeping the charge timer at 9:30 results in 92-98% SOC (lower when it is colder and preheating requires more energy). Not really a big deal for me, but it might be for someone in a hot climate that wants to pre-cool the car.

[GaleHawkins]

Since the Leaf software doesn't permit a true 100% I just charge until it reports 100% in our 2016 SL. I try to discharge to Turtle mode often for the month we have owned it

[goldbrick]

Since the Leaf software doesn't permit a true 100% I just charge until it reports 100% in our 2016 SL. I try to discharge to Turtle mode often for the month we have owned it

Why? Everything I've read says that Li batteries last longest when kept in the middle of their usable range and pushing them to either the high or low limit of the usable charge/voltage range accelerates capacity loss.