100 Mile Club, 200 km, 300 km, 200 Mile Club (24kWh LEAF)

[TonyWilliams]

Bummer. I was expecting to see a popup, much like with LBW, but that never showed up.

It should have been there. At 18 miles from LBW to Turtle, you needed to start looking at 11-12 miles into LBW for the VLB warning.

Did you clear out the first warning? If not, it might affect the next warning. I don't know, because I always reset it.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Just an update, took 6.45 hours to charge to 100% and the Blink reported 23.20 total kWh used.

116.5miles/23.2 = 5.02 miles/kWh Wall to wheels for this charge.

Looks like you probably put back about 20.3 to 20.5 kw back

I get 19.7kWh into the battery at 85% of 23.20 total from Blink.

reported efficiencies on 240 volt/16amp run as high as 88%. i was doing best case scenario

and

is low battery warning settable? maybe he does not have it on?

 

[Caracalover]

Thank you for setting up this thread. I'd like to join your club, if you will have me.

Total trip length: 107.1 miles
Freeway miles: 73.3
Avg trip economy: 5.1 miles/kWh
LBW to turtle: 18.3 miles
Max speed: 55 mph
Average speed: 28.4 mph
Max temperature: 55 F
Min temperature: 45 F
Elevation difference: neglible
Auxiliaries: none (except headlights)

End of trip (1):

So it took 3 hours and 45 min to go 105 miles. Looks to me like anyone with a Leaf can join this club if they simply drive 25mph for 4 hours, in any temperature and likely any terrain, unless you can find an uphill grade of 40-50 miles. Any one want to try it? So easy, perhaps I will, but then again, maybe not - I wouldn't be able to remember the secret handshake :lol:.

It would be interesting to know though....

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

So it took 3 hours and 45 min to go 105 miles. Looks to me like anyone with a Leaf can join this club if they simply drive 25mph for 4 hours....

that would be one way to do it. in my case, the first 80+ miles of both my entries was errands. i work 4 10's so one day a week is reserved for the niceties of life replenishment. i so happened to have added a Dr appt for Son and Dentist appt for me to the mix along with the normal groceries, etc.

now i always try to drive efficiently (with a Zenn its REQUIRED) from habit and realized that i was having a better than average day. on the 98 mile day i was at 6.5 miles/k at about 60 miles which is when i started thinking about seeing how far i could get. realize had done basically the same thing EVERY tues forever but was usually in the 5.5- 6 miles/ K

unfortunately, had to go back up the hill so did not end up the day with such glowing #'s but my trips were mostly done in the 35-40 mph range though so i am guessing 25 mph would be closer to 150 miles.

 

[Deleted member 770]

Elevation profile:

Where did you find a 50+ mile long road with only a 220-foot elevation differential? That's some flat road...

 

[GRA]

Elevation profile:

Where did you find a 50+ mile long road with only a 220-foot elevation differential? That's some flat road...

I imagine he stayed on on 101 and/or 880 paralleling the bay, and it was pretty easy. I've never checked it on Google Earth or what have you, but the routes are essentially flat if you stay off the bridges.

 

[Caracalover]

Where did you find a 50+ mile long road with only a 220-foot elevation differential? That's some flat road...

I was in Detroit recently, and the flat 45 MPH roads made me wish I had my Leaf. Timed lights and flat roads, Detroit did that right, for sure!

 

[surfingslovak]

It should have been there. At 18 miles from LBW to Turtle, you needed to start looking at 11-12 miles into LBW for the VLB warning. Did you clear out the first warning? If not, it might affect the next warning. I don't know, because I always reset it.

Yes, I cleared the first warning. I had an opportunity to revisit this the other night and two things became apparent: the VLBW only shows up on the center console and it coincides with three dashes "---" showing up on the DTE indicator (GOM). Bearing this in mind, I reviewed my notes and it's nearly certain that I drove 5.6 miles into the VLBW before hitting turtle mode. I have revised the trip summary to reflect that.

Looks to me like anyone with a Leaf can join this club if they simply drive 25mph for 4 hours.

Yes, that should work. If you add stop signs and traffic lights into the mix, the average speed on a city street might be close to 20 mph. On the flip side, you might achieve better energy economy with the right driving techniques, as LEAFfan, DaveinOlyWA, and others have demonstrated. I had good results going around 50 mph on freeways. This is an educated guess, but if the Leaf had the aerodynamics of the EV1, we could go 65 instead of 50 mph and get the same energy economy (~ 5 mpk). Imagine what the would mean for the freeway range.

Where did you find a 50+ mile long road with only a 220-foot elevation differential? That's some flat road...

Guy guessed it -- it was Highway 101 for the most part. I've added a map to the trip summary. Here it is again for easier reference:


Click to enlarge

This might be a good opportunity to applaud Tony for setting up this thread. There is a difference between contemplating and going the distance. The secret handshake is only small part of the fun. I would encourage anyone to go and do it.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

i am thinking about starting a new thread on how far we can go in winter... basic rules; temps must be below 40º

i mention it because i did 68 miles today. high was 37º or so i think. i started out with 9 bars so did not even have a full charge. i think i could do near 100, parked it with 18 miles left

 

[Caracalover]

i am thinking about starting a new thread on how far we can go in winter... basic rules; temps must be below 40º

i mention it because i did 68 miles today. high was 37º or so i think. i started out with 9 bars so did not even have a full charge. i think i could do near 100, parked it with 18 miles left

I did two trips of 69 miles Sunday, on the first the car started in a garage with a few minutes of pre-heat. Temp outside fell to 20 at my destination, and I had the first LBW at 68.5 miles. It was below 40 everywhere except in the garage (48). Came home the same way, and had 3 full bars left when I got home (1000' elevation drop in this direction). Don't remember exactly how cold it was when we left Rosamond, but I think it was close to or below 40 (We left at 4:30pm), and I know it was in the low thirties in the mountains. Daytime high was near 50, so while I call that cold, most people don't. I used the heater a few times on both of these trips.

 

[TonyWilliams]

i am thinking about starting a new thread on how far we can go in winter... basic rules; temps must be below 40º

I'm not too sorry to say that I won't be in that thread

 

[stylekyle]

I'm on the fence about ordering a leaf... I've been on the waiting list since they first opened it last year. This thread is discouraging, I thought it was easier to achieve 100 miles on a regular basis. I didn't realize conditions, driving habits, etc. had to be absolutely perfect to hit 100 miles. I understand that everything you do, temp, speed, climate control affects range... I guess I was just a bit optimistic that 100 miles was the 'norm', not the exception.

I live in Ohio, and Nissan finally made it available in our market last week. Ohio is mostly flat, which is good, but it commonly gets well below freezing, sometimes down to 0° F for a few days at a time. From what I'm reading, I doubt I'll see a range of even 50 mph on those days. Take into consideration battery capacity loss after 5 years, and i'll be down to 40 miles on those cold days. I wonder how much the 'winter climate' package that is standard on the 2012 will affect range.

 

[TangoKilo]

Sadly, I just missed the 100 mile club. My ride shut down after reaching turtle mode and I rolled into my driveway at 99.2 miles... Damn, I knew I should've turned of the a/c sooner...

Until next time (and warmer weather) :mrgreen:

 

[TangoKilo]

I'm on the fence about ordering a leaf... I've been on the waiting list since they first opened it last year. This thread is discouraging, I thought it was easier to achieve 100 miles on a regular basis. I didn't realize conditions, driving habits, etc. had to be absolutely perfect to hit 100 miles. I understand that everything you do, temp, speed, climate control affects range... I guess I was just a bit optimistic that 100 miles was the 'norm', not the exception.

I live in Ohio, and Nissan finally made it available in our market last week. Ohio is mostly flat, which is good, but it commonly gets well below freezing, sometimes down to 0° F for a few days at a time. From what I'm reading, I doubt I'll see a range of even 50 mph on those days. Take into consideration battery capacity loss after 5 years, and i'll be down to 40 miles on those cold days. I wonder how much the 'winter climate' package that is standard on the 2012 will affect range.

Get the h_ll off the fence and buy a LEAF.... :ugeek:

 

[essaunders]

My current leaf roadblock is a 55 mile trip to the airport and 55 miles back. No charging at the airport (yet).

This thread proves my point that it would be asinine to try to do that trip in the current leaf.

 

[DaveEV]

My current leaf roadblock is a 55 mile trip to the airport and 55 miles back. No charging at the airport (yet).
This thread proves my point that it would be asinine to try to do that trip in the current leaf.

Yeah, that trip isn't going to happen in the LEAF unless you can either charge along the way or drive at 40 mph the whole way without HVAC.

Realistically to to a 110 mile trip on a single charge without too much difficulty in normal conditions you're going to need a "160 mile" range car. Or an EV that is rated at 110+ mile range by the EPA which is pretty accurate for "typical" driving.

 

[abasile]

I'm on the fence about ordering a leaf... I've been on the waiting list since they first opened it last year. This thread is discouraging, I thought it was easier to achieve 100 miles on a regular basis. I didn't realize conditions, driving habits, etc. had to be absolutely perfect to hit 100 miles. I understand that everything you do, temp, speed, climate control affects range... I guess I was just a bit optimistic that 100 miles was the 'norm', not the exception.

Welcome to the forum! At least if you do decide to purchase the LEAF (which I would still highly recommend), you'll be doing so with your eyes wide open. The EPA didn't rate the car as having a 73 mile range without reason. "100 miles" was almost certainly the number put forth by Nissan's marketing people, not their engineers. That said, as this thread demonstrates, 100 miles is certainly achievable with careful driving, etc.

I live in Ohio, and Nissan finally made it available in our market last week. Ohio is mostly flat, which is good, but it commonly gets well below freezing, sometimes down to 0° F for a few days at a time. From what I'm reading, I doubt I'll see a range of even 50 mph on those days. Take into consideration battery capacity loss after 5 years, and i'll be down to 40 miles on those cold days. I wonder how much the 'winter climate' package that is standard on the 2012 will affect range.

The Cold Weather Package should, if anything, help your range by enabling you to be comfortable with less heater use. If you'll be parking overnight in a garage that's warmer than the outdoors, that should at least partially mitigate the range-sapping effects of the cold.

Unless the LEAF is going to be the only car ever available to you, remember that it does not have to be able to handle absolutely every driving scenario. If it enables you to drive without gasoline 90% of the time, that's huge, and you get to have fun doing it. Also, personally, before purchasing the LEAF, I overestimated the number of times I would still need to use a gasoline car. As it turns out, I've been able to go months at a time without buying gas, something I certainly did not anticipate.

 

[Herm]

You people are so blase.. I think its just amazing to travel 100 miles on the power stored in a battery.. try walking that distance and see how long it would take... its a godawful long distance..Even more amazing that you can actually buy a car like that, that it's not a laboratory experiment or a $100k supercar.

 

[abasile]

My current leaf roadblock is a 55 mile trip to the airport and 55 miles back. No charging at the airport (yet).

This thread proves my point that it would be asinine to try to do that trip in the current leaf.

Asinine? No. Perhaps requiring some sacrifice for that particular trip? Yes.

Stopping somewhere to charge for a couple hours or so, from time to time, isn't as bad as some folks make it out to be. If public charging is in a nice location, one can easily shop and/or enjoy a restaurant meal during that time. Even if the location isn't so great, one can still make good use of the downtime. All it takes is some combination of a laptop computer or smartphone, some good reading or study material, or a decent pair of legs to enjoy a walk/exercise. The time is not "wasted".

 

[essaunders]

My ~110miles hypothetical trip would be asinine without charging.

There are probably 2 Nissan dealers on the route so charging might actually be reasonable. If DC quick charge ever came to dealers it would be even better. But again, even a 120V outlet at the airport garage would solve the problem too!

In reality, this trip isn't mandatory. Virtually any situation that would require me to go to the airport alone would be a business trip - and thus either mileage paid (and parking) or a chauffeured car is an option. I'd just choose the car rather than self-driving.