Battery (fast) draw, 2017 Leaf S

[happa]

I’m a newb to a 2017 Leaf S.

I bought the car at 28k miles with 11 of the 12 charge bars on the instrument panel. It was purchased from a lease, so I imagine the previous owner went ham on the Quick Charges (which I will soon find out when I get LeafSpy working).

I’m having some anxiety about the battery and how quickly I think it drains.

Start: 28491 @ 100% charge
End: 28503 @ 85% charge

Only 12 miles, and I’m down by 15%, is this typical? I read somewhere else that somebody had taken their 2017 Leaf S in to get the software updated and brought their power bars up from 11 to 12 and a more accurate reading? Is this what I might need to do?

 

[cwerdna]

Depends on your consumption (in miles per kWh). You can and should reset the miles/kWh display the next time to you check.

Your '17 is a 30 kWh Leaf. Heck, on my 11 bar '13 Leaf w/LeafSpy SOH at around 79.xx%, it's closer to 2% for every mile on some drives.

30 kWh Leaf on a new battery (no degradation) only has an EPA range rating of 107 miles (https://fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=38428). You should get https://insideevs.com/news/338528/update-nissan-has-software-fix-for-2016-17-leaf-30-kwh-battery-reporting-issues/ applied, if you haven't already. If you lose 4 capacity bars and it hasn't been applied, the dealer will apply it for you, which will likely restore some capacity bars.

If the update was already applied and you have 11 capacity bars, then you're likely already down at least 15% in capacity...

 

[alozzy]

One of the handy things about a 30 kWh pack is that you can do easily estimate range as each percentage of battery charge translates to 1 mile, during "average" conditions.

During winter, 15% loss of charge over 12 miles is pretty normal. When it gets really cold, expect at least a 25% loss of range and as bad as 50% loss of range when driving in snow...

Heating the cabin, more dense air, etc impact range substantially on any EV. My first winter with the LEAF reaffirmed for me just how inefficient ICE cars are - they are far better heaters than propulsion systems.

 

[Driver8]

I’m a newb to a 2017 Leaf S.

I bought the car at 28k miles with 11 of the 12 charge bars on the instrument panel. It was purchased from a lease, so I imagine the previous owner went ham on the Quick Charges (which I will soon find out when I get LeafSpy working).

I’m having some anxiety about the battery and how quickly I think it drains.

Start: 28491 @ 100% charge
End: 28503 @ 85% charge
Only 12 miles, and I’m down by 15%, is this typical? I read somewhere else that somebody had taken their 2017 Leaf S in to get the software updated and brought their power bars up from 11 to 12 and a more accurate reading? Is this what I might need to do?

That doesn't sound that far off. If you're down to 11/12 bars, best case scenario is that you have 85% battery capacity to start with. If battery was 100% it would have a 107 mile range (as described above), so the above mileage you got would give you about an 80 mile range. an 85% battery (of 107 miles) would give you a 91 mile range. So you're not that far off, and weather, temps, speeds, and your driving style can alter this range as well.

LeafSpy should help you. I got a 12/12 bar (27K mileage) 2017 S a few months ago, and using Leafspy I saw that it was almost exclusively Rapid charged as a two year lease. State of health (SOH) of the batter was 88% though, so it wasn't quite as degraded as yours. LeafSpy will let you know of you're on the lower or higher end of the 11th bar.
Where was your car used for the lease? That might have a bigger impact on the battery than the number of rapid charges.
It is probably worth getting the software update, but I would guess that your car isn't having issues with that (yet?).

 

[SageBrush]

I agree with the others, but here is a different arithmetic you might find more approachable:

Loss of 15% SoC in 12 miles implies 12/0.15 = 80 miles of range from 100% to 0% SoC

The car was rated at 107 EPA miles when new, but has now lost somewhere between 15 - 21% of its range based on being in the 11th capacity bar. That works out to 107*0.85 -- 107*0.79 EPA range.
107*0.85 = 90 miles
107*0.79 = 84 miles

It is pretty easy to consume more energy per mile than the EPA test, particularly in the winter

 

[theff50]

I also have a 2017 Leaf S and it had 11/12 bars on it when I got it in September. Is there a way to tell if the software has been updated?

 

[goldbrick]

The battery controller part number should be visible if you have LeafSpy Pro, turn on Service Menu in settings (appears as 5th screen), then "Read ECU versions" and you will hopefully have a "HV BATTERY" line. On a 2016 24kWh ex Japan I see 4NL2A (part is actually 293A0-4NL2A) which is different to the 30kWh (starts 2015/12 with 4NN4A and updated to 4NN6A in Sept 2016 for Japan) and it will be interesting to see if any further updates. Another useful item on same line is the battery serial number - for the example I have it was JT11639000xxx which I understand means JT1 = assembled in Japan, 16 = 2016, 3 = March, 9 = day, plus serial.

The last digit of the HV BATTERY line may be A or B for non-updated firmware. It will be C if the firmware has been updated.

https://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=23606&start=1100#p526563