TonyWilliams said:
Shaka said:
As our Noway-friend says, cold weather just kills the range. But I still think dfriedla's "true" range isn't 30-miles as he claims... I bet he could go 50-miles before getting any sort of LBW....
Could you quantify that speculation? Several posts up, I quantified 40-45 mile range at 2.5miles/kWh, which really does mean an "effective" range of 30-35 miles with 10 miles of reserve.
Yes, I predict he could increase range any number of ways, but has chosen so far not to (for whatever reason).
1- Turn the heater off if you need the range - I recommend modifying the heater to fan only defrost
2- Consider any simple and cheap 300w auxiliary electric heater, preferably with its own battery
3- Preheat the cabin while still plugged in
4- Heat the battery in a garage, or use a simple heating pad that plugs into 120v. This will aid with regen that you are also losing with a cold battery
5- Use standard techniques to increase range (max tire pressure, hypermiling, etc)
Sorry to vanish—I am really sick of this whole damn thing. I bought a Toyota yesterday; I find it really sad that my EV experience would drive me to buy my first-ever all-gas car. Still have the Leaf, and I strongly suspect I'm going to need the help of an attorney to get rid of it. Exploring that possibility right now because one person does not need two cars.
To answer a lot of the speculation buzzing around here, I, like many urban residents, live in a condo. With a commercial parking garage. Simply put, there are lights, etc. plugged in no the same circuit, and I blow fuses when I plug in the trickle-charger so I'm not allowed to do that anymore. I have asked the valets never to park my car outside, and, as best I can tell, they have complied. It pretty effectively nixes any sort of preheating, so I don't bother. Also, as a lifelong resident of Chicago, yes, we're pretty damn flat—the kids in the park by my apartment are sledding on
maybe 10 feet of elevation. I don't know what they have going on in the suburbs because that isn't Chicago. Thanks for making assumptions based on "visits" (oh, speaking of assumptions, I'm a woman).
Tires are fully inflated. I drive conservatively; I drove a Prius for 7 years, ffs. Where exactly would I have picked up a lead foot? I do need to keep the CC on at least minimally because I need air circulation when I drive; the fan is usually set at the bare minimum and the heat is set to 60 with defrost as needed.
Nissan's tech got approximately the same mileage I did during a test the day before yesterday. My favorite part of my entire Nissan saga was the conversation I had yesterday in which the service advisor claimed that everything is fine, then went and talked to him and came back to clarify that he drove 36 miles in 10 fuel bars "only because he used
the headlights and the heat." Folks, it was a. nighttime and b. 0º F. I don't consider that unreasonable, much less for a $38k car. In fact, I would have been really pissed off had he gotten a ticket on my behalf for driving at night without his headlights on. (For the record, he had it in D, not Eco as I always do, because he had never driven a Leaf before and didn't know Eco existed. Way to instill confidence, Mid-City Nissan...)
I think I have been pretty reasonable, in terms of what I've done to try to increase my range. I think I represent the urban nerd demographic pretty well, and I think that's probably the Leaf's target demographic around here. That I am still getting half of the 62º the disclosure claimed as the worst case scenario (that's 14º, heavy traffic, wind and heat) is outrageously unacceptable. I am done.