Capacity Loss on 2011-2012 LEAFs

[Herm]

Tokenride, how often and how long did the car sit at 100% charge?

I'm sure Nissan will take care of all early battery degradation sufferers, they have to.

 

[cwerdna]

I'm sure Nissan will take care of all early battery degradation sufferers, they have to.

I sure hope they do. Some folks have already abandoned their Leaf because of the capacity loss.

From talking to surfingslovak, ScottY returned his 4-bar loser leased Leaf early and they made him pay all the penalties associated w/doing so.

 

[xtremeflyer]

Loss of One Capacity Bar

Date of Loss: Sep 18, 2012
Forum Name: xtremeflyer
Location: Orange, CA
Mileage at Loss: 20100
Months Owned at Loss: 18 Months
MFG Date: 4/11
Leaf VIN: 03294
Reported to Nissan: Sep 18, 2012
Case Number: 947-0746

Notes: Charge to 100% overnight on weekdays due to 72-76 mile RT Commute each day without guarantee of chargability at work, 80% weekends. Garaged at home overnight, shaded parking at work which is in Los Angeles, CA. I now get home with LBW or VLBW whereas before I would get home with 6-8 miles left on the GOM.

 

[TickTock]

Wiki has been updated. Nissan is aware.

TickTock,

Ar you going to report the 1 bar loss again to Nissan LEAF and also re-update the Wiki Table?

This morning i re-lost my #12 capacity bar. I had charged to 80% overnight and had all 12 at the end of that charge when I hit the timer override to get a full charge so the bar was lost during the 80-100 charge.

Are you going to report it to Nissan? Interested to hear what they say about the loss so soon after the reset.

 

[RegGuheert]

Loss of One Capacity Bar

Date of Loss: Sep 18, 2012
Forum Name: xtremeflyer
Location: Orange, CA
Mileage at Loss: 20100
Months Owned at Loss: 18 Months
MFG Date: 4/11
Leaf VIN: 03294
Reported to Nissan: Sep 18, 2012
Case Number: 947-0746

Notes: Charge to 100% overnight on weekdays due to 72-76 mile RT Commute each day without guarantee of chargability at work, 80% weekends. Garaged at home overnight, shaded parking at work which is in Los Angeles, CA. I now get home with LBW or VLBW whereas before I would get home with 6-8 miles left on the GOM.

Added to Wiki. Thanks for providing all the data!

Sorry about the loss of range.

 

[EatsShootsandLeafs]

Loss of One Capacity Bar

Date of Loss: Sep 18, 2012
Forum Name: xtremeflyer
Location: Orange, CA
Mileage at Loss: 20100
Months Owned at Loss: 18 Months
MFG Date: 4/11
Leaf VIN: 03294
Reported to Nissan: Sep 18, 2012
Case Number: 947-0746

Notes: Charge to 100% overnight on weekdays due to 72-76 mile RT Commute each day without guarantee of chargability at work, 80% weekends. Garaged at home overnight, shaded parking at work which is in Los Angeles, CA. I now get home with LBW or VLBW whereas before I would get home with 6-8 miles left on the GOM.

Added to Wiki. Thanks for providing all the data!

Sorry about the loss of range.

It is not a loss of range, just a little software bug is all

 

[smkettner]

Notes: Charge to 100% overnight on weekdays due to 72-76 mile RT Commute each day without guarantee of chargability at work, 80% weekends. Garaged at home overnight, shaded parking at work which is in Los Angeles, CA. I now get home with LBW or VLBW whereas before I would get home with 6-8 miles left on the GOM.

I wonder what would happen when you no longer make the commute and start calling for a tow once a week, twice a week, 5 days a week. PITA but still.

 

[RegGuheert]

It is not a loss of range, just a little software bug is all

Yes!! Excuse me! I must have lost my head there!

What I meant to say was "I'm sorry about your loss of a few bits here-and-there within your LEAF's microcontollers."

 

[xtremeflyer]

Notes: Charge to 100% overnight on weekdays due to 72-76 mile RT Commute each day without guarantee of chargability at work, 80% weekends. Garaged at home overnight, shaded parking at work which is in Los Angeles, CA. I now get home with LBW or VLBW whereas before I would get home with 6-8 miles left on the GOM.

I wonder what would happen when you no longer make the commute and start calling for a tow once a week, twice a week, 5 days a week. PITA but still.

I've actually brought that idea up before.. Can I call them in advance and tell them where I'll run out of juice so they can be there waiting?

Most days I can get about 2-3 hours of trickle charging in before I leave work. There is one 120V in teh parking lot that was put in for the car wash guy to use his vacuum cleaner. He leaves about 1pm. But some days (usually Friday's) he is busy all day and doesn't leave until after I do. Those are the days that concern me, enough to the point that I might buy another ICE car to drive on Fridays. This would also keep my mileage below my lease limit, so it would have dual purpose.

 

[KJD]

Most days I can get about 2-3 hours of trickle charging in before I leave work. There is one 120V in teh parking lot that was put in for the car wash guy to use his vacuum cleaner. He leaves about 1pm. But some days (usually Friday's) he is busy all day and doesn't leave until after I do. Those are the days that concern me, enough to the point that I might buy another ICE car to drive on Fridays. This would also keep my mileage below my lease limit, so it would have dual purpose.

Maybe now would be a good time to propose a dedicated EVSE in your parking lot. ChargePoint is offering a pretty good discount ( as in free EVSE ) if you have 50 employees or more.

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1079118_need-an-electric-car-charging-station-at-work-heres-one-for-free" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have talked to management here about getting one at my office. They have not said yes or no yet, but we have had some interesting discussion about it.

 

[TomT]

And there really IS a tooth fairy...

I'm sure Nissan will take care of all early battery degradation sufferers, they have to.

 

[smkettner]

Most days I can get about 2-3 hours of trickle charging in before I leave work. There is one 120V in teh parking lot that was put in for the car wash guy to use his vacuum cleaner. He leaves about 1pm. But some days (usually Friday's) he is busy all day and doesn't leave until after I do. Those are the days that concern me, enough to the point that I might buy another ICE car to drive on Fridays. This would also keep my mileage below my lease limit, so it would have dual purpose.

Ask if they will pull one additional hot wire and change the existing outlet to split phase service so both of you can plug in.
This could give you 8 to 9 hours of L1 and allow 80% charging.

Or maybe it already is.... take a voltmeter and look for 240v between the hots (that is the smaller slots).

 

[xtremeflyer]

Most days I can get about 2-3 hours of trickle charging in before I leave work. There is one 120V in teh parking lot that was put in for the car wash guy to use his vacuum cleaner. He leaves about 1pm. But some days (usually Friday's) he is busy all day and doesn't leave until after I do. Those are the days that concern me, enough to the point that I might buy another ICE car to drive on Fridays. This would also keep my mileage below my lease limit, so it would have dual purpose.

Ask if they will pull one additional hot wire and change the existing outlet to split phase service so both of you can plug in.
This could give you 8 to 9 hours of L1 and allow 80% charging.

Or maybe it already is.... take a voltmeter and look for 240v between the hots (that is the smaller slots).

I already asked this 18 months ago.. The Property Manager said No, end of discussion. My boss told me to drop it, so I did. I've sent them the link to the free charger from ChargePoint, but there is still installation costs. It's not up to my company, its up to the management company and the building owner.

 

[davewill]

Most days I can get about 2-3 hours of trickle charging in before I leave work. There is one 120V in teh parking lot that was put in for the car wash guy to use his vacuum cleaner. He leaves about 1pm. But some days (usually Friday's) he is busy all day and doesn't leave until after I do. Those are the days that concern me, enough to the point that I might buy another ICE car to drive on Fridays. This would also keep my mileage below my lease limit, so it would have dual purpose.

Hmmm. Do you know the size of the breaker on that line? Many (most?) commercial circuits are 20a. If so, 12a for the car and an occasional 4-6a for the vacuum would be within the capacity of the circuit. Maybe you don't have to unplug for him.

 

[smkettner]

Leviton 120 has a 7a 120v charge option to share with the vacuum.
Or maybe Phil can custom mode your brick to go down to 5 or 7 amp when on 120v.
Sure it is slow but then you would have double the time.

 

[DaveEV]

Leviton 120 has a 7a 120v charge option to share with the vacuum.
Or maybe Phil can custom mode your brick to go down to 5 or 7 amp when on 120v.
Sure it is slow but then you would have double the time.

Yep, and it is switchable so that you can use 12A on the days the car-wash guy isn't there or 7A on the days he is there. Assuming it's a 20A outlet you should be just fine sharing the outlet charging at 7A when he's vacuuming.

Biggest issue is the cost - retail price is $899 and street price is not much less.

 

[xtremeflyer]

Leviton 120 has a 7a 120v charge option to share with the vacuum.
Or maybe Phil can custom mode your brick to go down to 5 or 7 amp when on 120v.
Sure it is slow but then you would have double the time.

Yep, and it is switchable so that you can use 12A on the days the car-wash guy isn't there or 7A on the days he is there. Assuming it's a 20A outlet you should be just fine sharing the outlet charging at 7A when he's vacuuming.

Biggest issue is the cost - retail price is $899 and street price is not much less.

At the end of day, it's all about the PM that for some reason wants nothing to do with EV charging in their lot. I can't get a straight answer as to why. If I start to try and share the space and resources that the car wash guy is using, I could easily see them not letting me plug in at all. At this point, I've never not made it home, so I'm not going to push it until that day comes.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Leviton 120 has a 7a 120v charge option to share with the vacuum.
Or maybe Phil can custom mode your brick to go down to 5 or 7 amp when on 120v.
Sure it is slow but then you would have double the time.

Yep, and it is switchable so that you can use 12A on the days the car-wash guy isn't there or 7A on the days he is there. Assuming it's a 20A outlet you should be just fine sharing the outlet charging at 7A when he's vacuuming.

Biggest issue is the cost - retail price is $899 and street price is not much less.

At the end of day, it's all about the PM that for some reason wants nothing to do with EV charging in their lot. I can't get a straight answer as to why. If I start to try and share the space and resources that the car wash guy is using, I could easily see them not letting me plug in at all. At this point, I've never not made it home, so I'm not going to push it until that day comes.

where do you work?

 

[DaveEV]

At the end of day, it's all about the PM that for some reason wants nothing to do with EV charging in their lot. I can't get a straight answer as to why. If I start to try and share the space and resources that the car wash guy is using, I could easily see them not letting me plug in at all. At this point, I've never not made it home, so I'm not going to push it until that day comes.

If that's the case - your only other option is to drive slower as you lose capacity. I don't think you've mentioned how fast your commute is, but dropping your speed 5 mph should make up for all of your range loss. I think aiming to get home between LBW and VLBW is a good target to shoot for.

 

[xtremeflyer]

where do you work?

I work for a consulting firm that is totally supportive. When I ordered my Leaf I worked with my company to get an EVSE installed. At the time, neither my company nor the property wanted to take on the cost of the charging station. In the parking lot is an L6-30 outlet that is no longer connected and the 120V outlet for the carwash guy. When they told me it was a cost issue, I asked if they could have an electrician rehook up the L6-30 outlet and they said it was not an option, they did not want to take on the "risk". I asked what risk? They didn't answer. I asked if I could pay for an electrician to rehook up the L6-30 ourlet. They said no. I asked if they could install an addtional 120V outlet, they said no.. At this point my boss told me to not bring it up again. So I've been quietly plugging in after the car wash guy leaves for 18 months with no issues. When I saw the post about the free charging station, I forwarded it to my boss and told him I would like to bring it back up with management. He is looking into it.

As dress mentioned, another option is to drive slower. The problem is I can only drive at two speeds on my commute. 20mph in the normal lanes or 60ish mph in the carpool lane. I can't really slow down in the carpool lane and if I'm going to stick myself in the normal lanes, I might as well hand over the Leaf and get another car. I do move in and out of the carpool lane where it is legal and appropriate depending on traffic conditions.

As was joked earlier.. could I use roadside assistance every day.. Honestly, if I gets to that, I might just try it for a week just to piss them off and cost them money, just like there's no capacity warranty, I see nothing in the roadside assistance that says you can't use it on a daily basis.