GOM reports 3 miles range but....

[PompeyPaul]

...I plug it into the rapid charger which reports battery at 17%

How can that be? With 17% of the battery to go I would expect more like 8 miles at least? Is the rapid charger wrong or did I have more range, in reserve, than reported?

 

[cwerdna]

Do you have a '13 Leaf? If so, out of curiosity, what does its % SoC display say?

 

[mwalsh]

He has a 2011.

It's most likely a car with the "hidden bars" update. When you are down to zero fuel bars, there is a hidden reserve of around 1.5 fuel bars (8+ miles). So when you add that quick chargers seem to misreport actual SOC somewhat...

 

[PompeyPaul]

I do have the 2011. If there are 1.5 bars hidden then that would make the rapid charger accurate in the % soc? I.e. 17% left but reporting only 3 miles.

Is the update something that happened later? If so it would explain why today the GOM peaks at around 80 miles after a 100% charge whilst when I bought it! the GOM reported an impossible 120 miles after 100% charge.

It would also explain why a journey I did in the summer seems to now drain faster by around a bar or two.

 

[N1ghtrider]

Is the update something that happened later? If so it would explain why today the GOM peaks at around 80 miles after a 100% charge whilst when I bought it! the GOM reported an impossible 120 miles after 100% charge.

It is not impossible. I have beat 120 miles on a single charge three times and I am no longer the record holder.

 

[PompeyPaul]

Wow, how?

Down hill all of the way? 30mph speed, climate control off, everything stripped out of the car, low atmospheric pressure and wind behind you?

 

[dgpcolorado]

Wow, how?

Down hill all of the way? 30mph speed, climate control off, everything stripped out of the car, low atmospheric pressure and wind behind you?

Slow speeds, flat terrain, warm/hot temperatures (reduced aerodynamic drag), tires at 40 psi or higher (they should be anyway) make 120 miles doable in a relatively new LEAF. It would be more difficult in an older LEAF with a degraded battery. FWIW, the most efficient speed is about 12 mph. Even at 25 mph, under the above conditions, the range is considerably longer than 120 miles.

 

[DaveEV]

I do have the 2011. If there are 1.5 bars hidden then that would make the rapid charger accurate in the % soc? I.e. 17% left but reporting only 3 miles.

17% is probably accurate, but keep in mind that turtle kicks in just under 3% (according to 3rd party tools, not sure what the '13+ dash reads at the same SOC). The GOM also tends to get a bit pessimistic at low SOC to help keep people from turtling it.

Is the update something that happened later? If so it would explain why today the GOM peaks at around 80 miles after a 100% charge whilst when I bought it!
It would also explain why a journey I did in the summer seems to now drain faster by around a bar or two.

No, that's just what 3 years of LEAF ownership do - you probably have somewhere between 15-20% less capacity than when you did when the car was new.

 

[PompeyPaul]

No, that's just what 3 years of LEAF ownership do - you probably have somewhere between 15-20% less capacity than when you did when the car was new.

Well that really panicked me and so went out & bought an ODB2 blue tooth dongle and grabbed Leaf Spy Pro. I will do a 100% charge tonight but currently I am seeing SOH: 92% which I am presuming is "state of health" ? So hopefully I've not got that much battery degradation. I'd be gutted if I did because I've gone out of my way to minimise battery degradation:

1. Always drive ECO
2. Mostly charge to 80% and never leave fully charged
3. Rarely rapid charge (maybe 5 or 6 times in the last 6 months)

I'll do a full charge tonight and see what battery capacity & GIDs are reported.

Although to circle back to the original question I note that I'm down to 3 bars of charge and yet Leaf Spy is reporting 36.6% SOC.

Actually does anybody know where the miles/KwH are on Leaf Spy? I can't see them anywhere.

 

[TomT]

Anecdotal evidence indicates that none of these make that much difference... It is all about location (heat)!

1. Always drive ECO
2. Mostly charge to 80% and never leave fully charged
3. Rarely rapid charge (maybe 5 or 6 times in the last 6 months)