I needed to travel 29 miles but only had 24 miles showing on

[mark13]

the dash..

I left home with 65 miles on the dash thinking that would take me to a theatre and then to work and then back home..I know its 58 miles round trip to work but I decided to go to a movie theatre which is not directly heading to work..By the time I got to work the dash was showing 24 miles and I needed 29 to get home..

When I left work I thought about Leaffans post on driving 20-25 mph and saving major KW/M ..I started out driving 35 mph the first 20 miles and then the final 9 miles I drove 20-25 mph and made it home with 5 miles still showing on the dash..It took me close to a hour to get home but that was the best I have ever done in saving battery juice..

That just shows the importance in driving very slow when you miss judge your KW/miles..

 

[leafwing]

This is very interesting experience. Glad you made it. The question is why did you leave home without 80% or 100% charge? It is good to have some
extra miles for emergencies.

 

[TonyWilliams]

That just shows the importance in driving very slow when you miss judge your KW/miles..

Congrats on making it work. With 5 miles on the GuessOmeter, you may have had 15 more miles of actual energy available.

Did you reach Very Low Battery? (the second battery warning). It's very unlikely that you got VLB, but you probably got the first battery warning. How many miles did you drive on that?

Today, I had the worst economy that I've every gotten, on a cold (53F) rainy day in San Diego. I started with 100% charge, and completed the day with 47 miles driven at 2.9 miles per kilowatt; that's 61 miles of range at normal battery temps, but since I hit "Low Battery", I only had less than 9 miles remaining, so 56 miles max range for the day (47 driven plus 9 left at 2.9m/kWh).

Factoring backwards, with 21kWh normally available at 70F, at the lower temp, is appears that only about 19.3kWh were available... about 8% less. That checks good with -1% per 2F degrees less than 70F, or 17 degrees difference (from 53F) diivided by 2F is 8.5% reduced battery useable capacity caused strictly from the ambient temperature.

 

[smkettner]

I think I would have kept the speed down but nothing extreme.
Climate control off and drive nice I bet you would have been fine on the GOM indicating '---' .

 

[mark13]

I actually felt that 65 miles was plenty of juice left..I rarely use the freeway but that night I went 10 miles on the freeway @ 65 mph and that ate up a lot of juice..

I got one warning at 11 miles left and that was it..I then avg 20 mph after the warning came on..

I normally do not charge the car unless im under 20 miles left..

I only wrote about my experience to show people that if they are close to losing all their battery juice that they should reduce their driving speed in half and it could save them from a calling AAA ..

 

[TonyWilliams]

I only wrote about my experience to show people that if they are close to losing all their battery juice that they should reduce their driving speed in half and it could save them from a calling AAA ..

When the dog doo doo really hits the fan, slow to about 10-15mph for maximum range. I had to do this the other day where I covered 1.8 miles in turtle mode (although, there was LOTS of coasting in that effort... I did make it in the garage!).

I was convinced that I'd be walking that day, and getting towed for the first time.

 

[johnr]

If you could have found a basic 120V outlet near the parking lot at work, you could have charged up there, right? But you do make a very good point, that if you don't have quite enough range to make it home, going slower might be all it takes to increase the efficiency enough to make it happen anyway.

 

[phastphill]

Ugh, this happened to me today! I left home with 43 miles on the guessometer, and it's 16 miles to work. But it was the coldest morning since I got the LEAF, and by the time I got to work I only had 15 miles available!

I cross the Bay Bridge on my commute so I have no choice but to drive at least 45 for that portion. By the time I got across the bridge I was 10 miles from home with 8 on the gauge!

I got off at the first exit and stayed on city streets the rest of the way ... and had 5 miles remaining when I got home. I knew it was going to be an adventure getting home but that was a little hair-raising. All I could think of was what these guys did:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Sujv90PLLY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Needless to day I'll be doing a full charge every night during cold weather.

 

[planet4ever]

Come ON, guys, why do you think we call it the GUESSometer? You've got to stop watching that. Spend some time with Tony's chart, or make a copy to carry with you. Then watch the bars and ignore the silly big numbers. Here are the key things to watch for:

• When you drop to two bars, you still have nearly 1/3 "tank full" in your battery, enough to go nearly 30 miles on level ground if you limit your speed to 50.
• When you drop to one bar, you still have 1/4 "tank", almost 20 miles worth at 50 mph.
• When you hear the first "low battery" warning and the guessometer starts flashing, note your mileage on the trip meter, or reset it. You should still be able to get 15 miles or more if you drop your speed to 45 and drive gently.
• If you hear the "very low battery" warning (and see it - it will be very obvious), check how far you have gone between the two warnings. Divide that in half, and that is how much farther you can go without slowing down even more. The guessometer will now be three flashing bars.

In your case, phastphill, you obviously didn't even get to the "very low battery" warning.

I don't recommend traveling less than 45 on the freeway, but if you can make it at that speed you are probably better off staying on the freeway than taking city streets. The exception might be major through streets with well-timed (or few) lights and no heavy traffic. On the other hand, I do recommend getting off the freeway fairly soon after you get "very low battery" unless you are within two or three miles of home. If you should be surprised with an early turtle you want to be some place you can pull off the road and park safely within a block or two.

Ray

 

[TangoKilo]

Come ON, guys, why do you think we call it the GUESSometer? You've got to stop watching that. Spend some time with Tony's chart, or make a copy to carry with you. Then watch the bars and ignore the silly big numbers. Here are the key things to watch for:

• When you drop to two bars, you still have nearly 1/3 "tank full" in your battery, enough to go nearly 30 miles on level ground if you limit your speed to 50.
• When you drop to one bar, you still have 1/4 "tank", almost 20 miles worth at 50 mph.
• When you hear the first "low battery" warning and the guessometer starts flashing, note your mileage on the trip meter, or reset it. You should still be able to get 15 miles or more if you drop your speed to 45 and drive gently.
• If you hear the "very low battery" warning (and see it - it will be very obvious), check how far you have gone between the two warnings. Divide that in half, and that is how much farther you can go without slowing down even more. The guessometer will now be three flashing bars.

In your case, phastphill, you obviously didn't even get to the "very low battery" warning.

I don't recommend traveling less than 45 on the freeway, but if you can make it at that speed you are probably better off staying on the freeway than taking city streets. The exception might be major through streets with well-timed (or few) lights and no heavy traffic. On the other hand, I do recommend getting off the freeway fairly soon after you get "very low battery" unless you are within two or three miles of home. If you should be surprised with an early turtle you want to be some place you can pull off the road and park safely within a block or two.

Ray

I agree. Gary's SOC will also give you a much better picture of your battery charge. I have not had any "range anxiety" for almost 11,000 miles now... :ugeek:

 

[TonyWilliams]

Come ON, guys, why do you think we call it the GUESSometer? You've got to stop watching that. Spend some time with Tony's chart, or make a copy to carry with you. Then watch the bars and ignore the silly big numbers.

It does seem like we reinvent the wheel regularly here !!!

I cringe every time I read anything that starts with, "the guessometer did/says/bla,bla,bla....."

I cover my guessOmeter.

Oh, I'll add to Ray's synopsis that the half full point on the battery is the mark between the bottom 5 fuel bars and the top 7 fuel bars.

 

[GPowers]

Nissan please give us a kilowatt meter for the battery status The guess-o-meter should be an optional screen on the nav.

 

[planet4ever]

Oh, I'll add to Ray's synopsis that the half full point on the battery is the mark between the bottom 5 fuel bars and the top 7 fuel bars.

Right. Which leads to one of the few things that guessometer display covering up your blue-and-white available charge bars is good for. When the "electric gas pump" first pokes its head above the top bar displayed, your battery is at 50%.

Ray