Long Term Leaf Storage

[cornbinder89]

You can disagree, but that is what Nissan says to do.

 

[Bombastinator2]

In Minnesota the street chargers are also several times more expensive per kWh. Or at least they were. It may have changed. I haven’t looked. I went a bit nuts getting a charger put in my condo parking space. It’s gonna cost a few grand. The problem is places don’t generally have home charging yet. It’s a few years early. I looked at buying a small house just so I could have control. I suspect chargers will remain rare for the next few years or so. So the car will likely sit at least that long. A plugin hybrid may be more useful for someone living in an apartment. They can always run a 110v extension cord out a window if they’re placed right, but they’re not hosed if they can’t. So a Prius or a used volt most likely. The current infrastructure works for homeowners but renters and people living in condos still aren’t really ready. Some apartment buildings will never be ready. Tif they aren’t wired in a way that allows it the only solution is a seperate base station and they cost 50k in MN. The fed is going to have to have some sort of program theywantthoseapartment buildings to allow electric cars

 

[cornbinder89]

I agree it is hard to make it work in an Apt complex, unless it has its own parking garage and plug ins.

 

[Drew21]

The real problem with long-term storage is the 12v battery (and that goes for any vehicle); no matter what you do (and I'm not a fan of maintainers), it will probably require a re-charge/re-place if not used for many months.

I haven't seen this concern with (quality) 12v trickle chargers/maintainers. I know plenty of people who have their motorcycle/midlife crisis convertible/RV stored for 3-6 months on a trickle charger and they start right up.

I don't go that long, but our ICE car (Honda Fit) sometimes sits for 6-8 weeks because there's no point firing it up for any drive shorter than 50-60 miles roundtrip when our 2014 Leaf is so useful/cheap for local driving. If you know anything about Honda Fits, you know that they're infamous for 12v battery problems. The consensus is the OEM battery (I think it's 151R) is too small. When I park the Fit, if I know I'm not going to be driving it again soon, or if a week has passed since it was driven, I hook up the trickle charger. I've been doing that for several years now and haven't had any issues. When I want to start it I give it a few seconds to prime the fuel system and it fires immediately, every time, even in cold (for MA) temperatures around 10F.

 

[Steve52]

I disagree: I would never pull the HV disconnect unless necessary for maintenance/service reasons (like removing/replacing the main pack). Leaving the main pack ~50% is fine for almost any long-term storage (days/weeks/months). In addition, don't leave an EVSE connected since this simply drains the 12v battery (many threads on this).
The real problem with long-term storage is the 12v battery (and that goes for any vehicle); no matter what you do (and I'm not a fan of maintainers), it will probably require a re-charge/re-place if not used for many months.

I'm unsure why you're not a fan of maintainers, I use one on my Leaf for two months every winter and when I return, it's been fully charged and ready to go. It certainly doesn't need to be recharged nor replaced at that point.

 

[hradek]

No need to use a timer, since the traction battery has very little self draining, it can go months and not lose much SOC. On the other hand, the 12 V battery has constant discharge due to remote diagnostics so it needs to be protected either with a maintainer or by disconnecting it according to the instructions in the manual.

"When the EV system is off for an extended time, the 12-volt battery may be automatically charged for a short period of time on a regular basis."https://www.speakev.com/threads/doe...eave-my-leaf-unused-for-a-long-period.162965/

 

[Steve52]

"When the EV system is off for an extended time, the 12-volt battery may be automatically charged for a short period of time on a regular basis."https://www.speakev.com/threads/doe...eave-my-leaf-unused-for-a-long-period.162965/

That's the theory, however on two different 2018 Leafs, their 12v batteries have gone dead within a few weeks even though the HV battery had ~50% SOC. Seems to be a mystery whether this works and on what year models?

 

[Stanton]

I'm unsure why you're not a fan of maintainers, I use one on my Leaf for two months every winter and when I return, it's been fully charged and ready to go. It certainly doesn't need to be recharged nor replaced at that point.

I guess I should qualify my response with the fact that I have a Lithium 12v (see sig)...so I've never had a "dead" 12v problem.

 

[Stanton]

"When the EV system is off for an extended time, the 12-volt battery may be automatically charged for a short period of time on a regular basis."https://www.speakev.com/threads/doe...eave-my-leaf-unused-for-a-long-period.162965/

While true, it just isn't enough to keep (most) 12v batteries "alive". It's a great idea, but the charging algorithm just wasn't sufficient.

 

[Bombastinator2]

What if you Just leave the car plugged in?

 

[knightmb]

What if you Just leave the car plugged in?

Then you will certainly have a dead 12 volt battery after probably a couple of weeks or month depending on how healthy your 12 volt battery is. When the leaf is just left plugged into the EVSE, it will not cycle to charge the 12 volt battery periodically. Instead it will continue to slowly drain to 12 volt battery while monitoring the plug.

 

[Bombastinator2]

Then you will certainly have a dead 12 volt battery after probably a couple of weeks or month depending on how healthy your 12 volt battery is. When the leaf is just left plugged into the EVSE, it will not cycle to charge the 12 volt battery periodically. Instead it will continue to slowly drain to 12 volt battery while monitoring the plug.

So plugging in the main battery doesn’t help, and may hurt. Well that’s annoying. Sounds like what you want to do is NOT plug your leaf in, but attach a decent trickle charger to the 12v UNLESS you have a lithium 12v in which case you want to do nothing at all. Do i have this correct? Or perhaps DO plug the leaf in to keep it from messing with the 12v, THEN put a decent trickle charger on the 12v (unless the 12v is lithium) in which case you don’t. When people store a car they generally do not know how long they are storing it for. Weeks or years.

 

[RYoungberg]

So ,when storing an ICE vehicle for months or years, typically you disconnect the 12-Volt battery. Is this not a good idea with an EV?

 

[cornbinder89]

The Nissan RAG say yes, disconnect the 12 volt and the HV battery, HV 1st then after 10 min the 12 volt.

 

[Drew21]

It seems like we're talking about a whole range of situation here. Going back to the very beginning, you have to specify how long you want to store your car.

RYoungberg mentioned storing a car for years. That's a very different situation than storing a car (EV or ICE) for a few months and your preparation of the car would likely be different.

If I was storing a car for years, I would remove the 12v from the vehicle. If I'm not driving a car for a couple weeks to a couple months, as sometimes happens with my current ICE vehicle, I use a trickle charger on the 12v battery. For our Leaf, we've left it sitting for 2-3 weeks a few times while we've been away. I left the HV battery at 50% and plugged the trickle charger into the 12v battery and came back to a perfectly functional vehicle with the HV battery at 50%.

If I was storing a car for years, I would lift it off the ground so that the tires aren't ruined. For my current ICE vehicle which sometimes sits for a month or so between drives I don't really worry about it.

If I was storing a car for years, I would drain the fuel system (ICE) or disconnect the HV battery (EV) as suggested by cornbinder (after charging it to maybe 70%).

To be honest, if I was considering the storage of any car that I can afford, which is by definition not a car that's worth having if you're not using it, for a period of years I would quickly realize that I have no reason for owning it and would soon not own it.

Are there really folks storing unused Leafs for years at a time? Why not sell it, invest the money, and buy another when you're ready to drive again.

 

[cornbinder89]

The RAG manual didn't suggest a time frame on when to disconnect and when not to. It just had the procedure for "storing".
I think it would be a judgement call for each person. 1 month? likely trickle charge the 12 volt and nothing to the HV battery. 2 months? 3 months? I think somewhere in there, disconnecting both is a good idea.
Many in the car repair trade have seen "rodent damage" to electrical systems. while dis connecting will not stop rodent damage it will prevent it from becoming a bigger problem (fire).

 

[Bombastinator2]

So ,when storing an ICE vehicle for months or years, typically you disconnect the 12-Volt battery. Is this not a good idea with an EV?

There are apparently two systems and two batteries on a volt; the traction (main) system which is waay more than 12v, and the 12v system. They use different batteries. As for every EV I have no idea different brands do things differently.