New purchase, Normal Dash Range?

[VenatorFox]

There was a 2012 Leaf SL in my area for quite a long time due to location (Middle of Nebraska). I ended up purchasing it for 9,000 after looking at it for about 5 months.

I took it home with me for the night and charged it to 100% rather than 80% to see how much it could hold.
The numbers are much lower than I expected. Is this normal?
It is stored and charged in a garage.
No capacity bars have been lost

Outside Air Temperature 18F as of the reading. 4 battery temp bars.

37 Miles, 12 charge bars.
...
From what I've read, real world will be much less than indicated capacity.
I just don't want to have had purchased a car that can only drive 25 miles a charge.
Is this however normal due to outside temperature? The LEAF is stored in a cooler garage.

Unfortunately, too many buyers of used LEAFs are being surprised about how bad range can be. Nissan is again helping to give EV in general and Nissan in particular a bad name. Nissan acts like the sleazy dealer who wants to trick you into buying a car. As if the long term experience doesn't matter. Like people who buy a reportedly 100 mile LEAF won't notice when they get home that its really 25 when its only 3 years old.
Obviously, ditch the car if you can get your money back. All the pretty looks fancy interior and electronics won't do you much good if the range is that bad. Buyer beware. Need to do more research before buying an electric car and especially a 3 yr old LEAF.

Hmm... well dang. I asked about the battery several times and they said it was fine.
I do know it was sitting in their lot for around 4 or 5 months. Nobody wants an EV in this area.
When I took it for a test drive there was 4 bars. So I assume it was stored like that.

Ill go back and see what they say. I've signed so its probably not returnable.

Nonetheless I'll get answers hopefully when my OBDII arrives so I can run LeafSpy on it.

 

[LeftieBiker]

You really can't draw any conclusion from the number on the range estimator - you have to use leaf Spy. That will tell you what shape the battery pack is in, including capacity.

 

[VenatorFox]

You really can't draw any conclusion from the number on the range estimator - you have to use leaf Spy. That will tell you what shape the battery pack is in, including capacity.

OBD-II arrives in the mail tomorrow.

 

[DNAinaGoodWay]

Read your contract carefully. Some states allow you to back out of the deal within a short number of days.

 

[redLEAF]

We're also in the Midwest (Chicagoland) but have missed most of the colder temps so far this year; our bought new '12 is quite similar to the used one you've bought with similar mileage now but we've already lost our first 'bar' and yours is showing all 12. It does appear that your garage plus perhaps the fresh charge on the instrument display brought up the battery temp to 4 bars (on the left) so that will prevent the car from keeping the battery from freezing (you'll see no bars when its REALLY cold and the car is exposed for several hours outside) and using the battery itself reducing range but the other factor that reduces it is driving over 60 like others have mentioned, you'll see it drop like a rock. I see that parts of NE will have temps in the mid 50's tomorrow so try it out on a more moderate day before giving up; again speeds below 60 ... but be aware, when we had that cold snap with wind chills in the mid -40F range it stayed parked in our warm garage; just way too cold to leave it outside (it was so cold they closed our office anyway),

The other things to do to get max range not yet mentioned on this thread would be the tire PSI; at that mileage would assume they're replaced but be sure they're at least 40 to 42; even non-Nissan dealers seem to set them in the mid 30's which creates more rolling resistance reducing range; we also cycle the cabin heat and use the heated seats and steering wheel, the colder it gets, the more the cabin heat gets cycled on and off. You'll however find that the A/C is much more efficient but that doesn't help in the winter ... lastly, on the coldest days we'll probably see high 2's to very low 3's on the miles/kWh read out so your 3.1 is about average

 

[LeftieBiker]

I mentioned tire pressures early on, but may have forgotten another helpful change: blocking the front grille in Winter. That reduces the amount of frigid air blowing over the heating system in the motor compartment. I use a piece of plastic-covered cardboard. It isn't elegant but it does the job.

 

[keydiver]

Wow, my 2012 SL is just about ready to lose the 4th capacity bar, and it shows 53 miles range at startup. Something doesn't make sense. Have you tried going to your local Nissan dealer and asking for any service records for your VIN number, and where the car came from? Was it a Nissan dealer that you bought it from? There have been several instances where the dealer reset the BMS to get all the capacity bars back, but they start dropping pretty rapidly as it recalibrates, like 1 bar loss per month. I hope this isn't another one of those. :? What is really bad about it is that Nebraska is far enough north that I doubt it will degrade to 4 bar loss within the 1 year left in the capacity warranty.

 

[GerryAZ]

Update--
Thanks for all the responses!

Today I went on my routine commute with the car and arrived home at 40 miles. I felt uneasy because at 35 miles the GOM just displayed dashes. When I got home at 40 miles was in turtle mode. Being curious I drove in circles in my Cul-de-sac, for 3 miles. The car went into neutral and I pushed the car into the garage. I definitely do not want to get this close every day. I drove in ECO mode.

I did not have climate control on, I used the heated seats and wheel as LeftieBiker suggested.

I'll definitely go try the Leaf Spy out from the App Store as many have suggested.

From a totally depleted state it estimates 13 hours on level 1 charging, and 4:30 hours on level 2 charging to 100%. The manual however indicates 21 hours on level 1, and 7 on level 2.

I just read your update--the estimated charge times from shutdown are way too short for a 2011 or 2012 Leaf with a good battery displaying all 12 capacity bars. There are a couple of possibilities:
1. Battery has a bad cell that is dropping to minimum voltage before the others are deeply discharged and/or charging to maximum voltage before other cells get charged, thus limiting the usable charge.
2. Battery is significantly deteriorated but someone has reset the capacity bar display.

Leaf Spy should help determine what is happening. For reference, estimated charging times from shutdown on my 2011 when it was down to 8 capacity bars were 5:30 on L2 and 17:00 on L1. Actual charging time from shutdown on L2 (240 volts nominal) the night before Nissan installed the new battery was 4:59 and energy from the wall was 18.22 kWh.

Gerry

 

[powersurge]

This car showing a 35 mile range at 100% is just plain wrong... I would be interested in seeing what the next screen says about state of charge %.....

Go to a Nissan Dealer IMMEDIATELY and have a Leaf-trained technician do the "yearly battery check". Don't waste time with any experimenting!!

 

[VenatorFox]

This car showing a 35 mile range at 100% is just plain wrong... I would be interested in seeing what the next screen says about state of charge %.....

Go to a Nissan Dealer IMMEDIATELY and have a Leaf-trained technician do the "yearly battery check". Don't waste time with any experimenting!!

The closest authorized dealer is 96 miles away. There are only 2 Level 2's in between and they are of questionable quality. My OBDII arrives in a couple of hours and I hope to get some insight from Leaf Spy.

Edit: I also don't have a screen with %. I might running older software.

 

[cwerdna]

This car showing a 35 mile range at 100% is just plain wrong... I would be interested in seeing what the next screen says about state of charge %.....

% SoC screen on '13+ Leafs tells you nothing about the battery condition. You could have a very degraded battery and it's still going to read 100% at full charge.

Go to a Nissan Dealer IMMEDIATELY and have a Leaf-trained technician do the "yearly battery check". Don't waste time with any experimenting!!

Why? The report by itself is pretty useless to the customer.

I also don't have a screen with %. I might running older software.

Correct. % state of charge didn't come until 2013 model year. All '11 and '12 Leafs only have the crap GOM, the fuel bars on the right + charging time estimates.

Do you know where the car was sold the 1st time and where it spent most of its time?

OP, can you please respond to this?

We're trying to figure out if it resided in a hot climate (e.g. Phoenix, Vegas, Texas, etc.) or a milder one or somewhere in between. The hot climates will rapidly degrade a '12 Leaf's battery and there's NO way a '12 from a hot climate on its original battery will still have all 12 capacity bars, unless someone reset the BMS/battery capacity display. (For reference, from http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=228326, when the Leaf had only been out ~21 months, 1 Phoenician Leaf was down FOUR capacity bars.)

If I were in your shoes and there's some law that mandates (or some sort of dealer guarantee) that you can still return the car at this time, do it now. Figure things out later and buy it back if it somehow tends to end up checking out.

 

[LeftieBiker]

This car showing a 35 mile range at 100% is just plain wrong... I would be interested in seeing what the next screen says about state of charge %.....

Go to a Nissan Dealer IMMEDIATELY and have a Leaf-trained technician do the "yearly battery check". Don't waste time with any experimenting!!

The closest authorized dealer is 96 miles away. There are only 2 Level 2's in between and they are of questionable quality. My OBDII arrives in a couple of hours and I hope to get some insight from Leaf Spy.

Edit: I also don't have a screen with %. I might running older software.

Leaf Spy will tell you far more than a dealer can about the state of the battery pack. Don't panic until/unless you have to panic. ;-)

 

[powersurge]

This car showing a 35 mile range at 100% is just plain wrong... I would be interested in seeing what the next screen says about state of charge %.....

Go to a Nissan Dealer IMMEDIATELY and have a Leaf-trained technician do the "yearly battery check". Don't waste time with any experimenting!!

The closest authorized dealer is 96 miles away. There are only 2 Level 2's in between and they are of questionable quality. My OBDII arrives in a couple of hours and I hope to get some insight from Leaf Spy.

Edit: I also don't have a screen with %. I might running older software.

Leaf Spy will tell you far more than a dealer can about the state of the battery pack. Don't panic until/unless you have to panic. ;-)

Yeah, but the guy just put down some big change on a car that has less than half of the capacity that it should... He should not wait for anything. If a Nissan dealer is far, then have it towed there (regardless of cost) --- Nissan is the maker of the vehicle and can "document" the condition of the car, and THEN you can go from there...

Wasting time to "check things with Leafspy" is not a productive use of time. It is like waiting for the surgical instruments to come in the mail when you need an operation and you want to try to operate on yourself!! The Nissan dealer would be the only one to "document" the state of the battery and give an explanation (documentable) on how 12 bars of charge only gives 35 miles of range........ If he plays this hand wrong, this $9K car may turn into a $16K car if he waits too long and needs to pay for a battery replacement himself. If he waits too long, then both the seller of the car and Nissan can deny any responsibility regarding the condition of the car right after it was bought.

 

[cwerdna]

^^^
Battery "report" is basically worthless to the customer. Google for: site:mynissanleaf.com worthless battery report or site:mynissanleaf.com useless battery report.

It does send some interesting data to Nissan corporate (that the dealer doesn't see): http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=8260.

The dealer might have info on previous service records including whether the battery controller was reset for some reason. Nissan did publish this TSB long ago re: range: http://www.electricvehiclewiki.com/images/e/e2/NTB11-076a.pdf.

Nissan is the automaker but is almost all cases in the US, they cannot and do not own dealers, due to state franchise laws.

 

[Phatcat73]

any updates from the OP? did you get your OBD adapter?

Some considerations:
1) I believe roadside assistance, including towing, to your nearest Nissan dealer is complimentary for the first 3 yrs.
2) There may be a positive risk and the battery may have been reset and in actuality you are driving a 4 bar loser eligible for a new battery.

Get the leaf spy readings and post each screen shot in this thread on a 100% charge, then send the car to the dealer for an eval.

 

[Evoforce]

If it were me, I would find another Leaf driver in your area that has leafspy, and ask them to help you get a reading on your car. Have we determined where the OP is located?

 

[VenatorFox]

Do you know where the car was sold the 1st time and where it spent most of its time?

I believe this came from Denver, CO

 

[VenatorFox]

Okay, OBDII has arrived and I have just purchased Leaf Spy Pro for 19.99, as it seems to be the only version for iOS. Hopefully its the right version.
Here are the screens. I apologize for not reducing image size from 1920x1080 as I am posting from my iPhone.

I am on lunch break from work so the battery is pretty low as I have been driving around town. Ill post new ones from a full charge tomorrow.
I still need to read up on Leaf Spy Pro, but the Health does not seem that great right now. A good amount of quick charges from the previous owner. I don't know how many is "too much" though. I'd never use it as I don't have QC stations around.

 

[VenatorFox]

If it were me, I would find another Leaf driver in your area that has leafspy, and ask them to help you get a reading on your car. Have we determined where the OP is located?

I'm pretty sure I have the only Leaf in town, Pure EV is not that popular around the area. I have not seen one drive around for the past several years. I am located in the middle of Nebraska.

Nonetheless I purchased one a few days ago as suggested by many.

 

[GerryAZ]

Those screen shots look a lot like my 2011 when it was down to 8 capacity bars. Please post screen shots of the battery cell voltages (your first screen shot) with the battery deeply discharged and after fully charging overnight so we can see if there are any weak cells.

Gerry