New (used) 2015 Leaf owner

[Chetwynd]

Happy to be on board with the Leaf I bought, my first electric car! Love it so far. S model, 38k miles, 11/12 battery bars it seems.

I see talk of only charging it to 80%. How do I control that?

I’m just using the 110v charger and driving I don’t know, less than 30 miles daily.

All I was able to figure out is that there’s a timer that sets an end-time for charging.

Thank you.

 

[LeftieBiker]

Welcome. Alas, since Nissan removed the optional 80% charge limit for 2014, you have to either stop the charge manually (by unplugging the car) or by using the end timer to schedule the charge to stop an hour or so (using L-2) AFTER you have left.

 

[alozzy]

If you plan to frequent here, make sure to add your location to your profile...

If you live in a milder climate, then charging to 100% is less of a concern. However, avoid leaving the car sitting for a long period of time at 100% SOC, particularly on hot days.

Given your typical range needs, you should be OK with overnight 120V charging. That's because, during an 8 hour period, you will only add about 50% of capacity to the pack. With an 11 bar LEAF during colder months, I'm guessing that your LEAF drops close to 50% doing those 30 miles when running the S trim's resistive heater.

In short, you really don't have to think too much about this. If you start one morning with an 80ish SOC, chances are you can just plug-in at night, unplug in the morning, and you'll be back at around 80ish SOC the following day. Even charging up to 90% daily won't hurt your pack much in a milder climate.

 

[user 24513]

We had that very same car and traded for a 2019 Plus after the 2015 had about 30K miles on it- very solid car and the fact that it has a resistive heater and not a heat pump did not seem to cost us too much in the way of range because the heat pump is barely effective in really cold weather (which is when we use the heater) so net loss was smaller than the extra cost to buy the higher-end models. We also only used 120V to charge on the '15, at night, and soon figured out how to use the charge timer. And as others have pointed out, you don't have to worry too much about charging above 80% occasionally, just try to avoid it on a regular basis.

 

[Chetwynd]

If you plan to frequent here, make sure to add your location to your profile...

If you live in a milder climate, then charging to 100% is less of a concern. However, avoid leaving the car sitting for a long period of time at 100% SOC, particularly on hot days.

Given your typical range needs, you should be OK with overnight 120V charging. That's because, during an 8 hour period, you will only add about 50% of capacity to the pack. With an 11 bar LEAF during colder months, I'm guessing that your LEAF drops close to 50% doing those 30 miles when running the S trim's resistive heater.

In short, you really don't have to think too much about this. If you start one morning with an 80ish SOC, chances are you can just plug-in at night, unplug in the morning, and you'll be back at around 80ish SOC the following day. Even charging up to 90% daily won't hurt your pack much in a milder climate.

I live in the northern Sacramento valley.

Winter:
highs 40 - 60
lows 25-40

Summer:
highs 90-105+
lows 55-70

 

[alozzy]

Pretty ideal climate for a LEAF. Just watch your charging habits in the summer, to avoid charging to 100% at all on hotter days, if you can avoid it. If you need the extra range, charge to 100% but drive ASAP after the charging finishes.

 

[SageBrush]

Pretty ideal climate for a LEAF.

For 6 months of the year anyway.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Happy to be on board with the Leaf I bought, my first electric car! Love it so far. S model, 38k miles, 11/12 battery bars it seems.

I see talk of only charging it to 80%. How do I control that?

I’m just using the 110v charger and driving I don’t know, less than 30 miles daily.

All I was able to figure out is that there’s a timer that sets an end-time for charging.

Thank you.

Well, 80% is a number but you want to center the SOC range if possible. Nissan removed custom charge options so its 100% or nothing. The charge timer you can use and its pretty easy. Just guesstimate how long you need to charge to get to the approximate level you want to be. My SOC target has a 20% range and that is all you need. Just a ballpark figure. This reduces the need to adjust daily

So you want to disable "full charge priority" if it has that. If you need say 5 hours of charge to hit your target and leave at 8 AM, set the charge to start at 3 AM.

Now if you have TOU in your area, you might want to look into level 2 charging options. It will allow you to maybe only charge during the cheapest rate period and lets face it; is this your last EV? I am guessing not so might want to build for the future.

 

[danrjones]

I think I do the opposite - I set full charge has priority ON, then set the timer to about an hour plus AFTER I leave each morning.

In other words, if you leave each morning at 6am, set the timer to full charge has priority and the time of 7:30. Thereby giving you about 80% when you actually leave at 6am. It will take some adjustment, if you leave at 6am and you have 85%, change the timer to 7:45... if you leave at 6am and it is at 70%, bump the timer up to 7:15. And so on. You can dial it in pretty well this way, and I've found its always within a few percent of your target. If you don't have the commute Sat and Sun, use timer 2 for those days and set the timer to even later - 10am or something, assuming you even need to charge.

 

[SageBrush]

The fancy solution is to buy OVMS for ~ $200.

If I planned to keep the car 2+ years I would call it money well spent, and I think it a fair guess you can resell the device for most of its cost when no longer needed.

 

[SageBrush]

I think I do the opposite - I set full charge has priority ON, then set the timer to about an hour plus AFTER I leave each morning.

Glad it works for you, and I presume anybody else with a reasonably unchanging schedule. If I may change your wording a bit:


I think I do the opposite - I set full charge has priority ON, then set the timer to about an hour plus LATER than I leave each morning.