Range in cold weather (not Bad driving 35-45 MPH )

[dgpcolorado]

Made it to the office today, and pretty happy about the efficiency. About 14 miles (and a 4 story drive up into the parking garage). Its -8F out today in Chicago. Speeds were 10-45 MPH due to stop and go traffic. I used heat only a couple times to defrost. Total trip was 99 -> 82% battery, or 17%, which isn't too bad considering the weather. Battery temperature at launch was 28 degrees F.

Interesting. I think the difference between your experience and that of others reported here was that you used the heater sparingly and your commute was at fairly slow speeds. If you crank up the heater and just let it run the whole time, as some do, you will see a much bigger hit to mileage efficiency and range. Your experience suggests that the reduced range in very cold weather may depend a lot on cabin heater use. But using the heater when the car is parked outside and cold-soaked at -10ºF is probably not optional for some people.

 

[LeftieBiker]

I guess mine (battery heater) must have come on, but how to tell?

You can have CarWings send you an email and/or a text message when the battery heater starts. That's what I do.

 

[DougWantsALeaf]

Ok, 15 miles home at 50 mph for first 13 and 2 miles at 30mph.
4.0 m/kw efficiency and battery pack at 38f to start, 32 at end. 22% soc used

 

[Berlino]

You can have CarWings send you an email and/or a text message when the battery heater starts. That's what I do.

The battery heater notification option in Carwings is apparently not available for pre MY13 LEAFs.

Also, I'm not notified if the vehicle is plugged in. The alert is only sent in the form of a warning that I should plug-in. T

 

[DougWantsALeaf]

Only a few minutes of heat during the trip, mainly to defrost

 

[Leaf1]

How are leaf owners doing in MN in -30 degree temps? Please let us know if there are any of you brave pioneers out there and how the car is performing. Thanks.

 

[DougWantsALeaf]

Question for the board.

Do cold temps reduce the number of GIDs a car will charge? Charged to 100% overnight and gids on leaf spy showed 256 according to soc I might have a couple more gids that could charge, but that feels like a fair amount of loss for 9 months and 3500 miles.

Leaf spy pro is very fun

 

[EatsShootsandLeafs]

1/31/2014
32 F entire day
100% charge
Heat on at high level
43.0 miles to VLBW
3.0 miles/kWh

So, if I am doing 43.0 miles to VLBW @ 3.0, the days I was at 2.4 should have hit VLBW at 34.4 miles, for a total distance of no more than 40 as I had thought. I was going to try and turtle the car last night (never have), but couldn't remember exactly how far it gets on turtle and didn't want to be caught driving around the block at the wrong point On the day recently I got 2.2, if the math is fairly linear 2.2/3*43 = 31.5 miles to VLBW.

Honestly my particular car in really cold temps with the heat on has a range of 35 miles to turtle, and that's at 100% charge. And that is why my next vehicle will take gasoline. I've spent too many miles driving with the heat off staring down at the gauge. It's actually fun for a little while but it grows tiresome.

EDIT on 2/4/2013 for yesterday:

2/3/2014
22 F entire day
100% charge
Heat on at high level
37.0 miles to VLBW
2.5 miles/kWh

 

[LeftieBiker]

I seem to be able to get 45 miles range in subzero weather. That's with heat on 90% of the time, driving from 30 to 50MPH, mainly in the 40-45MPH range.

 

[Rauv]

How are leaf owners doing in MN in -30 degree temps? Please let us know if there are any of you brave pioneers out there and how the car is performing. Thanks.

I am in the same boat as many of you that need to run the heater all the way to work and back. Last cold snap (-20 plus strong winds) I got barely 40 miles from 100% to VLBW, with initial reheat from shore power and pre-heat from battery power after work. Not good, but my strange April 2013 produced Leaf has levelled off at a high of 281 Gids after 8500 miles. Battery capacity seems to be stick on 64.7002 kAH for two months now.

 

[EatsShootsandLeafs]

Yikes, somehow I managed to VLBW at 30.2 miles today. Image taken a half mile later when I stopped.

2/7/2014
100% charge, 12 bars
Temps 5F-16F
Heat on 90F full blast
Total of 15 min spent pre-heating car and/or leaving it on while going into a store.
2.1 miles/kWh

Interesting math on this one, a few days ago I got 43.0 to VLBW at 3.0 miles/kWh. 2.1/3 * 43 = 30.1, so things are scaling quite well.

I wanted to turtle it tonight, but after 2.2 miles it had not yet done so and I was already late to get home, so that will have to wait.

EDIT: 2/9/2014

I am now starting to question whether there is in fact something wrong with my car, OR all these people reporting massively better ranges than me in similar temps are NOT cold-soaking their batteries; they are garage kept. I'd really love to know what ranges people get specifying temp bars. Here is what happened yesterday:

-4F when I woke up, 2 hours later at trip start it was, 5 F.
Car outside all night, started 100% charge
0 temp bars
Pre-heated for 15 minutes while still plugged into L1.
Cranked on heat 90F, because it's how I do.
Lost first bar (now 11 left) .2 miles into journey.
At conclusion of journey at exactly fives miles I had lost four (4) !!! charge bars.
Car turned off at journey end and five minutes later back on and upon restarting only 7 bars left.
I had lost five bars in five miles.
miles/kWh somewhere in low 2's, can't quite recall exactly.

I can't quantify it, but a few hours later I drove further and by now I had 3 temp bars, this basically all from the pack self-generating heat, since temps were no higher than 14F or so, but the stress on the battery seemed much less; bars disappeared from charge much slower than before.

EDIT: 2/10/2014

Much better today, lost first bar of range around 3.5 miles in and second 7 or so in. I had two temp bars at start, which grew to three.

Basically this car is just absolutely awful when the batteries are 0F. Outside temp doesn't tell us what the battery temp is, but when you have no temp bars on the battery watch its range plummet catastrophically.

 

[darthwilliam]

Preheat while plugged into L1 drains your battery.
Also why are you heating to 90F?

Mine is garage kept and temp bars never less than 3, even sitting all day outside at work with temps around 5F.

Normal commute is 40 miles, when really cold I use 8 bars with the heat on set to 66. Cabin Heat seems to really affect range when temp goes below 20F, above that not too much impact.