running on fumes (range anxiety)

[RVD]

i was running on battery fumes this past saturday...

i had never pushed my car to this limit before but here's what happened...(all mileage is according to google maps).

i had a list of stuff to do on saturday with my son. it started with me taking him to his swim lesson at my sports club (8.4 miles) via local roads. My sports club is really big but there is no charger nor is there a power outlet that I can see from the parking lot for trickle charging.

After his swim lesson, I drove him to a birthday party (16.7 miles). I took a slightly longer way that is via local roads rather than the freeway (~20 miles) to save on range. I was at 70% charge.

While he was at the birthday party, I had to drive down to an client office to pick something up (21.3 miles). Again, I took a local route rather than the freeway (~24 miles). I was at around 50% charge at this point.

I got to the client office but those guys didn't have my stuff ready so I drove back to the birthday party (21.3 miles). I guess the drive back was more uphill because I was at 24% charge. I had originally planned to charge near the client office since there's a dealership over there (where i bought my car) and they have a QC. I was going to QC for 10-20 minutes but there was so much traffic getting there (took about 1:15) that I had to head back to the birthday party where my son was (I didn't want it to end before I can get back).

If you're keeping track, this has me at 67.7 miles.

I now had a choice of heading back home (22-27 miles depending on route) or going to my office instead (20 miles). I decided to head over to my office instead (which is on the way home along the 27 mile route anyway). GOM said 19 miles so I knew I was cutting it close by going 20 miles. It was a freeway route but I stayed on the right lane and kept up with the flow of slow traffic (55-60 mph).

I decided to go for it and head to my office. I had taken the car to LBW many times (~14% charge) and VLBW (~8% charge) a couple of times but every time I was at VLBW I was <1 mile from destination so I wasn't worried.

This time I hit VLBW with around 5 miles to go.

To make things worse, I was on a freeway going 60 mph so I knew that I was really cutting things close.

I could have exited (1 exit before my exit) and found a public charger but being only 5 miles away from my office, I decided to go forward.

But to make things even worse, I didn't know that the car % gauge would go "--%" on me after around 7%. When I'm cutting it this close, there's a huge difference in my mind between having 6% left and having 2% left. The last thing I wanted was to turtle with around 2 miles to go since I know that turtle only gives me about 0.5 miles of range.

So with around 2 miles to go (the next exit), I had to do it...right most lane on the freeway, hazards on, slowed down to about 45 mph until I got out.

I made it to my office and charged for an hour and made it home just fine. I'm not sure if my slowdown on the freeway right before getting off was necessary but I just didn't want to risk getting stranded. Once we left my office to go home, the LBW came on about 5 minutes into the drive and my son said "why is the car always low on battery?"...if only he knew.

Why would Nissan go to --% since that's what I'm relying on for my last few miles of range? If the % is accurate, I'd like to know each and every % point left. I know in general how far I can travel but since it can vary greatly with terrain and speed...

I was driving at D eco most of the day but switched over to B to regen whenever I was going downhill or had an oppty to regen.

End result was around 87 miles of driving on a single charge.

RVD.

 

[FairwoodRed]

Nissan changes to --- when really low exactly because it’s when people count on it the most and when Nissan is most unsure of it. They have a reasonable estimate of what is left, but at very low charge, it become increasingly difficult to get it right. They for sure do not want you counting on 6% left only to have it turn out to be 5% and have you stranded.

Most people should take the --- as a sign to get to the nearest charging station. If you are the type that likes to be risky and push it as far as you can, then you really should get an aftermarket capacity setup like LeafSpy. This will let you read what Nissan thinks is left, but doesn’t want to tell you.


Congrats on such a high range without too much effort. Now start planning on ways you could have been more efficient and shoot for the 100 mile club

 

[Boomer23]

First of all, most if us will readily agree with your comment "Why would Nissan...?"

But given that they've done that, you've discovered the reason why so many of us carry an auxiliary battery meter or app: to get data on charge status at and below VLBW. Any of the add-on meters and apps (LeafSpy for Android being the current most popular, I think) that are discussed on the forum will continue to give you some data on charge status all the way down to Turtle and below.

To make these meters all the more imperative, some of the newer LEAFs, including my May 2013 build, seem to squirrel away lots of their charge ( a surprising few miles at least) way down near Turtle, and well below the point when all of the LEAF's own displays go to ---.

 

[pkulak]

Wow, I got stressed out just reading that!

My guess is that the percent state-of-charge is not 100% accurate, so they do not want you thinking you have 3% left when you could have 1%. My guess is that they are able to give such fine-grained measurements (to a single percent, and even fractions thereof if you plug in an ODBII device) because they are just measuring energy in and energy out and working from some reference points along the way.

 

[nosuchthing]

You were running on electron shells.
Been there, done that. Turtled twice in the beginning.
Learned my lessons well.

 

[Boomer23]

Oh, and if you're not already used to doing this, I suggest that you routinely reset one of the two mi/kWh efficiency meters and glance at them during and after your trips, both your usual and especially your long driving days. You'll learn how far your car can go with your usual driving style and routes, and that will help you to develop a solid seat-of-the pants feel for your probable range capability. This will also help you to become more aware of your efficiency on uphill and downhill sections, and during very cold weather.

 

[RVD]

purchased the ELM327 bluetooth scanner + extension cable so that i can use leafspy.

i ran out of gas once in my ICE car about 20 years ago. I was about 1000 yards away from the gas station (I could see it way down the road). i didn't end up pushing the car to the gas station because as luck would have it, I had injured my leg a few days earlier so I couldn't walk (was barely able to use my left leg to push the clutch on the car while driving)...the stuff i did back in college.

tow truck came with a gallon of gas for the car. i contemplated getting gas at that point but instead just drove home...since i no longer needed gas in the car.

RVD.

 

[RVD]

I have not turtled yet. I don't know if I can be that lucky to turtle with only 0.5 miles or so from my destination. At least from what I've read online, people seem to have that low of range left after turtling. I think the chances would be much higher that I turtle and then get stranded on the side of the road.

If turtle came on with about 2-5 miles of range, it can be useful but at <1 mile, I don't know...I suppose I could have just driven around the block over and over again when I got to my office just to see when turtle turns on.

 

[johnrhansen]

What gets me is the hill on the last bit of road that I forgot about. That's what got me at the cle elum quick charger. I turtled. Got down to only one good power dot. Thank goodness I knew exactly where the charger was, because im sure i would have never made another lap around the parking lot. I look at the percent left and when it turns to dashes I reset my odometer. I went to turtle 2 miles after it went to dashes at 4 percent. Made a half mile more after turtle. When I pkugged in the av charger showed 0 percent. Charged to 80 percent and gained 2 temperature bars.

 

[epic]

what is the "B"?Never have seen that on my 2012?Or the batterie % icon either.

 

[RVD]

B is for regen mode...letting go of the gas is basically like putting on the brakes to regen.

battery % is what I always have my dashboard set to.

i have a 2013.

 

[smkettner]

While he was at the birthday party, I had to drive down to an client office to pick something up (21.3 miles). Again, I took a local route rather than the freeway (~24 miles). I was at around 50% charge at this point.

I got to the client office but those guys didn't have my stuff ready so I drove back to the birthday party (21.3 miles). I guess the drive back was more uphill because I was at 24% charge. I had originally planned to charge near the client office since there's a dealership over there (where i bought my car) and they have a QC. I was going to QC for 10-20 minutes but there was so much traffic getting there (took about 1:15) that I had to head back to the birthday party where my son was (I didn't want it to end before I can get back).

Glad you made it.

Next time make a phone call. Check if stuff is ready before you leave. Or have the BDay call you while you are at QC to express the party is ending.

Anyway thanks for the story.

 

[RVD]

Next time make a phone call. Check if stuff is ready before you leave. Or have the BDay call you while you are at QC to express the party is ending.

Anyway thanks for the story.

lol, yeah i know. i tried but it wasn't as easy as making a phone call to make sure things were ready. it's actually a little more like going to a big park to pick up a bbq but when you get there, there is a line of cars about 20-30 cars deep all waiting to pick up bbqs. there aren't really any convenient phone numbers to call and the problem was that there were way too many people waiting and i needed to be in and out quickly.

the birthday party was scheduled to end at 5:45pm (and it did) but it took me 1:15 to get there and it was 4:30pm already when i got there so it was more about how traffic would be than how long the party would last. it turned out that it only took me 45 minutes to get back so i had 30 minutes to spare so it would have been ok if i had charged for about 10 minutes on the QC (assuming nobody else already had it when i got to the dealership) but the risk there was that i would drive about 3 miles out of the way to get to the dealership so if it was occupied, it would be 6 precious miles (RT) that would have been wasted. again, i could have called the dealership to ask them about their QC but there would be no guarantee that another guy doesn't show up in the 5 minutes that it would take for me to get there.

yeah i was cutting things a little close...

 

[wbleafguy]

Wow, I got stressed out just reading that!

I like to think I won't succumb to range anxiety, but geez.. that was more tense than a James Bond movie

 

[mwalsh]

i ran out of gas once in my ICE car about 20 years ago. I was about 1000 yards away from the gas station (I could see it way down the road).

I guess I've been lucky. The only time I ever ran out of gas I was able to coast into the gas station and right up to the pump. The only time I ever hit Turle in the LEAF I was able to coast right into my driveway at home.

 

[bbrowncods]

Great story.

Today was my first day with the Leaf and I had 54 miles on the gauge for a 30 mile RT commute. Well the office mates wanted to go to lunch in it...

I got home with the ---. Lesson learned!

 

[Trey]

I was unaware of the apps to tell you range. What is the iPhone Leafspy equivalent?

 

[TomT]

Frankly, you are better off getting a cheap unactivated Android phone and using LeafSpy... It is simply superior to anything else out there.

I was unaware of the apps to tell you range. What is the iPhone Leafspy equivalent?

 

[stjohnh]

Frankly, you are better off getting a cheap unactivated Android phone and using LeafSpy... It is simply superior to anything else out there.

I was unaware of the apps to tell you range. What is the iPhone Leafspy equivalent?

Get the Kyocera Event, $30 at Walmart or Amazon. Its a Virgin Mobile phone, but don't activate it. It's actually an impressively capable smartphone for the price.

Holland

 

[CMYK4Life]

I have been here... I actually ran out of electricity three times. I was towed twice and I literally coasted to the EVSE the third time. I have been to turtle several times. I like to push things to the limit and it bites me in the ass sometimes....

The first time I convinced myself that I knew better than the car and got bit less than 1 mile from my house.

The second time I was on a longer trip and was impatient at one of my L2 charge stops and left 20 mins early... I made it within 1 block of my 2nd planned charge spot... the tow truck took me less than 1 mile!

The third time was just poor planning - I knew it - but did it anyway (didnt I learn anything the first two times?!). I was able to coast to the planned EVSE.

I got over my range anxiety early. Even though I have run out of electricity three times it was pretty much my fault and I knew it. It didnt bother me because I have AAA and knew that Nissan will tow me if I need to.