So, owners what range are you getting ?

[bowthom]

Hello,
That's great, you guys in warm climates seem to have better range than I do. It's still 40* around here, sometimes I have frost on the windows.

 

[IBELEAF]

Hello,
That's great, you guys in warm climates seem to have better range than I do. It's still 40* around here, sometimes I have frost on the windows.

Imagine colder climate and hills... that's a complete range killer there. I've been driving 100% Eco mode with minimal heater usage and get about 75 miles.

 

[csriram45]

My 25 miles one way commute has to deal with quiet few ups and down and the steep Sunol grade and that is where the range drops quiet a bit. I wonder how it will do when I am on a regular road and I drive 25 miles. i am sure my range estimate will be better

 

[danmeljeff]

Good news, I was able to make my 63.6 mile round trip work commute on my first day with the LEAF. I was a little worried, since I have a fair amount of freeway driving and some decent hills to climb (including one at the end).

I started with 100% SOC, and an estimated range of 91 miles (first day with the LEAF, so estimates were still being formulated).

I got to work (31.8 miles) with 58% charge remaining, and estimated 64 miles remaining.

I got home (63.6 total miles driven) with 8% charge remaining, and 11 estimated miles remaining.

Here is a map of the route with elevation, and as you can see, around 40 total miles of freeway driving.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4469999

I was in ECO mode the whole time, didn't use the AC, drove 65 or under on the freeway, and created 1.6 eco trees.

Honestly, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to make my commute or not given the terrain and amount of time on the freeway. I'm not sure I'll be able to make the 100+ temp days without AC, but maybe I can pull a few bars of juice from work. Over time, the battery will deplete, and I won't be able to make it on a single charge, but I worry about that later. For now, I'm going to have fun driving my new LEAF!

 

[evnow]

I got home (63.6 total miles driven) with 8% charge remaining, and 11 estimated miles remaining.

So, you would get the EPA range of 73 miles. Is this with the new firmware ?

 

[danmeljeff]

So, you would get the EPA range of 73 miles. Is this with the new firmware ?

Yeah, I noticed that too. I wouldn't have guessed my commute would be similar to the route the EPA would use to estimate the mileage rating (though, I was in ECO mode exclusively).

How do I tell the firmware version? I picked the car up on 4/28/2011...guessing Nissan would have installed the latest version when prepping.

 

[DarkStar]

Big trip today. 70 miles driven, 25 "Nissan Miles" left and two SOC bars. Mostly less than 45 MPH driving with varying levels of elevation.

I'm running post-software update.

 

[mark13]

I just got the car 3 days ago and have not read all the books yet..I have driven it twice to work now which is 60 miles away and had plenty of miles left with the car in eco mode..On the dash there is a total number of miles driven and then there is numeric digital readout above that,at first I thought that was my avg. miles per charge but now I guess it is something else because i hit 160 Friday 200 tonight..
Looks like I have weeks of reading ahead of me witht the 3 books that I saw in the glove box..

 

[Stoaty]

Big trip today. 70 miles driven, 25 "Nissan Miles" left and two SOC bars. Mostly less than 45 MPH driving with varying levels of elevation.

That seems odd. The car thinks you are going to get 12.5 miles per SOC bar???

 

[EVDRIVER]

For those in colder climates, set your timer to finish charge before you leave or find a way to do a 100% charge if you want 80% ending when you pull the plug when you leave. This will help warm the pack a bit before departure.

 

[ERG4ALL]

Wouldn't that be 9.5 miles per bar? 70 + 25 = 95 miles. 12 bars minus 2 = 10 bars. 95/10 = 9.5. Assuming that the car was charged to 100%.

 

[ERG4ALL]

Speaking of range, thought everyone might find this quote interesting. It came from the May 2011 issue of Car and Driver magazine.

"Last December, we got it on good authority that America was sliding into an energy abyss and would suffer a fuel-supply crisis before decade's end. We're usually inclined to ignore these rants as Chicken Little gone berserk, but this was different. The messenger, John Hofmeister, served as Shell Oil's president until he retired in 2008. To make the most of this leisure hours, Hofmeister published his tell-all, Why We Hate the Oil Companies, late last year, predicting that gas would soon top $5 per gallon."

Maybe I should have posted this on "Are You Glad You Bought a LEAF?". I think I'll see if I can get a copy and read the whole thing to see what he has to say.

 

[Stoaty]

Wouldn't that be 9.5 miles per bar? 70 + 25 = 95 miles. 12 bars minus 2 = 10 bars. 95/10 = 9.5. Assuming that the car was charged to 100%.

I should have said, "The car thinks you are going to get 12.5 miles per REMAINING SOC bar?". However, your calculation is wrong. You can't add the 25 mile projected range and not count all of the bars. The correct figure for all of the SOC bars would be 95/12 = 7.9 miles per bar. That's why the idea of getting 12.5 miles per bar for the remaining 2 bars seems way off. Perhaps going downhill recently gave an overly optimistic 25 mile range for the remaining 2 bars?

 

[DarkStar]

Wouldn't that be 9.5 miles per bar? 70 + 25 = 95 miles. 12 bars minus 2 = 10 bars. 95/10 = 9.5. Assuming that the car was charged to 100%.

I should have said, "The car thinks you are going to get 12.5 miles per REMAINING SOC bar?". However, your calculation is wrong. You can't add the 25 mile projected range and not count all of the bars. The correct figure for all of the SOC bars would be 95/12 = 7.9 miles per bar. That's why the idea of getting 12.5 miles per bar for the remaining 2 bars seems way off. Perhaps going downhill recently gave an overly optimistic 25 mile range for the remaining 2 bars?

For the last 4-5 miles, the car was traveling on flat road and had a slight incline for the last .5 miles.

Before the software update, I was getting right about 7-8 miles per SOC bar on a regular basis. Post-update I seem to be getting 6-7 miles per SOC bar.

I agree that for some reason the car was providing an over optimistic range based on the SOC bars, but I can't help but wonder if it starts taking into account the new reserve capacity once it gets to a certain level...

 

[Jimmydreams]

Big trip today. 70 miles driven, 25 "Nissan Miles" left and two SOC bars. Mostly less than 45 MPH driving with varying levels of elevation.

That seems odd. The car thinks you are going to get 12.5 miles per SOC bar???

No, he's getting about 7 miles per SOC bar (70 miles on 10 bars).

For comparison, yesterday I drove 75 miles at 55mph or under, arrived home with 15 "Nissan miles" remaining, with 2 bars of SOC remaining, all in ECO. TED shows 18.8kWh went back into the batteries after that run. That gave me about 7.5 miles per SOC bar. Higher than average, but I was driving VERY carefully.

That was my first 55mph run on the highway because I knew I would need maximum distance to do what I wanted (I usually do 60-65mph). I was quite pleased with the range....based on the entire trip, I feel the the 15 "Nissan Miles Remaining" number was very accurate. The big question is is at what point would turtle-mode activate and how far could I go under turtle? One of these days, I'll do exactly that under closely monitored circumstances.

 

[Stoaty]

For comparison, yesterday I drove 75 miles at 55mph or under, arrived home with 15 "Nissan miles" remaining, with 2 bars of SOC remaining, all in ECO. TED shows 18.8kWh went back into the batteries after that run. That gave me about 7.5 miles per SOC bar. Higher than average, but I was driving VERY carefully.

I will be doing my own test as soon as my Leaf is delivered (? 7-10 days). My plan:

--drive 50 miles at 50-55 MPH from Los Angeles to Claremont (1000 foot elevation gain)
--L1 charge for 5 hours while I am hiking in Mount Baldy area
--drive 50 miles back at 50-55 MPH

If all goes well, I figure I will arrive home with 10-20 miles range left. If not, I will stop at a friends place along the way and charge for a couple more hours before completing the trip home.

 

[edatoakrun]

For comparison, yesterday I drove 75 miles at 55mph or under, arrived home with 15 "Nissan miles" remaining, with 2 bars of SOC remaining, all in ECO. TED shows 18.8kWh went back into the batteries after that run. That gave me about 7.5 miles per SOC bar. Higher than average, but I was driving VERY carefully.

That was my first 55mph run on the highway because I knew I would need maximum distance to do what I wanted (I usually do 60-65mph). I was quite pleased with the range....based on the entire trip, I feel the the 15 "Nissan Miles Remaining" number was very accurate. The big question is is at what point would turtle-mode activate and how far could I go under turtle? One of these days, I'll do exactly that under closely monitored circumstances.

Any altitude changes, Heater/AC use?

Was this after the "non-recall" update?

Why do you think the "miles remaining" was accurate?

Do you belive the 55 mph maximum range is only about 90 miles before "turtle", rather than 100, which earlier reports seemed to indicate?

 

[IBELEAF]

SOC bar estimate is just as unreliable as the range estimator unless you live in a perfect place for EV. First bar always goes away very quickly and that seem also dependent on the temperature when you charged the car. Also if you drive at freeway speed or up the hill or with heater on or all at the same time your bars will go by very quickly making an estimate miles per bar completely useless. I am relying on one thing now is familiarity with the route.

 

[thankyouOB]

IBELEAF makes sense to me.

 

[cdub]

LION itself is notoriously difficult to nail down the actual state of charge due to it's chemistry.