GOM not changing...

I'm a relatively new Leaf owner, just purchased a 2014 Leaf in July of this year. So far, it's been great, but I ran into a problem last night.

Please forgive me if I've used any wrong terms here... When I got to work yesterday, I put the car on the EVSE. It had 59% left on the battery percentage reading 5 bars left on the charging gauge, and it was showing around 35 miles left on the GOM. After work, I took the car off the charger at work, got in and checked my battery percentage. It showed 100%. I notice my GOM says I have 75 miles and the charging gauge bars are full. Now, I know enough that I don't gauge my miles available based on the GOM, but I do keep an eye on it and the percentage of charge left. So, I head home.

Now, I'm kicking myself for this, but I don't really notice the GOM or the battery percentage during my 22 mile drive home. However, when I got off the interstate, I notice my GOM is still showing 75 miles! My percentage of charge has gone down to 73%, but the GOM hasn't budged at all. It did fluctuate during my in-town driving (2-5 miles), but I ended up at home with a 70% charge left, 72 miles on my GOM, and 9 bars left.

My drive is 26 miles, 22 of them being on the interstate in Illinois, going 70 mph, with the cruise control set, then in-town, small town, driving of 3-4 miles.. I didn't have the heat or a/c on during either of my trips. I did notice that on my drive into work the battery temperature gauge was at 5 bars. When I left work it was at 6 bars.

I'm just curious what could have caused the GOM to remain the same. Any thoughts?

Mostly downhill going home?

smitty89 said:

I'm a relatively new Leaf owner, just purchased a 2014 Leaf in July of this year. So far, it's been great, but I ran into a problem last night.
I'm just curious what could have caused the GOM to remain the same. Any thoughts?

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No problem. The GOM will increase if you go downhill long enough, or slow down long enough.

I drove over a mountain pass, and at the top of the pass, I had driven 16 miles starting with a nearly full charge and had half a battery left, and the GOM showed 14 miles left. After another 35 miles of driving down the other side of the pass with no recharge, the GOM was around 40 miles, and I had about a 1/4 battery left.

GOM is just a simplistic guess of how far you can go based on how you are using power in the recent past. At the top of the pass, the GOM was projecting I'd keep climbing... Not that I'd go down a long downhill, which is what I did.

Also upwind and downwind can matter... And use of climate control, and more...

DNAinaGoodWay said:

Mostly downhill going home?

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Nope, if anything the overall elevation is slightly uphill headed home. Hometown elevation is 249.1 meters, work elevation is 239.9 meters.

WetEV said:

Also upwind and downwind can matter... And use of climate control, and more...

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Climate control was the same for both trips, but it was more windy on the way home. However, it didn't seem like it was windy enough to keep the GOM from moving at all. I'd think that would have to be extremely windy to not budge on a 22 mile trip.

smitty89 said:

WetEV said:

Also upwind and downwind can matter... And use of climate control, and more...

Click to expand...

Climate control was the same for both trips, but it was more windy on the way home. However, it didn't seem like it was windy enough to keep the GOM from moving at all. I'd think that would have to be extremely windy to not budge on a 22 mile trip.

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You are making the assumption that it didn't "budge". My guess is that it dropped a lot while you were at highway speeds then recovered when you slowed way down on surface streets (I trust that you understand that the GOM goes both down and up while driving, depending on driving conditions). I think the reading of exactly 75 was just a coincidence. The next time you do the experiment the number should change a bit.

Buy some electrical tape and put it over the GOM, your life will be improved. It's over zealous nature amplifies range anxiety needlessly, reading out wildly high numbers to get your expectations up, then displaying wildly pessimistic numbers to crush them.

It is basically the same story as Blind Men and the Elephant. The GOM looks at just the last stretch of driving and tries to extrapolate what will come next. Far better to look at your charge status and gauge that against your typical driving experience. If you get 100 miles per charge, then read the percentage as a guess of your range in miles. If you get 75 miles per charge, scale down the charge by 25% as a guess of your range.

It is a shame you can't lock down the GOM to a fixed miles/kWh like Leaf Spy provides, it would be a far better way to present a range estimate than one that wildly gyrates after every change in speed or terrain.

dgpcolorado said:

smitty89 said:

WetEV said:

Also upwind and downwind can matter... And use of climate control, and more...

Click to expand...

Climate control was the same for both trips, but it was more windy on the way home. However, it didn't seem like it was windy enough to keep the GOM from moving at all. I'd think that would have to be extremely windy to not budge on a 22 mile trip.

Click to expand...

You are making the assumption that it didn't "budge". My guess is that it dropped a lot while you were at highway speeds then recovered when you slowed way down on surface streets (I trust that you understand that the GOM goes both down and up while driving, depending on driving conditions). I think the reading of exactly 75 was just a coincidence. The next time you do the experiment the number should change a bit.

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Yes, I do get that the GOM goes up and down, but I've never had it remain anywhere close to the same after my highway trip. I wasn't very clear in my initial post, but I get on, and stay on, the highway for 22 miles straight, cruise control set at 70. My in town driving is at the beginning or end of my trip. I will usually show an increase on the GOM after I get off the highway. It was just very odd to me for the number to stay anywhere close to its starting number after driving my highway miles.

Moof said:

Buy some electrical tape and put it over the GOM, your life will be improved. It's over zealous nature amplifies range anxiety needlessly, reading out wildly high numbers to get your expectations up, then displaying wildly pessimistic numbers to crush them.

It is basically the same story as Blind Men and the Elephant. The GOM looks at just the last stretch of driving and tries to extrapolate what will come next. Far better to look at your charge status and gauge that against your typical driving experience. If you get 100 miles per charge, then read the percentage as a guess of your range in miles. If you get 75 miles per charge, scale down the charge by 25% as a guess of your range.

It is a shame you can't lock down the GOM to a fixed miles/kWh like Leaf Spy provides, it would be a far better way to present a range estimate than one that wildly gyrates after every change in speed or terrain.

Click to expand...

I'm seriously considering the electrical tape! And I think this might be the push my hubby needed to get Leaf Spy going on the car!