Miles/Kwh going down

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twingo

Active member
Joined
Jul 19, 2010
Messages
42
Location
Escondido, Ca.
The first 30K miles on my Leaf ended with 4.3 miles/Kwh so that was my benchmark. Then I changed tires to Michelin Energy and when I first left the parking lot at Costco, it felt like the car was struggling to overcome the tires. I have 45 lbs of pressure which is at least 5 more than the Ecopias. Sure enough I dropped to 4.0 miles/Kwh and I was convinced it would improve as the tires wore in. Well after 8,000 miles the range has not improved. In fact it has gone down to 3.7 now. The decline from 4.0 to 3.7 is not the tires, so what is it? Is this typical when the battery ages in addition to losing battery capacity? I have lost 2 bars of capacity after 3.5 years and 38,000 miles. I have driven the same route to work everyday since the car was new, thus I'm confident my driving habits have been constant. Anyone know what is going on?
 
It's the tires (and maybe a bit of colder weather lately). Ecopias are great for m/kW but not much else. If it makes you feel any better, I did see a bit of improvement on my Michelin Defenders, but it took at least 10k miles of wear.
 
When I went to Michelins I dropped from 4.7m/kWh to 4.2m/kWh. I don't remember if it was immediate or over time, but I didn't find my mileage improving at all again until I was well over 10,000 miles on the new tires, and even then it's only been a marginal improvement. I find it quite conceivable that you would drop from 4.3m/kWh to 3.8m/kWh (or 3.7m/kWh even).
 
Sounds like I'll have to wait a while for the tires to catch-up and keep my fingers crossed.

BTW, I also suspect lately that my regen is not as strong as it used to be. I always drive in ECO mode. When I take my foot off the throttle, the car doesn't slow as readily or show as many circles on the display. Does regen tend to weaken with age as well?
 
I took a big hit from the tires, a big hit from the software update that reduced regen, and like you I think I've taken another hit from battery ageing. Regen is now only fully available at quite low battery charge, yet capacity loss means I run the car at generally higher state of charge
 
twingo said:
BTW, I also suspect lately that my regen is not as strong as it used to be. I always drive in ECO mode. When I take my foot off the throttle, the car doesn't slow as readily or show as many circles on the display. Does regen tend to weaken with age as well?
Click to expand...

No: it weakens with COLD. This was a result of one of the firmware updates. My advice is drive in "D" and don't lead-foot it; save "ECO" for special circumstances (low batt/downhill/slippery roads).
 
Stanton said:
twingo said:
BTW, I also suspect lately that my regen is not as strong as it used to be. I always drive in ECO mode. When I take my foot off the throttle, the car doesn't slow as readily or show as many circles on the display. Does regen tend to weaken with age as well?
Click to expand...

No: it weakens with COLD. This was a result of one of the firmware updates. My advice is drive in "D" and don't lead-foot it; save "ECO" for special circumstances (low batt/downhill/slippery roads).
Click to expand...

Interesting. I'll try that.
 
Newer tires typically have higher rolling resistance than worn tires. Different brands / models of tires have different RR.

OEM tires tend to have shallower tread than do new retail tires.
 
twingo said:
The first 30K miles on my Leaf ended with 4.3 miles/Kwh so that was my benchmark. Then I changed tires to Michelin Energy and when I first left the parking lot at Costco, it felt like the car was struggling to overcome the tires. I have 45 lbs of pressure which is at least 5 more than the Ecopias. Sure enough I dropped to 4.0 miles/Kwh and I was convinced it would improve as the tires wore in. Well after 8,000 miles the range has not improved. In fact it has gone down to 3.7 now. The decline from 4.0 to 3.7 is not the tires, so what is it? Is this typical when the battery ages in addition to losing battery capacity? I have lost 2 bars of capacity after 3.5 years and 38,000 miles. I have driven the same route to work everyday since the car was new, thus I'm confident my driving habits have been constant. Anyone know what is going on?
Click to expand...

You don't say when you installed the new tires. But since you're averaging about 900 miles per month overall, I'll assume you got these new tires sometime in the Spring. Cooler weather will decrease efficiency, and driving in the rain can be a huge hit as can wind. So these seasonal factors may be coming into play.
 

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