Dropped from 66 to 55 miles for no reason

This is my first EV and we just picked up the car 3 days ago, the car has been charged from 4 bars to 10 bars last night and that was our first charge.

This morning, my wife got to work and showed 66miles left. During lunch, she drove to a nearby restaurant that's within one mile and brought food back to work. An hour later, we checked carwing to see the car has dropped to 55miles. It's not extremely hot outside, about 85~90 degrees.

Is there any reason as to the sharp drop of battery?

Thanks in advance for the information

There is a disparity between miles shown in the car and miles shown in Carwings. To the best of my recollection, that is (I don't use Carwings much, and certainly not to gauge my remaining charge/range). I would go back out to the car and see what it says.

BTW, the gauge in the car is affectionately called "The Guess-o-meter" by those of us who have lived with it a couple of years. If your wife hammered it to go get that food quickly, in order to bring it back hot, the car could well have had time to interpret that "hard driving" and deduct miles as if it expected her to drive the rest of the remaining charge away in a similar manner.

Thanks Mwalsh,

I forgot to add, the 66 and 55 miles both were from CarWing. Does that change anything?

mwalsh said:

There is a disparity between miles shown in the car and miles shown in Carwings. To the best of my recollection, that is (I don't use Carwings much, and certainly not to gauge my remaining charge/range). I would go back out to the car and see what it says.

BTW, the gauge in the car is affectionately called "The Guess-o-meter" by those of us who have lived with it a couple of years. If your wife hammered it to go get that food quickly, in order to bring it back hot, the car could well have had time to interpret that "hard driving" and deduct miles as if it expected her to drive the rest of the remaining charge away in a similar manner.

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+1

Sorry, but that doesn't sound very unusual. It will take a couple of months to get used to how the LEAF drives (how to drive it) and take the Guess-O-Meter's readings with a grain of salt. And when winter hits... you will lose some range, which will come back in Spring

The guessometer is absurdly reactive. If the trip to the restaurant was, say, uphill on a highway or involved a lot of rapid acceleration, the algorithm assumes that's how you will continue to drive. My commute to work is about 5 miles at 35mph and then 3 at 60mph. The way back is obviously the reverse. I often end up at the same miles remaining at the end of those last 5 miles home as I did after the 3 high speed miles, even MORE at times. Likewise I end up dropping 10 "miles" in those 3 fast ones.

As well as that, miles are comically optimistic when you have just charged and become more realistic as you decrease in state of charge (SOC). I normally charge to 80% and show 80 some miles when full. I know from experience I have about 60. By the time I have done my first trip to work it will have lost 15 "miles" but then only lose 10 on the next morning trip, then a real 8 on the third as I am nearing a guessometer reading of 30 or so remaining, staying fairly accurate below that level.

It's called a guessometer for a reason. Dealers rarely mention this.

seazn said:

Thanks Mwalsh,

I forgot to add, the 66 and 55 miles both were from CarWing. Does that change anything?

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Yes, a bit. I believe that Carwings estimates miles from fuel bars (but I'm not sure about that), so at the transition from one fuel bar to the next you might see a big drop like that. Regardless, trying to use Carwings or the "Guess-o-meter" to gauge miles is going to be problematic because those algorithms can't know how you will be driving in the future.

My suggestion is to ignore the GOM (and Carwings) and put up the % State of Charge (SOC) gauge on the dash and learn how many % SOC it takes to make various legs of your trips under given weather conditions. (Be aware that as your battery degrades over time each percent will represent slightly less energy.) Or take a look at Tony William' Range Chart to get an idea of how speed, weather and hills affect range.

Did she switch on the AC? That automatically takes 5-10 miles off the GOM. My kids found it funny the first time.

But these little characteristics do make you much more conscious about your driving style, impact of AC etc.

If you bought a 2014 model, one of the center display selections on the dash panel above the steering wheel is a State-of-Charge meter. Looks like a battery and shows percent remaining. That's your gas gauge. The GOM is really there for laughs, and the SOC meter just feeds it straight lines.