Finally charged to 100%

With my 1 bar recent loser Nissan Leaf and it tells me 91 miles in Eco and 80 miles in D. 4.1 energy economy and average speed of 20.8 mph. I am the second owner and am just shy of driving the car for 3.5k miles. I know it is not much, but are these good or bad numbers? I recall the average speed being something like 35 when I first got the leaf. Anything that can be improved? I still don't understand this whole energy economy bar

Oh my, so many things in there………….

Are you saying that you were able to get the made up number on the GOM (Guess – o –Meter) to read 100?

Good for you, but understand this really doesn’t mean anything.

If that sounded snarky, it wasn’t meant to be.

You want to REALLY get wet, find an EVSE at a restaurant at about 7000’, charge it, and drive downhill at 35mph.
The GOM will run out of digits.

If you want any sort or reality based evaluation of the battery, use, max charge, discharge rate, charge rate, temperature change with various charge rates, etc. you need a CAN based instrument.

The favorite seems to be the Leaf-spy.

This is what I use.



Good luck

Yep. Those numbers don't mean squat.

Here are some high GOM numbers: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=12899.

You can reset the average mph and energy economy displays by press and holding the upper right button (has the dot) in the cluster of 4 buttons on the left side.

A new Leaf w/new battery has about 21 to 22 kWh of battery usable (out of a total 24 kWh) and yours has less since it has degraded. Your consumption is in miles/kWh. So, for example, if you reset your miles/kwh gauge and assuming your battery had 22 kWh usable, if you achieve 4.0 miles/kWh, you should be able to drive 88 miles before your car dies: 22 kWh * 4.0 miles/kWh = 88 miles. Notice the kWh/kWh cancel out, leaving miles?

If you drove 6.0 miles/kWh, you should be able to go 132.0 miles and so on.

Please see the range chart at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=101293. You'll want to consult "Use this 82% chart for a battery that has 11 of 12 capacity bar segments."

Edmunds went exactly 132.0 miles in their test at http://www.edmunds.com/nissan/leaf/2011/long-term-road-test/2011-nissan-leaf-driving-it-to-the-bitter-end.html going 35 mph. http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=7022 has some record holders.

Since your car is a 1 BL, from http://www.electricvehiclewiki.com/Battery#Battery_Capacity_Behavior, you probably have somewhere between 78.75% and 85% capacity remaining, so you probably have ~17.325 and ~18.7 kWh usable.

...it tells me 91 miles in Eco and 80 miles in D. 4.1 energy economy and average speed of 20.8 mph.

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Even if you never reset the energy economy history, you are getting a very good economy average. The main reason is the average speed of 20MPH, plus your reasonably careful driving behaviors.

You are doing well. Have driven to VLBW? That will tell you better what your range is.
Since you are in Los Angeles, there are many places to charge your car after VLBW. I use Leaf Spy.
I got my LEAF after tracking my Volt for three years. I found almost all my trips were 70 miles or less, but I got a QC option in case :idea:
All I can think you can do better is monitor tire pressure and watch after service because the mechanic may set pressure at 32 out of habit.

EVforRobert said:

...All I can think you can do better is monitor tire pressure and watch after service because the mechanic may set pressure at 32 out of habit.

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Good suggestion. The OP should keep the tires at 40 PSI at least — I use 42 PSI and some go higher — and that will make a measurable difference in range as well as help with better tire wear, at the cost of a somewhat harder ride. The book 36 PSI is too low for the LEAF.

And, just for fun, my personal best in GOM readings, 14.5 miles into a trip:



We don't call it the "Guess-o-meter" for nothing...

Hi guys thanks for all the replies. So it seems those doesn't don't tell much though I appreciate everyone putting their bits and thanks for the complement on the 20mph rating I have not driven the leaf down to turle. Only once did I drive it down to, uhm, guess o meter --- and the battery % --- but did not hit turtle. This was about a week after getting the leaf and just getting a feel on how much miles you get per battery bits. Thankfully you guys told me about the guess o meter and I was able to run with the battery % pulled on screen, but I still could not guess how much % per mile would give me. I can kind of guess better now so I have not ran down the battery low. Except one time which I got the guess o meter to --- but battery % was 7% before hitting the charge station.

Ok, so to really know how much I got in my bat tank I have to charge to 100% then do a long trip and almost run it to the ground. Sadly my trips are not long like that longest trip is like 20 something miles. I appreciate the love though! also 140something miles on the guess o meter wow that is nuts!

NissanLeafCamper said:

still could not guess how much % per mile would give me.

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Well, yeah, there's no display to tell you that. As has been pointed out to me, % will become problematic eventually as each % will become smaller units of energy as the battery degrades (holds fewer kWh).

NissanLeafCamper said:

Ok, so to really know how much I got in my bat tank I have to charge to 100% then do a long trip and almost run it to the ground.

Click to expand...

Not really. You can have what are believed to be what the car's battery management systems guesses as to battery capacity and charge remaining via tools like Leaf Spy. IIRC, new Leafs have ~66.25 amp-hours (Ahr) new and as they degrade, that number goes down.

I'm not sure that those long trips you much either unless things are held fairly constant between each of them (or you have a means of accounting for the differences) such as speed, temperature, elevation change, HVAC usage (better to use none), tire pressure, etc.

If you start having stop-and-go traffic, well, unless you can repeat those cycles the next time (same acceleration and deceleration), same speeds, same amount of idling, etc. your results are going to be off.

You can reset the miles/kWh gauge between each to try and target the same consumption for each try.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=228326 has some an example of the type of info Tony Williams captured for his infamous Phoenix range tests.