Aeromod nissan leaf improved aerodynamics increased range

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Brenthasty

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 23, 2014
Messages
60
Location
Near portland oregon
Well the results are in, almost a full 1 mile more per KWH in my Nissan Leaf. Up from an average of 3.9 to 4.8 M/Kwh.

This was achieved by deleting the mud flaps, flipping the mudflaps from side to side and reattaching them in front of the wheels to aeromod and deflect the wind off the cheek of the tires. Along with a partial grille block and licence plate relocation. We placed the licence over the inlet left in the aerodynamic grill block, this serves to shed the wind more cleanly and block direct entrance of particles, bugs, rain ect directly into the grill and radiators. We run the tires at full sidewall pressure 45psi.

These simple improvements to the aerodynamics of the nissan leaf have added 20% in efficiency and range!
[youtube][/youtube]
 
Looks great..
Do you forsee any issues by not having airflow (cooling) blocking the vents like that?

Also, how much of an effect do you think were the body mods and how much might be the full tire pressure inflation?
(Or were you doing the fill tire pressure before, included in your 3.9 M/Kwh?)

Either way, that looks great!!!
And an extra 20-ish miles in range is pretty nice!!!

desiv
 
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Aeromod%252520nissan%252520leaf%252520improved%252520aerodynamics%252520range00109.jpg


I have not had a chance yet to even see what is cooled with the intake grill - can temperatures be monitored with an OBD II unit?
 
The A/C Condenser and the radiator for all the cooling pumps (motor, inverter, charger, etc.) in the car... The temperatures can not be monitored with a conventional OBDII tool. Coolant temperatures are probably on the buss but it would take a specialized tool to monitor them and I don't believe that Leaf Scan Pro has them accessible at this point... I doubt condenser temperature is directly available at all.

NeilBlanchard said:
I have not had a chance yet to even see what is cooled with the intake grill - can temperatures be monitored with an OBD II unit?
 
I have to say I'm rather stunned. Seems like very simple modifications - I wonder why Nissan doesn't apply the same approach? Seems a LOT less expensive compared to added battery capacity to increase range by 20%.

What am I missing here?
 
Through the grill air flows first through the air conditioning core, then through a radiator core that cools these in this order the battery charger then the inverter then the ac drive motor. It is pumped by dual redundant variable speed brushless centrifugal pumps.
The air then flows around the charger inverter ac traction motor; continuing on into a channel between the belly pan around the sealed battery and out just in front of the rear axle; it then mixes with undercar air and is vented underneath and out the back with the trunk aerodynamic ground effects.

Since the ac drive is rated to full power up to 150f and at full freeway speed the coolant is only running 10f above ambient with the partial grille block off, I would love to use what little waste heat is there to defrost windows in winter...

Really only need airflow in the summer if using the ac and pulling a camper trailer....
 
Slow1 said:
I have to say I'm rather stunned. Seems like very simple modifications - I wonder why Nissan doesn't apply the same approach? Seems a LOT less expensive compared to added battery capacity to increase range by 20%.

What am I missing here?

It is true - aero drag has a huge effect on the range. At just 30MPH, the aero drag is ~50% of the load on the motor. So, even a few changes that reduce the turbulence caused by moving the car through the air will show up on range.

And you are right that lowering the drag will make the car a better value without increasing the cost. Nissan did some things to lower the drag, but htye certainly could do a lot more.

Nissan could have thermally activated shutters on the cooling air intake. Then you would get lower drag until / unless cooling is needed. In the winter the heat could be harvested by the heat pump, before opening the shutter.
 
I think that a more detailed and controlled test is necessary... I find it hard to believe that these two simple mods would result in a 20% improvement... Granted, the Leaf actually has fairly poor aerodynamics as shown by Car and Driver's test, but still...
 
Slow1 said:
I have to say I'm rather stunned. Seems like very simple modifications - I wonder why Nissan doesn't apply the same approach? Seems a LOT less expensive compared to added battery capacity to increase range by 20%.

What am I missing here?

Its not part of the Nissan's earlier B platform, probably is part of Nissan's V platform

Notice how efficient the Nissan Altima is for highway cruising compared to the significantly smaller engined Nissan Sentra? (which itself is a frugal car)

Sentra and LEAF were optimized for cost effective city use. There is still further they could claw back for highway range, but LOOKS are important.
 
TomT said:
I think that a more detailed and controlled test is necessary... I find it hard to believe that these two simple mods would result in a 20% improvement... Granted, the Leaf actually has fairly poor aerodynamics as shown by Car and Driver's test, but still...

That's one of the more realistic views, i.e. 20% is significant based on an assumed Cd improvement
from somewhat minor body changes.
 
Brenthasty said:
We have been running 45 psi since November so it is included in the 3.9 miles per kwh average

Remember there are basically two components to energy loss:

Energy Loss = Rolling Resistance Loss + Drag Resistance Loss

So if the claim of an overall 20% gain in efficiency was achieved, then the drag component improvement
was even more significant.
 
So there were two things done - one was the mud flaps and the other blocking off the grill? Mudflaps seem to be a significant commitment - perhaps just dong the grill would make a difference and is worth trying. That seems to be a (reversible) change that even simple folks like myself could do....
 
The mudflaps are two separate factors

First in thier factory position they cup into the wind, think of attaching 4 pieplates to the roof against the wind.
I think the greatest gain in aero is thier removal; which is just one bolt and 2 screws each, takes less than 30 min....

Secondly thier re attachment in front of the tures, there they serve to slipstream a part of the tire that hit the wind squarely. In thier reattachment they use factory bolt points, only 2 screw holes needed to be added each. Again 30 min...

All and all I would equate this two step mudflap dance to about the removal of 6 pie plates of wind resistance!
 
TomT said:
I think that a more detailed and controlled test is necessary... I find it hard to believe that these two simple mods would result in a 20% improvement... Granted, the Leaf actually has fairly poor aerodynamics as shown by Car and Driver's test, but still...
That was my thought. A back-to-back test of the modified vehicle vs. a stock vehicle would be interesting. I can imagine a number of variables that could affect the comparison of values from today vs. values from some point in the past.
 
TomT said:
I think that a more detailed and controlled test is necessary... I find it hard to believe that these two simple mods would result in a 20% improvement... Granted, the Leaf actually has fairly poor aerodynamics as shown by Car and Driver's test, but still...

If this car is in SoCal, I'm happy to participate in a detailed range test.
 
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