Nissan Introduces Energy Usage Database

"Nissan Motor introduced two services through its Nissan LEAF owners website and smartphone applications in Japan-one that precisely forecasts the LEAF's remaining battery capacity when it arrives at a destination and the other called "Minna no Syouhi Denryoku" . Together, these services arm LEAF drivers with precise state of battery information."

For more:
http://www.finchannel.com/news_flash/Oil_%26_Auto/112125_Nissan_Begins_Residual_Battery_Power_Forecast_and_Use_Info_Services_for_Nissan_LEAF_owners/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

MikeD said:

For more:
http://www.finchannel.com/news_flash/Oil_%26_Auto/112125_Nissan_Begins_Residual_Battery_Power_Forecast_and_Use_Info_Services_for_Nissan_LEAF_owners/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Click to expand...

Thanks! Unfortunately that link didn't work for me. Here is another link to try.

so this is thru Carwings?

Nissan providing residual battery power forecast and use information services to LEAF owners - Green Car Congress
Nissan Begins Residual Battery Power Forecast and Use Info Services for Nissan LEAF owners - Nissan News Releases

Synopsis: Nissan is using data collected from CARWINGs to show you min/max/average energy consumption for a particular trip in bars of battery used.

I tried it out briefly - you can do it through the trip planner page on the CARWINGs website. I did not find the interface all that easy or intuitive to use. And I found that it was not able to look up data in a number of cases where I would think that many people have already driven - certainly at least I have driven along a particular route a number of times.

Mobile app for Japan has also been released - the North American version should be released later this year.

Big question: Do the estimates take into account your car's battery degradation? For those who have 20-30% reduction in range in Arizona that could be a show stopper! I really wish that Nissan provided an "ideal range" figure like Tesla does with the Roadster/Model S - it would eliminate a lot of guesswork...

Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

On the disclaimer page they have some info that is used to calculate. This is for speed:
Highway road: 60mph
General road: 40mph
Narrow road: 15mph

They also have use an average temperature for ALL of north america (here are some):
Jan: 57.8
Apr: 71.2
Jul: 81.7
Oct: 72.4

Additionally it looks like they assume that no climate control is used. I agree that if temperatures were like they are above and at the speeds mentioned, I wouldn't need to use climate control either... but that's not real world

I don't like that I am forced to either use "full battery" or current battery charge. Why not an 80% option? Isn't that what Nissan recommends anyway?

I provided these and other feedback items to Nissan. Additionally, I gave them this thought about the maps- "I don't know if Navteq maps you are using are up to date for this website application, but because the Nissan LEAF does NOT have up to date maps (nor are we ever given updated maps), I don't know what will happen if we try to "Forward to the route to navigation."

I hope the app update we get has more features.

Very Cool. This is the start of something I've always been saying they should do - calculate energy usage based on the route (altitude, speed, temperature).

It tells what the minimum/maximum energy usage routes are and how many bars (they call it segments) will be consumed.

There is an additional thing they could do - they somewhat hint at that - they say "x" number of people have driven this route before. They should tell us how much energy was used and what the drive condition/route was.

Every route I tried that I regularly drive, it said it could not do due to insufficient data...

I just tried the route from house to the airport.

How about the NTB-11-041 'bug' impact on the CarWings data? Maybe we can get some guidance on getting this issue resolved to improve the accuracy of this energy use database.

Also there is another thread with same announcement.

And I'm guilty of cross posting now - my apologies.

Mod note: Merged redundant threads (thanks for the heads up Nekota)

I just tried it yesterday from Novato to Orinda, CA. I have friends there that we visit on a regular basis (and they have an Active-E, so I charge up on their EVSE while there!).
The new map program noted that one other person had driven that route before, I can only assume it was me and came from my Carwings data. The prediction was just about right-on, stating it would take 7 bars at 60mph. I averaged about 65 mph, and still made it using 7 bars from 100% charge (down to 5 bars)...then drove my car in the Orinda-Moraga 4th of July parade and back to my friends house for a charge and BBQ.
I like it so far!

Nekota said:

How about the NTB-11-041 'bug' impact on the CarWings data?

Click to expand...

Good question! Bad data will render this database worse than useless. It seems Nissan will only apply that technical bulletin if you are unable to connect to CarWings. They seem unwilling to apply it to other cars to improve the quality of the data.

RegGuheert said:

Nekota said:

How about the NTB-11-041 'bug' impact on the CarWings data?

Click to expand...

Good question! Bad data will render this database worse than useless. It seems Nissan will only apply that technical bulletin if you are unable to connect to CarWings. They seem unwilling to apply it to other cars to improve the quality of the data.

Click to expand...

My dealership happily applied the update to my car once I convinced them that it applied to my vehicle. It may help to tell them that you had to disconnect the 12V battery to get Carwings working if it's not currently exhibiting the connection error.

drees said:

My dealership happily applied the update to my car once I convinced them that it applied to my vehicle. It may help to tell them that you had to disconnect the 12V battery to get Carwings working if it's not currently exhibiting the connection error.

Click to expand...

Congratulations on getting yours done! Unfortunately our LEAF does not qualify. I'm thinking this new database may require new A/V firmware to be usable from the car, so perhaps I can get something then. We'll see.

I wouldn't hold my breath for this type of functionality via the in-car telematics in the current generation LEAF... I'd expect, at best, it'll be part of the updated smartphone app which you can use in your car. ;-) The car's telematics system is not "always connected" like your smartphone is. All mentions so far, even in Japan, have mentioned "owners website and smartphone applications."

So, RegGuheert... don't bet on getting that kWh fix anytime soon unless you can convince your service department to do it under the table. You can try to call Nissan support yourself, and escalate until you turn blue, too.

grommet said:

I wouldn't hold my breath for this type of functionality via the in-car telematics in the current generation LEAF... I'd expect, at best, it'll part of the updated smartphone app. The car's telematics system is not "always connected" like your smartphone is. All mentions so far, even in Japan, have mentioned "owners website and smartphone applications."

Click to expand...

I was basing that belief on this quote from the OP's link:

Nissan is also advancing the development of this system so that similar information can also be provided via the Nissan LEAF's on-board navigation system.

Click to expand...

Of course that does not mean they will backport it to our old LEAFs.

grommet said:

So, RegGuheert... don't bet on getting that kWh fix anytime soon unless you can convince your service department to do it under the table. You can try to call Nissan support yourself, and escalate until you turn blue, too.

Click to expand...

Actually, I've had very good luck getting help from Nissan support to achieve a hardware fix even though our car was omitted from the NTB. I may go that route, but it seems it would be in Nissan's best interest to address the accuracy of Carwings. Who knows, perhaps they exclude data from the database uploaded from cars like mine which are not up to a certain firmware revision?

RegGuheert said:

Who knows, perhaps they exclude data from the database uploaded from cars like mine which are not up to a certain firmware revision?

Click to expand...

I believe they could have applied a formula to fix the defective data uploads from old firmware LEAFs for normal CARWINGS, too. (Assuming the LEAF sends which version your car is.) But it's over a year later, and your car continues to put bogus data in the reporting database, doesn't it?

I'll just hope the improved "route planner" team is aware of this bug and actually deals with it (by fixing, or excluding); it's possible they use different data entirely. I don't expect the left and right hands to communicate well with each other at larger companies like Nissan. ;-)

I tried the route planner today to go from the foothills of Granada Hills to Westlake Village (about 31 miles one way). It suggested a fairly bizarre route which I did not completely follow but modified (and which was completely different than the very inefficient route that the car's nav wanted to follow, but which would have been fine for an ICE), and it indicated a low of 8 bars round-trip and a high of 10 with CC. It in fact did take about 10+ doing the route at mostly 55 with CC on for about half of it. The odd thing was, even though the total number of bars was close, it indicated the same number of bars to get there as to get back and that is clearly wrong since it is decidedly downhill to Westlake and uphill back...

Does anyone know how the routes it shows that "42 drove" actually get in to the energy planner database?

This is VERY much alpha software! I tried it this morning and here are my observations.

1) They seem to be assuming these temperatures (F) across the entire U.S.
Jan 57.8
Feb 58.2
Mar 64.9
Apr 71.2
May 73.2
Jun 78.3
Jul 81.7
Aug 82.1
Sep 79.7
Oct 72.4
Nov 61.9
Dec 55.9

This alone tells me Nissan has their head up where the sun doesn't shine with the whole capacity issues being discussed elsewhere. Using this data is absurd.

2) Routes in DFW are just as sparse as others have reported elsewhere in the country. I tried to do a route that probably 90% of people have driven on which I have seen several Leafs including my own and I got 1 out of the database and it was such an absurd and confused route so as to be useless.

3) The energy remaining estimates make me question if they are taking into account capacity losses in the car. I'm going to do some experimentation over the next week.

4) The survey! Anyone taken the survey!? The English on it looks like it was written/translated by a 3 year old. I expect this from some no-name manufacturer of cheap yo-yos buried deep in China but from NISSAN!?