range display all over the place?

I'm guessing that this will stabilize over time but I am a new leaf owner.

Today is Wednesday and I bought the car on Sunday. When I picked up the car, the dealer screwed up and did not have the car fully charged. It was annoying but he owned up to the mistake and everyone makes mistakes so I guess it's all good. They were charging another Leaf that was a similar color instead of mine. It was only at around 40% charge. Meanwhile I was in a bit of a rush + I purchased the car at a dealer that is a bit of a ways from my house (better deal) + had plans to go to a friend's house after picking up the car.

The dealer has an L3 charger so we put it on that for about 15 minutes and the car got up to 80%. The range on the car said something like 45 miles. I was expecting it to be higher (like 60+ miles at 80%).

Anyway, I drove and had some range anxiety because I was on the freeway and went about 5 miles when it said that I only had around 30 miles left. I live about 20 miles from the dealership and my friend's house is about 15 miles from the dealership. I put the car into eco mode, drove slower, coasted when I could, etc. and made it to my friend's house with about 18 miles left in range.

I drove home later (about 7 miles away) and had around 11 miles left in range (again, drove in eco, etc.).

I charged and after about 5 hours of charging in L2, it looked fully charged but the range only said 60 miles at 100%. This was Monday night.

On Tuesday, I drove about 25 miles and the range was down to about 30. I charged again on Tuesday night to 100% and the range said 72 miles of range.

Why is there such a discrepancy in the reported range on the dash? My theories:

1) The batteries have to fully charge and break in and balance, etc...and then you get more range. It takes 5-10 cycles to get this done.
2) The car learns your driving patterns and adjusts...so if you drive at 35 mph every day all the time, you'll get range that says 100 miles but if you drive at 70mph on the freeway all the time, your 100% range will say 60 miles, etc.

Is this normal?

You will learn why we call it the guess-o-meter... It is notoriously inaccurate and is highly affected by what the car was doing in very recent miles... Best to use it only as a very coarse guide...

Yep, any references to "Guess-O-Meter" or "GOM" are earned!

@RVD - dig through the forums for tony's range chart or d/l the nissan leaf range estimator by nikpix (android). this will help you factor in state of charge, distance, elevation, temperature, and speed/mile per kwh. Elevation and speed can be killers for range. the experience of sudden drop in range at highway speeds is normal. the best speed is below 60 mph when safely possible. if you drive 70+ mph you will definitely have shortened range. over time you'll learn how far on how many bars you can go.

welcome to the club

One of the biggest reasons for the apparent randomness of the GOM is because it predicts your range based on the last trip. I think this is a mistake because if you live at the bottom of a hill then it will always overestimate your range in the morning (for example). I have modified my DTE to make predictions based on round trip efficiency (that is I track ones efficiency from when you leave home until you return). In this way any elevation impact is nulled out of the formula and you get a far better estimation of your true range when you leave. Until the Leaf computer can predict what your route will be and knows all elevation information, traffic speed, weather, etc, the driver will still have to judge the value up or down based on these variables but I think if Nissan will make this one change to their DTE it will help a lot [hint, hint ].

I find the range indicator to be a very valuable tool for taking a trip if you understand it's limitations. If you drive awhile at the speed you will be going before reading the number, the indication gets pretty accurate, provided your route is flat. As you drive, monitor this indication and compare it with how many miles you have to go as shown on your gps. As long as the first is greater than the second plus a margin, you are doing fine. If they start to converge, you have to change something. Drive slower, turn off the heater, or find another charging spot. If you know a big hill is coming, you need to leave a bigger margin, because it will get eaten up while ascending the hill. As you are climbing the hill, the numbers will get closer, and they might even go to the point where the miles on the indicator is less than the gps, but it will come around as you flatten out. You have to keep an eye on that range indicator and your gps all the time and catch the convergence of the numbers early while you can still do something about it.

Hi RVD, welcome to electric driving!

Your experience of the GOM is pretty much what all new EV drivers have, a "what the f**k is that" moment. Once you figure out how to estimate your range, and you will, you'll be much more comfortable.

lol yes it was a bit of a WTF moment when i quickly realized that i might not make it home if i kept driving the way that i was driving.

GOM sounds appropriate although it seems like it should start at a consistent number and over time I'll figure out what it really means. e.g., it starts at 90 but I know it will go down faster when I'm driving 70 or will go down slowly if i'm only driving 30 for awhile. if it's always adjusting like now, i'm not quite sure what to make of it other than pretty much ignore it and just the time to 100% charge as an indicator.

anyway, this is fun stuff and i am enjoying the car. i have a few minor complaints but they are very minor and basically worth ignoring.

It's fun to push it to the limits of its pessimism and optimism. I climbed a local peak and it told me I had 13 miles remaining. By the time I got back to the bottom it said I had 69 miles remaining. Brain in a jar; don't know nothin'.

One of the readings I like to use is the Miles/KWh average. Typically I am getting about 3.6-4.2 depending on where I go. That and the percentage battery reading is sometimes a good indicator. If I have 80% battery and only want to go to 30% that is half the battery or 12KWh. For me that is about 40-45 miles. Less if I use the heater a lot.

Of course, as you are learning it varies depending on your driving style and where you are going.

If you like to lead foot it on the highway you will pay in range. Easy to drop to about 3 M/KWh. If you are driving locally on flat roads around 35-40 it can be higher.

You will soon get a feel for how you drive and where you go and your level of anxiety will start to drop.

you need to adjust your figures for range using percent charge and miles per KWH as the battery degrades. An older car no longer has a 22 KWH battery.

GOM is a bit of a roller coaster until you get down to about 20 miles.
Enjoy the ride

RVD said:

...GOM sounds appropriate although it seems like it should start at a consistent number and over time I'll figure out what it really means. e.g., it starts at 90 but I know it will go down faster when I'm driving 70 or will go down slowly if i'm only driving 30 for awhile. if it's always adjusting like now, i'm not quite sure what to make of it other than pretty much ignore it and just the time to 100% charge as an indicator...

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Unless you are willing to get a Gid meter of some sort (which will tell you how much actual energy you have in the battery) your best bet is to use your % State of Charge (SOC) meter on the dash and ignore the GOM. You will rapidly get used to how many % you use to make each trip under various weather and driving conditions. Just be aware that as the battery degrades each percent displayed will gradually represent slightly less energy and, therefore, range.

If you live in the flatlands, as many here do, you can get the GOM to sort of be useful once you learn its quirks. If you live in the mountains, as I do, it is absolutely, utterly, useless! My "personal best" GOM reading, 14.5 miles into a trip:


For me the GOM has nothing but entertainment value!