Turning a New (to me) Leaf

Hey everyone,

Joining the no gas, no oil club for my commuter. If you saw me riding around in this thing, you would not expect me to be one to care much about electric vehicles, let alone emerging technologies. To put it simply, I look like your typical biker. I ride my Dyna in the summer and wanted to keep costs down in the winter, hence the purchase of the Leaf. I'll be honest, I love anything with a motor and am currently building an old Harley Ironhead bobber but the other part of me loves technology when it works in harmony alongside us. My house is all automated all the way down to my sprinklers and water heater and I can't tell you how nice it is to also be able to control my Leaf from my phone/computer. I fully expect this will be a gateway drug to Harley's new electric bike.

A little info.
I am in Salt Lake City, UT
10/28/2015 - Purchased 2012 Nissan Leaf SV with 19,000 miles on it.
Out the door price after tax, title, license $9k
I know it came from the Seattle area as the previous owner history was in the Nav
Has all 12 bars, no degradation as far as I can tell.
42 mile commute daily
Level 1 charging at home and at work
Downloaded LeafSpyPro, waiting on Wifi OBDII module

A few questions:
Does the range fluctuate at 100% charge based on your driving habits (even if you have 12 bars)? I noticed when I first fully charged it at 100% it said my range was 84. After clearing historical data and charging to 100% it shows range at 75 miles at 100% charge.

Its a 2012 Leaf, where can I go to check the software and verify I have current software?

I am a bigger guy, I know this will play into load and range, would I be able to make my commute to and from work without a midday charge? (range anxiety is no joke)

Look forward to all of your insight and will provide as much as I can to this forum as I get used to my "spaceship" as my son calls it.

Congrats. Another newbie from the SL Valley here.

It sounds like you need to get Leaf Spy and take a look at your battery stats. Ours was a 12 bar Leaf until today.

Your 42 miles shouldn't be a problem unless you have to do 75+ highway all the way. Our trips of around 50 miles all highway get "exciting" on the return leg. The range numbers are called the GOM around here- Guess-o-Meter.

Does yours have the ChadeMo quick charger?

To answer your question about the range estimator - AKA "Guess O Meter" - it only uses the last few minutes of driving conditions to estimate range, and is largely useless. It will tend to become more accurate as a trip's end nears, although not always even then. Later Leafs have a state of charge (SOC) indicator as well as the GOM, but you will need to get the already-mentioned Leaf Spy to be able to accurately gauge range, charge, and capacity of your car.

Welcome to the Leaf forum. You will probably want L2 (240-volt) charging at home before long so you can charge fully overnight and preheat the car on line power. You can preheat on L1, but the heater draws more than the charger can supply from 120 volts so the battery will discharge a bit while preheating. 42 miles on a full charge is no problem unless the heater runs too much. Since you have a 2012, you might want to look at some of the threads about taking control of the heater so you can defrost and have fresh air ventilation while minimizing power consumption (someone from Norway is offering a plug-and-play kit for a reasonable price that I would purchase if I still had the 2011). The distance to empty (DTE as Nissan calls it) or guess-o-meter (GOM is what we call it on the forum because it is so inaccurate) is based upon recent driving history so it drops rapidly when you go uphill and increases going downhill. The DTE/GOM would probably be more useful if it had a longer averaging period or if it averaged since the last charge. Leaf Spy will give you much more information than what is available on the dash. The Leaf is a heavy car so the weight of the driver and passengers has very little impact on range.

Electric bikes are a blast to ride with their instant torque. Is the HD available yet?

Roostre said:

Congrats. Another newbie from the SL Valley here.

It sounds like you need to get Leaf Spy and take a look at your battery stats. Ours was a 12 bar Leaf until today.

Your 42 miles shouldn't be a problem unless you have to do 75+ highway all the way. Our trips of around 50 miles all highway get "exciting" on the return leg. The range numbers are called the GOM around here- Guess-o-Meter.

Does yours have the ChadeMo quick charger?

Click to expand...

I have LeafSpy Pro since that is the only option for iPhone. Just waiting on my Wifi adapter for the car.
I wish mine had the ChadeMo, however, for what I am using it for Level 1 charging has been ok. I am assuming I will get impatient at some point and level up . I am looking at the wireless charging platform Plugless. Not sure if anyone around here has experience or not but the option to pull in and not worry about plugging in is a great idea.

I stay in Eco and coast in neutral when I can. Today from Lehi to Taylorsville I arrived with the GOM showing just 5 miles less than what I started with and 12 bars; coasting in neutral down the point of the mountain is a nice little booster. I am only going to charge to 80% at work for battery longevity.

LeftieBiker said:

To answer your question about the range estimator - AKA "Guess O Meter" - it only uses the last few minutes of driving conditions to estimate range, and is largely useless. It will tend to become more accurate as a trip's end nears, although not always even then. Later Leafs have a state of charge (SOC) indicator as well as the GOM, but you will need to get the already-mentioned Leaf Spy to be able to accurately gauge range, charge, and capacity of your car.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. Full charge showed me a longer range today on the GOM. I think LeafSpy is really going to help me out. I like the analytics of things.

GerryAZ said:

Welcome to the Leaf forum. You will probably want L2 (240-volt) charging at home before long so you can charge fully overnight and preheat the car on line power. You can preheat on L1, but the heater draws more than the charger can supply from 120 volts so the battery will discharge a bit while preheating. 42 miles on a full charge is no problem unless the heater runs too much. Since you have a 2012, you might want to look at some of the threads about taking control of the heater so you can defrost and have fresh air ventilation while minimizing power consumption (someone from Norway is offering a plug-and-play kit for a reasonable price that I would purchase if I still had the 2011). The distance to empty (DTE as Nissan calls it) or guess-o-meter (GOM is what we call it on the forum because it is so inaccurate) is based upon recent driving history so it drops rapidly when you go uphill and increases going downhill. The DTE/GOM would probably be more useful if it had a longer averaging period or if it averaged since the last charge. Leaf Spy will give you much more information than what is available on the dash. The Leaf is a heavy car so the weight of the driver and passengers has very little impact on range.

Electric bikes are a blast to ride with their instant torque. Is the HD available yet?

Click to expand...

I have learned it's better to keep an eye on the 12 bars than the GOM, until of course I get my adapter to use with LeafSpy.

Project LiveWire from Harley is still in testing but they have been letting people road test it. Haven't been lucky enough to do that quite yet.

I live in SL too, how/where did you find the 2012 that you purchased? Seems like you got a good deal.