First drive in a new Leaf is going to be a long one

Hi Everyone,

I'm picking up a my new 2013 Nissan Leaf this week at a CarMax dealer 70 miles from my home. There is just one Level 2 charging station I can use along the Interstate about 14 miles towards home, leaving me 56 miles to go. The dealer says that the car has 10 bars.

Is this a bad idea - driving that long out the gate? Any advice I should give the dealer about charging (aside from please charge the car!) before I get there to drive it home?

Thx,

Greg

You do not tell us where you start/stop so we have to answer in a generic way. Keep your speed slow on the interstate. Try for 55 mph but do not exceed 60 mph. This will give you much greater range than going 65 to 70 mph.

Our MY2013 was built in August and after 30,000 miles we have only lost about one or two miles range, almost nothing. So sorry to hear the one you are getting is already down to 10 bars. Also, our Leaf has lots of miles on the bottom of the battery, meaning that when we did our distance run to qualify for the 100 mile club (#77) and the 200 km club (#10), we were using 3 gids per mile for most of the run, but were getting 5 miles per gid at the bottom. This was driving about 20 to 25 mph at the end.

Good luck on your drive. We are still easily able to do an 85 mile trip using mostly Interstate keeping speed down with battery left at the end. Not sure if you can do the 70 mile trip with only 10 bars. Make sure they charge it up on the L2 to 100% and drive as slow as you are comfortable going. Find out if your car still has the Nissan road assist and if you do you can try to make the trip without a recharge, then get the tow home at the end. AAA also works. You can also check Plugshare and see if there is anyone closer to your home you can use if you get too low before getting home.

Greg, where are you located?

I picked up a new 2015 in Fort Myers Fl and drove it 110 miles home at night. I drove without the AC on, windows closed and at 60-65 mph. At that speed we would not have made it. Car was using about 3 Miles/kWh. We stopped with 44 miles remaining displayed and found a L2 charger at a closed Nissan dealer. GPS said we were 64 miles from home. We charged until car said 80 miles remaining. Made it home with only 5 miles remaining on GOM.

If your looking at the one in Clearwater let us know and perhaps we can give you advice.

Worse case, Carmax will transfer the car for no charge to the nearest Carmax near your home for free. That won't do you any good if the one you're buying from is the closest to your home.

If you can use a parallel local road as opposed to the interstate, that will help extend range as you won't be as tempted (or more likely, pressured) into driving fast.

RonDawg said:

If you can use a parallel local road as opposed to the interstate, that will help extend range as you won't be as tempted (or more likely, pressured) into driving fast.

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+1 on that. Be prepared to drive past the two red bars all the way into the --- --- flashing on the dash. I am assuming you do not have Leafspy and OBD2 reader so you cannot use it as a fuel gauge. Do not use heat or A/C. We do not know if the car is at the full ten bars or about to drop to nine bars. My ten bar car would do about 63 miles at 65 mph with full a/c on. Now that it is almost a 8 bars it will go 63 miles with no a/c at speeds up to 45 mph. Headwind also makes a difference. Once you get her home, charge her up and start to enjoy learning all the parameters. We really like are cars! Look at it as an adventure...

ghymel said:

Hi Everyone,

I'm picking up a my new 2013 Nissan Leaf this week at a CarMax dealer 70 miles from my home. There is just one Level 2 charging station I can use along the Interstate about 14 miles towards home, leaving me 56 miles to go. The dealer says that the car has 10 bars.

Is this a bad idea - driving that long out the gate? Any advice I should give the dealer about charging (aside from please charge the car!) before I get there to drive it home?

Thx,

Greg

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Can you give us a start and ending city, at least then we could check the elevation of the drive. Did you get the vehicle that was 2 bars down to save some additional money on the purchase? I haven't read about any 2013 models that were down 2 bars already. You would be the first I've heard about. How many miles does the vehicle have on it currently?

Use cruise control and drive 60 mph down the Interstate to the L2 station, charge up to 100% and drive the rest of the way on 60 mph cruise, you'll make it on that. Switch your display to battery percent charge and reset the trip-meter for distance when you leave the L2 station to gauge how many miles each percent of power is giving you to have a better idea your ability to make it home with the vehicle.

If your drive is mostly downhill, you can probably make the entire trip in one charge.

knightmb said:

I haven't read about any 2013 models that were down 2 bars already. You would be the first I've heard about. How many miles does the vehicle have on it currently?

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There's a 3 BL 2013 at http://www.electricvehiclewiki.com/Real_World_Battery_Capacity_Loss#Loss_of_three_battery_capacity_bars_.2827.5.25.29. Search for 2013 model year.

Wow! Y'all are awesome and so helpful. Sorry I was so vague, I was tired and it was late.

I'm driving a 2013 Leaf SL (it has 11k miles) from Baton Rouge to New Orleans.

I have paid to get the car transferred from Georgia to Louisiana, but aside from the $349, I haven't comitted to buy - but I fully expect to unless something is obviously wrong (# of bars?).

The dealer isn't well educated about EV's and gave some incorrect answers on the phone. I just hope they can charge it fully before I arrive. I doubt they even have an L2 charger at their shop, so how long should I ask them to charge it before I arrive? Can they do harm to the car if they really don't know what they are doing and how would I check?

Also, I hope that they counted the bars incorrectly - esp after several of you say that it should have more than 10 bars? I asked the salesman in Georgia to count the white bars above the red ones. Is that a red flag for a 2013 (from October 2013) with only 11k miles to have just 10 bars? Should I be worried or just not care since I have 3 years to knock the bars down to 8 to get it fixed/replaced?

Thx again for all the help!

Greg in Nawlins.

ghymel said:

Wow! Y'all are awesome and so helpful. Sorry I was so vague, I was tired and it was late.

I'm driving a 2013 Leaf SL (it has 11k miles) from Baton Rouge to New Orleans.

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Ok, mostly flat drive then, good for you on this trip. With a charge station along the way, I don't see any issue making the drive.

I have paid to get the car transferred from Georgia to Louisiana, but aside from the $349, I haven't comitted to buy - but I fully expect to unless something is obviously wrong (# of bars?).

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2 bars missing on a vehicle with only 11k miles would be a concern. Another user posted a chart from another website, the few 2013 models listed for 2 bar loss had nearly triple the miles of this vehicle. The SL is the deluxe trim model, so it has the heat pump for AC/Heat, and various other power saving additions.

The dealer isn't well educated about EV's and gave some incorrect answers on the phone. I just hope they can charge it fully before I arrive. I doubt they even have an L2 charger at their shop, so how long should I ask them to charge it before I arrive? Can they do harm to the car if they really don't know what they are doing and how would I check?

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If they don't have an L2, the L1 it is suppose to come with can top it off (will probably take all day).

Also, I hope that they counted the bars incorrectly - esp after several of you say that it should have more than 10 bars? I asked the salesman in Georgia to count the white bars above the red ones. Is that a red flag for a 2013 (from October 2013) with only 11k miles to have just 10 bars? Should I be worried or just not care since I have 3 years to knock the bars down to 8 to get it fixed/replaced?

Thx again for all the help!

Greg in Nawlins.

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I hope they counted incorrectly as well. Maybe only counted the non-red bars. I don't see any reason other than either abuse or a battery defeat that it should have anything less than full bars at this battery age and mileage. If you go visit to check the vehicle out, be sure to give it a good once over. The Leaf is fairly maintenance free except for keeping air in the tires properly and charging it, but make sure it has everything it is suppose to come with. Such as the L1 EVSE (portable charger and deluxe bag it comes in), towing bar mount (long metal screws to hook towing cables during emergencies), owners manual, (2) key FOB, emergency electrical tire pump and tire sealant (hidden behind little door in back), cargo net, privacy cover (connects to rear door hatch, lifts rear privacy cover), NAV card for GPS (should be, but check map console to make sure it does not give an error message about missing street data).

Any of those things missing from the SL trim, I would ding them on the lowering the price for missing stuff.

Do you have the private link carmax sends you? Could you post it here, it should have some info that we could look over in case we spot something that is a big red flag?

ghymel said:

Wow! Y'all are awesome and so helpful. Sorry I was so vague, I was tired and it was late.

I'm driving a 2013 Leaf SL (it has 11k miles) from Baton Rouge to New Orleans.

I have paid to get the car transferred from Georgia to Louisiana, but aside from the $349, I haven't comitted to buy - but I fully expect to unless something is obviously wrong (# of bars?).

The dealer isn't well educated about EV's and gave some incorrect answers on the phone. I just hope they can charge it fully before I arrive. I doubt they even have an L2 charger at their shop, so how long should I ask them to charge it before I arrive? Can they do harm to the car if they really don't know what they are doing and how would I check?

Also, I hope that they counted the bars incorrectly - esp after several of you say that it should have more than 10 bars? I asked the salesman in Georgia to count the white bars above the red ones. Is that a red flag for a 2013 (from October 2013) with only 11k miles to have just 10 bars? Should I be worried or just not care since I have 3 years to knock the bars down to 8 to get it fixed/replaced?

Thx again for all the help!

Greg in Nawlins.

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It sounds like your car may not be missing any bars after all. The car is supposed to have 10 white bars above 2 red bars when new. I would ask for a picture of the dash, and count for yourself.

Thanks.

I'll get the sales rep to snap a photo of the bars once it arrives in Louisiana.

Anyone have advice on a good outdoor L2 charging station to buy?

Opinions on these 2?

http://www.amazon.com/GE-Charger-Outdoor-Level-2-DuraStation/dp/B00VVFO39W/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1447770062&sr=8-15&keywords=clipper+creek&refinements=p_85%3A2470955011

or

http://www.amazon.com/Siemens-VC30GRYU-Versicharge-Electric-Flexible/dp/B00MFVI92S/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1447770461&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=Siemens+ev+charging+station

When you see the photo, the LONG bars on the left are the state of charge and will show all 12 when fully charged. Maybe it was charged to 80% and showed 10 of these. The SHORT bars on the right are the capacity bars. If there are 12 of them then you are probably okay. The miles remaining (GOM) is an estimate based on the most recent driving habits, so if driven slowly on city streets will show lots of miles, but if driven hard or fast then will show less miles.

Since you are in an area with flat roads you should be able to get very good mileage if you drive slower. To the right of the nav screen the bottom button will give you a menu page. The bottom right allows you to select long life mode (charges to 80%) or off allows 100% charge. The top right shows status and you can reset the miles/kwh so you can track your performance while driving. Selecting the status button on the right of the nav screen will will allow you to see the radio menu on the screen as well as the performance data. Pressing the Status button will allow the bottom of the screen to toggle to other options.

Once again, if you really do have all 12 capacity bars (which I suspect is the case) the GOM will show around 85 miles when fully charged. On the Interstate keep your speed at 55 in cruse control and you will get home with miles remaining. The number of miles you loose by increasing speed by 5 mph will shock you. Just pretend you are a truck in the right lane.

Good Luck.

Thx Graffi,

It seems like the crucial advice is to get the dealer to turn off 'long life' battery mode so they can indeed charge the battery to full capacity before I make the trek from BR to NOLA.

Thanks again!

Greg H.

I agree with the other posters... charge to 100% and your best mileage will be on the highway at about 53 mph. do not use the air or heat. In the US, most places the speed limit is 55, so proudly stay bellow 55. 60 miles is very doable with these tips. the only think that can make it hard is if you have a lot of uphill, which will really knock down your range... good luck.. PS - I would recommend the Schneider electric outdoor model" evlink" evse. It is about $1200 or less but it is built with HEAVY GUAGE steel and is very quick (35% charge per hour). I have the indoor model, and love mine.

Should be an easy drive with no climate control. Do stop along the way for the charge.

I recommend ClipperCreek for your charging needs.

http://www.clippercreek.com