Leaving at the airport for 1 week

I have a trip coming up in March in which I will need to leave my Leaf at the Airport for a week. I have never left it alone that long so I have a couple of questions.

1 - how much battery depletion should I expect from it sitting? If I leave it at 50%, what should I expect it to be at when I come back in 1 week?
2 - Assuming I have to charge it, the Park-n-ride where I park has 120V plugs they make available to EVs. So how can I plug it up with my stock 120V and not have it charge right away? I'm thinking I would just leave it plugged up and send it a message to start charging when I start heading home.

Jefe said:

I have a trip coming up in March in which I will need to leave my Leaf at the Airport for a week. I have never left it alone that long so I have a couple of questions.

1 - how much battery depletion should I expect from it sitting? If I leave it at 50%, what should I expect it to be at when I come back in 1 week?
2 - Assuming I have to charge it, the Park-n-ride where I park has 120V plugs they make available to EVs. So how can I plug it up with my stock 120V and not have it charge right away? I'm thinking I would just leave it plugged up and send it a message to start charging when I start heading home.

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1) I seem to drop a few percent a week when it is not plugged in. If you leave at 50%, don't plug in, and come back I would expect 45%-ish to be safe.

2) You can delay it with a charge timer I suppose. But why bother? One week at 100% isn't going to kill your battery. Just don't leave it for years.

Another option if available is the valet airport parking for EV's. Around here, you valet the car and they park it on their lot un-charged. They know your return flight information (because it is valet) and they charge the vehicle up so it is ready usually the day of or night before you are due to arrive.

If it were me, I'd charge to 60%, and instead of plugging in the EVSE, plug in a little battery tender JR, to keep the 12 volt battery charged. Connect the negative clamp to the top of the motor stack - the part that looks like a valve cover.

Leave it at around 60-70% and leave it. It will be fine for a week.

I did the exam same thing, for 3 times. Here's what happened each time:

1-I charged my car to 100% at home. When we are at the airport, it was around 75%.
2-After coming back from vacation, to my surprise, it was still showing 75%.
3-After I started driving the car, the percentage got into a free fall! I can say that in about 1 to 2 miles, it dropped to 65%!
4-I really panicked and thought that it won't take me home. Before I was thinking that I would be at home at around 50%. No, that did not happen. It was in its 30ies when I got home.

I do these "1 week" airport trips all the time.
As long as you make it to the airport with >=50%, you will make it home fine (assuming you have something like LeafSpy/LeafDD where you can "see" what's buried under LBW).
The good think about these batteries is they have excellent shelf life; plus, the pack will top off the 12v on it's own every 5 days (if you don't leave it plugged into an EVSE).

The longest I ever left my Leaf sitting was 23 days. I left home with all 12 charge bars and 7 were left when I arrived at the off-airport lot. However, when I got back to the car, I noticed that it had lost a charge bar just sitting. I barely made it home even though I took city streets. I live in the foothills so my drive home is always more energy intensive.

A week later I lost the 12th capacity bar, so I was pretty much down 15% by that time.

I got home from a 9 day trip on Sunday to a stone dead 12V battery. The traction battery was fine though.

See my post above.

Aussie said:

I got home from a 9 day trip on Sunday to a stone dead 12V battery. The traction battery was fine though.

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Did you leave a Bluetooth module plugged in to the OBDII port? I have parked at the airport or office numerous times up to 3 weeks at a time and the only issue was one time when I left the Elm unit plugged in to the OBDII port and the Android phone running Leaf Spy on the seat. The 12-volt battery was dead after only a six-day trip. I used my office vehicle to jump start the Leaf and the 12-volt battery was recharged by the time I arrived home. I have never used an external battery charger or tender on either Leaf.

No matter how long the Leaf is parked, the traction battery SOC is nearly the same when I return as when I park. It is usually parked with the charge level between 60% and 70% SOC.

Gerry

GerryAZ said:

Aussie said:

I got home from a 9 day trip on Sunday to a stone dead 12V battery. The traction battery was fine though.

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Did you leave a Bluetooth module plugged in to the OBDII port?

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Yep I left the Wifi OBDII plugged in. I suspect that's what drained it. Lesson learnt.