How often do you charge?

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coach81

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 29, 2012
Messages
147
Location
Louisiana
So Leaf owners.. how often do you have to charge your leaf? I know it depends on use, but if you have a minimal day of use (20 miles or less), do you still charge it overnight back to a full charge, or do you just let it go down to low levels before you charge it?

Should you charge it ever night? What is better for the battery?
 
If your daily drive is nice and regular, then work out how much energy it uses on average (I just use the dash energy economy meter and trip odo), and then figure out how much time your charger needs to replace that energy. Specify both a start AND end time so that your car charges for at least that long, during your power utility's lowest-price time that's still prior to your daily departure. Activate that timer for every day of the week that you expect to be a "typical drive" day. Depending on how much ten-minute "rounding up" you had to do on the charge time, the car's charge level will slowly ratchet up over many days. When it gets high enough that you can make two days' drive and still have some comfort margin (40% charge, say) remaining, skip plugging in that night; otherwise, just plug in every night. If you're just changing over to this policy from a "let the car charge 100% every day" one, let the charge burn off as previously stated before resuming the nightly plug-in.

If you've got a 2nd-gen (2018+) LEAF, its charge timers include a feature whereby they'll automatically be disabled anytime the car is away from its GPS "home" location. I was astonished that Nissan's designers would add something that useful after only five years of begging on the forums, but I really recommend it; you won't need to remember to hit the "timer override" button if you ever need to use a public L1/L2 charger. Another benefit: if someone has to unplug/replug your car, charging will resume (at least, it COULD, depending on the arrangements on the EVSE itself).

And of course, if your weekends are equally repeatable but with a different typical driving distance, you can configure the other timer for them.
 
I was much more careful with the 2012. With the 2015 I tend to put it on the plug most days after driving. It's not the best approach for longevity but I bought the car to use it and I don't want to be stuck with insufficient range in the event the need crops up. I charge to 100 percent and sometimes days go by. It has probably cost me a few percentage points but at the end of 3 1/2 years of lease I had 12 bars and battery was in sufficiently good shape for me to purchase the vehicle.
 
Right now I charge once a week during the work week and 2-3 times on my weekends (which is 3 days) all on QC. Come Winter, I will likely switch to 1-2 hours per day during work week and as needed during weekends.

I haven't spent a second over 75% SOC in several weeks.
 
I charge my B when the dash meter shows 75%T.

This is 75% of 80%.

When I had my Leaf's I charged to 80% also'

Current Leaf's and my eGolf charged to 100%. Charging fully makes for better EPA numbers but early Leaf's were told to only charge to 80%. Mercedes is very conservative and does not allow the battery to be fully charged.
 
All my charging is level 1. I typically charge when I get under 40%. I charge from a 120v outlet in a parking garage at work, which usually gets me back to around 80%. My commute is 25 miles round trip, and I usually end-up charging 2 – 3 times per week. I do charge to 100% about once a month.
 
I got my 2018 in September, so I haven't had many charge sessions, but I try to limit my Level 2 charges at home. I have been testing the limits on the battery, to see how low I can safely go before charging it over night. I haven't been driving much, since I started working from home, so I haven't needed to charge much.

However, while on the road, I try to check out local Level 2 chargers to see how to use them, how fast they charge, etc. I typically limit my stay on these chargers to 1 hour; so far I've hit 4 of them, each on a separate day. I expect to explore more.

The Nissan manual says to limit the amount of CHAdeMO quick charges, since they can stress the battery if performed too often. I don't see a need for quick charges unless I do long distance driving. I rarely do long distance driving.

From what I have read about Li-ion batteries, their ideal operation is at 20 - 80% capacity, which is why many people try to limit the charge on their EVs to 80%. However, I have seen graphs from studies that show operation at 10 - 90% capacity does not take much life away from a battery, so that is the range I typically aim for on my phone and EV. BatteryUniversity.com is a good site for more info.

Also, the car's charge timer "Home" feature was mentioned in a reply post. That "Home" feature is only available in Leaf trims with Navigation. Mine is the Leaf S trim, so I don't Navigation or that "Home" feature. I use the charge timer, though, and hitting the override button is simple enough, since it is located next to the charge port lid button.
 
On most work days, I charge every day. Since I have a '13, I can limit it to 80%. My routine on most Mon to Thurs are: go to work, charge to 80% at work, go home and go back to work, charge to 80% at work, etc. Since charging at my work has become real busy, I tend to not plug in until after at least 5 pm. By then, nobody's in the queue to charge and it limits how much time my car spends at 80%.

If I were to charge to 100% at work, I can go home, to work, home and then work again before charging at work.

On some days, after work, I charge to 100% if I need to somewhere in the opposite direction of work.

On Fridays, I normally charge to 100% at work and try to also charge at free public L2 charging on the way home to at least 95% (will leave at some point when the car is ramping down charging speed per Leaf Spy Pro). Weekends are irregular but those are the days I tend to keep it at high SoC from picking up free juice. On Sunday night, I only care about having enough to make it to work, say 20 to 2%. 25% is more than enough make it to work on a dry day, even w/unexpected detours. I go to maybe 28 to 30% on cold rainy days.
 
My Leaf is my largest cell phone on wheels that I own and I treat it as such. When I get somewhere with an outlet, I plug it in. If I drive down the hill and back for a grocery run and come back at 94%, I plug it in. Move the car in the driveway and it is still at 100%, plug it back in and let it re-balance. Life is too short to care or worry about battery longevity. After the 35k or 37k miles (haven't checked in a while) it is at, I still get 80-85 miles of VERY SPIRITED and routinely high speed driving (speed limit is 75mph posted, traffic flows at 5-15mph faster than that) per charge on nice day with all bars, but probably not for long.

If I lived on the equator I may treat it differently but it is just not worth it. 5-7 years of worry and hassle to prolong battery life by 20%? At current replacement rates ($8500) that's $1700. I'll pay $1700 to not worry about it and just drive the darn thing. And in my specific case being at above 85% at this age versus those that have spent a car's-life of worry means I am equal. So it has cost me nothing to not care.
 
If I drive down the hill and back for a grocery run and come back at 94%, I plug it in. Move the car in the driveway and it is still at 100%, plug it back in and let it re-balance. Life is too short to care or worry about battery longevity.

You are putting more work into abusing the battery than most people do to pamper it. But hey, different strokes...
 
I charge 2 or 3 times a week at work. Usually the SOC is in 10-20% range when I charge and I try to stop it around 80-85% but sometimes I forget and it gets up to mid-90's%. I've charged to 100% probably 5 times since I bought the car a year ago. I occasionally charge on weekends near a coffee shop I frequent at free L2 site, mainly because it's easy to park there ;).

I've charged twice at home with the supplied trickle charger but both times were within a month of buying the car and since then I haven't needed to do that. I've done 2 or 3 DCQC's at the dealer when I was running low but I only put in about 20-40% charge. Basically just enough to get me back to work Monday for the free L2 charging.
 
2k1Toaster said:
My Leaf is my largest cell phone on wheels that I own and I treat it as such. When I get somewhere with an outlet, I plug it in. If I drive down the hill and back for a grocery run and come back at 94%, I plug it in. Move the car in the driveway and it is still at 100%, plug it back in and let it re-balance. Life is too short to care or worry about battery longevity. After the 35k or 37k miles (haven't checked in a while) it is at, I still get 80-85 miles of VERY SPIRITED and routinely high speed driving (speed limit is 75mph posted, traffic flows at 5-15mph faster than that) per charge on nice day with all bars, but probably not for long.

If I lived on the equator I may treat it differently but it is just not worth it. 5-7 years of worry and hassle to prolong battery life by 20%? At current replacement rates ($8500) that's $1700. I'll pay $1700 to not worry about it and just drive the darn thing. And in my specific case being at above 85% at this age versus those that have spent a car's-life of worry means I am equal. So it has cost me nothing to not care.

Your post is a contradiction. I will say its not much of a hassle to plug in a car but to do so EVERY TIME you move it would start to grate on my nerves. I do agree that I charge my car like my cellphone and that is... when its convenient and I remember to do it. I have power packs lying around nearly everywhere in case I forget to charge in the car, the den, the bedroom or the living room (all of which have power outlets with cabling all ready to go)

But despite all that, my phone has seen 100% a half dozen times in 13ish months (Its a Pixel XL2 so whenever it came out) and all those were by accident. I generally want to charge it to the low 90's and plug it in when it goes below 30%.

Same with my car. So last charging sessions in reverse order;

Wed; QC 34 mins to 74% (normally not that long but was showing someone LEAF Spy so naturally had to check his car and compare numbers, etc. )
Tues; L2 90 mins to 41%
Mon; L2 90 mins to 51%
Sat; QC 22 mins to 82%
Wed QC 20 mins to 62%
Tues QC 12 mins to 65%
Sat QC to 74%


FYI; Only drove 933 miles in Sept. First time under 1000 miles since July 2015 (was out of town 2½ weeks that month) Would have been over 1000 miles but last minute transpo change removed a 250 mile trip from the itinerary.

I was forced to endure the "Triple Whammy"

Drove an SUV
that was a diesel
and a Chevy
:shock:
 
DaveinOlyWA said:
Same with my car. So last charging sessions in reverse order;

Wed; QC 34 mins to 74% (normally not that long but was showing someone LEAF Spy so naturally had to check his car and compare numbers, etc. )
Tues; L2 90 mins to 41%
Mon; L2 90 mins to 51%
Sat; QC 22 mins to 82%
Wed QC 20 mins to 62%
Tues QC 12 mins to 65%
Sat QC to 74%

That's a lot of quick-charging sessions. Given that you are only charging every other day on average, do you not have somewhere to charge at home? Or are you just trying to take full advantage of free public charging?
 
GetOffYourGas said:
DaveinOlyWA said:
Same with my car. So last charging sessions in reverse order;

Wed; QC 34 mins to 74% (normally not that long but was showing someone LEAF Spy so naturally had to check his car and compare numbers, etc. )
Tues; L2 90 mins to 41%
Mon; L2 90 mins to 51%
Sat; QC 22 mins to 82%
Wed QC 20 mins to 62%
Tues QC 12 mins to 65%
Sat QC to 74%

That's a lot of quick-charging sessions. Given that you are only charging every other day on average, do you not have somewhere to charge at home? Or are you just trying to take full advantage of free public charging?

Cheaping out!! Before, I charged away from home a lot because I was away from home a lot! Now my weekly commute consists of less than 2/3rds of a single charge. As far as charging options at home, I have 4 EVSEs and they all work just fine. :)

The recent spate of L2 charges is due simply to weather not being convenient to me parking and walking which is a HUGE consideration for me. But I also am not in the area where I used to park, charge and walk (covered) as much any more and the more convenient options are simply not walkable in badder weather.

Right now I am roughly 135 L3, 95 L2. 2 months ago, it was closer to 115 L3, 50 L2....
 
Enjoy it while you can! I for one hope for EVs to soon make up a significant portion of new vehicle sales. If that happens, free public charging will either disappear completely or having long lines to access.
 
GetOffYourGas said:
Enjoy it while you can! I for one hope for EVs to soon make up a significant portion of new vehicle sales. If that happens, free public charging will either disappear completely or having long lines to access.

Nearly all my free charging is primarily NCTC so that finish line is in sight....28 months from now! There are a few freebie L2's the State provides but are rarely convenient for me. One is a few blocks from the theater 4 miles from my house but with another theater 9 miles from my house with reserved recliners at the same or lower price I only go there if I get a gift card for them or something like that.
 
Ah. I never qualified for NCTC. Nissan didn't offer it in 2012 when I bought my Leaf, and Chevy doesn't have a program like that for Bolt drivers.

The problem I have is that several DCQC on which I rely for my trips are freebies installed by NYS. They put them in new "welcome centers" - one on the border with PA, one by Niagara Falls, and one at the edge of the Adirondack park. Being free, I fully expect them to either be out of order or have long lines very shortly.
 
GetOffYourGas said:
Ah. I never qualified for NCTC. Nissan didn't offer it in 2012 when I bought my Leaf, and Chevy doesn't have a program like that for Bolt drivers.

The problem I have is that several DCQC on which I rely for my trips are freebies installed by NYS. They put them in new "welcome centers" - one on the border with PA, one by Niagara Falls, and one at the edge of the Adirondack park. Being free, I fully expect them to either be out of order or have long lines very shortly.

Yeah that is the ongoing issue with free. I rarely bother with those types of situations. It used to be easy for me when I was literally out at all hours of the day but now that I have a "regular" job, I am usually only out when everyone else is.
 
Until someone like EA or EVGo opens a few more stations, I have no choice but to depend on these. They are the only ones available. The alternative is L2, but who wants to sit at an L2 for hours in the middle of a road trip?
 
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