2015 charging to 100% ?

Just got my 2015 Leaf S two days ago. Love it so far. It's a bummer the Carwings doesn't work on the S model. I have read a lot and haven't gained clarity on the risks or benefits of charging to 100%. I have read about the recommendation to not fully charge the batteries to 100%. Is that recommendation related to older models? Do the 15's offer better batteries that can handle being charged 100% on a regular basis? When I first charged my Leaf it said like 13 hours to get to 100% charge via 110 plug. I charged for 8 hours and it was at 100% and stopped charging on its own. I am confused a lot by the blogs I have read that indicate that it's a bad idea to charge to 100%. They also say that you have to manually stop it charging or it will continue charging after reaching a full charge. It would be easier for me to charge to 100%, but I want my Leaf to last, as I have purchase her. Any recommendations for longevity would be much appreciated. Thanks for your time and consideration.
Erik
2015 S
Olympia, WA

There's been plenty of debate on this. http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=15526" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; is one thread. DaveinOlyWA posted his thoughts at http://daveinolywa.blogspot.com/2014/10/80-charging-why-i-dont-miss-it-and-why.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

I posted some thoughts at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=376383#p376383" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. It seems clear Nissan removed the 80% charge option to do better on the EPA range rating: http://insideevs.com/2014-nissan-leaf-mostly-unchanged-as-range-technically-moves-up-to-84-miles/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. The vast majority of potential EV customers will NOT know the back story and 84 miles simply sounds better than 75 miles vs. all the other competing BEVs.

Here are some example EPA range ratings for other BEVs. Again, think about it from the above point of view. Customer has no idea about the stupid averaging and only sees/hears these numbers.
'13 Leaf: 75 miles
'14+ Leaf: 84 miles
Fiat 500e: 87 miles
VW e-Golf: 83 miles
Chevy Spark EV: 82 miles
BMW i3 BEV: 81 miles
Ford Focus Electric: 76 miles

It was likely their primary reason. As for others, yeah there might've been other reasons but I doubt they were as high up on the list.

I wish either ALL vehicles were bit by the 80%/100% averaging or NONE are. At least there'd be some uniformity to the ratings instead of this mess.

If I owned a Leaf that didn't have the 80% option, I would prefer to avoid keeping it up 100% for long and would try to avoid charging it up that high often, if I didn't need to. My commute's only 12 miles each way. Charging only to 80% each day is more than enough for me. At work, on Friday, I definitely go to 100% to pick up as much free juice as possible for the weekend... And, I'm leasing.

Probably the most common view is that charging to 100% is fine, as long as the car doesn't sit that way for more than a few hours, especially in hot weather.

+1^. In your climate, it may not make much difference.

It may even be better as going to 100% lets it balance the cells more thoroughly.

The majority of my charges are to 100% and at 7 months, 7k miles, my '15 hasn't registered any degradation yet.

myskibum said:

They also say that you have to manually stop it charging or it will continue charging after reaching a full charge.

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I can assure you that your Leaf will NOT continue to charge the battery once it reaches 100%. :roll: What it does do is go into an equalization cycle, to balance all the cells, which is a good thing. There are a couple other factors here:
1. How much charge do you need for your commute? The answer you give may make a difference on the way you set your timers. If it really bothers you, you can find ways to work around it, like setting only an END timer for shortly before you leave for work. But, as others have said, in your climate battery life has never been much of an issue, so you may have little reason for concern.
2. As we are finding out, there is a lot we have to learn about the new 2015 battery chemistry. Also, a 100% charge isn't really 100%, as Nissan does reserve a portion of the capacity. We do know that to date the biggest battery killer has been heat, which is why Nissan tweaked the chemistry, so I think it is going to be quite a while until we see what the predominate causes of degradation are to the new 2015 batteries. 100% charging may be a minor issue, maybe not. We have at least one example now of a 2015 Leaf that had a degraded battery when purchased, but after lots of 100% charges it is back to almost 100% SOH. Several other 2015 owners have reported that there SOH got better after several QC's, so maybe this new chemistry needs/likes heavier charging. Only time will tell, as only Nissan knows, and they aren't talking.

As others have said, in your climate don't worry about it. Charge and drive. Just don't leave it charged at 100% for an extended period (days, not hours). If you want to maximize your EV benefit, drive lots of miles in the shortest number of years. The battery will degrade whether driven or not. With my low annual mileage (~7000 mi) I won't see the same financial benefit as TaylorSFGuy, who is over 135,000 mi by now. It will take me 20 years to drive what he's done in less than 4 years.
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=19174&p=412967#p412967

With our 2012 I was diligent about using the 80% charge feature. How could one not be, when Nissan labeled it the "long life charge mode"? And especially when the packs turned out to be anything but long-lived, one quite naturally would imagine dire consequences to 100% charging.

But along the way it turned out that the people who "babied" their packs with 80% charging didn't seem to fare much better than others anyway.

So, did Nissan callously discard the 80% mode because of EPA and advertising notions, or did they discard it because it just didn't matter enough to worry about?

I decided it was the latter, and I must say I'm enjoying the 2015. Not only does the pack seem to be more robust, it's like I got an instant 20% boost in capacity over the 2012! Time will tell, but for now I'm lovin' it.

I do still use an end-time charge timer to minimize the amount of time sitting at 100%. Then again if Saturday comes and we end up not driving the car, I don't lose any sleep over it.

Nubo said:

With our 2012 I was diligent about using the 80% charge feature. How could one not be, when Nissan labeled it the "long life charge mode"? And especially when the packs turned out to be anything but long-lived, one quite naturally would imagine dire consequences to 100% charging.

But along the way it turned out that the people who "babied" their packs with 80% charging didn't seem to fare much better than others anyway.

So, did Nissan callously discard the 80% mode because of EPA and advertising notions, or did they discard it because it just didn't matter enough to worry about?

I decided it was the latter, and I must say I'm enjoying the 2015. Not only does the pack seem to be more robust, it's like I got an instant 20% boost in capacity over the 2012! Time will tell, but for now I'm lovin' it.

I do still use an end-time charge timer to minimize the amount of time sitting at 100%. Then again if Saturday comes and we end up not driving the car, I don't lose any sleep over it.

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The first year I charge exclusively to 80% with an occasional charge to 100% for balancing. This resulted in an Amp Hour reading of 57.8 and SOH of 87.3. I have been charging since November 2014 to 100% and now have an average reading of 60.5 AH and SOH of 91%. You be the judge! I will be returning to an 80% charge once the weather gets warm ( battery temp of about 60 to 65 degrees and higher) will see if the #'s change when that happens. Increase in range with warmer ambient temp, so no need to go to 100% unless necessary.

Hello from Edinburgh, Scotland. I'm perhaps an imposter here as I've just enjoyed my first week with the Leaf's big brother the e-NV200 combi (or Evalia in some markets) but it does share many of the Leaf battery and drive components. I bought an October 2014 ex-demonstrator car and there were two cars, on offer from different dealers. One of them mentioned turning the charge down to 80%, the other not. I presume I'll do no harm dropping to 80% but with the reduced mileage of the heavier car I would be happier having a higher charge for higher mileage days to keep a little in reserve. Hot weather is not an issue in Scotland, very often, though temperatures around freezing are very common for many months in the winter. If anyone would care to comment, I would be grateful and if my post deserves to be bumped for being non Leaf, I'll understand.

ElectricEddy said:

The first year I charge exclusively to 80% with an occasional charge to 100% for balancing. This resulted in an Amp Hour reading of 57.8 and SOH of 87.3. I have been charging since November 2014 to 100% and now have an average reading of 60.5 AH and SOH of 91%.

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I mostly did 80% charging of my 2011 the first 1 1/2 years.
Went to 100% charge just before leaving the following year.
With two bars capacity loss I usually just charge to 100% and don't worry about it now.

Have also observed that 100% charging and lots of DCQC has raised SOH sometimes.

Most of the reported data says 100% charging has much less negative impact than Nissan first warned.

amedinburgh said:

Hello from Edinburgh, Scotland. I'm perhaps an imposter here as I've just enjoyed my first week with the Leaf's big brother the e-NV200 combi (or Evalia in some markets) but it does share many of the Leaf battery and drive components. I bought an October 2014 ex-demonstrator car and there were two cars, on offer from different dealers. One of them mentioned turning the charge down to 80%, the other not. I presume I'll do no harm dropping to 80% but with the reduced mileage of the heavier car I would be happier having a higher charge for higher mileage days to keep a little in reserve. Hot weather is not an issue in Scotland, very often, though temperatures around freezing are very common for many months in the winter. If anyone would care to comment, I would be grateful and if my post deserves to be bumped for being non Leaf, I'll understand.

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Well, aren't you lucky! Not only do you get to live in one of the most beautiful places on the planet, but you get to drive an eNV200 before we do. Really, it's just a LEAF van. Welcome, and congratulations. Heat not an issue in Scotland is quite an understatement. As long as you don't leave it at 100% for days on end, you'll be fine.

P.S. Check out http://www.leaftalk.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

My car came without it's SD card and now I have it, there is indeed an on screen menu setting for the 80% called "long life mode" so it could well be an issue for the e-NV200 too.

amedinburgh said:

... there is indeed an on screen menu setting for the 80% called "long life mode" so it could well be an issue for the e-NV200 too.

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Someone stated in some MNL thread that the 80% charge option was only dropped in the US on model year 2014 LEAF forward.

To know whether 100% charging has much adverse impact on battery capacity Nissan would need to share their results they are accumulating from the annual battery "test".
But unlikely they will do that.

Dr. StrangeLEAF or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Charge