Regen after long descent

I went a pretty hilly route today and on the way down the 2nd really steep descent in B I noticed regen halved to about 15 kw and even if I pressed the brake it would not increase.

I stopped the car and lifted the hood and did not notice anything warm, so head couldn't have been the issue, not by touch anyway.

It's pretty remarkable not a bit of heat from such climbs and descents !

The brake disks were hot but not roasting and the battery temp didn't go beyond 5 bars.

On the final descent there was no issue but it wasn't as steep or long. Any reason this would happen ?

What percent charged was the battery when it went from (how much) to 15 Kw?

Were you watching it the whole time? Curious if the change phased in at all.

It was around 48% at the top of the hill and about 53 % at the bottom.

It was at or very close to the full 30 Kw , not sure for exactly how long. It went then to 15 Kw max and even if I pressed the brake pedal would not go beyond 15 kw and I knew by the feel of the car it was picking up speed and the friction brakes were being applied. It's a shame I forgot to hook up leafspy !

Interesting. I have thought about taking "sparky" up the Mount Washington Auto Road and wondered how much charge I would get back on the decent (4,618 ft (1,408 m) in 7.6 mi (12.2 km)).

That's about 400-500 meter higher than what I was up today.

That was my 2nd climb but after about 1 hr 30 mins rest.

I got back about 10% total regen from the whole trip 114 Kms or about 71 miles. I feared I would not make it and this is the first time I took the chance. I had 21% battery left.

Speed was around 60-80 Kmh (around 40-50 mph) and some faster short stints maybe 55-60 max. I was quiet surprised that the hills did not have a big impact on range, no doubt helped by regen but also by the fact you don't need to use power to come back down, regen stops you speeding up on the descent but still puts something back to the battery.

I drove in eco and did not floor it much but it's really hard to have to restrain yourself from using all that torque, it flies up hills. At one really steep stretch I took it out of eco and floored it for a few seconds, Great fun but I had to stop. Fun car on narrow twisty roads.

Still amazed how much muscle for such a small motor and pulling about 1400 Kg + 2 people up steep hills, and climbing steep hills with no gear shifting and engine screaming the leaf just gets on with the job effortlessly and with no heat, it really shows how ancient ICE tech really is !

I live on a mountain, at elevation 6100' / 1870m, and sometimes use the LEAF to go down to the valley below, at 1200' / 365m.

Regen is always an issue with my "10 bar" capacity battery, unless I start down with a low SOC.

After long stretches of continuous regen, the LEAF further limits regen. Going from 30 kW down to 15 kW isn't that surprising.

Yogi62 said:

Interesting. I have thought about taking "sparky" up the Mount Washington Auto Road and wondered how much charge I would get back on the decent (4,618 ft (1,408 m) in 7.6 mi (12.2 km)).

Click to expand...

Maybe this kills two birds with one stone, so to speak...

I have taken my MY13 SV up MT Washington a few times now, and EVery time, it consumes ~40% charge (and miles) to reach the summit, and regenerates ~20% (and miles) on the way back down.

Mountains are no match for these cars!

P.S. Side note to yogi, your car is very close in build date to mine!