How many miles per hour of charging at level 2?

I have done a fair amount of searching but yet to find much info.

On a 2012 Leaf with a 3.3 KW charger if I am on the road and I plug in for an hour (a reasonable lunch!) how many extra miles will I get?

I am fortunate in Montreal that there are a lot of charging stations around but I am thinking of trying a drive to Ottawa which is just out of range and am thinking of stopping part way to charge.

I would be staying overnight and there is a level 2 at my destination so I would do the same on the return.

4 days so far with the Leaf and loving it!

(I will post in the intro section soon!)

2012 Leaf SL

12-15 miles per hr of charge is what I usually see. YMMV.

I use 12 mph for planning.

BTW, I envy your Sun Country Highway projrct. Plan to get up there this fall and give it a run.

I usually get 14 or 15 miles per hour of L2 charging in my 2012 Leaf, but I agree that 12 for planning purposes is a good idea.

It depends on how efficiently you drive, and whether you use the heater or air conditioner.

A 3.3kW charger puts 3.3kWh/hour into the battery. If you get 3 m/kWh, that's 3.3 x 3 = ~10 miles. If you get 5 m/kWh that's 3.3 x 5 = ~17 miles.

What do you expect to see on your m/kWh gauge for the trip (assuming you reset it)?

Ray

In my 2012 Leaf I've been getting up to 25 miles of range an hour per hour charge lately. I used to figure 17 miles for every hour charge. Hummmm?

Unless you're getting 8 miles per kWh, that's impossible. The 2012 can't put more than ~3kw/hr into the battery.

I suppose if you're DC quick charging (i.e. NOT "level 2") then this **might** be realistic... but otherwise this number isn't correct.

12 miles/19 km is best for planning. It is actually a little faster if you're at the bottom of the back compared to topping off the top of the pack so you might see 15 miles/hour at the bottom and 8 miles/hour at the top.

I am researching the possibility of using a Leaf for a drivers ed program. The Leaf would need to run about 60 miles over a 2 hour period, then recharge for 2 hours and be ready for another 2 hours. This cycle would repeat 3 times for a total of 180 miles per day. It would get a full charge over night.

The Leaf would be a 2013 with the 6.6kw charger. The cooling AC would be required most of the time. The area is mostly flat and it would be mostly city/residential driving.

This would be the ideal scenario.
1. charge over night.
2. out for 60 miles, return with 10-20% left
3. charge 6.6kw for 2 hours to reach 80%
4. out for 60 miles, return with 5-10% left
5. charge 6.6kw for 2 hours to reach 75%
6. out for 60 miles, return with 0% left
7. repeat step 1

Is this feasible?
How accurate is the estimated to empty?
Don

Short answer: No.

You want to run 180 miles on one full charge + four hours of charging. Mostly residential will help, but young people just learning to drive will hurt badly. I'm guessing you might get 3 m/kWh. That means you need 60 kWh per day. In a new LEAF you start out with about 21 kWh, so would have to pick up about 39 kWh in your four hours of charging, even if you ran the car clear to empty at the end of the day, which you don't want to do.

So you would have to use a 10 kW charging rate, which the on-board charger doesn't support. The only way to do it would be to have a Quick Charger. Got an extra twenty grand you can use for that?

Ray

ddansb01 said:

I am researching the possibility of using a Leaf for a drivers ed program. The Leaf would need to run about 60 miles over a 2 hour period, then recharge for 2 hours and be ready for another 2 hours. This cycle would repeat 3 times for a total of 180 miles per day. It would get a full charge over night.

The Leaf would be a 2013 with the 6.6kw charger. The cooling AC would be required most of the time. The area is mostly flat and it would be mostly city/residential driving.

This would be the ideal scenario.
1. charge over night.
2. out for 60 miles, return with 10-20% left
3. charge 6.6kw for 2 hours to reach 80%
4. out for 60 miles, return with 5-10% left
5. charge 6.6kw for 2 hours to reach 75%
6. out for 60 miles, return with 0% left
7. repeat step 1

Is this feasible?
How accurate is the estimated to empty?
Don

Click to expand...

Actually I was also thinking about this too. I worked as a driving instructor for a while and your scenario would work if lessons always start/ends at the school/charge location. I was thinking with two cars you could teach continually, and would always be starting a lesson with a full charge (lesson mileage varied between 16 to 43 miles per 2 hour lesson), and student drivers are typically preparing to take a driving test, so rarely drive in an aggressive manner (they won’t pass). Also, start and end of lesson is usually a short review, so could be done with shore power connected to charge and run heat/AC. I imagine the LEAF would work though I had the Fit EV in mind as it's smaller 6000 life cycle battery, higher MPGe, and drive mode select would allow optimization for different lessons. For driver training, you also want a manual hand brake, physical key, "Gear Selector", and to be able to reach the steering wheel. Our ‘08 Yaris had an instructor brake pedal, but I also wonder about a “by-wire” brake control in an EV instead.

11-14miles in my leaf. 10miles in my volt (summer)

Even with a 3.3kW charger, it matters what the voltage is. The maximum is about 18 amps (16 nominal) with the charger. See below chart which includes rates above 16/18 amps, since the new 2013 LEAF can use more than that (in italics):

120 volts is from your normal wall socket
208 volts is what is typical at a public charging station
240 volts is typical in an RV park or at your home for a dryer or welder


Miles Gained per Hour Charging

Amps/Volts -- Where ---- 65mph / 4 miles per kWh consumption rate

12 / 120 ------- Any ------ 4.0 miles (supplied cable with car in USA/Canada)
12 / 208 ------ Public ----- 8.4 miles (EVSEupgrade.com 2011/12 LEAF)
12 / 240 ------ Home ----- 9.6 miles (EVSEupgrade.com 2011/12 LEAF)
16 / 208 ------ Public ----- 11.1 miles (EVSEupgrade.com 2011/12 LEAF)****
16 / 240 ------ Home ----- 12.9 miles (EVSEupgrade.com 2011/12 LEAF)
20 / 208 ------ Public ----- 14.1 miles (Clipper Creek LCS-25)
20 / 240 ------ Home ----- 16.3 miles (Clipper Creek LCS-25)
25 / 208 ------ Public ----- 17.8 miles (EVSEupgrade.com 2013 LEAF)
25 / 240 ------ Home ----- 20.6 miles (EVSEupgrade.com 2013 LEAF)
30 / 208 ------ Public ----- 21.4 miles (unverified at 30 amps**)
30 / 240 ------ Home ----- 22.7 miles (limited to 27.5 amps)


**** will likely pull 18 amps at 208 volts****

**I don't know if its been measured at 200 or 208 volts yet to see if it increases to 30 amps.**

The good thing about EV is, driving badly, in stop-and-go, does not hurt the mileage badly.

I think OP can still get 4 miles per kWh.