Best route to get my LEAF home?

[chooze]

Hello All,

I'm about to buy a Nissan Leaf. I live in Peoria, IL and the LEAF is in St Loius, MO (about 160 miles). Using plug share I planned out the following route. I'm a little worried about the the 75 mile segment. Do I need to be? Also, I've split the last portion into 2 if I go direct it would be 87 miles. Should I atempt that or just play it save the way I have it planned?

Thanks, I look forward to being a part of this community
-Chooze

 

[chooze]

One other question: Do I need to drive slow or would driving the 70 MPH speed limit be fine on the long segment?

edit: typo

 

[Firetruck41]

Driving 70 mph would be detrimental to trying to drive at the limits of the battery range. I have heard it said 55mph is much better for range and there is a steep drop in efficiency above that. I don't have enough personal experience to say how true that is, but it makes sense.

Also, what kind of Leaf are you buying? Brand new, used?

 

[Graffi]

To fully help you we need to know what year/model you are getting, is there any battery degregation? If you still have full range on the Leaf, then the slower you go the greater range you will get. For me when we go max range on our Leaf (about once every month or so) we limit our freeway speed to 55mph. If you can go slower, that is better. DO NOT EXCEED 60mph or you will really suck up the juice. You can go well over 100mph in the Leaf, but will have almost no range.

Since you are driving another vehicle to pick up the Leaf, could you just load it on a trailer and haul it home?

 

[chooze]

HI Graffi, Firetruck41

Thanks for the reply. It is a 2013 SL. Not sure about battery degradation at this point. It has 12 bars but I have not had a chance to check it with LeafSpy. That is the first thing I'll do when I get to the dealer tomorrow. It was an Indiana car so I'm hoping the cooler climate will have preserved the battery. It sounds like I'll be spending time in the slow lane. We considered towing it but the other vehicle is not rated to tow that much weight.

Edit: Acknowledged Firetruck41's responce as well

 

[Firetruck41]

When I bought my 2013 last month, it was about 160 miles away. I towed it home on a uhaul trailer for about $70. I picked up and returned the trailer near my house, and towed with my 1/2 ton Nissan Titan. It was a very easy experience, with no anxiety. Uhaul has a great set up for their car haulers and the Leaf was easy to tow. It was going to be tough to get the wife to take me with our schedules, and I did not want my first experience driving the Leaf to be one fraught with range anxiety. Glad I went that route.

With a 2013 you have battery degradation, as time alone is one of the major factors of battery degradation. I have about 15% degradation with 12 bars still showing.

 

[RonDawg]

As you're buying a used car whose actual battery capacity has not been verified, you are taking a huge chance of running out of juice on the 75 mile segment. That's right at the edge of the range of a brand new Leaf, and even a 12 bar car can have as much as 15% of its capacity gone. Assuming the EPA's 84 mile range estimate will accurately reflect your actual "fuel" economy for this trip, 84 x .85 = 71 miles.

Personally, I would either hire a car transport firm, or rent a UHaul or similar truck with a tow dolly. If you have your own truck or SUV (or can borrow someone's) that can tow a 3500 lb car plus the dolly, you can just rent the dolly itself.

 

[speedski97]

range driving in a EV is challenging and fun. Doing that on your first drive, ok jump right in. If you look at Tony William's range chart and the foot notes. I think I would do Highway 159 to 4 to Green Nissan this route looks like 75 miles on a back road. This should let you drive slower and safer. IF you can find a 120 volt plug you can use for an hour on the drive it will give you a life line for the drive. If you can find a gas station, a store, or a light pole with a plug ASK TO USE. Most of the time they say yes, I had a shop owner unplug a ice machine for us to plug in to make the next station. look at elevation change both up and down, they don't cancel each other out. Charge as often as you can. This will help when the trip does not go as planed and help deal with the challenge when it comes. Have a plan on what to do when charging, I have a nerf football for that. Ask the dealer at the end of the deal if they have a transporter to take the car home for you. At the end of the deal turn to your partner and say " I don't know how we will get it home? " and wait for a response. this trip will take you about 8 hours. Make sure you have leaf spy and a elm module for the trip. it will help. Plan your drive and drive your plan. Slower is faster. enjoy your leaf have fun.

 

[chooze]

Hi speedski97,

Thanks for the great advice. It seems so obvious but I had not considered back roads. I have leafSpy and an ODBII adapter ready to go. I like the route you suggested (I did find a shorter one going up 67 but that was not a quick charger). There are a lot of small towns. We'll pick one of them and see if we can find somewhere to plug in while we explore. I did ask the dealer about a transporter and was quoted $300 and while probably more convenient I figure this will probably be the furthest I ever drive the leaf and it sounded like a fun adventure. My wife has already planned activities for all our stops.

I'm sure this is probably covered else where on this site but what planning tools do you use for such trips. Plug Share would remove all my added charging stations if I dragged the route and change the route if I added them back in. I ended up individual routing the segments on google maps.

 

[Firetruck41]

Remember, when you plug in using the level 1 110v charger, you only get about 4 miles for each hour charged.

 

[LeftieBiker]

The one thing to keep in mind is that driving slower not only gives you more range, it is also faster than L-2 (240 volt) recharging and MUCH faster than L-1. If you drive 35MPH on that back road you should make 75 miles with a few to spare.. If you try it at highway speeds you will not make it. Period.

 

[cwerdna]

Do I need to drive slow or would driving the 70 MPH speed limit be fine on the long segment?

Definitely DO NOT drive 70 mph if you want to extend range. Please see http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=101293. The top copy is for a new battery. If you go 35 mph on level ground w/no HVAC usage or achieve 6.3 miles/kWh (new Leaf has about 21-22 kWh usable), then you'll make it ~132 miles until car is dead. If you do 70 mph, that range is cut to 68 miles.

Since your car is used and we have no idea of the battery condition, my guess is that for a '13, it's possibly lost as many as 3 or 4 capacity bars. For a 4 BL car, you'd want to use the chart "Use this 63% chart for a battery that has 8 of 12 capacity bar segments."

If you can go slower, that is better. DO NOT EXCEED 60mph or you will really suck up the juice. You can go well over 100mph in the Leaf, but will have almost no range.

Yep but Leaf can't go 100 mph, it's limited to around 93 mph.

I would also use Google Earth (http://priuschat.com/threads/google-earth-can-give-you-an-elevation-profile-of-a-route-between-2-points.100653/) to plot the elevation of your route, to see if there's a net elevation gain or loss on the drive home.

 

[chooze]

Hello All,

First off thank you so much for the valuable information. I have a feeling had I not posted here I would have either been stranded on the edge of the interstate or more likely waiting for an eternity with the trickle charger when I realized I would not be able to make the 75 miles. This seems like a great active community and I'm excited to becoming a part of it.

We are off to the dealer to check out and hopefully bring home the car. I realized that the back roads to three charging stations I'll be using is actually historic Route 66. It just seems too much of a romantic idea to pass up having our first drive in the electric be on that historic road.

I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[TimLee]

... You can go well over 100mph in the Leaf, but will have almost no range.
...

On level ground and zero head wind top speed is around 93 mph on 2011 and I don't think 2013 changed top speed.
100 mph requires long downgrade.

You need to go real slow and steady and no HVAC to go 75 miles.

If you do 70 mph, the 2013 LEAF is more like a 45 to 50 mile range.
Maybe a few more to Turtle but you would not even come close to 75 miles.

 

[billg]

Don't forget to take a tow strap for your chase vehicle. If you do come up a few miles short on your long legs, just tow it slowly to the closest charging station. No problem,especially on back roads.

 

[Phatcat73]

I believe the Nissans have free towing to nearest dealer, even for discharged batteries. I would explore this option as well. also call ahead to the dealer to make sure it's fully charged. Congrats. How many miles on the car? I have 30k on our 2013 with 9% degradation. I would be ok driving it 75miles at 50mph or less w no hvac

 

[Nubo]

Looks like your first leg is a short one, to a fast-charge station, followed by your longest leg at 75 miles. Be aware that fast-charge stations often do not fully charge the pack. Often the pack is left in a 80-90% state. Furthermore, fast-charging does most of its magic when the pack is at a low state of charge, and then tapers off in speed as the pack gets fuller. In short, there would be little speed advantage in using fast-charge after only a 33-mile drive and it may not fully charge the pack. You'd be better off using a Level2 station for your first charge of this trip, imho. Or, if both types are co-located, use fast-charge until it begins to slow down and then switch over to a Level2 station to fully top-off the pack.

 

[Nubo]

You can go well over 100mph in the Leaf....

You must have the experimental model. :lol:

Motor rpm has limited both of mine to about 95 mph indicated, which is probably more like 90 mph. Although if you fit the vehicle with exceptionally large tires you might get over 100 real speed.

 

[mjblazin]

Back roads with limited acceleration opportunities are the keys. You want your typical Midwest backroad that are the equivalent of TX farm to market roads: minimal stop lights, not much traffic. I would do it at night to cut down on traffic conflicts. Go between 1 AM - 5 AM, keep speed at around 45, never push your bubble past 3 bubbles, try to drive on 1 or 2 bubbles.

 

[chooze]

Thank you all for the very valuable suggestions. I'll post a full update over the weekend but I wanted to let you know that I'm topping off at the final charging point before the last 50 miles home. The car has made it this far under its own power and I see no issue finishing the trip. It's been a long but fun day and definitely the adventure we bargained for.