Deliberately ran out of power

[powercat]

After the display stop showing how many kilometers left and the flat lines started flashing I managed to drive 10 more kilometers before the car stopped and would only go into neutral, the lights and information screens still worked, but I could not get the car to move without being towed or pushing it.

The so called turtle mode never happened I went from normal driving to nothing, luckily as I knew it would run out of juice was only driving very locally, the audio warning of battery low and the display warning on the screens are adequate but I was disappointed that the car didn't make an announcement that normal driving was over and an emergency turtle mode had been activated which would allow me to drive maybe a couple of kilometers at walking speed before completely disconnecting drive.

BMW in their new i3 I have an optional extra on board generator, I hope Nissan will take note than running out of juice is not fun and they should think more about what people need in the real world.

 

[TomT]

That may mean your battery is badly out of balance (try a few 100% charges) or you have a bad cell. The Leaf Battery App will give you a good idea of what is really going on... Going below VLBW without any additional instrumentation is courting disaster anyway...

The so called turtle mode never happened I went from normal driving to nothing,

 

[Stoaty]

I hope Nissan will take note than running out of juice is not fun and they should think more about what people need in the real world.

That's what the Very Low Battery warning is for. Trying to drive more than 2-3 miles after that warning is a recipe for problems.

 

[powercat]

I hope Nissan will take note than running out of juice is not fun and they should think more about what people need in the real world.

That's what the Very Low Battery warning is for. Trying to drive more than 2-3 miles after that warning is a recipe for problems.

The warning is fine, but the display not showing you exactly how much is left (in my case 10 kilometers) is not nice, and the car just stopping from normal driving without going into turtle is also not good.

 

[powercat]

That may mean your battery is badly out of balance (try a few 100% charges) or you have a bad cell. The Leaf Battery App will give you a good idea of what is really going on...

Recently charged to 100% a couple of times about 10 days ago, is the App that you talk about free ?

 

[TomT]

The Lite version is but you will also need a OBDII BT transmitter for anywhere from 10 bucks on up...

Recently charged to 100% a couple of times about 10 days ago, is the App that you talk about free ?

 

[RonDawg]

I hope Nissan will take note than running out of juice is not fun and they should think more about what people need in the real world.

That's what the Very Low Battery warning is for. Trying to drive more than 2-3 miles after that warning is a recipe for problems.

The warning is fine, but the display not showing you exactly how much is left (in my case 10 kilometers) is not nice, and the car just stopping from normal driving without going into turtle is also not good.

Cars with petrol and diesel engines don't have an out-of-fuel turtle mode either. The engine just sputters to a stop once the tank has insufficient fuel to be pumped to the engine. At least the Leaf gives you two visual and audible warnings ahead of time, instead of just a low fuel light on most cars. Some older cars didn't even have the warning light.

 

[smkettner]

Seems odd that you never saw Turtle mode. Did the power circles decline from the right as you approached shut down?
Maybe you should take it in and have it checked out. Or run it down again in the driveway using the climate control as a second test.

Otherwise I agree Nissan gave very unrealistic expections when the LEAF was introduced. Of course if you just now purchased you should have been well aware of the issues and limitations. Not to mention a lower price. Many of us have been left wanting 200 Nissan range or 150 miles realistic range. There are other options with more range.

 

[DeaneG]

The distance-to-empty gauge is only an estimate, as the level of charge remaining in the battery is a calculated figure, not precisely measurable.

 

[ObjetDart]

BMW in their new i3 I have an optional extra on board generator, I hope Nissan will take note than running out of juice is not fun and they should think more about what people need in the real world.

So it's okay if your gasoline car grinds to a halt when it runs out of gas, but not okay for an electric car to do the same when it runs out of battery?

 

[powercat]

Seems odd that you never saw Turtle mode. Did the power circles decline from the right as you approached shut down?

I'm not sure I know what circles you are talking about, the power bars that show how much charge I have left were all gone, and as I approached a turning the power to the motor went off, everything else stayed on sat NAV and radio, tried a few times to get the car moving again but it would only go into neutral, it's no big deal I was just curious to find out what happens when I run out of power.

My other car is a 10 year old BMW X5 and when the fuel tank its low the orange light comes on and then later the dashboard tells me how much range I have left, normally from 12 miles down to, I presume zero, as I have never ran it out deliberately.

 

[ttime4four]

So your experience did not match what I think we all expect to happen as shown in this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTO-6ysxQD8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[smkettner]

Seems odd that you never saw Turtle mode. Did the power circles decline from the right as you approached shut down?

I'm not sure I know what circles you are talking about,

The circles on the center dash that show immediate power consumption when the throttle is pressed.
They are normally double circles and people report as power is reduced into Turtle the double circles at the top start to dissapear as power becomes limited.

Similar to the regeneration circles that are not available when 100% charged.

 

[powercat]

So your experience did not match what I think we all expect to happen as shown in this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTO-6ysxQD8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Fantastic video thanks for posting, that is what happened to me, I have mistakenly thought that turtle mode meant walking speed or slower, but I was certainly right that there was no warning of when turtle mode was activated,

the guy in the video stated that he couldn't do much more than 23 miles an hour,(that doesn't seem very turtle to me) anyway as I was driving around and around the small back street near my home I would estimate that I don't go much faster than 23 miles an hour, which would explain how I missed turtle, maybe an audio warning saying the car is going into this mode would help.

 

[powercat]

Seems odd that you never saw Turtle mode. Did the power circles decline from the right as you approached shut down?

I'm not sure I know what circles you are talking about,

The circles on the center dash that show immediate power consumption when the throttle is pressed.
They are normally double circles and people report as power is reduced into Turtle the double circles at the top start to dissapear as power becomes limited.

Similar to the regeneration circles that are not available when 100% charged.

Thanks for the tip, I will watch out for it if I'm in this situation again, at the time of running out I was looking at the trip meter to see how much further I could get wants the range display had disappeared.

 

[planet4ever]

That's what the Very Low Battery warning is for. Trying to drive more than 2-3 miles after that warning is a recipe for problems.

In my 2011 I used to figure that I could drive at least five more miles after VLBW without hitting Turtle. And there were voice audio, as well as very visual, warnings of both VLBW and Turtle.

In my 2013 S model there is a beep at LBW, but no audio signals after that, at least not as far as I have gone. There are no voice messages of any sort on the S, and no visual signals in the center console, which is really just an audio system display plus backup camera display if you have that option. On the dash the yellow triangle comes up at LBW, a warning message appears in the "Dot Matrix LCD" display, and the GOM starts flashing. After that there is nothing to signal VLBW except that at some point the GOM changes to three bars and at some later point the SOC meter (if you happen to viewing it) changes to three bars. Since I mentally block out the GOM I usually don't know exactly when I hit VLBW, if indeed that coincides with three GOM bars. I have not seen the turtle light come on, and I confess I haven't been looking closely enough at the circles to know if any are single. I need glasses for close work but not for driving, so the dash tends to look a bit fuzzy to me.

If powercat has a 2013 S model, or if the European models are featured differently from the US models, I can believe he might well not have been aware of when VLBW occurred. Turtle, however, is not really a speed limit, but a power limit, and it should have been very obvious even if there were no audio warnings and no visual warnings other than the little turtle icon lighting up. I have a gentle 20 foot rise in the street a block from my home, and the one time I took it in Turtle mode I remember worrying that I might not have enough power to climb it.

Ray

 

[TonyWilliams]

Did you get any of these indications? Turtle mode is only about 25mph / 40kph on level terrain:

 

[smkettner]

How long have you owned the LEAF?
Any frequent odd charging that day?

I mention because I remember a LEAF very early on that had about the same story where it seemed to quit suddenly. I think it ended up to just be a fluke where the BMS misjudged the charge and needed to cut power to protect the battery. Did not repeat and dealer found no issue IIRC.

 

[TomT]

Ahh... Back in the days of 12 capacity bars... I vaguely remember what that was like! :lol:

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

I hope Nissan will take note than running out of juice is not fun and they should think more about what people need in the real world.

That's what the Very Low Battery warning is for. Trying to drive more than 2-3 miles after that warning is a recipe for problems.

i have gone 4 to 5 miles past VLB at least 20 times or so. (lately its become VERY common) i have only been to turtle twice and both were on intentional range tests. seeing turtle in normal driving situations would be scary

i also think balancing is the key. a few times i have been as low as 6 GID