Have you brodered your LEAF? (Mileage from VLB to Turtle)

[pressx2select]

Have you intentionally brodered your LEAF?

I had no idea what brodered was, so I had to look it up on the wiki. When I realized it wasn't there I finally scrolled down and saw your definition :lol: . Created a page in case someone else needs to know http://www.mynissanleaf.com/wiki/index.php?title=Broder

 

[Stoaty]

I had no idea what brodered was, so I had to look it up on the wiki. When I realized it wasn't there I finally scrolled down and saw your definition :lol: . Created a page in case someone else needs to know http://www.mynissanleaf.com/wiki/index.php?title=Broder

Thanks for doing this, only problem is that there is no obvious link to that page. However, I added a link for you in the Wiki glossary.

 

[mbender]

Maybe there's a better thread for this specific question, but here is probably as good as any: is it normal for the GuessOMeter to go directly from 4 to - - -, and does - - - mean you are in Turtle mode? I was about six miles from a dealer and quick-charger when I intentionally slowed way down to get the most out of the 4 that was displayed. It stayed at 4 for about three miles (raising my hopes) but then abruptly went to - - - without going through 3..2..1, which "dashed my hopes", and made me start worrying if I'd make it. I did, but still would have liked it to count down to 1, even though I know that it is a guess, as it were.

That being said, I may at some point broder it in this fashion again and, imho, we can't use the word broder enough! :lol:

 

[TonyWilliams]

Maybe there's a better thread for this specific question, but here is probably as good as any: is it normal for the GuessOMeter to go directly from 4 to - - -, and does - - - mean you are in Turtle mode? I was about six miles from a dealer....

Well, you certainly were cutting that short!!!

The first alarm when the little gas pump lights up on the dash (amongst other alarms) is Low Battery Warning (LBW), where you have about 3.1kWh usable remaining.

Then, there is the "---" that you saw on the GOM screen. That is Very Low Battery warning (VLB). You have about 1.3kWh usable remaining.

When you hit Turtle mode, the little turtle will light up on the dash and the "---" will remain on the GOM screen. Sometime between VLB and Turtle, on the 2013 LEAF, the dash % screen will also go to "---".

If you want to know how far you can go, just multiply your expected economy by the remaining energy, so that:

LBW is 3.1kWh usable energy * 4 miles per kWh economy = 12.4 miles range remaining
VLB is 1.3kWh usable energy * 4 miles per kWh economy = 5.2 miles range remaining

Both of these assumed a well balanced pack. Driving 65mph on level, dry hard surface roadways with no wind and the heater off will produce 4 miles per kWh economy. Slowing down to any speed above 12mph will increase your economy with the heater off. 12mph will produce about 8.5 miles per kWh.

 

[mbender]

Well, you certainly were cutting that short!!!

Maybe I'm wrong (and/or sexist), but I think many of us, mostly guys, love to see how close they can cut it and almost enjoy the range anxiety :shock: . In this case I had about a 75-mile trip and was a little late so instead of stopping mid-way to add a bit, I decided to go for it. (It helps that I have less than 6k miles and 12 bars.)

I did it with gassers too, once running out of gas just as I was rolling off a free way exit and into a station that I knew was at the very end. Fortunately, there was a free pump where I needed to get to (without turning around). After this, I figured I could do no better so I stopped playing that game.

But now attaining a battery vehicle is like clearing the slate, and the game begins again! ;-)

 

[TonyWilliams]

Well, you certainly were cutting that short!!!

Maybe I'm wrong (and/or sexist), but I think many of us, mostly guys, love to see how close they can cut it and almost enjoy the range anxiety...

Well, with two about two dozen turtles under my belt, I hear ya.

 

[BIGneutrino]

I wish this post was available last night as I put 74.5 round trip miles on the leaf going up into our local mountain range. with 5 miles of available range in eco remaining and 6.8 miles to get home I chickened out and decided to charge at a friends house for an hour rather than risking all of the old conservatives saying " I told you that car was stupid" when they saw it on the side of the road. I believe now that I totaly could have made it!

Hello, my name is Steve, and I have Brodered my LEAF. And, yes, I have received much flack from colleagues this week because of the story.

Made it over a mountain pass and almost 95 miles. The fun blog post: http://stevecoram.blogspot.com/

 

[Reddy]

Steve, sorry to read about your turtle experience, and with two youngsters. That's tough. It sounds like you knew what your range was and how to drive for maximum efficiency, especially getting almost 95 miles in the mountains.

Yes, everyone should realize that "Restricted" stations do show up on Plugshare and they really mean it (especially when it's a municipality). We have some gov't restricted stations over here. However, Plugshare does show two private residences nearby the Snohomish County Fleet location. Did you have a smart phone so you could see those?

 

[BIGneutrino]

Steve, sorry to read about your turtle experience, and with two youngsters. That's tough. It sounds like you knew what your range was and how to drive for maximum efficiency, especially getting almost 95 miles in the mountains.

Yes, everyone should realize that "Restricted" stations do show up on Plugshare and they really mean it (especially when it's a municipality). We have some gov't restricted stations over here. However, Plugshare does show two private residences nearby the Snohomish County Fleet location. Did you have a smart phone so you could see those?

I did attempt contacting the two residential EVSEs that were still within range, but did not receive responses. On the other hand, this experience encouraged me to add our home EVSE to Plugshare. Hopefully we will have an opportunity to help somebody out in a pinch.

 

[Reddy]

I'll remember that the next time I'm by. Thanks. I skipped Sultan the last time and spent the night near Woodinville. I had briefly thought about finishing in Anacortes, but it was very late and it had to wait until the next morning. This year, if I try a repeat, I would fully expect to have to wait in line at every charger.

 

[spike09]

Have you intentionally brodered your LEAF?

I had no idea what brodered was, so I had to look it up on the wiki. When I realized it wasn't there I finally scrolled down and saw your definition :lol: . Created a page in case someone else needs to know http://www.mynissanleaf.com/wiki/index.php?title=Broder

Excellent! The main reason I created this thread was in fact to promote the usage of the word "broder". Only time will tell if it will be commonplace, at least among the EV crowd. It might have a long road ahead considering many people still have no clue what EV stands for.

GM is not helping by referring to the Volt as an Electric Car. On the other hand Tesla has made quite an impression lately on the general public. And of course there are those of us in the silent majority happily driving our LEAFs!

 

[spike09]

Is it normal for the GuessOMeter to go directly from 4 to - - -, and does - - - mean you are in Turtle mode?

.... I may at some point broder it in this fashion again and, imho, we can't use the word broder enough! :lol:

Going from 4 to --- is common in my experience, especially while driving over 25mph at a steady pace . It means you are in VLB mode (10 miles left) not turtle mode (1/2 mile left).

Another fun game is to remember how many bars and miles you have left when you arrive at your destination, then simply turn the car off and on again to see if you lose a bar or a few miles on the GOM!

 

[LEAFfan]

Maybe there's a better thread for this specific question, but here is probably as good as any: is it normal for the GuessOMeter to go directly from 4 to - - -, and does - - - mean you are in Turtle mode? I was about six miles from a dealer....

Well, you certainly were cutting that short!!!

The first alarm when the little gas pump lights up on the dash (amongst other alarms) is Low Battery Warning (LBW), where you have about 3.1kWh usable remaining.

Then, there is the "---" that you saw on the GOM screen. That is Very Low Battery warning (VLB). You have about 1.3kWh usable remaining.

When you hit Turtle mode, the little turtle will light up on the dash and the "---" will remain on the GOM screen. Sometime between VLB and Turtle, on the 2013 LEAF, the dash % screen will also go to "---".

If you want to know how far you can go, just multiply your expected economy by the remaining energy, so that:

LBW is 3.1kWh usable energy * 4 miles per kWh economy = 12.4 miles range remaining
VLB is 1.3kWh usable energy * 4 miles per kWh economy = 5.2 miles range remaining

Both of these assumed a well balanced pack. Driving 65mph on level, dry hard surface roadways with no wind and the heater off will produce 4 miles per kWh economy. Slowing down to any speed above 12mph will increase your economy with the heater off. 12mph will produce about 8.5 miles per kWh.

On the 2013, the SoC% goes to -- at 6%. Also, driving at a steady 15mph (no coasting) will get you 9.1m/kW h so I believe 12mph was a little higher.

 

[DNAinaGoodWay]

I like turtles.

 

[DNAinaGoodWay]

Well, with about two dozen turtles under my belt, I hear ya.

Ouch. That's gotta hurt.

 

[GetOffYourGas]

I did it with gassers too, once running out of gas just as I was rolling off a free way exit and into a station that I knew was at the very end. Fortunately, there was a free pump where I needed to get to (without turning around). After this, I figured I could do no better so I stopped playing that game.

This sounds a lot like a situation I got into once, except that I rolled to a stop about 50' short of the pump. I had to go inside and ask the attendant to help me push the car up the hill...

 

[pressx2select]

So my wife and I just leased our 2013 S Leaf this Friday and decided to drive out to Daytona on Saturday to surprise one of her friends by showing up to their birthday party. I really just wanted to test the car to see how well it would handle the trip. I figured day 1 would be better to test the limits than at the end of the lease.

Here's the dash when starting out at our house in Orlando.


And here's when we arrived at a Buffalo Wild Wings in Port Orange while charging.


Here's after 2 hours of charging.

Charging next to a Volt.


And here's us making it home after my wife freaking out thinking we might be stuck on the highway and me hearing a bunch of "I told you so" from people about how EVs are only for city driving.


I didn't see any turtle because we still had 10 miles left but did get to the Very Low Battery. I debated driving around the neighborhood to see the turtle show up but my wife said she didn't want me to break our new car on the first day!

 

[smkettner]

SoAnd here's us making it home after my wife freaking out thinking we might be stuck on the highway and me hearing a bunch of "I told you so" from people about how EVs are only for city driving.


I didn't see any turtle because we still had 10 miles left but did get to the Very Low Battery. I debated driving around the neighborhood to see the turtle show up but my wife said she didn't want me to break our new car on the first day!

It will still take maybe 15 miles to get to VLBW and then another 5 to 10 for turtle as long as you are not driving fast, up a hill or cranking the climate control.

 

[gbarry42]

My problem stems from the fact it is quicker to only push the Power button to turn off the car as opposed to first putting the car into park then push the Power button. I have so gotten in the habit of only using the power button to turn off the car that I have even forgot to do that.

I've tried to exit the vehicle with it still "on", many times. But since it locks the doors automatically, it won't let me out until I shut it off! This has saved me many times. Some folks don't like that feature, (and some have disabled it), but even if I didn't like it, I'd leave it enabled as a guard against my own stupidity.

 

[planet4ever]

I didn't see any turtle because we still had 10 miles left but did get to the Very Low Battery. I debated driving around the neighborhood to see the turtle show up but my wife said she didn't want me to break our new car on the first day!

It will still take maybe 15 miles to get to VLBW and then another 5 to 10 for turtle as long as you are not driving fast, up a hill or cranking the climate control.

As smkettner says, you didn't get to Very Low Battery. You got the first "Low Battery" warning, which I have seen at 17% or 18% left in the battery. The second, or "Very Low Battery", warning won't come until you get down somewhere below 8%. I've only seen that once since I got my 2013, so I can't be very sure. But as to his claim that you could have gone another 15 miles before VLBW, that would be really stretching it. You could, I suppose, if you slowed to 25 mph or less. Maybe that's what he meant by "not driving fast". I would say that by slowing to 45 mph or less you can get about 10 miles from LBW to VLBW and another 5 miles to Turtle, for 15 altogether.

The "10 miles left" you referred to is on what we call the GuessOMeter, which is optimistic on a full battery and pessimistic on an nearly empty one. You are much better off watching that charge% number in the middle of the dash.

Ray