I Beat EPA's 73 Mile Range : Report your experience

[ztanos]

... Personally, I think they shouldn't even put the range while new on the sticker, only the range at the end of life. ...

The problem being that the EPA has no way to test the car a determine what the range will be at "end of life". Sure you could simply assume that 70% of life when new is "end of life", but is that true of a 300 mile EV? Or is it still "good" until half is gone? More?

Most ICE vehicles don't get the same mileage at end of life either. Should they change that sticker? I'm thinking not because it varies so much from one car to the next.

 

[EnergyNovice]

Hello gasmiser 1 I live in El Granada, north of HMB, and we recently passed a westbound (on Hwy 92) red Leaf. Must have been you. I thought for only the second day of ownership you were rather daring going all the way to Pescadero. My Leaf arrives April 14th and now I have confidence that a trip to Pescadero is maybe OK. Also very odd is the fact that I own a 2005 Prius and a 2000 Insight (and a 2005 civic hybrid). I, like you, will be as ready as anyone for $5.00+ a gallon gas. And finally on the lighter side - at the El Granada post office the other day I saw the largest pickup truck I've ever seen protruding from the curb. It was a Dodge Ram 3500, Super Duty, 4X4 with SIX tires. And as usual it wasn't hauling any cargo and there was only one driver. Wonder what his MPG figure is?

12mpg city and 18 mpg highway.

 

[KJD]

When the EPA does range testing on the Leaf, do they stop the test at Low Battery Warning or do they run the car all the way to turtle mode ?

 

[TomT]

They run it until it stops.

When the EPA does range testing on the Leaf, do they stop the test at Low Battery Warning or do they run the car all the way to turtle mode ?

 

[mkjayakumar]

Wow.. that means the real range is about 10 miles less for cushion.. only 63 miles..

 

[TonyWilliams]

Wow.. that means the real range is about 10 miles less for cushion.. only 63 miles..

Range is range; not range with an arbitrary cushion. Unless you are driving a new car in those conditions that the EPA got 73 miles, your mileage will vary.

 

[mkjayakumar]

Let me rephrase it:

Real world usable range is 10 miles less than that the EPA's estimates which would be 63 miles. Anything more than 63 miles I better be close to my charging station.

 

[TonyWilliams]

Let me rephrase it:

Real world usable range is 10 miles less than that the EPA's estimates which would be 63 miles. Anything more than 63 miles I better be close to my charging station.

Unless the battery is cold, or the heater is on, or both, or the battery is degraded, or all three...

Then, not so much.

 

[KJD]

It depends, I have driven more than 73 miles on a single charge many times. I can usually log this many miles BEFORE hitting LBW and that was the reason for my original question. My car has never been all the way to Turtle mode yet.

As Tony said your mileage may vary.

 

[wishboneash]

Let me rephrase it:

Real world usable range is 10 miles less than that the EPA's estimates which would be 63 miles. Anything more than 63 miles I better be close to my charging station.

I drive 60-62 miles with 80% charge (not 100% charge) daily. Never been to VLBW. LBW several times. So, indeed, your mileage will vary.

 

[JPWhite]

Let me rephrase it:

Real world usable range is 10 miles less than that the EPA's estimates which would be 63 miles. Anything more than 63 miles I better be close to my charging station.

I drive 60-62 miles with 80% charge (not 100% charge) daily. Never been to VLBW. LBW several times. So, indeed, your mileage will vary.

My mileage will vary between 5-7 miles per bar.

So on average yes an 80% charge will take me about 60 miles. I have about 72 miles on a full charge on average, which after 10% degradation is better than the EPA I suppose.

 

[Sunnyleaf]

I drove from Cupertino to Santa Cruz (west cliff dr.) on highway 17 with my 2011 Leaf, with 12k miles.

Round trip is 75 miles, + 5 miles of driving around town = total 80 miles. No AC, nice sunny day. Driving 60 - and in D for the uphills, Eco for downhills.

It's a windy road and I made it home with 2-3 miles left.

There are chargers in downtown Santa Cruz, but I didn't use one, but hopefully in the future.

So it's very drivable on one full charge to go from the south bay to Santa Cruz and back, but barely.

 

[BlackLeaf13]

100% charge. Drove 70 miles. Still have 25% charge with 27 miles on the GOM. Forgot, avg 5.0 m/kw

 

[ELROY]

Amazing how different the range figures are, even with similar economy rates.

 

[BraveLittleToaster]

Let me rephrase it:

Real world usable range is 10 miles less than that the EPA's estimates which would be 63 miles. Anything more than 63 miles I better be close to my charging station.

More like "real world *reliable* range is 73 miles" with caveats.

If you're thinking of buying the car and you want to know if you're going to make your 60 mile commute to work every day, then there's a high likelihood that you will, unless any of the following apply:

1. You live in a place where it gets *really* cold in winter. On days where it gets down to -20 C or colder, you can expect about 55% of that 73 miles. These are the worst conditions for the Leaf to drive under, but if you never need to drive more than about 35 miles on your way to work, then yahtzee! It's not like the car will freeze solid and be completely unusable at normal human temperatures. I would expect that you'd want some backup for the days where it reaches -40 or lower though. And always keep it plugged in at night in winter.

2. You feel the need to drive over 70 mph, likely with the air conditioning on. I understand that this is necessary in some places. You can expect about a 25% hit if most or all of the trip is like this, so about 54 miles. If on the other hand, you're only actually on the freeway for 15 miles, then you can practically throw this data away. The difference between "actual" and "projected" would be so small as to not even bother. There's some freeway speeds in the EPA test in the first place.

3. You intend to own the car more than about 8 years or 100k miles. Past that, Nissan *expects* you'd see about a 20% degradation in your battery, on top of any poor conditions you'd see above. Whether or not that comes to fruition will depend on a lot of different things, but real world testing shows that high battery degradation only really comes with hot temperatures combined with DC quick charging while the pack is still hot.

Outside these conditions on the other hand, that EPA range is if anything, overly cautious. It's easy to exceed 73 miles on days that you don't need heat or air conditioning, often by a large margin. But you can certainly *count* on that range, most of the time. On top of all that, some of us are lucky enough to live in places where you might only see truly hot or cold conditions once or twice in your lifetime. Even the area around New York state isn't going to see temperatures over 45 C very often, unlike Arizona, which is where all the reports of any battery degradation have come from so far, and they pretty much never see anything colder than -20.

In other words, to call out the EPA range estimates as "overoptimistic" is really reaching. Nissan was originally trying for 100 miles, and only got that in the Japanese test cycle. So the EPA is hardly coddling them.

 

[TonyWilliams]

... but real world testing shows that high battery degradation only really comes with hot temperatures combined with DC quick charging while the pack is still hot....
In other words, to call out the EPA range estimates as "overoptimistic" is really reaching. Nissan was originally trying for 100 miles, and only got that in the Japanese test cycle. So the EPA is hardly coddling them.

Many of the 12 cars we tested in Phoenix on Sept 15, 2012 had never been DC quick charged. Heat of the battery is the killer.

Nissan did get 100 miles on the EPA LA4 cycle. The 73 mile rating was a 30% "adjustment".

The 2013 LEAF is tested on the new 5 cycle test to get 84 miles at 100%, with a combined 100% and 80% charge average of 75 miles.

 

[ronwright38]

I can get 92 to 95 mile range with AC on and 99 With out AC
That's on the 2013 SL model calculated by the Battery Percentage + Trip = Distance :roll:
That on a 100 Percent Charge.
I am driving at the speed of 45 to 50 MPH. :roll:

 

[apvbguy]

I can get 92 to 95 mile range with AC on and 99 With out AC
That's on the 2013 SL model calculated by the Battery Percentage + Trip = Distance :roll:
That on a 100 Percent Charge.

thanks for this data, I stll have not pushed mine to the edge yet

 

[JPWhite]

3. You intend to own the car more than about 8 years or 100k miles. Past that, Nissan *expects* you'd see about a 20% degradation in your battery, on top of any poor conditions you'd see above.

I wouldn't use the Nissan guideline withouta pinch of salt. Life wil vary widely dependant upon several factors, the most important being climate. Instead use Stoaty's Battery Aging Model.
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/wiki/index.php?title=Battery_Capacity_Loss#Battery_Aging_Model

 

[DougWantsALeaf]

Has anyone driven their Leaf in the 45-50 mile range for 80%+ of their battery? According to the charts, you should easily be able to push 100 miles at 45/hr. Yes this is bottom edge of freeway legal, but tolerable for distances of about up to 100 miles. Beyond that, its Tesla or ICE right now.