Is there any mileage available after "Empty"?

[AzJazz]

We haven't had to test this yet (thank goodness), but I was wondering if the Leaf battery is totally drained when the remaining mileage indicator shows "0"?

For example, can you go an additional 20 miles after the Leaf Miles to Empty display shows "0"?

For a lot of cars sold in the US, you usually get approximately 2 gallons of additional gas after the meter is pegged at the bottom, so you may get 50-60 miles after "Empty" with an ICE vehicle.

 

[daleandwendy]

I decided to see how far I can drive without recharging a couple of days ago. I took my small 2kw generator with me. i stayed within 60-65mph mostly freeway driving. I got two dashes instead of zero at 92.8 miles then got off the freeway. I drove until the car stopped at exactly 103 miles. You will see a turtle on the dash and will slow down to around 30mph until the car will stop in about a quarter of a mile. I started recharging with my generator but was not able to get the car into drive until I recharged for about an hour and a half with the level 1 charger. After this short charge, my fuel gauge reading was still two dashes.
Dale
San Diego

 

[cwerdna]

http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/2011/05/2011-nissan-leaf-driving-it-to-the-bitter-end.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; has a video and chronology. From article:

Then, at 122.0 miles, the gauge dropped to one bar of electricity and the DTE prediction of 11 miles to go winked out and was replaced by "- - -" miles instead.
...
But on what is essentially an infinitely long straight and level road, at a steady 35mph on cruise control, with the AC off and the windows cracked, our Nissan Leaf will, in fact, go 132.0 miles on a single charge....

YMMV.

I suggest you read the article and watch the video before making any conclusions.

 

[planet4ever]

A few more comments:

• The distance to empty gauge is not terribly dependable. A lot of us call it the "GuessOMeter" or GOM and try to ignore it much of the time. The twelve blue/white bars are much more analogous to a "gas gauge". With experience you can do a better job estimating your range than the car can, because you know where you are going to go and how you plan to drive, while it bases its guess only on the past.
• The GOM will never show zero. It will change to three dashes when it gets down to about 3. You can probably drive up to half a dozen miles after that, but doing so may be a bit rough on the battery, not to mention your nerves and/or your passengers nerves.
• The last of the twelve blue/white bars will have disappeared before the GOM goes to dashes. As a rule of thumb, you can figure you have the equivalent of about 1½ "virtual bars" below the last one you can see. That will give you a good idea of distance available if you have been watching the bars disappear. Incidentally, there are no red battery charge bars. The two red blips you see at the far right of the dash are part of a separate battery capacity gauge. You would never get down to those unless your battery was almost completely worn out.
• This chart is highly recommended to help you understand battery state and range.

Ray

 

[AzJazz]

Great information! That is exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks!

AzJazz

 

[TonyWilliams]

I decided to see how far I can drive without recharging a couple of days ago. I took my small 2kw generator with me. i stayed within 60-65mph mostly freeway driving. I got two dashes instead of zero at 92.8 miles then got off the freeway. I drove until the car stopped at exactly 103 miles. You will see a turtle on the dash and will slow down to around 30mph until the car will stop in about a quarter of a mile. I started recharging with my generator but was not able to get the car into drive until I recharged for about an hour and a half with the level 1 charger. After this short charge, my fuel gauge reading was still two dashes.
Dale
San Diego

There's not much to be gained by killing the car. Getting to Turtle is enough; get off the road and turn it off. With a120v generator with you, you could have added about one mile for every 12 -18 minutes of charging (modified to 12 amps @ 120v - stock Nissan EVSE at 8 amps). Killing it turns that into hours.

Again, nothing to be gained by killing it. If you get Turtle, you only have yards up to about 1/2 mile left.

 

[garygid]

The energy in the hidden bars is NOT a fixed, dependable amount.
Occasionally, only about half the expected amount of energy will be there.

So, Getting the LBW (Low Battery Warning) near the bottom of the last Bar should be taken seriously, and the following VLBW (Very Low...) is in the "uncertain-energy" zone.

Planning ahead for shorter trips is just a matter of checking the "fuel" gauge (or charging the night before). However, longer trips generally require more planning, and often driving slower than customary.

Yes, learning to get "more" out of the EV takes a new kind of experience and awareness, but it is a wonder-filled, and often calming, experience.

ENJOY, and read a lot here.

 

[Caracalover]

However, longer trips generally require more planning, and often driving slower than customary.

Yes, learning to get "more" out of the EV takes a new kind of experience and awareness, but it is a wonder-filled, and often calming, experience.

ENJOY, and read a lot here.

Well said Gary, I will add that comparing an ICE car to this is not really possible. (ICE's just don't compare, IMHO) While the reading in an ICE may say 0 and you can still go a ways, fuel filters and other problems can occour should you decide to let it get that low, and even a steep grade may make the fuel remaining unavailable. In this car, should you get the dashes as you are cresting a mountain you could go a very long ways while charging (Regen) the battery, and have no worries at all, getting to the bottom of the mountain fully charged.

OK, you would have to be on a really long steep mountain, but it is possible. BTW, I plan on this extra energy on my mountain drives.

 

[daleandwendy]

I decided to see how far I can drive without recharging a couple of days ago. I took my small 2kw generator with me. i stayed within 60-65mph mostly freeway driving. I got two dashes instead of zero at 92.8 miles then got off the freeway. I drove until the car stopped at exactly 103 miles. You will see a turtle on the dash and will slow down to around 30mph until the car will stop in about a quarter of a mile. I started recharging with my generator but was not able to get the car into drive until I recharged for about an hour and a half with the level 1 charger. After this short charge, my fuel gauge reading was still two dashes.
Dale
San Diego

There's not much to be gained by killing the car. Getting to Turtle is enough; get off the road and turn it off. With a120v generator with you, you could have added about one mile for every 12 -18 minutes of charging (modified to 12 amps @ 120v - stock Nissan EVSE at 8 amps). Killing it turns that into hours.

Again, nothing to be gained by killing it. If you get Turtle, you only have yards up to about 1/2 mile left.

Thanks, that is good to know. This would have save me lots of time. I was only .2 miles from home. I went home for an hour, went back and sat in my car for another 1/2 hour, trying to get drive engaged every 5 minutes. I could been back on the road in 5 minutes. Although I can't imagine running into turtle mode ever again. That's too unrealistic for me to drive that long in one days time.
Dale

 

[earther]

Again, nothing to be gained by killing it. If you get Turtle, you only have yards up to about 1/2 mile left.

After putting 10k miles on my Leaf over the last 8 months, I finally hit Turtle mode for the first time this weekend! I got the "low battery warning" when I was down to the red bars (8 miles on GOM), and then the "Very Low" warning as the last bar disappeared (3 miles on the GOM which immediately displayed as "---"). After that I was able to travel about another 3 miles (and I wasn't skimping on my energy usage since I knew I was close to home: for these last few "---" miles, I was traveling at 45mph, heater full blast with 35F temp outside, headlights on, radio on, and ipod charging via usb . When I did hit Turtle mode, I shut down heater/radio/et al and I found the car was still able to go 35mph without too much difficulty. I was starting to get a bit nervous once I hit Turtle and so I'm glad I only had to .3 miles in Turtle to pull into my garage!

 

[TonyWilliams]

I was able to travel about another 3 miles (and I wasn't skimping on my energy usage since I knew I was close to home: for these last few "---" miles, I was traveling at 45mph, heater full blast with 35F temp outside, headlights on, radio on, and ipod charging via usb . When I did hit Turtle mode, I shut down heater/radio/et al and I found the car was still able to go 35mph without too much difficulty. I was starting to get a bit nervous once I hit Turtle and so I'm glad I only had to .3 miles in Turtle to pull into my garage!

Of course, you do realize how close you came to walking. You might consider next time turning the heater off and slowing down when cutting it so close.

The good news; the car is easy to push!

 

[TomT]

Well, if it isn't up hill that is. The car is not light!

The good news; the car is easy to push!

 

[garygid]

earther,
Do you still have the "Old Bars" firmware?

With New-Bars, there is some hidden reserve and LBW occurs near the bottom of the last Bar.

With the Old-Bars firmware, there is no "hidden" reserve, and LBW occurs in the top half of the next-to-bottom Bar.

Most of these discussions apply to New-Bars firmware, unless explicitly stated otherwise.

 

[earther]

earther, Do you still have the "Old Bars" firmware?

as far as I know, I should have the new one (at least, I never actively did anything to prevent it from downloading any updates).
i'll see if i can find a way to display the version number just to double check.

 

[planet4ever]

earther, Do you still have the "Old Bars" firmware?

as far as I know, I should have the new one (at least, I never actively did anything to prevent it from downloading any updates).

With a delivery date in late April, your car must have been delivered with the firmware already upgraded. By the way, I don't believe anyone has reported any evidence of automatic downloads. AFAIK all upgrades happen at a Nissan repair bay.

Ray

 

[brent]

Doing all the running around in circles ( ovals ) eats up a lot more energy than going in straight lines with occasional turns.

Angular acceleration had to play a big part. Someone still up on their physics could calculate it if they knew how mayne 360's you did.

My guess is you would likely have gained 5 to 10% more.

 

[garygid]

There is no Firmware Version for us to see, but a dealer can check using their Consult III computer.

Your description of LBW in red barS (plural) and VLBW as the last visible bar goes away ... is like Old Bars.

You might want to have the firmware version checked next time you are at a Dealer.

 

[surfingslovak]

There is no Firmware Version for us to see, but a dealer can check using their Consult III computer.

For what it's worth, here is an earlier thread, where this was discussed at some length. The Leaf has a list of component and version numbers, which can be accessed on the center console per instructions below. For a while, it was assumed that something called Part Number on the Version/Information screen correlated directly with the firmware version in the VCM. Unfortunately, this was later debunked. Short of a dealer visit, it's the best information we can get.

Part number 3NA0A likely corresponds to an early car, which would might have the old firmware with a different mapping of battery bars. 3NA0B and 3NA0C are likely from March or April, and I believe that 3NA0D and 3NA0E came in late summer and in the fall.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=5176" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In order to obtain your releases:
Power on the vehicle
Power off the audio
Press the MAP button 3x
Press the Audio Power button 2x
Press the MAP button 1x
Select Confirmation/Adjustment
Select Version/Information