Limit charge to 80%

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MagicPAV

New member
Joined
Sep 26, 2023
Messages
1
I leave for a 12 day camping trip in two days. I don't see any menu items that will allow me to limit the charging to some set percent, like 80%

I bought a juice box and believe this can limit the charge. But at work they will have some charging available in the future and I don't want to be charging up to 100% every day while at work
 
I'm not sure exactly what you're asking regarding the camping trip. If you're just bragging that you get to go on a 12 day camping trip, congratulations and I'm jealous.

Newer Leafs lack the 80% limit function that some of the first generation cars had. If you're working with a set charging schedule, you can sort of backdoor your way to an approximate limit.

As an example, let's say you depart from work every day at 5 PM. You might set the charging schedule to be complete (to 100%) at 6 PM, which would mean that when you unplug and depart at 5 PM the car is around 80%. You would have to experiment a bit to get the timing right, but that's not difficult to do.

Having said that, my wife drives our 2014 Leaf and has free L2 charging at her work, which I'm more than happy to take advantage of. Let's just say that she's not in the business of worrying about things like battery degradation, and isn't willing to do anything more arduous than plug the car in and let it go, so it generally gets charged to 100% and sits like that for 6-7 hours a couple days per week, whether I like it or not. We're in Massachusetts so not super hot or cold I guess.

We've had the car for a bit over two years. It had 61,xxx miles when we got it and is at 72,xxx now, still with 11 bars SOH. I was very concerned about how the frequent charges to 100% might affect battery degradation, but so far we haven't experienced any obvious issues, although I don't mess with LeafSpy and so I don't know the exact SOH decline over our ownership.
 
Welcome!

I'm not sure what year and trim Leaf you have, but 2018 and newer Leafs do not have the features to limit charging to a specific percentage value. You can play around with the car's Charger Timer to get close to an 80% charge.

I'm not sure what JuiceBox EVSE you purchased, but the modern Enel X Way app used for JuiceBox may not be able to limit charging to a specific percentage value.

Charging to 100% at work is OK, as long as the car is not at 100% charge for many hours. I'm not sure how much driving is involved with your commute back home from work, so it would be good for you to check to see how much charge percentage is left after arriving home. Arriving home with 80% charge is good, but arriving home with 95% charge from a short trip may mean that you should limit your charging at work.
 
I'm guessing the OP wants to plug his Leaf in to charge and leave it for 12 days and doesn't want it sitting at 100% for the duration of his trip and might not have access to unplug it once full. In that case as said they are kind of out of luck, on a Leaf newer than '13.
I was just reading an article on Rivan and it sounds like at least with a new OTA software update on can limit the charge down to 50% and I believe Teslas have also had this feature for years.
 
I find this slightly mind-boggling. I just swapped my 2013 Leaf for 2018 with a 62 kWh battery. I’ll almost never need all that range. So I’d really like to set it for 80% and forget it, like I used to do with my 10-year-old Lesf. Very disappointed that that feature is gone. Why?

I guess Nissan wants us to think that it’s unnecessary to worry about it, but clearly it is.
 
Very disappointed that that feature is gone.
Me two...

I'm thinking about making something myself: Plugging in an Arduino to read out the SoC from the OBD2 port, transmitting it using MQTT and let the smart home turn on/off the EVSE for the appropriate time, also taking into account when electricity is cheapest.
 
I'm guessing the OP wants to plug his Leaf in to charge and leave it for 12 days and doesn't want it sitting at 100% for the duration of his trip and might not have access to unplug it once full. In that case as said they are kind of out of luck, on a Leaf newer than '13.

Are they ?
Say they pull up at noon, and set the car to be charged by 1pm. What happens ?
 
Me two...

I'm thinking about making something myself: Plugging in an Arduino to read out the SoC from the OBD2 port, transmitting it using MQTT and let the smart home turn on/off the EVSE for the appropriate time, also taking into account when electricity is cheapest.
I’m beginning to think I need to just get over it and plug the car in when I park it.

I have the timer set up so that it will generally replace the mileage that it’s driven on a typical weekday.

If I have to occasionally hit the immediate charge button, OK.

If it goes to 100% for a little while, I guess that’s OK too.
 
That is basically what I am doing, but it takes some trial and error. At least in my case it does. Going off the dashboard charge time to full, is way off the mark in my case anyway.
My car gets driven over the same route on almost every use. The miles driven don't vary by much more than a mile, depending on what we are doing in town.
I started by cutting back on charger time on the timer, then started cutting back on input current to the charger. It wasn't until I have the charge time a 1.5 hr and the input current at 20 amp max, that I have seen any SoC level below 100%. This is with about 25 mile round trips with 20 miles @ 55 mph.
From what I can see from what I have to work with. The battery charges to somewhere between 80-90% at max allowed current, then it starts to taper as the pack approaches full 100%. The idea seam to be to stop charging before the taper.
My situation may not match yours, but regardless of how I charge, I see fluctuation on the GOM when I start in the morning, but fairly consistent miles remaining when I return home. SOC when I return also seams to be fairly consistent when I return also.
Since I don't need to charge for very long, I am reducing the max charge input current so as to charge slower. I plan a once a week equalize charger either on the lowest setting of my level 2 or with the level 1 cord.
I have seen fluctuation on the Kwh used by the charger with the same input setting, I think this is do to the battery charge tapering as it approaches full charge. My goal is to reach the point where the Kwh shown on the charger is relatively consistent and the SoC is less than 100%, somewhere between 80-90%
A lot of trial and error, and changing where and how the car is driven, will change the charge protocol needed to reach my goal.
Whether any of this will have an effect on battery longevity would be hard to tell. Unless you could compare two packs side by side with the same history and the only difference being charging protocol, and then it would only be an indication as there can be variances in cells anyway.
 
I leave for a 12 day camping trip in two days. I don't see any menu items that will allow me to limit the charging to some set percent, like 80%

I bought a juice box and believe this can limit the charge. But at work they will have some charging available in the future and I don't want to be charging up to 100% every day while at work
The AC % Charge Limit Kit from EVsEnhanced is plug & play, and allows the driver to select ANY desired maximum AC charge limit, for 2015 models onwards, when Nissan removed this feature 😁
Setting a Nissan Leaf 80% charge limit, 2015 onwards, #LeafBatteryUpgrade 40kwh #EVsEnhanced
 
Welcome!

I'm not sure what year and trim Leaf you have, but 2018 and newer Leafs do not have the features to limit charging to a specific percentage value. You can play around with the car's Charger Timer to get close to an 80% charge.

I'm not sure what JuiceBox EVSE you purchased, but the modern Enel X Way app used for JuiceBox may not be able to limit charging to a specific percentage value.

Charging to 100% at work is OK, as long as the car is not at 100% charge for many hours. I'm not sure how much driving is involved with your commute back home from work, so it would be good for you to check to see how much charge percentage is left after arriving home. Arriving home with 80% charge is good, but arriving home with 95% charge from a short trip may mean that you should limit your charging at work.
I leave for a 12 day camping trip in two days. I don't see any menu items that will allow me to limit the charging to some set percent, like 80%

I bought a juice box and believe this can limit the charge. But at work they will have some charging available in the future and I don't want to be charging up to 100% every day while at work
The AC % Charge Limit Kit from EVsEnhanced is plug & play, and allows the driver to select ANY desired maximum AC charge limit, for 2015 models onwards, when Nissan removed this feature 😁
Setting a Nissan Leaf 80% charge limit, 2015 onwards, #LeafBatteryUpgrade 40kwh #EVsEnhanced
 
I'm guessing the OP wants to plug his Leaf in to charge and leave it for 12 days and doesn't want it sitting at 100% for the duration of his trip and might not have access to unplug it once full. In that case as said they are kind of out of luck, on a Leaf newer than '13.
I was just reading an article on Rivan and it sounds like at least with a new OTA software update on can limit the charge down to 50% and I believe Teslas have also had this feature for years.
I leave for a 12 day camping trip in two days. I don't see any menu items that will allow me to limit the charging to some set percent, like 80%

I bought a juice box and believe this can limit the charge. But at work they will have some charging available in the future and I don't want to be charging up to 100% every day while at work
The AC % Charge Limit Kit from EVsEnhanced is plug & play, and allows the driver to select ANY desired maximum AC charge limit, for 2015 models onwards, when Nissan removed this feature 😁
Setting a Nissan Leaf 80% charge limit, 2015 onwards, #LeafBatteryUpgrade 40kwh #EVsEnhanced
 
I find this slightly mind-boggling. I just swapped my 2013 Leaf for 2018 with a 62 kWh battery. I’ll almost never need all that range. So I’d really like to set it for 80% and forget it, like I used to do with my 10-year-old Lesf. Very disappointed that that feature is gone. Why?

I guess Nissan wants us to think that it’s unnecessary to worry about it, but clearly it is.
I leave for a 12 day camping trip in two days. I don't see any menu items that will allow me to limit the charging to some set percent, like 80%

I bought a juice box and believe this can limit the charge. But at work they will have some charging available in the future and I don't want to be charging up to 100% every day while at work
The AC % Charge Limit Kit from EVsEnhanced is plug & play, and allows the driver to select ANY desired maximum AC charge limit, for 2015 models onwards, when Nissan removed this feature 😁
Setting a Nissan Leaf 80% charge limit, 2015 onwards, #LeafBatteryUpgrade 40kwh #EVsEnhanced
 
That is basically what I am doing, but it takes some trial and error. At least in my case it does. Going off the dashboard charge time to full, is way off the mark in my case anyway.
My car gets driven over the same route on almost every use. The miles driven don't vary by much more than a mile, depending on what we are doing in town.
I started by cutting back on charger time on the timer, then started cutting back on input current to the charger. It wasn't until I have the charge time a 1.5 hr and the input current at 20 amp max, that I have seen any SoC level below 100%. This is with about 25 mile round trips with 20 miles @ 55 mph.
From what I can see from what I have to work with. The battery charges to somewhere between 80-90% at max allowed current, then it starts to taper as the pack approaches full 100%. The idea seam to be to stop charging before the taper.
My situation may not match yours, but regardless of how I charge, I see fluctuation on the GOM when I start in the morning, but fairly consistent miles remaining when I return home. SOC when I return also seams to be fairly consistent when I return also.
Since I don't need to charge for very long, I am reducing the max charge input current so as to charge slower. I plan a once a week equalize charger either on the lowest setting of my level 2 or with the level 1 cord.
I have seen fluctuation on the Kwh used by the charger with the same input setting, I think this is do to the battery charge tapering as it approaches full charge. My goal is to reach the point where the Kwh shown on the charger is relatively consistent and the SoC is less than 100%, somewhere between 80-90%
A lot of trial and error, and changing where and how the car is driven, will change the charge protocol needed to reach my goal.
Whether any of this will have an effect on battery longevity would be hard to tell. Unless you could compare two packs side by side with the same history and the only difference being charging protocol, and then it would only be an indication as there can be variances in cells anyway.
I leave for a 12 day camping trip in two days. I don't see any menu items that will allow me to limit the charging to some set percent, like 80%

I bought a juice box and believe this can limit the charge. But at work they will have some charging available in the future and I don't want to be charging up to 100% every day while at work
The AC % Charge Limit Kit from EVsEnhanced is plug & play, and allows the driver to select ANY desired maximum AC charge limit, for 2015 models onwards, when Nissan removed this feature 😁
Setting a Nissan Leaf 80% charge limit, 2015 onwards, #LeafBatteryUpgrade 40kwh #EVsEnhanced
 
Any good reason to echo the same post multiple times?

When I've done that before, I thought my post had not uploaded because the forum software did not update my post status.
Nowadays I have a habit of copying my post before I hit the 'post reply' button. If the software is flaky I refresh the page without having to worry about losing what I just wrote.
 
Last edited:
I have the Leaf 2021 40kw. I use a stand alone app called “Alarmed” and have all the possible SOC’s listed as separate timers. So, for example, if I pull up at home and my SOC is 39%, I click on the 39% timer on the Alarmed app and it counts down 2hrs 16min 40sec, and when the alarm goes off I know the car has reached 80%, and it’s usually to within +/- 1%.

It’s the simplest way to get an alert when the car has reached 80% that I’ve found.

But I agree, there should be a feature to only charge the car to 80%. Would make our lives much easier.

All the best,
Andy.
 

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I have a 40kW model and need to have it charged by 05:00 each morning. I have a 7.4 kW a.c. home charger which seems to deliver around 6.5 kW to the Leaf. Based on that, I put together the attached table which works reasonably OK (for me, anyway). You look up the current charge state on the left column and read across to the desired charge state, which tells you what time to set the charge timer to start. For example, if my starting charge state is 30% and I want to get to 90%, I'd set the charge timer to start at 01:20. The starting charge state is not normally a nice multiple of 10% so a little bit of interpolating is necessary, but it's pretty simple really. If only Nissan would update the software to enable a target charge to be set, it would be so much simpler...!
 

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