My Experiments With Turtle

[evnow]

Got off the freeway and drove the surface streets for a while and at 65.2 miles I got the Very Low battery alert.

So you got a total of 62.5+5.5=68 miles ?

Did you reset the miles/kwh meters and note them at the end ?

68 / (miles/kwh) = "Usable" Battery Capacity.

 

[Boomer23]

Here's a report of today's drive from 100% charge to turtle mode: Bottom line - 86.5 miles.

Update on charging from turtle to 100%. My TED reported using 26.1 kWh to fully charge this morning.

I had a midnight to 6 am charging timer set, and it hadn't charged fully by 6 am (I think I saw 11 bars on the dash), so I turned off the timer and plugged the EVSE back in to allow it to fully charge. The last charging portion took an hour and ended with a downward sawtooth pattern with the EVSE's "Vehicle Charging" light cycling on and off until the charging stopped.

 

[evnow]

Update on charging from turtle to 100%. My TED reported using 26.1 kWh to fully charge this morning.

So, usable capacity to turtle would be ...
23.5 (90% charging efficiency)
22.2 (85% charging efficiency)
20.9 (80% charging efficiency)

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Great. Info. So 26 kwh at 90% would mean at least 23.5 kwh which pretty much
Confirms a 24 kwh usable although limited. Still good to know

 

[Boomer23]

I'm wondering if I can make an 87 miles trip home from the dealer (75 freeway, 12 miles surface suburban streets) when I get mine. Seems like all owners experience and data point so far say I should be able to make it if I keep the freeway speed to no more than 60 mph, and no CC. What do you guys think?

occ, I notice that you are buying from Mossy in SD County. You might want to map the drive using PCH as much as possible rather than the 5, except of course through Camp Pendleton. You can keep your speeds down and drive in ECO on PCH and do pretty well on economy. I'm not sure how many miles that would take you out of your way, though.

We took a drive today from Irvine to San Clemente on PCH, all in ECO mode. We drove 51.5 miles round trip on 7 of the 12 bars. Energy economy was 4.6 mi/kWh on the in-car display. When we got home the remaining miles showed 38, which I'm thinking is pretty accurate, so a total range of 89.5 miles when driven this way.

We left PCH on the return trip at Newport Coast Rd, which has a big hill to cross, but I'd recommend that you use Laguna Canyon Rd to get to Alton or Barranca to complete your trip, since the terrain is pretty flat.

Another option is to plan a stop at OC Nissan in the Irvine Auto Center off the 5 as a "just in case" stop. You might go in and chat with them beforehand to get friendly with them and check that you'd be able to claim an EVSE plug.

Or if I'm home, you're welcome to bum a few kWh from me, if it would get you home safe. Just send me a PM if you want to set that up.

 

[Jimmydreams]

I'm wondering if I can make an 87 miles trip home from the dealer (75 freeway, 12 miles surface suburban streets) when I get mine. Seems like all owners experience and data point so far say I should be able to make it if I keep the freeway speed to no more than 60 mph, and no CC. What do you guys think?

I'm right at the 78 and the 5, so if you want an L2 top-off before you hit the Camp Pendleton wasteland, just let me know. (it's literally 1 minute from my driveway to the northbound ramp for the 5)

 

[occ]

occ, I notice that you are buying from Mossy in SD County. You might want to map the drive using PCH as much as possible rather than the 5, except of course through Camp Pendleton. You can keep your speeds down and drive in ECO on PCH and do pretty well on economy. I'm not sure how many miles that would take you out of your way, though.

We took a drive today from Irvine to San Clemente on PCH, all in ECO mode. We drove 51.5 miles round trip on 7 of the 12 bars. Energy economy was 4.6 mi/kWh on the in-car display. When we got home the remaining miles showed 38, which I'm thinking is pretty accurate, so a total range of 89.5 miles when driven this way.

We left PCH on the return trip at Newport Coast Rd, which has a big hill to cross, but I'd recommend that you use Laguna Canyon Rd to get to Alton or Barranca to complete your trip, since the terrain is pretty flat.

Another option is to plan a stop at OC Nissan in the Irvine Auto Center off the 5 as a "just in case" stop. You might go in and chat with them beforehand to get friendly with them and check that you'd be able to claim an EVSE plug.

Or if I'm home, you're welcome to bum a few kWh from me, if it would get you home safe. Just send me a PM if you want to set that up.

Good advice Boomer! Didn't think about using PCH. My house is on the east side of I5 (~3.5 miles east of Tustin Ranch Rd exit), so PCH would be a bit farther drive from I5 to the west. But gotta look into that.

I did stop by OCNissan and asked about their charger for public use, which they do allow (although I didn't remember whether it was behind a gate) for public use. They were friendly enough. Of course, that was my 1st PD, but didn't budge on MSRP, while Leon of Mossy discounted right off the bat.

I'd also asked Leon if I could get delivery of the car in Oceanside instead (somewhere), and he did say it might be possible to arrange.

I'm right at the 78 and the 5, so if you want an L2 top-off before you hit the Camp Pendleton wasteland, just let me know. (it's literally 1 minute from my driveway to the northbound ramp for the 5)

Thanks Jimmydreams! I might take you up on that. The 78/I5 intersection would be a perfect recharge spot for an hour to give me ~15 miles extra boost to allay a bit of anxiety. Really appreciate the charging offer JimmyD, Boomer. THANK-YOU.

Didn't mean to hijack this thread, but I was worry about getting to turtle mode on my eventual maiden drive! Of course, if I get adventurous I might have another datapoint of "turtle" mode for everyone.

 

[Boomer23]

You're welcome, occ. By the way, just for your potential planning purposes, I'm close to UCI.

 

[bsavall]

Got off the freeway and drove the surface streets for a while and at 65.2 miles I got the Very Low battery alert.

So you got a total of 62.5+5.5=68 miles ?

Did you reset the miles/kwh meters and note them at the end ?

68 / (miles/kwh) = "Usable" Battery Capacity.

I am still pretty new to the power management tools (read ignorant). How do I access the miles/kwh meters and how do I reset, or not reset them?
Whoops, I mistyped in the previous post, 62.5 should have been 65.2 then 5.3 additional miles until DEAD, so total of 70.5 miles of "usable" battery. I hope my post discourages other "turtle seekers".

P.S. Do NOT try to push a dead LEAF up even a slight incline by yourself.

Brad

 

[Boomer23]

I am still pretty new to the power management tools (read ignorant). How do I access the miles/kwh meters and how do I reset, or not reset them?

Brad, there are two in-car meters.

On the main dash in front of the steering wheel, repeatedly press the trip computer "A" button (upper left button in group of 4 buttons on dash to left of steering wheel) to cycle through the displays of average miles/hr, etc until you get to a display of average and instant mi/kWh (a horizontal bar graph is part of this display). Zero it by pressing the "B" button.

The other display is on the center touch screen. Press the blue Zero Emissions button. Select Energy Info, Then Energy Economy, then Reset.

 

[bsavall]

On the main dash in front of the steering wheel, repeatedly press the trip computer "A" button (upper left button in group of 4 buttons on dash to left of steering wheel) to cycle through the displays of average miles/hr, etc until you get to a display of average and instant mi/kWh (a horizontal bar graph is part of this display). Zero it by pressing the "B" button.

Thanks, yes, I look at them all the time. They were not reset at the beginning or end of the trip. But my wife is the principal driver, and those numbers have been VERY consistent thus far: 3.9 mi/kWh on dash display, 4.0 mi/kWh on central touch screen. I should reset them for when I drive the car to see the difference. Oh right, I lost LEAF privileges when I turtled.http://www.mynissanleaf.com/posting.php?mode=quote&f=31&p=80979#

Thanks,
Brad

 

[hill]

. . . . . . . . . . . snip[THE EVSE USED 25.6 kWh to charge from 0% to 100%. That brought my pack from 0% SOC to 100% SOC. Given the stated pack of 24kWh, the extra 1.5kWh are simply losses from charging.

appx 4% loss ... now why couldn't Nissan post that. It's what I'd expect, as the majority of other appliances dealing with conversion(s) are in the same ball park.
thanks!

 

[Boomer23]

. . . . . . . . . . . snip[THE EVSE USED 25.6 kWh to charge from 0% to 100%. That brought my pack from 0% SOC to 100% SOC. Given the stated pack of 24kWh, the extra 1.5kWh are simply losses from charging.

appx 4% loss ... now why couldn't Nissan post that. It's what I'd expect, as the majority of other appliances dealing with conversion(s) are in the same ball park.
thanks!

Mine used 26.1 kWh for the same circumstances. (AV EVSE) Probably within the realm of "experimental error".

 

[waidy]

. . . . . . . . . . . snip[THE EVSE USED 25.6 kWh to charge from 0% to 100%. That brought my pack from 0% SOC to 100% SOC. Given the stated pack of 24kWh, the extra 1.5kWh are simply losses from charging.

appx 4% loss ... now why couldn't Nissan post that. It's what I'd expect, as the majority of other appliances dealing with conversion(s) are in the same ball park.
thanks!

Mine used 26.1 kWh for the same circumstances. (AV EVSE) Probably within the realm of "experimental error".

Just for the purpose of comparison, Mine was 26.359 kWh which I posted March 23 after running out of juice 30 feet from my charger.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

I can tell u how much I charge and how far it goes but can't tell u efficiency. It takes too long to charge from dead on 120. So I just call 3+ miles per kwh (3.22) and call it good.

Now that the ac recall is supposed to improve the gauges I may have to get it instAlled in a few weeks

 

[planet4ever]

I saw the turtle tonight for the first time. I wouldn't have had to, but when I got the "low battery" warning only half a mile from home I had a sudden urge to run some optional local errands. So I punched the trip mileage reset button and off I went.

Oh, but first, I need to tell you that I got my car a month ago, so it came with the April firmware upgrade installed. That also means I had one bar showing when I got the warning. The guessometer in the dash started flashing at the same time. (I usually don't pay any attention to that, but I think it said 8 miles, for what that's worth.)

0.7 miles: Made a stop to pick up something, and turned off the car. When I got back in and turned it on the last bar was gone. From this point I was on through streets traveling 35-45 mph, mostly in ECO. (I still haven't mastered the habit of shifting twice into forward, so often end up going a block or two in Drive before it dawns on me that the car is too "frisky".) It was late at night so there was very little traffic and I only hit a couple of red lights.

8.7 miles: Another stop. This time when I powered back up I immediately got the "very low battery" warning and of course the guessometer went to three dashes. (Sorry, I wasn't paying attention to what it was flashing before I stopped.) I went another approximately three miles at 35-45 mph, then started looping on nearly level ground close to home, 25-35 mph with three stop signs each loop, just under a mile per loop.

15.5 miles: The turtle came on. I turned around and headed straight home. Starting from a stop was no problem, but I had to climb a tiny "hill", about 20 ft. elevation change according to Google Earth, and the car was very reluctant. I didn't floor it, but it didn't seem to want to go much over 20 mph.

15.9 miles: Pulled into my driveway and gave my poor baby something to suck on. I went to the Nissan Owner's Portal and it said approximate charging time for a "normal" charge would be 12 hours. I'm using a 12A Ingineer upgraded L1, and I don't know whether or not the Owner's Portal number is adjusted for the difference between 12A and 16A charging.

Bottom line for me: There really is quite a bit of reserve after the last bar disappears. I'd call it the equivalent of 1½ bars.

Ray

 

[LEAFfan]

Interesting...did you start with 100%?

 

[Mx5racer]

I'm going o have to play turtle, if I was confident thet 0 did not mean 0 it would allow for longer trips, now is I get down to 14 I am worried that it may suddenly jump down and leave me stranded. Which means that I am using a reduced portion of the pack. (charging to 80%)

 

[garygid]

It APPEARS that the "Normal" (L2, perhaps 240v) estimated charging time displayed by Carwings is Charge-Rate adjusted (perhaps by the car).

In my experience the estimate is usually coarse (usually half-hour increments), not very accurate (usually overly long), and assumes charging to 100%, even when the car is scheduled to charge (or actually charging) to 80%.

To be more useful, Carwings could display:
1. time plugged in
2. scheduled charge-start time
3. actual charge-start time
4. actual time spent charging
5. expected end-of-charging time
6. expected SOC at expexted end
7. time charging ended
8. the car's actual SOC
9. duration of charging
10. number of charging interruptions
11. duration of any charging-interruptions

Carwings could deliver the Charging Started message (and the car could generate the message).

Are there Charging-Interrupted messages?

All of the above information could be included in the one Charging-Complete message.

Even more important, this information should be included in the Charging-Interrupted message so that you can decide if it is necessary to get up to "fix" some associated problem.

 

[TomT]

This tracks pretty close with my results: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=4083&p=96108#p96108

I saw the turtle tonight for the first time.