Daily range logging app

Has Nissan (or someone else) done this already?

I read a lot of posts from people (prior to making a decision to order/buy a LEAF) that log their daily car trips in an attempt to determine whether their driving patterns would be LEAF friendly or not.

It seems to me like a smartphone app would be able to easily do this for them, kind of like those apps that runners and bicyclists use to log their workouts.

When the user got into their vehicle they could hit the "DRIVE" button and based on their sampled speed, the app could calculate approximate power usage. When they got out of their vehicle, they could hit the "STOP" button, or, if they are at a place that is known to have (or will have) charging stations (like their home for instance) they could hit a "CHARGE" button and then click whether it is an L1, L2 or L3 charging station and the simulated battery would recharge during this time. I know this doesn't take into account things like use of climate control system and the effect of regenerative braking, but it's at least as accurate as what people are doing today. And I suppose even those items could be simulated by looking up the temperature (for climate control), time (for headlight usage) and applying statistics for regenerative braking usage.

The app could then give a readout on their driving power usage and give them a GREEN or RED indication based on whether they were within the estimated range of the LEAF.

I know many people considering a LEAF would be interested in such an app, and it would be a great marketing tool for others as well. Make it into a game of sorts and have the user input (or look up) current MPG, current gas and electricity prices in the area and actually calculate savings if the user was already driving a LEAF and post the results to Facebook.

Another post mentioning a very similar app to what I described just appeared and that reminded me that I thought of an extension to this idea. If the app could simulate an EV for an ICE driver, why couldn't it simulate an ICE for an EV driver? So for example, you program in the parameters for your ICE vehicle (mainly observed MPG and price of gas) and when you set out on a trip in your EV, the ICE simulator would calculate your estimated fuel usage. This would allow you to estimate how much you are saving in fuel costs, CO2 emissions, etc. Maybe even have a selector that allows you to select whether you are in your EV or ICE and allow you to calculate your potential savings.

BMW offers a free app for iPhone and Android.

Using the app, each day you start out with a 100-mile range for your pretend EV. The app tracks your driving distance using the phone's GPS, and lets you "get charged" at destinations that offer electric car charging to increase your range.

Read more: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-20054981-48.html#ixzz1jJA1jQHV" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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I have the next best thing: I photograph the dashboard using my phone each time I park. Then, at the end of the day I flip through the photos and enter the data into a spreadsheet. I suppose I could automate it if I were smart enough to size, rotate, and do number recognition with the images. I bet Google could do it.

Nissan has this program they show on their drive tour that lets you plan your day on a map while it tracks the mileage of your route. You can rearrange things to optimize it. Someone knocked it together (mashup) with Google Maps and it's very nice to use. Unfortunately, they're not serious about it, and all we have for use is that painful thing on the Carwings site. I told them the last time they came through that their little demo program was a whole lot better. I hoped other people would, too.