2018 Range down to 113 Miles

So I have owned my 2018 Leaf for 2.5 years and 48,000 all in Phoenix. I drive 64 miles round trip to work everyday and it's about 60 highway miles. I expected some battery degradation but am starting to get nervous that my total range is now down to 113 at 100%. By the time I get home now my car is showing about 22 miles left in range after having driven 64 total miles, so obviously the highway miles are killer.

I just took my car into my Nissan Dealership and they are telling me that I am down 1 bar and that the degradation is normal. Would a 25% drop in listed range normal for almost 50,000 miles? I realize the heat here is the valley is a big factor but if I lose much more range this car will be worthless to me.

Yes, the stats are normal for your conditions. Unfortunately, you would have been much better with a 62kwh ePlus Leaf - even an S+ - because of that heat and its effect on battery capacity. If you leased the car, then you have half a year left? If you bought it, now is the time to be looking to sell it, before you lose a second capacity bar. In any case, your next EV should either have thermal management, or at worst have a larger capacity battery.

Hard post to follow since the only data is the GOM

OP: when the car was new-ish, how many miles remaining would show after your commute ?
As for what to do when battery degradation interferes with your commute -- driving slower will help

SageBrush said:

Hard post to follow since the only data is the GOM

Click to expand...

Exactly, the GOM is worthless.

I'm guessing they're asserting "25%" loss from 150 * 0.75 = 112.5. This assumes they actually could achieve 150 miles of range until empty with how they were driving when the car was new, which isn't a good assumption at all.

This will be the 40 kWh car I know of down a capacity bar, if that's what they're actually down by.

OP will need to be down 4 capacity bars before their 8 year/100K capacity warranty expires to receive a replacement battery.

I agree GOM is not useful, Your range will adjust based on many things from climate, terrain and your driving style. If you step on it your range will drop. Have you looked at getting a OBD II and Leafspy?

I also agree a LEAF plus would have been better not only for the additional range but for being slower to heat up. Too bad there was no plus in 2018.

cwerdna said:

SageBrush said:

Hard post to follow since the only data is the GOM

Click to expand...

Exactly, the GOM is worthless.

Click to expand...

I wonder if OP goes uphill on his way home

He should have ~ 80% of new battery capacity remaining, meaning 38*0.8 = 30 kWh
Even if he only gets 3 miles per kWh he should be able to lose another 10 kWh of capacity before commuting problems become acute.

That would be in another ~ 3 years, but warranty replacement would kick in before then. I know it does not seem so to him now, but he just might squeeze 12 years out of that car if he ends up with two battery replacements under warranty. In Phoenix no less. The price to be paid though, as I said earlier, is not driving like a maniac when the battery is aged. He may also have to learn to mitigate AC use in the summer. That does not sound like fun.

Re: uphill, exactly.

Google Earth Pro (https://www.google.com/earth/versions/) for Windows and Mac can give you a plot of elevation between two points. It will also tell you the net elevation gain/loss. It became obvious to me why I used to get lower instantaneous mpg on my Prius in going one direction vs. the other on a given expressway. It wasn't obvious so the naked eye that there was any up or downhill slope.

Hard post to follow since the only data is the GOM

Click to expand...

I was accepting the statement that the dealer indicated one bar lost.

Thanks for the replies. I bought it used with 500 miles on it for $25k so I'm thinking trading in for a 2020 Bolt. They have some hefty discounts and the 250 mile range would be great.

If you like the Bolt it may be better for you as it has active cooling so it may do better in your heat.

OP: You do realize that the GOM we're talking about is the guess-o-meter aka the silly number followed by miles on the dash, right?

Keep https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/battery-conditioning.33279/#post-512173 in mind for Bolt thermal management behavior if you're trying to keep battery degradation down. Heat and high state of charge aren't good for li-ion batteries, esp. both together. Google makes for a great unit converter. Google for 27 c in f to get the equivalent.

One can definitely hear thermal management kick in when battery gets hot enough from DC fast charging or if car is in hot area for many hours then plugged in.

If you care about DC fast charging a Bolt, make sure it has the inlet. See https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/what-charging-adapter-do-i-need-for-a-2017-that-only-has-a-standard-connector.36840/#post-571383 for visual aid. Orange flap covering the 2 holes == has DC FC inlet. Smooth area = nope and there's no economical way to add it later.

SageBrush said:

That would be in another ~ 3 years, but warranty replacement would kick in before then. I know it does not seem so to him now, but he just might squeeze 12 years out of that car if he ends up with two battery replacements under warranty. In Phoenix no less. The price to be paid though, as I said earlier, is not driving like a maniac when the battery is aged. He may also have to learn to mitigate AC use in the summer. That does not sound like fun.

Click to expand...

OP is driving about 20k miles per year.

The OP hits 100k miles in about 2.5 more years, and one warranty replacement could be possible, not two. If one bar means 15% down, it might be close. If closer to second bar, to 20% down, fairly sure. Not two replacements. Still, with one replacement, might get 200k miles and 10 years. In Phoenix no less.

Still, might be less fun than a new car.

Phoenix is the worst large city for the LEAF, and is about twice the loss rate of most of the USA.

Koolpenguin said:

So I have owned my 2018 Leaf for 2.5 years and 48,000 all in Phoenix. I drive 64 miles round trip to work everyday and it's about 60 highway miles. I expected some battery degradation but am starting to get nervous that my total range is now down to 113 at 100%. By the time I get home now my car is showing about 22 miles left in range after having driven 64 total miles, so obviously the highway miles are killer.

I just took my car into my Nissan Dealership and they are telling me that I am down 1 bar and that the degradation is normal. Would a 25% drop in listed range normal for almost 50,000 miles? I realize the heat here is the valley is a big factor but if I lose much more range this car will be worthless to me.

Click to expand...

If you do a 128 mile round trip you need a 62 kW Leaf or Bolt.

Let me give you a comparison. I own a 2020 SL+. I routinely drive a one way trip that is equivalent in miles to your 128 mile round trip.

Here’s the results from yesterday’s one way 122 mile trip with 95% @ 60 MPH in on and off light rain.

I started off fully charged and the GOM showing 245 miles of range. I drove 122 miles and when I arrived the GOM was showing 68 miles of range remaining. Normally I have 85-90 miles remaining but it was raining a bit.
According to the Nissan EV app I;
Had 34% remaining
used 35.5 kW
3.4 miles/kW (normally when not raining I use 3.6 miles/KW on this trip)
2.6 hours, but we stopped about 20 minutes to walk the dog so drive time was 2 hs 15 min

I bought this advertised 225 mile range car to primarily do this 125 mile trip between house and cabin. I previously had a 2018 40 kW SV with advertised 150 mile range. I traded because I knew degradation would reduce my range and I wanted to be able to do this trip for at least 5 years. I expect in 5 years the battery will have degraded about 25%, ie 5%/Year, I will only have maybe 10 miles of range remaining.

A/C use does not reduce range a lot so I would not even consider driving without A/C (especially on the highway where aerodynamic drag with windows open would be high). If the 40 kWh battery in the 2018 is anything like the 62 kWh battery in my car, then there is a lot of range left after the first low battery warning. With highway driving and normal A/C use, the 40 kWh battery should handle 64 miles even when down to 8 capacity bars (but the low battery warnings would make it look like the car is about to stop). I strongly recommend getting Leaf Spy with a suitable OBDII adapter so you can see more information about the car and be comfortable deeply discharging the battery as there is more degradation.

Flyct said:

If you do a 128 mile round trip you need a 62 kW Leaf or Bolt.
...
used 35.5 kW
3.4 miles/kW (normally when not raining I use 3.6 miles/KW on this trip)
...
I bought this advertised 225 mile range car to primarily do this 125 mile trip between house and cabin. I previously had a 2018 40 kW SV with

Click to expand...

You mean kWh? Energy and battery capacity are measured in kWh, not kW.

The vehicle and the Nissan Connect app use the right units.

First. Please post a pic of your dash showing the lost bar. We knew the first bar losers would be coming soon, as its been 3 years. I haven't seen a 2018+ with a lost bar yet.

2nd, how do you keep your battery (regularly fully charge, garaged,etc)? Do you DC charge often?

Yep, on Doug's request. We need to see a pic of the battery capacity screen.

if you don't have a place to host images, https://imgur.com/ should work.

cwerdna said:

Flyct said:

If you do a 128 mile round trip you need a 62 kW Leaf or Bolt.
...
used 35.5 kW
3.4 miles/kW (normally when not raining I use 3.6 miles/KW on this trip)
...
I bought this advertised 225 mile range car to primarily do this 125 mile trip between house and cabin. I previously had a 2018 40 kW SV with

Click to expand...

You mean kWh? Energy and battery capacity are measured in kWh, not kW.

The vehicle and the Nissan Connect app use the right units.

Click to expand...

I knew you would respond and correct.

Flyct said:

Koolpenguin said:

So I have owned my 2018 Leaf for 2.5 years and 48,000 all in Phoenix. I drive 64 miles round trip to work everyday and it's about 60 highway miles. I expected some battery degradation but am starting to get nervous that my total range is now down to 113 at 100%. By the time I get home now my car is showing about 22 miles left in range after having driven 64 total miles, so obviously the highway miles are killer.

I just took my car into my Nissan Dealership and they are telling me that I am down 1 bar and that the degradation is normal. Would a 25% drop in listed range normal for almost 50,000 miles? I realize the heat here is the valley is a big factor but if I lose much more range this car will be worthless to me.

Click to expand...

If you do a 128 mile round trip you need a 62 kW Leaf or Bolt.

Let me give you a comparison. I own a 2020 SL+. I routinely drive a one way trip that is equivalent in miles to your 128 mile round trip.


I bought this advertised 225 mile range

Click to expand...

OP said 64 miles round trip, you probably thought they said one way.

Also your SL Plus was advertised at 215, not 225.

Koolpenguin said:

So I have owned my 2018 Leaf for 2.5 years and 48,000 all in Phoenix. I drive 64 miles round trip to work everyday and it's about 60 highway miles. I expected some battery degradation but am starting to get nervous that my total range is now down to 113 at 100%. By the time I get home now my car is showing about 22 miles left in range after having driven 64 total miles, so obviously the highway miles are killer.

I just took my car into my Nissan Dealership and they are telling me that I am down 1 bar and that the degradation is normal. Would a 25% drop in listed range normal for almost 50,000 miles? I realize the heat here is the valley is a big factor but if I lose much more range this car will be worthless to me.

Click to expand...

You are the FIRST!! Well, the first I have come across to lose a capacity bar on the new gen LEAF pack. You do know there is a capacity screen you can check your bar status, right? Definitely not worth taking to the dealer for that.

GET LEAF SPY! and yeah, I am yelling. The GOM only shows you the capacity of the pack Nissan wants you to use, not what you really have. As your pack struggles to reach no charge, you will see several events on that journey.

First event will have your GOM start blinking
2nd event, your GOM will go to "_ _ _"
3rd event your SOC meter will go from 1% SOC to "_ _ _"

NOW, you have up to 10 miles of range left. So your "close calls" driving home is simply you being brainwashed by Nissan. Liberate your mind. $15 app with a $20 dongle. It will be the best spent money you ever did... (unless you bought Tesla stock @ $70...)