How to Check Battery Capacity, Degradation and Range

[DougWantsALeaf]

Tony,

Are we seeing consistantly lower GID readings out of the US batteries? Do you think that is due to quality/control issues, or change in chemistry?

Thank you

[TonyWilliams]

Tony,

Are we seeing consistantly lower GID readings out of the US batteries? Do you think that is due to quality/control issues, or change in chemistry?

Thank you

If I had to guess, it's because of changes related to heat degradation prevention.

[stjohnh]

Tony,

Are we seeing consistantly lower GID readings out of the US batteries? Do you think that is due to quality/control issues, or change in chemistry?

Thank you

If I had to guess, it's because of changes related to heat degradation prevention.

Its not clear to me that the lower gids and lower capacity numbers mean the battery actually stores less energy. It may mean that Nissan's programming is reporting this information differently. After all, the Leafs still have about the same range.

[DougWantsALeaf]

What does the DTE stand for On the leaf spy?

[leafwing]

What does the DTE stand for On the leaf spy?

My guess DTE stands for death to empire.

[mbender]

What does the DTE stand for On the leaf spy?

My guess, with the help of acronymfinder, is Data Terminal Equipment.

Or Distance to Empty? (I don't have a Spy. I suspect that whatever it is, is in the above list though!)

[ericsf]

What does the DTE stand for On the leaf spy?

In Nissan lingo DTE is Distance To Empty.

[linkim]

Quote - Ordered : 9/2/2010 - SL w/ QC - Delivered : 3/5/2011 - 1st bar lost on 1/23/2014 @ 53700 miles.

ericsf - Do you have measurements of the Ah capacity of your LEAF when you lost the 1st bar?

[flarend]

I just found this thread and I've been concerned with my range and/or battery.
I have logged quite a few trips where I reset the dash readouts for each trip. Here is the data for a NEW 2013 with more between 800 miles and 3000 miles:
Starting SOC %, Ending SOC%, miles driven, mi/kWh, usable battery capacity
All at 5 temp bars
81% 5% 59.5 4.3 18.2
79% 3% 63.7 4.6 18.2
80% 48% 24.4 4.5 16.9
79% 9% 37.5 2.9 18.5
75% 5% 41.7 3.0 19.9
100% 74% 12.8 3.1 15.9
95% 8% 62.0 3.7 19.3

At 4 temp bars (some of these cases are using the climate control which explains the low mi/kWh)
73% 16% 34.9 3.4 18.0
100% 7% 58.9 3.2 19.8
91% 30% 50.6 4.7 17.6
100% 0% (T) 70.8 3.5 20.2
100% 19% 37.6 2.6 17.9
81% 29% 23.7 2.6 17.9
69% 39% 11.7 2.4 16.3
81% 70% 4.1 2.4 15.5

From this I conclude that for this type of test to be valid, you need to use up 'most' of the SOC, because all the times in which I drove just a short distance, the calculated capacitance was an outlier on the low side.
I also conclude that my battery capacity is only about 19 kWh or so which seems low by about 10%.

I have had the car into the dealer several times to have the range looked at and they say my numbers are normal and just what is expected. The corporate office instructs my local dealer to stop working on the car and return it to me as completely normal. They did do a battery usage report which gave me 5 stars and one three-star rating for "Long term parking with high state of charge". I don't do that. I have it on a timer and it charges in the wee AM to 80% usually, and sometimes to 100%. But I never charge to 100% and let it sit there.

So should my calculated capacity really be something closer to 21 or 22 kWh for a new car with a broken in battery, but not many miles? Am I unreasonable in thinking my battery capacity seems small?

Thanks

[blimpy]

Well Good God !

Here is a recipe for abusing your battery on both ends, all in hopes of find out if it is abused !



going to 100% is just about the worst thing you can do to your leaf battery.. as this really accelerates degradation
in the most effective way.

Maybe you've gotta do this torture test to get absolute numbers... but everything extreme you can to do these batteries ,
they just don't like, and you pay for the privilege in shortened life.

This is kind of like increasing the voltage on an incandescent bulb, or putting it in series with a high current load - to "find out what it will do"
Die.. is what it will do.

cycle them between 20 and 60 % and they will last well past their design life.

play around in the bottom and top 10% and they die very young.