One more winter range post- 33*, 80% to 0 bars: 32.8 miles

I'll add another cool weather range data point from yesterday:

Trip: Grand Junction to Montrose, Colorado
Distance: 70 miles
Elevation gain: About 1100 feet net
Altitude: About 4700 feet to start and about 5800 feet at end.
Temperature: 33 degrees to start, 29 degrees at end
Battery temp: Four bars to start, five bars at end
Charge: 100%, in garage ~45 degrees, so not especially cold; left soon after charging finished
Speed: More than half the route at 55 mph, but no higher despite the 65 speed limit
Tires: 38 psi cold at start
Road: clean and dry
Heat: Ten to fifteen minutes (in Eco mode) when I realized I was going to make it but mostly off except for heated steering wheel.
Drive setting: entirely in Eco, much of the highway stuff on cruise control except for hills, I did coast down two grades in neutral.
Trees: I "made" about 2 and a half trees so I was trying to be careful.

Results: I got the "low battery" warning about one mile from my destination, so I had perhaps ten more miles left. So, 80+ miles range at freezing temperatures but also at moderately high altitude (less dense air).

Edit: Since I didn't record miles/kWh I believe I can calculate it from the recharge:
Assumptions: 75% efficiency from wall @ 120V, 4 Watts idle on EVSE, about 12 hours idling.

((22.82 kWh - (4 W x 12 hours)) x .75)/70 miles = 17.079 kWh/70 miles = 0.244 kWh/mile = 4.1 kWh/mile

That's the best I can come up with.

dgpcolorado said:

Results: I got the "low battery" warning about one mile from my destination, so I had perhaps ten more miles left. So, 80+ miles range at freezing temperatures but also at moderately high altitude (less dense air).

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Temps around freezing, 70 miles at 55 mph and 1,000 ft of climbing on a single charge, good work! Pretty much just as expected!

Excellent data and detail. I hope others follow your example in posting range results. It looks like elevation offset your cool-ish battery.

dgpcolorado said:

Results: I got the "low battery" warning about one mile from my destination, so I had perhaps ten more miles left. So, 80+ miles range at freezing temperatures but also at moderately high altitude (less dense air).

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Congratulations on taking delivery of your LEAF!!! Looking forward to reading about your LEAFing around one of the most beautiful mountain areas in the US! (Thus far, the highest altitude I've reached in my LEAF is a bit over 7800', the summit of Keller Peak. You'll have me beat relatively soon.)

I can't find the all critical data point in your 70 mile trip; what was the mile/kWh?

drees said:

Temps around freezing, 70 miles at 55 mph and 1,000 ft of climbing on a single charge, good work! Pretty much just as expected!

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Yes - I get about 4.4 or 4.5 when I don't use heater. With heater I get 3.3 to 3.6 m/kwh depending on the extent of heater use, preheating etc. So, I'd expect 70 miles without heater and 60 with heater (both till batt. low). This is in mixed freewayway/local roads (my home is 6 to 10 miles from the freeway).

TonyWilliams said:

I can't find the all critical data point in your 70 mile trip; what was the mile/kWh?

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I didn't reset and record that figure (don't even know how). I'm new, so I'm still learning. I believe I worked my way up to ~3.6 but if it wasn't cleared from before the trip, it isn't that useful.

After the trip it took about 22.8 kwh at the wall, via 120V, to get back to 100%; I intended 80% but had the charge timer set wrong. Won't be making that mistake again.

abasile said:

dgpcolorado said:

Results: I got the "low battery" warning about one mile from my destination, so I had perhaps ten more miles left. So, 80+ miles range at freezing temperatures but also at moderately high altitude (less dense air).

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Congratulations on taking delivery of your LEAF!!! Looking forward to reading about your LEAFing around one of the most beautiful mountain areas in the US! (Thus far, the highest altitude I've reached in my LEAF is a bit over 7800', the summit of Keller Peak. You'll have me beat relatively soon.)

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I made it home today, at last. I have to get to 8000 feet to come and go from my house at 7670 feet.

The LEAF handled fairly well on cold (single digits to teens) snowpacked roads. I could only get it to skid for a fraction of a second before the anti-lock brakes kicked in. However, it took two tries for me to get up my challenging driveway and I only barely made it after a running start. I'm still mulling over snowtires, cable chains, or autosocks for driveway duty.

dgpcolorado said:

However, it took two tries for me to get up my challenging driveway and I only barely made it after a running start. I'm still mulling over snowtires, cable chains, or autosocks for driveway duty.

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Try backing up your driveway. I realize the weight distribution is quite different, but years ago when we had unusual snow, that is the only way I could get a front wheel Honda up my rather long and steep snow packed driveway.

Bill

ebill3 said:

dgpcolorado said:

However, it took two tries for me to get up my challenging driveway and I only barely made it after a running start. I'm still mulling over snowtires, cable chains, or autosocks for driveway duty.

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Try backing up your driveway. I realize the weight distribution is quite different, but years ago when we had unusual snow, that is the only way I could get a front wheel Honda up my rather long and steep snow packed driveway.

Bill

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That would be quite difficult since my 350 foot driveway is narrow, curves, as well as climbs. If I get off the shoveled surface I get stuck in deep snow. It is tough even to back down the driveway, with gravity helping, and the rear visibility in the LEAF isn't very good.

wow DP, you must have some awesome views from your front yard!. i am assuming you did your driveway runs with traction control turned off? really makes a difference in snow


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNvC3BG4Syg&feature=g-upl&context=G2ffa106AUAAAAAAABAA[/youtube]

Dave, was that your speed record?

Here's a data point which could be interesting to some. I did quite a bit of driving today and had to make an unexpected trip during the day which took about 24 miles which I was not prepared for. I got a boost charge at Sunnyvale Nissan during the day for a couple of hours. Long story short, at the end of the day, it was dark, I had a return drive of 30 miles from the Santa Clara area with the Sunol grade to negotiate back to Pleasanton (net elev change of +300 ft). It had about 4 bars left, temp was around 8C at the start and about 6C in Pleasanton. I made it back with 5 miles on the battery gauge with 1 bar left and low battery warning. I thought I was not going to make it back today, but slowing down to 40 to 45 mph on the freeway sections did the trick. I put on my hazards where needed so I didn't get rear-ended. This car is amazing. Effectively it came to down driving 30 miles with a 25% battery (maybe more since it is weighted more heavily on the low end). Nevertheless, this is something I would have been more comfortable doing in summer than in winter with low temps, lights on etc (climate control was off).

yep! pretty much. i did get up to "almost" 80 mph coasting down the Puyallup Hill once

DaveinOlyWA said:

wow DP, you must have some awesome views from your front yard!. i am assuming you did your driveway runs with traction control turned off? really makes a difference in snow


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNvC3BG4Syg&feature=g-upl&context=G2ffa106AUAAAAAAABAA[/youtube]

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I've watched your video a couple of times but, no, I didn't turn traction control off. Might be something to try in the future when things are slick. I do have my Jeep for difficult driving conditions or when I haven't had time to shovel the whole driveway.

Yes, I do have some nice views here. Some snapshots from earlier this year:
Cimarron Ridge after spring snow, 4-24-11
Mt. Sneffels from my lanai, 4-4-11
Migrating sandhill cranes circling to gain altitude to cross San Juan Mountains, 11-27-11

And an old picture:
Dawn over the Cimarron Ridge, 12-14-01

gorgeous pictures!!

one thing that i LOVE over the Prius is the ability to use traction control as I SEE FIT. the Prius did not allow me to do that and with OEM tires, even the slightest amount of snow and ice was a challenge. the 2010 is much better since they adjusted how the traction control works but still inconvenient.

the Leaf allows one to rock the car like a regular car. the Prius does not

I'll weigh in on this thread. Note that rain is a major range factor for two reasons: 1. The rain on the road increases the rolling resistance of the tires. 2. Rain steals more heat from the car (cabin warmth) requiring the heater to work harder to maintain the same temperature. (Cold rain is colder than cold air, even a the same degree F reading).

I noticed this same effect on my RAV4 EV over the years. Just wait until you try snow.

Nate

nater said:

I'll weigh in on this thread. Note that rain is a major range factor for two reasons: 1. The rain on the road increases the rolling resistance of the tires. 2. Rain steals more heat from the car (cabin warmth) requiring the heater to work harder to maintain the same temperature. (Cold rain is colder than cold air, even a the same degree F reading).

I noticed this same effect on my RAV4 EV over the years. Just wait until you try snow.

Nate

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Add to that: cold humid air feels colder than cold dry air (which is what I have around here). But the pre-heating feature of the LEAF is really nice and works well. And I was quite surprised how much I liked the heated steering wheel even when wearing driving gloves (it would never occur to me to drive a car without gloves in winter but it isn't really needed with the 2012 LEAF).

dgpcolorado said:

TonyWilliams said:

I can't find the all critical data point in your 70 mile trip; what was the mile/kWh?

Click to expand...

I didn't reset and record that figure (don't even know how). I'm new, so I'm still learning. I believe I worked my way up to ~3.6 but if it wasn't cleared from before the trip, it isn't that useful.

After the trip it took about 22.8 kwh at the wall, via 120V, to get back to 100%; I intended 80% but had the charge timer set wrong. Won't be making that mistake again.

Click to expand...

Since I didn't record miles/kWh I believe I can calculate it from the recharge:
Assumptions: 75% efficiency from wall @ 120V, 4 Watts idle on EVSE, about 12 hours idling.

((22.82 kWh - (4 W x 12 hours)) x .75)/70 miles = 17.079 kWh/70 miles = 0.244 kWh/mile = 4.1 miles/kWh

That's the best I can come up with.

dgpcolorado said:

0.244 kWh/mile = 4.0 miles/kWh

That's the best I can come up with.

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I'd suggest that your 120v charging is slightly under 75%, and of course, battery temperature matters a bit.

What was the battery (approximate) temperature? Was it colder than the 45F in your garage? Then, we can go backwards and guess what your battery capacity was, and how much benefit your elevation had on range.