Leaf Plus VLB or Turtle

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DougWantsALeaf

Well-known member
Joined
May 10, 2013
Messages
3,797
Location
Chicago North Side
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Has anyone taken their Leaf Plus down to VLB or Turtle mode and have a Leafspy reading to go with it?

I have gone well into LB (with dash at 1% for a while), but haven’t had the patience to take it to VLB.
 
We haven't gone below 9%. Trying to get to turtle mode interests me, but I also have vested interest in not driving my battery down that low...
 
OK, here is some information from my first full discharge test of the 2019 (mostly freeway driving with air conditioning set on AUTO at 76 F):
Ending odometer reading: 1149 miles
204.4 miles total
34.5 miles after LBW (6% SOC on dash and 112 "Gids" on LEAF Spy when warning popped up on dash display)
30.5 miles after GOM went to flashing -- (no VLBW audible or visual warning) (2% SOC on dash and 80 "Gids" on LEAF Spy)
0.3 miles after Turtle to get home (-- SOC and 9 "Gids")
A/C set to full cold in driveway for about 15 minutes until Shutdown (1 "Gid" on LEAF Spy)
3.6 mi/kWh on dash display
12.5 hours estimated charging time on dash display (6.6 kW)
Actual charging time: 10 hours and 41 minutes
Actual voltage and current input to 30-ampere AeroVironment EVSE when charging was first started: 244.2 V and 27.6 A
60-minute peak demand during charging session: 6751.2 watts (6.7512 kW)
Actual charging energy (measured at input to EVSE): 65.95 kWh
Actual wall to wheels efficiency: 204.4/65.95=3.099 mi/kWh

LEAF Spy information just before Shutdown:
AHr=173.40
SOH=98.30%
Hx=102.94%
289.27 V and 8.21 A
1 QC and 13 L1/L2
min/avg/max=2.843 3.013 3.076 volts (233 mV delta)
Temp F=114.8 117.4 118.7 (4.6 degrees delta)
SOC=0.2%

LEAF Spy information when car started a little more than 2 hours after charging complete:
399.51 V 1.22 A
1 QC and 14 L1/L2
4.155 4.161 4.183 volts (28 mV delta)
104.4 106.9 107.2 degrees F (3.6 degrees delta)
SOC=94.1%
"Gids"=721

Dashboard information:
262 miles left (GOM or DTE)
100% SOC

I was surprised that there was no visible or audible very low battery warning and that low battery warning happened with much more energy remaining than on previous LEAFs. It was also strange to see the GOM (Nissan calls it "Distance to Empty" or DTE) go to -- only a short distance after LBW. The energy use display on the navigation screen has a remaining driving distance display which counts down and seems to be reasonably accurate, but it still showed 1 mile remaining just before shutdown.
 
Great report!

Thank you for all of the detail. Glad to know you can drive the car down to almost 1 gid. There was rumor that the last 20-30 Gids were not usable, which does not seem to be true.

Also good to know that VLB does not audible warn the driver. Makes we wonder if it had hit VLB when I had 1% on the dash and just under 5KW remaining on Leafspy.

What’s crazy is that at Low battery you have as much juice left as a 50% or more charge on my 13 Leaf.

Noticed you SOC after charge was only 94%. That happened to me after a full level 2 charge post a major run (242 miles). Wonder why it didn’t fill the last few percent or whether if you plugged it in again whether it would add the last 3kw.

When was your SL+ manufactured?
 
DougWantsALeaf said:
Also good to know that VLB does not audible warn the driver. Makes we wonder if it had hit VLB when I had 1% on the dash and just under 5KW remaining on Leafspy.
Do you mean 5 kWh? I don't bother with "kWh" readings on Leaf Spy, if they're calculated from the 77.5 watt-hours per gid (default setting). Working backwards 5000 Wh / 77.5 Wh/gid = ~64.5 gids. Was that about how many gids you had at the time?
 
DougWantsALeaf said:
Board

Has anyone taken their Leaf Plus down to VLB or Turtle mode and have a Leafspy reading to go with it?

I have gone well into LB (with dash at 1% for a while), but haven’t had the patience to take it to VLB.

yes, what do you want to know?
 
DougWantsALeaf said:
Great report!

Thank you for all of the detail. Glad to know you can drive the car down to almost 1 gid. There was rumor that the last 20-30 Gids were not usable, which does not seem to be true.

Also good to know that VLB does not audible warn the driver. Makes we wonder if it had hit VLB when I had 1% on the dash and just under 5KW remaining on Leafspy.

What’s crazy is that at Low battery you have as much juice left as a 50% or more charge on my 13 Leaf.

Noticed you SOC after charge was only 94%. That happened to me after a full level 2 charge post a major run (242 miles). Wonder why it didn’t fill the last few percent or whether if you plugged it in again whether it would add the last 3kw.

When was your SL+ manufactured?

There is an insignificant amount of power shown by LEAF Spy that is not usable since LEAF Spy displays real values which is why you never see 100% SOC. How much is unusable is dependent on the rate at which you use up those electrons at the bottom and pack balance. Turtle and shutdown are triggered by low voltage levels. Only ONE cell has to hit that level to trigger the warnings. The likelihood you will make it to one GID is....ZERO. But I am guessing you will have to see for yourself. Bring a jump box with you because going that far will likely kill your 12 volt as well. It has to work to receive a charge.

I have seen people make to 5. I have seen people getting towed at 7. In my 2013, I was getting home 3-4 days a week with GID under 10. It was like clockwork. W/O LEAF Spy, I would never have tried it but LEAF Spy literally adds 15 miles to your range.

Here is a few LEAF Spy shots. On the cell screen, you can see how wildly out of balance the pack becomes when near empty. This is what you have to negotiate to get into the last few GIDs.

https://daveinolywa.blogspot.com/2018/03/2018-very-casual-range-test-why-leaf.html
 
Since I used most of the capacity of the battery on a daily basis in both the 2011 and 2015 and then fully charged overnight, those batteries were generally well balanced. Turtle always happened at 5 Gids and shutdown always happened at 4 Gids. The 2011 would maybe go 1/4 mile after Turtle, but the 2015 went over 1 mile a few times recently in order to reach the nearest charging stations.

As you can see, the voltage difference between cells near shutdown was only 233 mV so the battery in the 2019 is also well balanced. I generally charge the 2019 every 2 or 3 days so that I am not topping off the battery every day. Again, I nearly always charge to 100%. The manufacture date was 07/2019 and I drove it off the dealer lot on August 10.
 
I just completed another north side Chicago to Iowa city run. This time much faster than the first time when I just got the car knowing I left quite a buffer last time. We kept at 70 for most of the highway time between aurora and Iowa city (staying around other traffic). I left at 100% and 755 Gids and arrived at 4% on dash/12.4 % Leafspy 94 Gids and 7.4 kWh remaining. Low battery went off at 108 Gids and 8.8 kWh remaining and 6% on dash. Efficiency 4.1 miles per kilowatt. 227 miles driven. So with reserve that’s around 250 range which is about right.
 
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