how to charge to 80% on model SL?

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eKrom said:
The best point is that it's a-OK to charge to 100% as long as the car is not sitting fully charged for long. Now how "long" is long?
I didn't say it is "A-OK" to charge to 100% SoC

I said sitting at 100% is bad, and the less time the battery sits at 100%, the less degradation from that cause.

I understand battery degradation as mostly due to battery temperature, SoC, and time at high SoC. These variables affect each other so the best approach is to do as best you can with each of them.
 
cwerdna said:
If charging on a 30+ amp L2 EVSE at 240 volts, figure about 6 kWh per hour is added to the battery during the full power phase, before ramp down and bounces. 6 kWh/h --> 6 kW, since h's cancel out. 6.0 kW is the official max OBC output while drawing 6.6 kW from the wall.

At my work, the supply voltage is ~208 volts, hence the typical max of 5.7 to ~6.1 kW or so (from the "wall") on our 30 amp L2 EVSEs.

It's that simple! The assumptions are that the battery isn't in the hot zone and charging hasn't tapered as it reaches full charge.
 
cwerdna said:
For some reason, Tesla's been able to get away with this for years w/UI that lets you charge to whatever % you want. 2017 and 2018 Bolt had a hilltop reserve toggle. Turning it on made it not charge as full. 2019+ Bolt have UI that lets you limit charge anywhere from 40 to 100% in 5% increments. Current HyunKia EVs also have some charge limiter UI, I believe in 10% increments and even separate settings for AC vs. DC charging.

Audi etron has 50% to 100% limit at 10% increments, can set up home as different than general locations, and can set up other locations as different as well. Not sure how many, more than two locations have have "advanced charging settings" for just that location. I think, but have yet to try, that applies to DC as well as AC charging. My general charging target is 100%.

So you could set 80% at home, 70% at work, 50% at some favorite vacation spot, and 100% generally. And maybe more locations, owner's manual does not give a limit and I've only tried two. This is a nice feature.

The charge timers, on the other hand, are a hot mess.
 
Yeah, the other day I learned that my '19 Bolt also lets you specify different target charge levels for home vs. away. I've never played with that much as I almost never charge at home as it is so no need for that nor the very complicated timers on Bolt.

Maybe I should set home to 40% and away to 100? Currently, the main reason why I'd plug in my Bolt at all at home is for thermal management and I don't want it charging at home anyway at Pacific Gouge & Extort prices where my marginal cost to charge at home is about 31 cents/kWh (as opposed for free public L2 juice I can sometimes get or free DrivetheARC DC FC or 18 cents a minute EA or 25 cents/kWh DC FC at ChargePoint HQ (not near home though)),
 
So it looks unclear why Nissan decided to remove 80% stop charge feature?

Probably a somewhat different question: how bad is frequent "up-charging" providing it does not reach 80%. Or is better to run as long as possible (well perhaps not below 20% SOC).
 
Charging from just below (or at) 80% is ok if not done to a hot battery, and if not done very frequently. It's pretty clear that Nissan removed the 80% charge limiter because of the reduced EPA combined range rating. We just don't have anything from them in writing saying that. ;)
 
eKrom said:
So it looks unclear why Nissan decided to remove 80% stop charge feature?
Seems likely due to https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=589104#p589104.

Even now, Leaf Plus without the limiter is at an EPA mileage disadvantage vs. competitors in its price range:
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=42562&id=42563&id=42191&id=42089
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=42191&id=42089&id=42514&id=40520
 
DougWantsALeaf said:
A few of us in this board find the S+ does quite a bit better range/efficiency wise during temperate weather.
And all it takes is driving below the speed limit.
 
alozzy said:
Dala's solution is both simple and inexpensive. Why not explore that option?

If he won't sell you a modded version, the muxsan can bus bridge can be purchased here:

https://www.tindie.com/products/muxsan/can-mitm-bridge-3-port-rev-25/

And the source code for Dala's BatterySaver is here:

https://github.com/dalathegreat/Nissan-Leaf-BatterySaver

That is way cool, thanks!
 
cwerdna said:
eKrom said:
So it looks unclear why Nissan decided to remove 80% stop charge feature?
Seems likely due to https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=589104#p589104.

Even now, Leaf Plus without the limiter is at an EPA mileage disadvantage vs. competitors in its price range:
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=42562&id=42563&id=42191&id=42089
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=42191&id=42089&id=42514&id=40520

Wow, that's interesting - so Leafs have (somewhat) worse efficiency.

I can see how eliminating 80% would make the EPA range a bit better (against 80/100 average) so that is still a side-effect of EPA's silly standard. They can't prevent me from unplugging the car before it's fully charged or misuse the end timer...eh?
 
Yeah, I don't think anyone here is clear why Tesla can get away with UI to let you control charge end SoC along w/GM and now HyunKia.

Maybe Nissan got bit because they called 80% "long life mode" and had references in '11 to '13 manuals with stuff like this?
• Avoid sustained high battery state of charge (caused, for example, by frequently charging to 100% state of charge and/or leaving the battery
above 80% state of charge for long periods of time).
• Allow the battery charge to be below at least 80% before charging.
Above is from page EV-24 of the '13 Leaf manual.

And, maybe it's related to this that was written before Leaf shipped?
https://web.archive.org/web/20100112044341/http://www.caranddriver.com/features/09q3/the_truth_about_epa_city_highway_mpg_estimates-feature/the_truth_about_epa_city_2f_highway_mpg_estimates_page_3
that vehicle is tested in any driver-selectable mode, such as a transmission sport mode, that would worsen emissions. But for fuel-economy purposes, many things are up for discussion; it’s the automaker’s task to convince the EPA how the cars are likely to be driven in consumers’ hands.

The EPA’s Wehrly describes a hypothetical, but typical, discussion where an automaker wants to get around activating a particular feature that degrades fuel economy during the testing. Luxury automaker: “We have this feature, but no one uses it.” EPA: “Then why do you have it?” Automaker: “Because Mercedes has it. If we don’t have it, it looks bad.”
 
Audi manual says
You can set the charging target, meaning you can set the maximum charge level to which the high-voltage battery should be charged. The charging target can be set between 50% and 100%. For daily usage, Audi recommends setting the charging target at 80%. This can extend the service life of the high-voltage battery. Before long trips, Audi recommends setting the charging target at 100% for the highest possible range.

Nissan needs to change the manual to something similar, or use the GM "hilltop mode" or something.
 
eKrom said:
alozzy said:
Dala's solution is both simple and inexpensive. Why not explore that option?

If he won't sell you a modded version, the muxsan can bus bridge can be purchased here:

https://www.tindie.com/products/muxsan/can-mitm-bridge-3-port-rev-25/

And the source code for Dala's BatterySaver is here:

https://github.com/dalathegreat/Nissan-Leaf-BatterySaver

That is way cool, thanks!

If you decide to give that BatterySaver solution a try, please post back your experiences and the steps you took as that content would be valuable to the LEAF community. So many people have requested 80% charging and the go to answer is always to use some sort of timer. This solution seems a lot more elegant and even improves on the stock 80% option of the 2013 MY.

I'm fortunate to have the 80% charging option, as I own a 2013 LEAF, or I would have given this a shot by now. Good luck!
 
eKrom,

If you want the charge timer to stop at the programmed time, you need to program both start and end times. The car calculates when to start charging to reach full charge a little before the end time if you only program an end time. I have start and end times programmed to match my off-peak power times (2011, 2015, and 2019 all stop or stopped charging at the programmed end time). The 2019 has a setting for "full charge priority" that will override the end time if active, but the 2011 and 2015 did not have that setting so I don't know when it first appeared. It took a little time reading the owner manual of the 2019 to find out what the "full charge priority" setting would do. Obviously, I keep it turned off to make my timers work correctly.

If your daily use pattern is consistent, you should be able to program charge start and end times to get close to 80%. Personally, I almost always charge to 100% unless the car will not be driven soon after charging. I don't worry about the car sitting for a few hours after charging to 100%, but would not let it sit that way for more than a day or two. I make sure the SOC is less than 70% when the car is parked for extended time at the airport or my office.
 
Hey, if i charge 80% only all time, do i need sometimes 100% charging? Balancing shunts working all time when car is on, then thats 100% charge rate not important or some balancing 100% happening and car need this for calibration or something?
 
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