My Nissan Leaf Forum

Have you intentionally brodered your LEAF?
Have you accidentally turtled your LEAF?

***Intentional or not, please post details on how far you went from VLB to Turtle Mode***

Here is my experience:

Model: 2012 LEAF SL
Odometer: 12K
Battery Age: 16 Months / 12 bars

Intentional Broder 1 (Flat Road in 75F weather)
Date: 4/13/13
Mode: Eco
Speed: under 35 MPH
VLB to Turtle - 10.7 miles
Turtle to dead - 0.3 miles
Total Miles: 82.6

Intentional Broder 2 (Flat Road in 75F weather)
Date: 4/17/13
Mode: Eco
Speed: under 25 MPH
VLB to Turtle - 10.4 miles
Turtle to dead - 0.2 miles
Total Miles: 88.7

My overall average for both trips was 5.1 M/KWH. I did not reset the M/KWH meter for just the VLB part of the trip.


broder (verb) - to purposely or with willful ignorance run down the battery pack of an electric vehicle to the point that it no longer moves the vehicle.
Note: This is an extreme form of turtling an electric vehicle that is either a planned act or involves extreme negligence or outright idiocy to accomplish.

This is useful information, to know that VLB to turtle is around 10 miles. However, doesn't it put a lot of wear & team on the battery to run it so far down? I would think you would want to avoid it...

electrifeyed wrote:This is useful information, to know that VLB to turtle is around 10 miles. However, doesn't it put a lot of wear & team on the battery to run it so far down? I would think you would want to avoid it...

Nissan has built in safeguards preventing the battery from completely discharing. I would not recommend anyone routinely turtle their LEAF.
Based on all the data collected from the LEAFs with premature battery aging, the only two significant factors are high ambient temperature (over 110F) and high mileage (over 16K miles a year)

I wish this post was available last night as I put 74.5 round trip miles on the leaf going up into our local mountain range. with 5 miles of available range in eco remaining and 6.8 miles to get home I chickened out and decided to charge at a friends house for an hour rather than risking all of the old conservatives saying " I told you that car was stupid" when they saw it on the side of the road. I believe now that I totaly could have made it!

mortisier wrote:I wish this post was available last night as I put 74.5 round trip miles on the leaf going up into our local mountain range. with 5 miles of available range in eco remaining and 6.8 miles to get home I chickened out and decided to charge at a friends house for an hour rather than risking all of the old conservatives saying " I told you that car was stupid" when they saw it on the side of the road. I believe now that I totaly could have made it!

Keep a copy of Tony's LEAF Range chart in the car at all times!

If you intend to play in the shallow end, it's a good idea to charge to 100% occasionally to assist in cell balancing. I learned this the hard way in January, when I stretched the range but hadn't rebalanced in a couple of months. Things were going long fine until I got partway into the last battery bar, then the indicated miles started dropping with alacrity. I slowed down and made it home without seeing the turtle, but lesson learned. You need a balanced pack before you can trust the last few percent of battery charge.

spike09 wrote:

mortisier wrote:I wish this post was available last night as I put 74.5 round trip miles on the leaf going up into our local mountain range. with 5 miles of available range in eco remaining and 6.8 miles to get home I chickened out and decided to charge at a friends house for an hour rather than risking all of the old conservatives saying " I told you that car was stupid" when they saw it on the side of the road. I believe now that I totaly could have made it!

Keep a copy of Tony's LEAF Range chart in the car at all times!

I have one on my phone but where I live there are simply to many hills for it to be accurate.

mortisier wrote:I wish this post was available last night as I put 74.5 round trip miles on the leaf going up into our local mountain range. with 5 miles of available range in eco remaining and 6.8 miles to get home I chickened out and decided to charge at a friends house for an hour rather than risking all of the old conservatives saying " I told you that car was stupid" when they saw it on the side of the road. I believe now that I totaly could have made it!

Yes, you would have made it. Just slow down to 30-35 mph (in town) and you should have about 10 mi. Here's mine (and at about 30 F): http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.p ... 60#p243033

mortisier wrote:

spike09 wrote:

mortisier wrote:I wish this post was available last night as I put 74.5 round trip miles on the leaf going up into our local mountain range. with 5 miles of available range in eco remaining and 6.8 miles to get home I chickened out and decided to charge at a friends house for an hour rather than risking all of the old conservatives saying " I told you that car was stupid" when they saw it on the side of the road. I believe now that I totaly could have made it!

Keep a copy of Tony's LEAF Range chart in the car at all times!

I have one on my phone but where I live there are simply to many hills for it to be accurate.

If you merely use the dash economy gauge (miles/kWh), then whatever hills you are driving will be reflected. Actually, so will standing rain, wind, heater use, etc.

So, if your driving is producing 4 miles per kWh, and those same conditions prevail, you will still get the same range as a car driving 65mph down a level, no wind, dry road with no heater.

Also, the amount of energy usable at LBW and VLB is the same; 3.1kWh and 1.3kWh respectively.

So, your economy multiplied by 3.1 or 1.3 will give you the range remaining.

4 * 3.1 = 12.4 miles (LBW)
4 * 1.3 = 5.2 miles (VLB)

Yes, I have brodered my EVs many times !

TonyWilliams wrote: Also, the amount of energy usable at LBW and VLB is the same; 3.1kWh and 1.3kWh respectively.

So, your economy multiplied by 3.1 or 1.3 will give you the range remaining.

4 * 3.1 = 12.4 miles (LBW)
4 * 1.3 = 5.2 miles (VLB)

Spike's 10+ miles from VLB suggests some wicked good economy at "under 25/35". 8 mi/kWh?