The 250 mile Leaf journey
Discussion
250 miles done yesterday in the Leaf......knew it would take some doing.....so tried to plan, a bit....but it didn't totally work out as planned.
I got the leaf approx 6 weeks ago. About a month ago on LeafSpyLite my SOH was 80.03%.
I do 99% granny charging with the very very very occasional Chademo.
But yesterday....i did 4 Chademos...
SOH was 81.06% (Hx 73.55%) before setting off...so the granny charging over the past 6 weeks seems to have improved the SOH figure a bit since i got it?
8.30am ish -
Chademo 1 - Ecotricity, Wetherby (3 machines, all available), arrived with 5%. Quite tense. (first planned stop was missed - oops??!!). Charged for 45 mins (auto cut off?) and got to approx 90% (sorry, forgot to remember). Machine whooshed away and seemed to do it's thing nicely. I went back to check on it part way through as i was having a look on the comments ok Zap Map and some recent ones said it wasn't working properly....thankfully it did for me. Approx £5 cost.
Battery temp went from 4 bars (the usual level at the moment) to 5 bars.
Carried on to the desitnation
Spent 4-5 hours having a meet up with family.
Car still on 5 bars temp when returning.
3.30 pm ish -
Chademo 2 - Ecotricity, Woolley Edge. 1 machine, available. Arrived with 21%, left on for 45 mins, got to 97%. Just as i was finishing up, a chap arrived in a grey i-Pace, lovely looking thing!
Battery temp remained at 5 bars.
5.30pm ish -
Chademo 3 - was originally going to be Wetherby again....but change of plan for child drop at Grans meant diverting towards A19....so next stop in range was a "Shell Recharge" at Gristhwaite near Thirsk.
'Smoov' machine. Not familiar with it at all...had to download app and set it all up whilst there. However, it began OK and did it's thing. A more compact, newer machine...but the screen was on the side...so you couldn't see what it was doing whilst sitting in the car. Quite quiet in use. Mistake by me - Changed car settings to 80% cut off thinking it would be enough. So car got to 80% in approx 30 mins. Set off again.
Battery temp was now 6 bars.
Arrived at Grans with almost nothing left. Should have gone to 100% to have that little extra buffer.
8.30pm ish -
Chademo 4 - A swanky looking FASTNED in Sunderland. Thankfully i'd set up the thingy on the app before i went - but its all in Dutch? There was no english language option? (there was 'other' which was kinda in English to start with...but upon completion, was Dutch with a Dutch text to confirm?
However the wording on the machine itself was in English and the set up on the app must have recognised my card, as when i came to use it (well, not the first one as it was 'out of order' but the second one) it accepted my card and went about it's business. Very noisy though! (and i would have had a meltdown had i got there and had to do the dutch setting up thing before i could use it - not good and why no English option? Howay!!)
Noise comparison - Ecotricity - Whooshy with an accompanyish high pitched whistle (but not unpleasant..just...a bit noticable)
Shell Recharge - generally quieter more modern machine, not really any whoosh but some high pitched whistle.
Fastned - High pitched annoying whirr! Not nice and i'd be a bit sick if i lived near one!
Anyway, battery temp stayed at 6 bars.
Upon getting home, did LeafSpy again, SOH was 81.17% (Hx 73.79%)
Didn't charge overnight.
Battery temp back to 4 bars this morning
Did LeafSpy again, 81.51% SOH (Hx 74.40%)
Summary - a loooong day. Car is lovely on the motorway, very smooth and quiet and comfy. Seats very comfortable, no aches or pains, or very little, anyway.
Discovered that sitting at 50mph (which i had to do at some points as i became worried about the range to desination) gave up to 4.2 m/kwh and meant the range estimater was pretty much in line with the actual range travelled. Any faster and it didn't match up and went down below to about 3.8 m/kwh
Have heard that the occasional rapid charge is a good thing for the battery? It's had some good charging and emptying yesterday. Whats the word for emptying....discharging.
Would i do a day like it again? Not in a hurry. Was quite tense at times! (maybe more than i needed to be, i suppose)
I got the leaf approx 6 weeks ago. About a month ago on LeafSpyLite my SOH was 80.03%.
I do 99% granny charging with the very very very occasional Chademo.
But yesterday....i did 4 Chademos...
SOH was 81.06% (Hx 73.55%) before setting off...so the granny charging over the past 6 weeks seems to have improved the SOH figure a bit since i got it?
8.30am ish -
Chademo 1 - Ecotricity, Wetherby (3 machines, all available), arrived with 5%. Quite tense. (first planned stop was missed - oops??!!). Charged for 45 mins (auto cut off?) and got to approx 90% (sorry, forgot to remember). Machine whooshed away and seemed to do it's thing nicely. I went back to check on it part way through as i was having a look on the comments ok Zap Map and some recent ones said it wasn't working properly....thankfully it did for me. Approx £5 cost.
Battery temp went from 4 bars (the usual level at the moment) to 5 bars.
Carried on to the desitnation
Spent 4-5 hours having a meet up with family.
Car still on 5 bars temp when returning.
3.30 pm ish -
Chademo 2 - Ecotricity, Woolley Edge. 1 machine, available. Arrived with 21%, left on for 45 mins, got to 97%. Just as i was finishing up, a chap arrived in a grey i-Pace, lovely looking thing!
Battery temp remained at 5 bars.
5.30pm ish -
Chademo 3 - was originally going to be Wetherby again....but change of plan for child drop at Grans meant diverting towards A19....so next stop in range was a "Shell Recharge" at Gristhwaite near Thirsk.
'Smoov' machine. Not familiar with it at all...had to download app and set it all up whilst there. However, it began OK and did it's thing. A more compact, newer machine...but the screen was on the side...so you couldn't see what it was doing whilst sitting in the car. Quite quiet in use. Mistake by me - Changed car settings to 80% cut off thinking it would be enough. So car got to 80% in approx 30 mins. Set off again.
Battery temp was now 6 bars.
Arrived at Grans with almost nothing left. Should have gone to 100% to have that little extra buffer.
8.30pm ish -
Chademo 4 - A swanky looking FASTNED in Sunderland. Thankfully i'd set up the thingy on the app before i went - but its all in Dutch? There was no english language option? (there was 'other' which was kinda in English to start with...but upon completion, was Dutch with a Dutch text to confirm?
However the wording on the machine itself was in English and the set up on the app must have recognised my card, as when i came to use it (well, not the first one as it was 'out of order' but the second one) it accepted my card and went about it's business. Very noisy though! (and i would have had a meltdown had i got there and had to do the dutch setting up thing before i could use it - not good and why no English option? Howay!!)
Noise comparison - Ecotricity - Whooshy with an accompanyish high pitched whistle (but not unpleasant..just...a bit noticable)
Shell Recharge - generally quieter more modern machine, not really any whoosh but some high pitched whistle.
Fastned - High pitched annoying whirr! Not nice and i'd be a bit sick if i lived near one!
Anyway, battery temp stayed at 6 bars.
Upon getting home, did LeafSpy again, SOH was 81.17% (Hx 73.79%)
Didn't charge overnight.
Battery temp back to 4 bars this morning
Did LeafSpy again, 81.51% SOH (Hx 74.40%)
Summary - a loooong day. Car is lovely on the motorway, very smooth and quiet and comfy. Seats very comfortable, no aches or pains, or very little, anyway.
Discovered that sitting at 50mph (which i had to do at some points as i became worried about the range to desination) gave up to 4.2 m/kwh and meant the range estimater was pretty much in line with the actual range travelled. Any faster and it didn't match up and went down below to about 3.8 m/kwh
Have heard that the occasional rapid charge is a good thing for the battery? It's had some good charging and emptying yesterday. Whats the word for emptying....discharging.
Would i do a day like it again? Not in a hurry. Was quite tense at times! (maybe more than i needed to be, i suppose)
Long distance trips in a Leaf, x3 1hr long 'fast charges', 12hr day to cover 250 miles, that's proper EV driving.....at least theses days you can go to other Rapids apart from Ecotricity.
These days the young kids moaning about only getting 100KW instead of 150KW+ charging after doing 150 miles non stop at 70mph in their iPace/eTron/Tesla haven't got a clue about what proper 'range anxiety' means. Lets not even the mention the Kona drivers most of whom probably have never even needed to rapid charge on a 250 mile trip......Snow flake EV owners the lot of them
.
These days the young kids moaning about only getting 100KW instead of 150KW+ charging after doing 150 miles non stop at 70mph in their iPace/eTron/Tesla haven't got a clue about what proper 'range anxiety' means. Lets not even the mention the Kona drivers most of whom probably have never even needed to rapid charge on a 250 mile trip......Snow flake EV owners the lot of them
.How big is your battery 24kWh?
Temperature didn't change much then. Mine is always 4 in winter, 5 in summer and occasionally 6 during heat waves. Only twice seen it less than 4, 2, cold snaps last year.
I think Nissan were right not to add the cost and complexity of active cooling, at least for the UK temperate climate. It's battery is much less packed than newer EVs and lower maximum demand 80kW.
Presumably Leaf spy gives you battery current and voltage? So you can view the depression with Load and presumably this drops less as the battery warms. I've noticed this with other Lithium ion batteries.
Yes I've done 50mph on the motorway to get home once when my car didn't charge at work and I didn't want to wait.
Temperature didn't change much then. Mine is always 4 in winter, 5 in summer and occasionally 6 during heat waves. Only twice seen it less than 4, 2, cold snaps last year.
I think Nissan were right not to add the cost and complexity of active cooling, at least for the UK temperate climate. It's battery is much less packed than newer EVs and lower maximum demand 80kW.
Presumably Leaf spy gives you battery current and voltage? So you can view the depression with Load and presumably this drops less as the battery warms. I've noticed this with other Lithium ion batteries.
Yes I've done 50mph on the motorway to get home once when my car didn't charge at work and I didn't want to wait.
Gassing Station | EV and Alternative Fuels | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff