Winter Range at 80% Charge

I normally charge my 2011 Leaf to only 80%.  Why?  Because always charging to 100% reduces the useful battery life by quite a bit.  Nissan estimates that losing as much as 25% of your battery capacity is normal within the first five years.  That's a pretty big loss!  I still have twelve bars (full capacity) showing on my dashboard and would like to keep them as long as possible.

Between my 80% charging habit and cold, hilly driving conditions, my winter range is pretty low. How low, you ask?  Consider yesterday's drive.

According to Google Maps I put exactly 26.5 miles on my Leaf yesterday.  A few blocks from home I only had one bar of charge and a low battery warning.  Please understand that I had another 8 miles or so that I could have driven-- it's not like my range is only 26.5 miles total.

What this means for Helena, Montana, in the winter, charging to 80%, is that I can expect about 35-40 miles of range.  A problem Leaf drivers face is that range anxiety tends to kick in during those last few miles.

The more I am able to think about range in mathematical terms the less anxious I feel about range.  One key emotional realization I have made is this: I can be anywhere in town with a low battery warning and I'll always get home.  As a more extreme example of this, I was South of town in Montana City with a low battery warning and made it home just fine.  My emotional perspective is that the low battery warning is simply my reminder to return to the barn.

Interestingly, Chevy Volt owners drive darned near as many miles in electric-only mode as Leaf owners, despite the Volt's smaller battery.  The obvious reason for this is because the Volt driver has no anxiety about running out of charge and will effortlessly run the battery down without concern.  On the other hand, the Leaf owner is more prone to gnashing of teeth and spontaneous devotion to God when he sees how low his charge has become.

The moral of the story is that winter range is reduced, but range anxiety is more of an emotional problem than a physical one.

Leaving Great Divide Ski Area

Great Divide Ski Area

Skiing at the Great Divide is a great way to get out of the house during the long winter months.  Getting there and back for virtually free in a Nissan Leaf is even better.  I'm happy to report that I drove to Great Divide and back on a single charge.

Another Helena Leaf owner once told me that he would love to go up to the ski hill but was afraid he would run out of charge.  If we consider that the trip is about fifty miles round-trip, and if we believe the published 70-mile range, then what's the problem?

The problems are cold temperatures and steep climbs.  Ski hills tend to be located on, well, hills, so there's going to be uphill driving.  And of course the cold temps of winter steal range from electric cars like the Leaf.  These two factors combine to bring the real-world range of a Nissan Leaf down to about fifty miles.  Yes, I made it, but I wasn't as comfortable as someone in a gas-burning car.

One source of discomfort was my speed-- I drove really slow on the way up.  I cruised the whole way at a whopping 38 mph.  I was passed a lot.  

Worse than driving slow was not using the heater.  Brrr.  Using the heater drains the battery and I didn't want to find out I was a mile or two short.  To make the cold even worse, I had to crack a window in order to keep the windshield from fogging up.

What I learned was that my fully-charged 2011 Nissan Leaf can make the round-trip to the Great Divide.  On the return trip I increased my speed to 50 mph and turned on my seat heater...ahhh.

I arrived back home with one bar of charge and a range estimate of six miles remaining.  The low battery warning turned on as I was pulling into my driveway.

Based on my experience I have the following tentative guidelines for getting there and back on a single charge:

1. Maximum speed is 50mph
2. Heated seats are ok but no cabin heat

Now if only my lift tickets were as cheap as my transportation...

A full charge to start

Range at start while going downhill

First time out this season!

In the parking lot

Heated Seat, Finally

Thanks for the heat!

A few weeks ago I paid Auto-Trim Design of Helena to install a seat heater.  I have already used it on some cold mornings and it's very nice!

I can't believe I've gone through two winters without one.  Two bad things happen when cold temps begin: you lose a lot of range to the cold, and you lose range when you turn on the cabin heater.  Kind of a catch 22-- the only time you need the cabin heater is when the battery is suffering the most, thereby losing even more driving range.

Instead of using the main traction battery, a heated seat operates off the little 12V battery, the same as plugging in an accessory to your cigarette adapter.  In other words hardly lose any driving range by using a seat heater compared to using the Leaf's cabin heater.  And it feels amazingly warm.  

Regrettably my wife will not be enjoying a heated seat as she felt the expense was not worth it for both the driver's and the passenger seat.  I suppose she can enjoy it if she steals my car for the day :)

Starbucks

This Spring a new Starbucks opened in Helena.  That's nice, but even better, they included a Chargepoint EVSE! The front two spots are "EV charging only," or so you would think.

I parks where I wants

Most times both spots are occupied by non-electric vehicles.  The above pic is a little unusual because the right EV parking space is available, but I liked the license plate.

I emailed Starbucks today and suggested that they paint the "EV only" message in large font directly on the space.  I think that people just don't realize that they're not supposed to park there unless they're actively charging an EV.

Paint the space and most people will be courteous

Some of my in-laws have taken the position that if it isn't illegal, then customers can park in the EV only spaces.  I disagree, but will concede that it is not illegal to be a jerk.  My in-laws may want to take note that some states are making it illegal to not be actively charging but yet occupying an EV-only space.  

Real-World Range vs. Nissan Route Planner

Nissan has some pretty cool online tools for the Leaf.  My favorite is the statistics...I love seeing how many miles I drove at what efficiency.  Of course the ability to turn on your heater or a/c before getting in your car is nice too.  One Nissan tool that I seldom use is called Route Planner.  Take a look.

You can see I am going to Canyon Ferry Lake and that the distance is 20.87 miles.  More interesting is that this tool estimates how much energy you'll need to get there.  Of my full twelve-bar charge, it says I'll use four bars.  Ok, so I need four bars to get to the lake.  How much to get back?

Another four bars.  So I'll need eight out of twelve bars to go to the lake and back.  I'll have about four bars at the end of the trip, right?

Of course not!  Here's how much I really had at the end of the trip:

One bar and the low battery warning after a total of 42 miles.  I believe the Leaf would have made 50 miles.  The Leaf was not driven hard (average speed about 45mph), but the a/c was run the whole time as the temperature was in the mid-80s.  

So for hilly Helena, Montana, the Leaf continues to be a reliable 50-mile car.  Some random guy on an EV forum once told me I was underestimating the Leaf's range when I said it's a 50-mile car, but he doesn't live in Montana.  

It's only for a handful of special trips that I'll charge to 100%.  I normally only charge to 80% for the purpose of battery longevity.  The reliable 40 miles that an 80% charge gets me is enough for my needs.  

The Psychological Barrier is Big

Accepting that your Nissan Leaf is an in-town-only car is a big psychological barrier.  Although I was aware of the statistical reality of normal car driving, the cold hard facts were not enough to easily get me over the barrier.

Two graduate students suggest in their study (http://www.solarjourneyusa.com/HowFarWeDrive_v1.3.pdf) that 95% of trips will be 30 miles and under.  In my world this is true, and I knew it was true before I bought the Leaf.  There was just something so fundamentally different about watching that battery meter quickly sink during the cold winter months in my hilly town that made me wonder, "Did I screw up by buying this car?"

I told myself that I needed to get a Prius or a Volt...an in-town-only car lacks versatility.

I told myself that any car that doesn't provide me with an over-abundance of cabin heat in the winter is not worth owning in Montana.

But the math doesn't lie: my Leaf covers over 90% of my trips.  I have a minivan when we travel longer distances once a month or so.  So I am not contemplating trading it off.  And I'm just about over the psychological barrier.  If, prior to my Leaf purchase, someone had told me that I would have a hard time adjusting to a limited-range car, I would have told him, "I've run the numbers and I won't have any problems at all."  Like other things in life, living with an emotional reality is often trickier than understanding the statistical reality.