LEAF Plus 3 Year Review

Another year down!  Still 12 bars, still well over 200 miles of range and still no real definitive information as to best battery management options so still sticking with the "live in the middle" ideology for the foreseeable future or until the range is not covering my needs forcing a higher average SOC.   I don't expect to have the car that long. 

For the 2nd consecutive year, I have changed commutes but unlike 2021 where I added nearly 2 miles, I have more than halved the drive to 11 miles but at 5 days a week verses the 25 miles 4 days a week.  Since I have more miles to "play with" I have revisited gig driving. This I have done several times in the past most notably in my 2016 S30 when doing property inspections not to mention that it coincided with my auditing days which required a LOT of driving.   

Before it was just a cash grab at the beginning of the pandemic when big bonuses were offered for completing the first however many deliveries but now looking at it as a possible retirement gig.  I know me well enough to know that I will not be able to do nothing during retirement and I won't have enough money to keep me busy traveling and whatnot so this does the double duty of getting me out of the house and providing some extra cash at the same time.  But despite that extra driving, my distance driven still dropped over 2021. 

 I negate the base charge because it also applies to gassers and I don't have anything to do with them. I take the total of the various credits and divide by the total of kwh used for the month and subtract that from the cost of each kwh.  All the tier two rates are applied to the LEAF obviously so its all about how much tier one charges to add. FYI; I only hit tier two 3 or 4 months a year generally. 

I only took two relatively long trips over 500 miles taking advantage of the free 30 day EVCS trial. Although never had any issues getting a charge, I was less than impressed.  New machines are nice but question the investment into 50 KW (120 amp) machines when most will do better including my Plus. 

This resulted in public fees only from checking out new stations or simply ones that were "out there" so got away cheap last year. This year my costs will "skyrocket" percentage wise which isn't hard when you start from penny (notice no plural there? :) )  due to less access to public charging. 

My common goto was Volta which doing movies at the mall but those stations have been taken over likely by employees who are parked there all day but primarily not charging.  A survey of cars there over 3 weekends revealed 3 cars (of 6 charging stations) there every Friday AND Saturday along with 2 repeats so....

The other common freebie EVCS in Tumwater had been a bit less convenient due to changes in habit mostly but the location has now been upgraded to add CCS but has been dark going on 3 weeks. Not sure what the delay is since it was slated to not be a faster station so no utility work required? 

So, all of the above pushes me above 1 cent per mile cost for the first time since 2016. A penny was easy because during most of that time and I was under a penny up until October but the last 3 months is what pushed me over with zero charging sessions at Volta except one which actually wasn't (more below) 

2023 ensures I will make a strong bid for 2 cents a mile. For those with PSE, you probably already know so this won't be news but for the first time in SEVERAL years, we are seeing a major rate hike that started the first week of 2023 raising tier one rates nearly 2 cents/kwh to 11.0488 cents/kwh which is just under the old tier 2 rates (11.2693) 

So for the impatient (I am pushing your limits aren't I :) )  Here is the base numbers; Data is calendar year which is a change from previous which used my Nov delivery date. 

From the dash; 

miles; 11481.3

Total kwh; 2390.06

Miles/kwh;  4.8

From the home;

Total charging Cost;  $134.89 

On the road; 

Public fees;  $3.77

Cents/mile;   1.21

AC; 362.356

DC; 892.01

Degradation; ahr - 2.73   SOH 1.55%

NOTE; I reset my trip computer every morning before setting out so miles is from whatever it says and it always jives with Trip A which is also reset daily. Trip B is reset monthly and is off 1-2 miles from the sum total of Trip A. 

Total kwh is simply miles driven divided my miles/kwh.  Public AC is derived from increase in kwh using 90% efficiency or what is received (if available)  so 10 kwh gain means 11 kwh received for stations like Volta.   DC always has a display of what was received (for me any way) 

Total charging cost is home use and public charging fees including subscription costs (had none this year) but may not be actual money spent during the year. In this case; part of the public charging fee was taken from a prepay account from Blink which I actually "years" ago. I don't remember what year but "know" is wasn't 2021. 

What doesn't show; 3 months with less than 10 kwh public charging. Also MANY very short AC stints at Safeway, etc on Volta, not recorded so actual cost is lower but not significantly so. 

5 months over 5 miles/kwh (June to October) with September (5.39) and October being my best months (5.28) just nudging June (5.23)  IOW; AC does make a difference, just not a big one ;) 

Worst month; January 3.92 miles/kwh.  Also ZERO DC charging. Wondering if the higher efficiency DC charging provides was enough to push me below 4? But then again, prob an anomaly as 2nd worst was last month in December at 4.23 miles/kwh due to minimal out of town driving for the month. 

So now the question becomes; "Am I really helping myself by maintaining a tight SOC control over the car?  

Answer; Not really enough data to say for certain but the physics of Lithium says yes its helping.  So the question morphs into "Is it worth hassle verses just plugging it in?" 

First off; I don't understand the perceived inconvenience of SOC management. Its pathetically easy to do but my commuting needs are less than 10% of my range which makes it easy. I was a proponent of "charge it every day even if only for an hour" and still stand by that but I am not driving far enough to need even an hour.  So I have been simply plugging it in for a few hours a few times a week now. 

During my dashing gig driving, I started out with the goal of using only free electricity to dash and as it stands, I did do that despite 2 months I didn't charge publicly at all. I am only dashing a few hours twice a week which added up to less than 3400 miles (over 9 months)  but have abandoned that plan foreseeing it becoming a hassle to simply plug in that much and electricity is too cheap to hassle with it. 

But the other side of the answer is "how much damage am I doing by fulling charging it twice a week and taking all week to run it down?" which is likely the 2nd most popular charging regimen?  Its this reason why I keep bugging you people to post your LEAF Spy stats.  With the Gen 2's adjusting the data every 3 months, its my hope that with 2-3 years of adjustment data, we can start to discern trends.  So far, only a few of you have provided that much. I have a LOT of people who have given me 2, 3 or even 5 shots but that is nowhere near enough. 

Do the math; 4 adjustments a year for 3 years is 12 data points; I only have 3 people who have provided that much with 3 more trending to provide that much (they haven't had their car long enough then) 

Do be aware that I collect EVERY LEAF Spy shot I see on social media so you don't have to wait for me to ask! Now tagging me will help me notice you quicker ;) 

So for those 40kwhers who have a commute that exceeds 50% of their "optimal" range, it is a hassle to maintain an SOC range?  If so, tell me about it because I don't see that either. Realize when I got my 40 kwh, I was still doing the auditing thing averaging 50 to 200 miles a day with 100+ happening at least a few times a week and the distances changed daily. Even with all that, it was a minor thing to manage SOC and I complicated things a LOT by first doing free public DC charging (or AC if it was at the client's location)