March 2015 Drive Report Along With LEAF Data Conditioning!

Winter is pretty much gone and has been for several weeks and this is not boding well for irrigation this Summer.  The snow pack is nearly non-existent and Governor Inslee has already issued a state of emergency for 5 of the 6 water management areas of the state.  Hopefully, Summer rains will be higher than normal to help but it is not looking good.

For the month of March, the LEAF traveled 1216.6 miles using $22.58 from the meter for a cost of  1.86 cents per mile. This did include a few sessions at various public charging stations, none of which charged a fee.  Again, my work reimbursement has not gone up despite an increase in local gas prices so still driving for paupers wages...

The Corolla skipped a trip to the gas station this month and as luck would have it, gas actually went down a bit averaging 20 cents per gallon less than late February which is the way my luck has been going lately. Also went to the Casino last week and for 2nd time in 4 trips, lost money, about $100.  This is after about 14 or 15 straight profitable trips. Oh well, maybe my luck will change when the 150 mile LEAF comes out.  The Corolla drove 171.5 miles with calculated cost of 8.1 cents per mile. Hard to have an exact figure without a fill up but that will be close I think. I am just under half a tank so thinking of maybe filling up to see what my MPGs are but guessing its around 38-40 mpg...

Other than that, my LEAF's numbers have been all over the map this month. Have talked about this a lot and now that the weather is getting nicer by the minute, more people are planning trips which means range an,  I mean "charging anxiety" (This is term used when planning to use a charger with a questionable service record) so planning is still the most important part of taking a trip. And as always, I recommend conditioning your battery before the trip to insure that you get the maximum range your LEAF has to offer.

During March, my LEAF's ahr has run between 60.80 and 65.13.  My Hx has varied between 93.01 to 100.09%.  What am I to expect? These variances represent significant differences in range.  But as always, the more I drive the LEAF, the farther it takes me and to truly understand this statement, some data is needed.
Every morning, I reset my Trip A and miles per kwh before I take off for the day.  Its all logged into a spreadsheet along with GIDs, ahr, etc. This allows to monitor changes to battery and compare it to my 2011's stats. It also allows me to compare costs between the LEAF and my Corolla.  For those who wish to know, My cents per mile is calculated using the LEAF dash data with an 87% efficiency from the wall.  The 87% was my true efficiency as measured with a utility grade meter in line with the circuit my EVSE is using. Problem is that when I moved, the garage is much tighter and having the meter sticking out from the wall proved to be a bit painful on more than one occasion, so I took it out after a few months.  Anyway,

Columns shown left to right
miles/ miles per kwh/calc kwh used/cost per kwh/ est cost for that day/ 4 blank columns used for GIDs/ahr available/ 2 for public charging calcs/ ahr/ Hx

In the chart, not counting the 11.3 mile day, I averaged just over 54 miles per day. Full charges indicated by GIDs and kwh remaining (according to LEAF Spy).   IMM, the key indicator of range is kwh available. When my LEAF was new, it was 22.7 kwh.  It has dropped to where I don't seem to be able to get over 22.2 any more but then again, I have not really driven it a lot in the past 4 months. So we shall see what the busy season at work will bring.  Hard to not notice the last entry has my LEAF almost back to "new" status.

This shot is same chart just a few days later. Not counting the 65.3 mile day, I am averaging just under 22 miles per day.  Now, maybe this is a chart design mistake on my part, but only one full charge is shown here but there is likely to be some short charging sessions in addition to the small public charge sessions shown. Generally speaking charge sessions not to 100% on L2 have little if any effect on the numbers.  The 5.3 kwh public charge was at Dept of Revenue and an L2 and I only plugged in there just to check on its status. There are like 3-4 stations there but two have been out of order for a while now.  Since this was after 5 pm, the place was abandoned but guessing those broken stations are causing a backup there.  Its normally a VERY busy place.

But as you can see, I went from 21.9 kwh available to 20.4 kwh. That could be 8-9 miles of lost range. Now that is a LOT of pushing involved if one is not careful!

Now, a couple things to take away from all this and keeping in mind; no official data just my personal thoughts on the subject.

First of all; manufacturing extra unneeded driving for a week leading up to a trip out of town is unrealistic and not what I am suggesting here by all this.  I think the key here is maintaining a tight top end balance so this is really for people who usually do not fully charge their LEAFs due to modest needs.  

So if you are planning a trip that will challenge your hypermiling skills,  Just fully charge your LEAF every day for 4-5 days before the trip. Granted not a habit you want to take up full time but just make sure you drive it every day even if its only for a short distance. This is what I did even on days when I drove as little as 11 miles.

After your adventure, go back to your normal 80% or whatever you feel comfortable doing and most of all; ENJOY THE WEATHER!!