Bolt Verses LEAF; Is Twice The Range Worth Twice The Price?

We are on the eve of the official Bolt launch for Washington State and the excitement is ahhh...well, anyway I thought this might be appropriate for people considering their next EV option.

In a few days, the premise of this article might simply be completely different when the Bolt arrives in Washington State on April 1st (hopefully no pun intended...) .  Bolts have actually been at a handful of Dealers here for most of March and I recently found out that they were transferred from California Dealers who apparently ran out of room to store them, or something.  And despite an expanding market, sales of the Bolt dropped significantly in February but then again, February is typically sluggish for most automakers.  But what about the "Volt" and the LEAF? Both of them saw huge sales in February.

It is now looking like Chevy overestimated the new product excitement.  Both the Volt and LEAF are seeing most if not all of the $7500 Federal Tax Credit applied to lease contracts which is leading to prices well below $20,000 if the leaser decided later to buy out the car.

Why does this matter you ask?  Some EVers don't qualify for the full $7500 tax credit in a single year and it can't be rolled over to later years. (Not all of us are as lucky as trump...) So whatever you can't claim is lost.  So the best option is to lease, realize the discounts immediately, then purchase the car outright or better yet, wait till the lease is nearly complete and see if you can negotiate a discount off the residual which lowers your price even more. I am in this category.  I would be paying thousands more if I purchased an EV over leasing. Since Nissan generally waives lease termination fees if you purchase along with their near zero "Money Factor" (essentially the interest rate on the lease payments) resulting in a very low "Rent Charge" (interest payments on lease term) which in my case totaled $29.20 over the 3 year lease.  So there is minimal risk to leasing with maximum benefits of the $7500 off the top.

Bottom line?  If I decided to simply buy the LEAF after my zero down drive off on Nov 12, 2016 the day after I brought it home from Magic Nissan in Everett, it would cost this minus $149.75 (check received for over billing of licenses, etc)

IOW, I would get roughly half the range for half the price, right?  Well, since I am not likely to get near the max federal tax credit, I would have to go the lease way and as luck would have it, the lease calculator recently became active for WA Dealers (my local dealer has nothing btw but I am just in the State Capital, hardly an important area of the state.)  FYI; this was a great deal on Veteran's Day but I am now seeing SV's going for $1000 less!

So figuring with no federal tax credit from Chevy, its not looking good.

So if I leased at this rate today and decided to buy it tomorrow, it would be a total of

$4150 down
$14,436 in payments
~ 21,000 Residual (based on 54%)
Total $39586 plus fees so basically over $40,000.

So without the Federal tax credit considered, its much more than twice the price. If I were to buy it, my tax credits would drop it down to just about half the LEAF price.  Primarily because the Bolt being new, Chevy is trying to maximize profits, they are literally adding $7500 to the cost of a lease.   On the Chevy Bolt forum when I brought this up, I heard all kinds of excuses and twisted logic on how "Chevy was doing us right" but nothing made any sense to anything but Chevy's pocketbook.

But everything comes with a price and longer range is definitely worth a lot in time, convenience, and stress so now the question becomes;

Is twice the range worth twice the price?

First off, I need to add a few tidbits of info on what 25% more range can do.  I moved from a 24 kwh LEAF (range about 90 Summer miles for me) to a 30 kwh LEAF (range probably about 120 or so) fort the price listed above. It was a zero down, drive off $245.99 a month bill. This is 24 cents higher than my previous LEAF so essentially zero impact on my finances. Now there has been a LOT of talk on social media about how lame this was for Nissan to do this. The general perception is that it was a near useless bump in performance. After all, what difference is 6 kwh or roughly 20-25 miles or range really going to do?

And I have to admit, I was halfway towards this attitude as well but I was in a time crunch and the deal was good and the Bolt was simply too far off so I did it.

But the benefits of this slight bump in range was much greater than anticipated. Below a tale of two charges.

 2013 24 kwh LEAF Fast charge  April 2015; 33.4 min charge time, SOC 30 to 82%, Charge rate drop from max currrent at 38%.  Battery health  96%

2016 LEAF with 30 kwh pack  March 24, 2017;  > 30 min charge time, SOC 22-88%. Charge rate drop from max current <80% SOC. Battery health, 100%.

Now unless your an EV Nut (like me) a lot of what you see here is probably not making a lot of sense but in a nutshell, my 24 kwh LEAF after a 30 min QC was giving me maybe another 50-60 miles of range which basically made it a challenge to skip chargers on the West Coast Green Highway on the 2nd or later charges during Summer when my range was greatest.

In my 30 kwh LEAF,  I was charging MUCH less than 30 mins and able to skip chargers with ease. In my previous blog I drove over 300 miles with 4 stops (could have done it in two) of 18, 22, 28 and 13 minutes during the rainy season!  In fact; the fast charge profile was faster than me. I stopped to grab a quick bite and went to check the status of the car after about 29 minutes and the charge had already completed! I had spent less than 25 minutes in the restaurant!  UNREAL!  But the bottom line was even with 20 minute charges, I was rolling out with nearly 90 miles of "Winter" range!

But fast charging is only convenient if you can do it.  NRG is by far the largest CCS provider in the area and despite being the fastest growing public charge provider as well, they have a long way to go to come close to providing adequate coverage even for a 250 mile EV.

Result;  LEAF wins!

But range is important as we all know. My LEAF is losing range daily as we speak. It has not been noticeable or recordable due to LEAF Spy limitations, Nissan instrumentation limitations or whatever but the loss will happen. But my track record (and the favorable Northwest climate) has been good to me and I don't expect that to change much.  Either way, with NCTC I will definitely find out if excessive fast charging is detrimental to long term health!  For all we know, the Bolt for all we know could still have over 90% of its range in 10 years.  One thing we do know is charge cycle counts is a prime degradation factor and the Bolt being able to travel twice the distance on each charge cycle definitely means it will be better setup for the long haul

Result; Bolt wins.

So its a toss up, right? Either you want that range or you can live without it.  The reason that Bolts from California are in WA early has to be two things; perception that there is a pent up demand for longer range EVs and simply dealers in CA giving out great deals to dealers up here. Soon we will have sales reports for March and I am expecting the LEAF to continue clearing out the lots and the Bolt to hold its own which is not all that great especially considering very large East Coast markets are now in play. This might give Chevy a wake up call to reevaluate their lease terms or it may not.  In November, if Chevy had been giving out the full federal tax credit on leases, I would likely be driving one right now.

But the financial commitment is pretty extreme and in calculating my personal TCO, I can't ignore the fact that a Bolt requires me to pay for that range every day whether I need it or not.  Weighing the pros and cons here becomes very subjective so for anyone investigating the Bolt over any other car, a real evaluation of need is the first order of business.  I still have trips I wouldn't do in my LEAF on a time crunch, namely the Washington Coast. Charging there is L2 at best and not much of it so a high chance of a queue making a day trip a very long day. A Bolt would breeze thru that trip.

But my age says that the old days of driving 5-6 hours straight without stopping are long gone. I hate to drive as much as an hour at a time without stopping.  During my 300 mile trip, only the Astoria stop was made for charging only. The other 3 stops would have been done in any car and only the Castle Rock trip was extended due to charging (sort of. I actually had plenty to do... updating Facebook and other important tasks...)

So now the Bolt's additional range is more convenient for quick freeway blasts. Its convenience in Seattle area traffic a bit lessened.  We have so much congestion here that I frequently got over 100 miles of range in my 24 kwh LEAF not because I had to but because traffic allowed me no other choice!

So in a nutshell;

LEAF;
Price
More public charging support
Free charging for first two years.
Familiarity.
Easily justifiable TCO AKA getting home with a bunch of range left means you paid too much!

Bolt
Range; I did not touch on the drastic reductions bad weather can have on an EV or even something as minor as changing the type of tire (John) but in a vehicle with super high efficiency, everything matters.

Public Charging Support; If WA follows the CA model for the VW settlement money, we should have several dual format chargers coming hopefully in the next year or so.  With 240 miles of range, The Bolt really only needs a little bit of help but with more CCS based cars coming out, queuing looks to be an issue as well.  Maybe being on the "black sheep" standard is not such a bad thing...

Performance; Bolt has it and I could care less about it.

Familiarity;  LEAF has it and I could care less about it. I like trying new things and the Bolt promises to teach me things I didn't know.

TCO; Again, the big challenge. Ignoring the sticker price, right now I am realizing a lot of benefits in free public charging.  Granted, not everyone's cup of tea but it currently provides me little inconvenience especially when half the time, I can use the time to get work done that would need to be done at home anyway. Besides (I mention this only because its a question that constantly comes up) charging publicly most of the time means having my LEAF never sitting at full charge. With the additional range I can charge publicly, go home, get up the next day, make it to the job then charge on the way home.  I actually went 2½ weeks never using my home EVSE (hopefully PSE won't be mad paying me $500 towards my EVSE for home use)  In reality, I can afford the Bolt but at this time, I simply cannot see the justification of blowing out all my emergency cash so the option is large down payment on a lease and what?? Don't know. Hope for a  $7500 reduction in my residual?  Sounds crazy right?

Well it is... as long as you are not talking to a current LEAF lessee  :) ...

Well the above is the perfect final statement but I just have to say something.   The Federal tax credit was designed to give the consumer the incentive to get an EV at a reasonable price and allow the manufacturer to charge a price that would allow profit for this new technology and I must tip my hat to Nissan, Tesla, BMW (finally) along with the others who have passed this credit rightfully to the leasers who have taken the leap to help contribute to widespread Electric Vehicle adoption.

But for those manufacturers who have chosen to keep all or part of the credit for themselves, this is nothing but profiteering, plain and simple.  The sad part is that they are actually getting away with it with some consumers.  As mentioned above, I have heard some crazy justifications for what Chevy is doing and I am shocked that no amount of explaining is shedding any light on this pathetic situation.

It is my hope that Chevy will understand the err of its way and fix it and fix it soon.

Road Trip; Adventures of a 9 TB Journey!

For those wondering; "TB" is LEAFspeak for the "Temperature Bars" gauge that indicates how glowing red your battery pack has become after that last fast charge.  As promised, I did make my LEAF road trip and it was quite frankly rather uneventful. No range anxiety at all.  On my last blog, I was mentioned a Bolter who was having issues making a 238 mile trip (I kid you not!) which just happened to be his EPA rated range but he was only making it 170 miles before having to stop and charge.  Granted, its Winter, rainy, cold, and all that range robbing stuff and this would be a non issue except that there is no CCS fast charge options on his route, a route that is lauded by many to be part of one of the best designed fast charge networks in the country. (Well, at least I think so) So when an opportunity to use that very same network came up, I simply could not pass it by.

My destination was Ilwaco, WA and I could have taken the route to the coast and down which would have been about 115 miles or take I-5 then across using the WCGH (West Coast Green Highway) that includes the Oregon extension to the coast.  It was a no brainer. It was longer at 243 miles but I literally had all day to complete two jobs with each job taking less than an hour so had plenty of time to drive!

Planning was easy.  I mean with a network like this, you really had to work hard to make it go wrong! I would only be skirting the OR/WA border but you get the idea!

But smooth sailing took a hiccup almost immediately as my LEAF Spy phone failed to power up. Not sure why but looks like my Pixel XL will be doing double duty. A bit disappointing as I had hoped to have continuous logs for speed, etc. but that is not likely to happen now.  Damn phone is barely 5 years old. They just don't make em like they used to!

The Beginning

First order of business was a job in West Olympia near Capital Medical Center. Finished that around 9 AM so hit the road headed south on I-5 with 10 miles of my 300 mile trip completed. 

Passed a few fast chargers and finally stopped in Castle Rock for a charge and some food from the Cascade Market Deli.  I could have skipped this station along with Tumwater and Centralia, but the deli simply wouldn't allow that!

Arrival Castle Rock, WA AV QC; OAT 48º, batt temps; 63,62, 59

18 minutes, 13.12 kwh, a bathroom break and ¾ lb of Jo's later, I am off.  Batt temps now 83, 80, 76.

As you can see, the interruptions in the graph makes using one phone for both life and LEAF Spy something I could never understand.  From Day One, I have always used a 2nd phone and this is why!

Leaving Castle Rock stuffed (maybe I should have only gotten a ½ lb of Jos...) The weather was still sunny and dry but that ended less than 10 miles down the road.  At first the rain was pretty hard but then slowed to windy drizzle. As much as I could, I had cruise control set to 65 MPH which was easy on I-5 but that was only going to last a few more miles.  

I crossed the Columbia on Highway 30 at Longview and began a series of hill climbing followed by hill coasting.  I know driving conservatively helps keep your batteries cooler but at the same time, on a single lane highway, the best opportunities to pass are when going uphill. During this stretch, my driving alternated between 8-10 power circle climbs and...oh wait?  I only have 8 power circles. Oh well maybe it was an 8 power circle climb wishing I had 10!...  The other side was coasting in neutral up to around 75 mph then slowing down with regen to about 60 or so and doing it again.  Now all this climbing didn't come without any benefits.  There were some pretty cool views. 

Overlooking Longview WA from Highway 30, Oregon

One thing for certain, my batteries were not going to cool down much driving like that but, it was kinda fun, so why not!   After about 65 miles, I stopped in Astoria to charge again and sure enough, the batt temps went up!

Astoria, OR Charge stop; mile 131

Here was simply too many things to see so I had to remind myself I was working, so 22 minutes, 16.37 kwh later and about 25 pix later, I was off to Ilwaco!

Batteries heating up now! Again the charge graph not very accurate

 since I was using phone for pix taking. Actual charge time 22 mins. 

Leaving Astoria and crossing over the Astoria-Megler Bridge that crosses over the outlet of the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean. One big LOOOONG Bridge!  Ilwaco is a short 18 mile jaunt from Astoria and some very cool scenery.  I took a pix of the Bridge but you have to piece together two pix. I will tell you why in a sec.  

Here is pix covering the first 1½ miles of the Bridge.

Here I am approximately where the first pix cuts off. 

As you can see; I still really can't get it all in the pix

According to Wikipedia; It is the longest continuous truss bridge in North America. Well, I am convinced!

I arrived at the jobsite in Ilwaco and it literally took me 30 minutes to finish.  So now that I had extra time, I wanted to do some sightseeing but it was WIIINNNNDY!! and the rain wasn't helping either. 

Ilwaco, WA; Halfway!

The following is filler so this post won't look too short. :) 

Well, it was getting to be time for food! (what can I say? JoJos just run right thru me!) Next stop on the agenda was Westport OR and the AV charging station located in the parking lot of the Berry Patch Restaurant!!

Notice batt temps dropping? I went from 8 bars to 7

Now the "one phone for all" issue was a nuisance but really hadn't hurt me so far but that was about to change.  I plugged in, set my timer with the goal of checking it in 30 mins.  I went in and missed the Hot Turkey lunch special. But it was 2:30 and they closed at 3 so was kinda feeling lucky I had made it on time.  I ordered food, ate most of it and finally decided to check the car. Probably had enough already so I go out there and only 29 minutes after the charge had started, it had already stopped! Oh oh, not good. I thought I might have overheated it.  I turned on the car, no warning lights and... Holy crap! It was full! 94% SOC. I finally found something that could eat faster than me!!

Charge time 28 Mins?? 20.74 kwh. Auto shutoff AV DCFC 94% SOC

Now, not having a charging log was really pissing me off. I felt like going home and beating on my LEAF Spy phone! Oh well, no time for pie. On the road!

As I drove, I kept looking at my distance to home and the GOM.  The GOM was 4-10 miles ahead of my distance to home but LEAF Spy  was a steady 3 miles short. Well, we all know what that means. So next stop was Centralia. By now the rain was coming down pretty good and the OR adventure was over. I was back in my neighborhood. So, now it was time to get home, I kicked it up a bit and my steady 4,0-4.1 miles per kwh soon settled in around 3.8 miles per kwh. But again, it was not me, it was the rain!  

I was in Centralia basically long enough to use the bathroom and leave picking up 10.05 kwh in 13 minutes. 

Centralia stop

Centralia Departure. 121º!! 

Home Again!

Got home about 5:30 PM and other than about 90 mins of L2 at 24 amps, it sat in the garage for the night. Ambient temps in mid to lower 50's.  

12 hours cooling off. Down to 5 TB's.  GREAT improvement over previous 24 kwh packs! 

Previous packs generally took 24+ hours to cool down, sometimes 36.  But this time, I was back within ambient in less than 18 hours so not only does the 30 kwh pack go farther, charge faster but also seems to shed heat quicker as well.

Conclusions; TBD

But this trip really illustrated how much more effective the 30 kwh pack worked for longer trips.  I had done a trip of similar distance using many of the same chargers in my 2011 24 kwh LEAF and found that my 85 mile range was really only 50-60 miles after a two 30 minute sessions due to the quick ramp down of power.  After the 2nd charge despite chargers being roughly 25 miles apart, I found it difficult to skip chargers without some very careful driving. But the 30 kwh LEAF, I was able to leapfrog 2 of them stopping every  90 miles and as seen above, none of the charge sessions lasted 30 minutes despite my best effort.  When I did stop at every other charger, I was could be back on the road in 15-20 minutes with plenty of buffer on a windy rainy day.  A HUGE improvement!

Bolt Winter Range; Where Is The CCS Network Going to Come From?

Bolt Winter Range 170 miles on OR Coast

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1521572851487669/permalink/1750723898572562/



Recently a new Chevy Bolt owner complained he was not able to make his trip in his Chevy  Bolt easily. He stated a range of 170 miles while driving the Oregon Coast. Most of the trip was at highway speeds that were likely 50-60 mph. I have driven this route and its two lanes so rare passing opportunities if behind slower vehicles and plus stretches of twisties and turns also makes fast driving highly unlikely.   I suspect a lot of his issues were the headwinds.  So guessing he would do much better on his return trip but the real issue was lack of fast chargers that support the Bolt.

His story is just another twist on the question of "how much range is enough?" and if its concerning EVs? Well, infinity "might" do it!  But that is not going to happen and the common perception of "200 miles is all I will ever need" will be hitting the immovable wall of reality as more longer range EVs hit the streets for the less informed buyer.

I found that as much as my 30 kwh LEAF was more useful than the previous 24 kwh versions, I now still charge publicly but on 175  or 200 mile trips instead of the previous 150 mile trips that seemed  like such an accomplishment. But this is something I have mentioned time and time again; even a 500 mile range gasser will have issues if gas stations were 400 miles apart.

Why you say?  400 miles is plenty close enough if the car has a 500 mile range.  Yeah, but... Gas stations that far apart will be crowded so expect a wait. Don't expect to have a 100 mile buffer either if stuck in traffic idling away the fuel while going nowhere, during snow and rain, or simply being on the wrong side of a windy day!

But all this will soon be for naught right? Nissan has finally announced a timetable for LEAF II. Details are sketchy but expect 200 miles on the biggest battery option, etc. So now we are golden, right?  Wrong.  The fact is our public charging network is falling farther and farther behind every day.  As the range increases, EVs will become much more popular and no matter how far they can go, for some, it will not be enough.

The irony in the story above is that a lowly 100 mile LEAF could breeze thru that trip because of the multitude of Chademo QCs spaced along the route.  OR has likely one of the most developed networks for State wide travel of any in the country.

The above filters out CCS (IOW, about 2 blips removed...) Tesla SC and any other QC format.  As you can see, there are few if any real stretches for a 100 mile EV in the central or coastal regions.

The problem now becomes where is the money for the CCS stations going to come from?   Obama is gone. The big initial government cash stash is spent. To say that little is expected from the current regime is a huge understatement.  Chevy is not selling the Bolt as it was expecting to.  What appeared to be Chevy moving up its delivery timeline now appears to be excessive California cars being shipped to other states.  So whether that is true or Chevy is moving up the time line,  both imply that Chevy is getting desperate.

But CCS based EVs are growing the fastest. Ford, a new entrant, with its soon to be released longer range Focus EV will have CCS. VW promising a huge EV footprint soon along with penalties for its emission scandal promises several charging stations. Obviously dual format stations ala NRG would be the best but to my knowledge, none have been installed yet  and guessing VW has little incentive to help out Nissan, Kia and the other Asian manufacturers clinging to the chademo platform.

Furthermore; Tesla has announced plans for the biggest expansion of the Supercharger (SC) network to date. Partially to prepare for the huge uptick in Tesla's on the road when the T3s start rolling off the line later this year (maybe) and partially I think to put the seed of doubt into anyone who is thinking about jumping ship to the immediately available and longer range Bolt.  Its hard for me to believe that American and European manufacturers are sitting back thinking they can still sell a car that has no public charging support.

So I am fully expecting a big announcement; a partnership to install stations or at least smooth the way for the installs. Dealership based installs have been a shaky option thus far and there is quite frankly not enough of them in many areas to make an effective network.  Also dealerships have not proven to be good hosts. Either thru restricting who can charge, lack of 24/7 access, ICEing the stations or simply being too slow to address maintenance issues.

Either way; something big needs to happen or the Bolt may flounder. Don't get me wrong; Its 240 mile range will cover the needs of a lot of people but without public support, it still falls short of mass acceptance.

Finally; Tomorrow, I will be testing the viability of  the network in my LEAF.  Not quite recreating the trip from above but will still be doing 300 miles.  I will be doing the Oregon Coast but will be waiting until the renovations at the Tillamook Cheese Factory is completed first!

**EDIT**   Just found out VW has submitted plans on how the money will be spent and its still primarily on public charging and it looks like it will be dual mode stations so CCS will be coming from at least one manufacturer! (this makes it easier to understand why the others are just sitting back observing)

February 2017 Drive Report

Well this was the "calm before the storm" as work is generally slower in February because of the massive rush of work right before and after the beginning of the year so the LEAF only traveled 1189.4 miles costing me $15.37 or 1.3 cents per mile. This total does include a public charging fee of 44 cents for an emergency Blink stop.  What can I say? I did not take into consideration the very heavy headwinds of the day!  

NCTC did help me get "some" of that money back. I did help myself to 189.4 KWh of free juice for the month.  The light driving was evident with 10 days of 20 miles or less driven plus 2 days the LEAF never left the garage.   Contrast that to the first 10 days or March where I have gone over 100 miles 5 times including two days over 150 miles.

To make my math more simple, I have decided to start a policy of getting gas for the Corolla on the last day of the month. (or as near to it as possible) This simplifies the monthly cost calculations and takes into account months where the price of gas changes dramatically which I think is going to happen more this year than the recent past.

The Corolla went 271.1 miles costing $17.86 (more than the LEAF in case you didn't notice... :) ) or  6.8 cents per mile despite getting over 39 MPG.

There were no maintenance costs for either vehicles. I did rotate the LEAF tires at the 5,000 mile mark but did that on my own costing me nothing but time. I am getting older cause it took me almost 45 mins to finish the job which is a far cry from the 25-30 mins it used to take me but then again, I was in no particular hurry either. Since it was rainy, I did it while parked in the garage which means a lot less space to work in which naturally slowed me down a bit.

Other than that, Nissan has spoken! They are so secretive and low key about everything LEAF its really pain but their latest announcement has generated the most excitement since the LEAF was introduced.   Nissan promises LEAF II to exceed expectations in price, value and range. So we shall see.  I have said often that I would buy a 40 kwh LEAF but it all depends on price!


Bolt sales down. Despite an expanding market, sales dropped for February. This was somewhat expected as lease terms for the Bolt are either pathetic or non existent.   WA State is seeing Bolts earlier that then slated April launch with deliveries earlier this week. Maybe Chevy is trying to take advantage of EV hotbeds and pent up demand for more range?   Chevy; you can fix this by doing us Leasers right!

Finally, for all of you who think I am taking advantage of NCTC to the extreme (well, partially maybe...) you B WRONG!  I am doing it in the name of science. (and cheapness!)

Remember I am collecting data on how differently the 30 kwh pack charges over the 24 kwh pack. Earlier I related one crazy incident at the Tumwater AV where I charged at 40 KW past 83% SOC! Well, as mentioned, I suspected it was simply my LEAF BMS sleeping on the job and apparently that was correct.  My excessive use of the free juice train was an attempt to reproduce those results and I have so far failed... several times!

Looks like if starting at a lower SOC, the station will run at full or near full speed until 75% SOC. If starting at a higher SOC, the rate starts dropping below 70%. Doesn't matter if its a 50 KW charger or a 40 KW charger.   I have yet to notice any temperature differences and although most of my charges have started at lower temps with cells in the low 50's or so, I have done a  few twice a day QCs with the 2nd charges starting with temps in the 70's and have seen no change in the patterns.

But I just have to post this log of the Tumwater event....only to show it really happened. As anyone with LEAF Spy knows, the logs are packed with info so I have removed the extraneous stuff so you can see the basics.

As you can see, the GID count was at 312 by the time the charger dropped below 40 KW.  Completely different than these.

Remember these are just previews! Still working the charging things. Notice the black lines for pack temps?  Pretty flat.  I have to guess the temps are displayed in C and they apparently aren't sampled much. Notice the jumps?  Weird eh? If anyone knows how to address this, let me know!