Happy Birthday LEAF#3!

Happy Birthday LEAF #3!  A year ago today, she came home with me from Campbell Nelson Everett  (Thanks Ray!) and what a year it has been!  She has definitely opened my eyes to things that were completely unexpected and has turned out to be a trial run on truly evaluating my range needs. But before I get into all that the #1 thing here has always been about money so here are the numbers.

Charging
Miles driven;  26,100.2
Kwh used (estimate) 6240.56
Level 1/2 charges; 237.  Level 3; 227
Public Charging (mostly Chademo but some Level 2); 3676.578 kwh
Public charging fees (mostly Semaconnect and Blink level 2 overruns);  $19.33
Cost per mile; 0.97 cents.  (Less than 2 weeks ago, it was under .7 cents per mile)
Real Cost (@ 9.3 cents/kwh); $254.16
Cost w/o NCTC; $573.89
Additional cost if the Road Usage Charge was in effect @ 2.4 cents per mile; $626.40

**NOTE**  The charging costs are estimated but fairly close.  Keeping in mind had all that charging really been done at home, it would be higher because of 1) hitting tier two. In Summer I am always below, In Winter, its half and half.  There is also an efficiency factor since all my QC's are calculated using 95% efficiency, all L2 charging is calculated using 89% efficiency. The lower home efficiency means more kwh from the wall to provide the same amount of range.

Battery

Start;  363 GIDS,  Kwh available (77.5 Wh GID setting); 28.1, Ahr 82.34, SOH 100% Hx (average)  10

Lowest; 363 GIDs,  kwh; 28.1,  Ahr;  79.83, SOH 100%,  Hx; 95.35%

Current;  363 GIDs, kwh 28.1, ahr; 81.53, SOH 100%, Hx; 97.53%

Revelations

Previously the high water mark for annual mileage was 17,960.2 miles in my other LEAFs so the mileage makes sense.  I used the Corolla when time constraints or lack of public charging simply made it a better idea or when the car had sat too long. My parameters were one month during Summer, One week (more or less) during Winter. I missed those parameters SEVERAL times.

Corolla mileage by year

2014;  6112
2015;  6677
2016; 7485  (Higher due to lease mileage issues with LEAF #2 turned in 7 weeks early)
The last year;  3261, ¼ of that in last few weeks.

The biggest surprise was the MUCH faster QC profile. The ability to charge higher than 35 KW above 90% SOC gave me many more options to incorporate charging into my work day. This almost doubled my ability to use the LEAF on jobs that were well beyond its range.  This meant a lot of public charging but I was able to incorporate a lot of it into either my workday (breaks, meals) or my "off clock" time (filing paperwork, uploading/downloading assignments, etc.) all of which is time I would have to take when I got home. The ability to get a significant range boost at nearly any SOC in 10-15 minutes is huge and a total shock (in a very good way!) to me.

Summary

My 2016 LEAF has done all that I have asked of it and more.  If I had to complain, the FOB battery didn't even last 8 months and this is without using any of the buttons (intentionally) but my local dollar store now stocks the batteries in a two pack so.  I have been running Battery Torture test experiments for several months to no avail. The pack just doesn't seem to be dying like it should but its early still, right?  More on "The Experiment" in the next blog (or soon after)

But for anyone driving an older LEAF who discounted a 2017 (and the great deals to be had) because its "only 6 kwh" more. Think again. There is a more to it than meets the eye!