February 2018 Drive Report

As we all know, I started the month LEAFless so it was gas gas gas... So there are two gassers to report on.


The Corolla rental 158.8 miles    $12.03  7.6 cents per mile

My beater Corolla 726.9 miles  $47.64, also 7.6 cents per mile.

Gasser comments on my monthly driving report will be playing a lesser role here. I plan to dump the Corolla soon. It no longer is cost effective to keep it and the jobs its required for is now VERY few.  For very long commutes, I am generally forced to drive company car but they are not always available. There were several medium long jobs that were simply much easier to do in a gasser due to lack of charging, time constraints, etc.   Again, a lot of those have been mitigated by the longer range of the LEAF.

With a 15,000 mile annual lease, my mileage budget is 1250 miles a month and I am proud to say I was within my budget!!... (Please ignore the fact, I have had LEAF less than ½ of the shortest month of the year...)  going a mere 866.7 miles at a cost of $11.05 or 1.28 cents per mile.  NCTC provided me 98.57 kwh. Without that, my cost would have been 2.33 cents per mile assuming I stayed at tier one rates which at this time of year is probably not likely.  One encouraging stat;  Despite using more heat this very short month than likely ALL of last year, I hit 4.15 miles per kwh from the car. Nice!

Due to the NCTC registration challenges, I will likely be billed for a Blink session and didn't write it down but it will be in the $6 something range. Also did a short stint at a Blink level 2 to verify compatibility as one local LEAFer had issues with a level 2 Blink at the Puyallup Fair Grounds. So if in that area, charge at Bill Korum or Kaiser Permanente. The latter requires a Chargepoint account, is only level 2 but its free! And only a  mile or so up the hill past Hospital. I have 5 clients within walking distance so I park and charge there all the time when the weather is good. They have several plugs and I have NEVER seen them full.   FYI; Kia of Puyallup will be putting in dual format DCFC from Greenlots. $10 an hour so options exist!

Speaking of AV (Aeroenvironment) I called AV to report the compatibility issue with 2018's and rep took my info and said someone would get back to me in 24-72 hours. That was about....7-10 DAYS ago.  I chatted with Nissan CS about the issue and got nowhere. Rep simply said "take it to the dealer" despite my telling him upfront that AV was ONLY DCFC I had issues with... After a circular discussion, the only thing I got out if it was "Its an AV problem"...

LEAF Spy

Well, after all this time, I am surprised that I don't really know what my full battery parameters are.  I am seeing a few trends, namely my ahr and SOH has done a steady decline since day one but my Hx is skyrocketing.

SOH	ahr	Hx
99.66	115.05	99.86
99.66	115.05	99.86
99.65	115.04	99.87
99.64	115.02	101.86
99.63	115.01	101.98
99.60	114.98	104.24
99.60	114.98	104.95
99.59	114.97	104.95
99.57	114.94	105.32
99.55	114.92	106.46
99.54	114.91	106.95
99.53	114.90	107.91
99.52	114.89	108.82

All this is a bit strange but I will have to say that the extra range (and lack of compatibility with AV) has put me in a position where public charging is simply not needed. If its convenient, sure but yesterday I drove 115.5 miles and got home with 40 miles to spare (via GOM and we will get to that later)

On my previous LEAFs what got the numbers up was cooking the pack with multiple QCs, something I have only done once this year. In fact, it was the Blink encounter I paid for a charge on but only because I wanted to verify compatibility.  I was actually working at Walgreens near Dashpoint the next day and their long dead DCFC was working but did not charge because my Blink account was still in limbo.  

There is "some" evidence that multiple QC's might boost the numbers but only GIDs and ahr available went up.  On the one day I QC'd twice, my numbers went up but then I hit the weekend where I didn't use LEAF at all on the 24th and then less than 10 miles the 25th.  

FYI; LEAF Spy lists "real" SOC so the 99.51% seen on the 19th was a bit...."surprising" 

date	miles	miles/kw	SOH	ahr	Hx	mph	GIDs	kwh avail	SOC	notes
2/17/2018	42.5	4.3	99.66	115.05	99.86	18	491	38.1	96.52
2/19/2018	81.4	4.4	99.65	115.04	99.87	34	506	39.3	99.51
2/20/2018	128.7	4.1	99.63	115.01	101.98	37	486	37.7	95.69
2/22/2018	183.9	3.9	99.60	114.98	104.24	36	497	38.5	97.79	2 QC
2/23/2018	78.4	3.6	99.60	114.98	104.95	27	497	38.5	97.81	no drive 2/24
2/26/2018	61.7	4.3	99.57	114.94	105.32	45	493	38.2	97.08
2/28/2018	24.6	4.5	99.54	114.91	106.95	21	493	38.2	97.05
3/1/2018	99.9	4.4	99.53	114.90	107.91	36	494	38.3	97.27

I finally saw "Low Battery Warning" for the first time in a week and posted that it came on "at the same time"  @ 8%.  Well, that is about as misleading a statement as you can make!

Before LBW came on at about 16½%  but the GOM on the LEAF said 8%.  I was at 87 GIDs

Today, I will see where VLBW comes on. I am guessing it will be 8% via LEAF Spy but maybe 4% on GOM???  Either way, its looking like the new LEAF has an 8% hidden reserve maybe... maybe. 

I will update when I find out!