Monday, October 1, 2012
Lost two range bars with 2 miles
After only a short 2 mile commute from the local Starbucks, the LEAF seems to have lost at least two range bars just from that. And that's in Eco mode and no AC.
Range getting worse and worse
After my morning commute today of only 18 miles in traffic and an average speed of 37mph, my leaf only had less than 55 miles left after arriving. This was driving at 4.3 miles/kwh efficiency and ac off. If driving normally and with ac the estimated range drops to a little over 40 miles thus giving a total range of 58 miles, very off from nissan's 100 miles claim and the magazine's test of 80 miles. 
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Terrible battery
Tell me this isn't normal. With this efficiency I should get much more range than this. 
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Leaf Update
I haven't been updating this blog as much, but I think I should update it more often. I received the car back from the dealer about 3 weeks ago. The service advisor at Cerritos Nissan basically told me they were unable the source of the problem with my vehicle but did admit there was a problem with the vehicle. They told me a head engineer from Nissan HQ came to take some diagnostic data and will be sending that data back to Japan. They told me I should receive some word from them real soon about the results.
When I picked up my car from the dealer, I noticed that there is one bar missing from my battery capacity. That means I have 11 out of 12 bars. I spoke with the advisor and he told me that's normal. My car has 23k miles and I always charge it with a L2 at my home. With only 11 bars, with a full charge, my car gets about 80 miles range in the morning whereas I had about 90 miles range when I had 12 bars. So I decided to wait and see what Nissan says about my car. So it's been 3 weeks and no word from Nissan.
On September 23, 2012, when I first turned on the car in the morning I noticed it only showed a 70 mile range. Like every time I drove the car, I would reset the efficiency bar and the driving distance so I can see how many miles this car can go and on what efficiency. I typically drive around 4.2-4.5 miles/kwh.
Anyways, so Sunday morning I ran some errands locally totalling at most 6-8 miles. I had lost one bar on the capacity meter from that. My wife and I decided to go to South Coast plaza which is typically a 20 mile commute each way. I figured I easily had enough to get there and back even without charging. Was I wrong! On the drive there, my car dropped 6 bars with an efficiency of 4.0miles/kwh. By the time I got to South Coast, I had 5 bars left with only 33 miles capacity. So I figured that sounds about right and should have plenty to get back.
My wife and I did some shopping and decided to head home. At about 12 miles back, the car went from 5 bars all the way down to 2 bars already showing about 12 mile range left. How did I lose over 20 miles on a 12 mile commute? I decided to go off the freeway and go to a charger. By the time I got to a charger which was only 3 miles away, the car was down to only 6 miles and one bar! I wouldn't have enough to even get home!
This commute I was going around 60-65 mph, not even that excessive. It was however a hot day around 88 degrees.
Usually I can easily go to South Coast and back but it seems like something is really deteriorating with the Leaf. I am absolutely regretting purchasing this car and the lies Nissan was telling their customers about getting up to 100 miles range. I've never seen 100 miles and at best around 85-90 miles. Now with this battery issue after 23k miles, I am getting at most 60 miles range on the car.. even less on a hot day it seems!
Nissan, if you're reading this, you really need to do something!
When I picked up my car from the dealer, I noticed that there is one bar missing from my battery capacity. That means I have 11 out of 12 bars. I spoke with the advisor and he told me that's normal. My car has 23k miles and I always charge it with a L2 at my home. With only 11 bars, with a full charge, my car gets about 80 miles range in the morning whereas I had about 90 miles range when I had 12 bars. So I decided to wait and see what Nissan says about my car. So it's been 3 weeks and no word from Nissan.
On September 23, 2012, when I first turned on the car in the morning I noticed it only showed a 70 mile range. Like every time I drove the car, I would reset the efficiency bar and the driving distance so I can see how many miles this car can go and on what efficiency. I typically drive around 4.2-4.5 miles/kwh.
Anyways, so Sunday morning I ran some errands locally totalling at most 6-8 miles. I had lost one bar on the capacity meter from that. My wife and I decided to go to South Coast plaza which is typically a 20 mile commute each way. I figured I easily had enough to get there and back even without charging. Was I wrong! On the drive there, my car dropped 6 bars with an efficiency of 4.0miles/kwh. By the time I got to South Coast, I had 5 bars left with only 33 miles capacity. So I figured that sounds about right and should have plenty to get back.
My wife and I did some shopping and decided to head home. At about 12 miles back, the car went from 5 bars all the way down to 2 bars already showing about 12 mile range left. How did I lose over 20 miles on a 12 mile commute? I decided to go off the freeway and go to a charger. By the time I got to a charger which was only 3 miles away, the car was down to only 6 miles and one bar! I wouldn't have enough to even get home!
This commute I was going around 60-65 mph, not even that excessive. It was however a hot day around 88 degrees.
Usually I can easily go to South Coast and back but it seems like something is really deteriorating with the Leaf. I am absolutely regretting purchasing this car and the lies Nissan was telling their customers about getting up to 100 miles range. I've never seen 100 miles and at best around 85-90 miles. Now with this battery issue after 23k miles, I am getting at most 60 miles range on the car.. even less on a hot day it seems!
Nissan, if you're reading this, you really need to do something!
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Welcome...
This is my first blog post about my 2011 Nissan Leaf. The reason for this blog is simple, to keep a record of the severe software issues I'm having with my vehicle. The car is reporting an incorrect range and I'm getting an average of around 50-60 miles range a day. I've taken the vehicle to Nissan once already and they had the car for almost a week where they just reset some software parameters. Once I received the car back, less than a day, the bugs started coming back again.
With this blog, I'm going to document the range that I got and also how much power the leaf consumed to charge the battery. Every time I have about 1-2 bars left on the meter, the car would take around 13-15 kwh of electricity to charge it to full.
So is it a problem with the battery not reporting correctly or the software misinterpreting the battery? Did it really only need 13-15kwh or it needs more but the car won't charge beyond that?
The Nissan dealer told me the car is not using more than 80% of the battery capacity and that's why I'm seeing such low range. I hope to be able to get some feedback from other Leaf owners.
Thanks!
With this blog, I'm going to document the range that I got and also how much power the leaf consumed to charge the battery. Every time I have about 1-2 bars left on the meter, the car would take around 13-15 kwh of electricity to charge it to full.
So is it a problem with the battery not reporting correctly or the software misinterpreting the battery? Did it really only need 13-15kwh or it needs more but the car won't charge beyond that?
The Nissan dealer told me the car is not using more than 80% of the battery capacity and that's why I'm seeing such low range. I hope to be able to get some feedback from other Leaf owners.
Thanks!
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