It finally happened
10/06/16 10:56
After two years and 26,000 miles or so, my Leaf has just lost its very first bar of battery capacity.
I was wondering when it would happen. I have a round trip commute of about 50 miles which often extends to 60 miles and I am not driving an EV to drive like a 90-year-old granny.
I don’t make concessions to the car just because it’s an EV and never use ECO mode and still average 4.5 to 5 miles per kW.
The range of the Leaf means that 50-60 miles of real world driving is close to capacity with AC, lights, wipers etc. All of which means that limiting to 80% charge all the time had me getting home as the range warning comes on, so most of my charging has been to 100%. Even then, if I had other trips to do I would come home and plug-in to get a boost before leaving again.
The first battery bar is apparently about 15-17% of capacity, which is quite a loss.
Thankfully I only have one more year of my lease left.
All that said – I rarely use public charging. The majority of my charging is done at home.
I can’t over emphasize how convenient it is charging at home. If I need to go out after work, I plug-in and charge immediately while getting changed and eating dinner. By the time I’m ready yo leave the car has another 30-40 miles on the battery and good to go.
This beats the stench of a gas station any day of the week!
So – first bar lost, but it hasn’t limited the car in any way. Still like driving EV and will never go back to slow, stinking, smelly ICE.
I was wondering when it would happen. I have a round trip commute of about 50 miles which often extends to 60 miles and I am not driving an EV to drive like a 90-year-old granny.
I don’t make concessions to the car just because it’s an EV and never use ECO mode and still average 4.5 to 5 miles per kW.
The range of the Leaf means that 50-60 miles of real world driving is close to capacity with AC, lights, wipers etc. All of which means that limiting to 80% charge all the time had me getting home as the range warning comes on, so most of my charging has been to 100%. Even then, if I had other trips to do I would come home and plug-in to get a boost before leaving again.
The first battery bar is apparently about 15-17% of capacity, which is quite a loss.
Thankfully I only have one more year of my lease left.
All that said – I rarely use public charging. The majority of my charging is done at home.
I can’t over emphasize how convenient it is charging at home. If I need to go out after work, I plug-in and charge immediately while getting changed and eating dinner. By the time I’m ready yo leave the car has another 30-40 miles on the battery and good to go.
This beats the stench of a gas station any day of the week!
So – first bar lost, but it hasn’t limited the car in any way. Still like driving EV and will never go back to slow, stinking, smelly ICE.