|
Post by Jim Hare on Aug 28, 2012 11:59:58 GMT 11
To keep the batteries at their best, is it better to constantly top up every night or to have fewer charge cycles and let it run down a bit first.
I typically charge to 80%, going to 100% about once a week or two. Even so, I really only need to charge every other day, or maybe every third day.
I was speaking to Jayson, my Nissan Dealer the other day who said it seemed like the more you exercise the batteries the better they got. In some cases owners are getting increased drive times, like 180 or even 200+ KMs per charge.
Would love to hear everyone's real world experience with this.
|
|
|
Post by Brian on Aug 29, 2012 22:34:02 GMT 11
My four-plus years experience with the all-electric motor bike would seem to indicate that constant top-ups when as little as 10 to 20 % of available battery has been used does not produce as much range as when the batteries are allowed to go down to a remaining capacity of about 5 or 10% of full. My practice has been to try to achieve this about once a week. I am neither a 'sparkie' nor a scientist. But I compare it to ' work done ' by the human body - superficial fitness is easy, but this can fail when protracted work is to be done. Initially, my wife suffered from classic ' range anxiety ', wanting to top-up every night. But her average distances are relatively small. We now charge to 80% a couple of times a week, unless we are expecting a longer trip, when we would charge to 100%.
|
|
|
Post by Jim Hare on Sept 1, 2012 16:40:35 GMT 11
Thanks Brian, interesting stuff.
|
|
|
Post by Brian on Sept 10, 2012 14:45:22 GMT 11
I stand corrected A subsequent discussion with someone more conversant with battery technology suggests that the best way to look after the batteries in the Leaf is to try to keep them in the 40 to 80 % of full capacity range. This is not to say that you can not go outside that range - just that that is the optimum range.
|
|
|
Post by Jim Hare on Sept 11, 2012 16:21:04 GMT 11
Cool. That sounds like us. We typically charge to 80% (130kms available) and tend to recharge when it drops to around 60kms available.
Noticing that our Kms available seems to be rising. 80% showed 160 this time, which is what we used to get at 100%. We'll see how much we actually get but that's certainly promising!
|
|
|
Post by Brian on Sept 12, 2012 0:19:27 GMT 11
That sounds good - the battery ' muscle tone ' is improving
|
|
|
Post by Jim Hare on Sept 12, 2012 10:08:02 GMT 11
Indeed!
|
|