Posted by JOHN PORTEOUS
The EV Battery indicator on the right hand side of the 2017 30Kwh Nissan Leaf dash board, is an estimate of battery usage left, not a perfect indicator. The road undulations from my house up to the main road are such that there is a very steep climb to navigate, which appears to use up a lot of the EV Battery availability. The rest of the journey to the city, however, has a lot of downhill runs which through the regenerative braking technology available in these cars, increases battery availability.
I decided to do a test to get some real time data so I could further understand the way the system works. Here is what I found:
START OF TEST: ODOMETER TRIP METER O kms, EV BATTERY AVAILABILITY INDICATOR = 160KM
1st check: Odometer 2.2km, Terrain = uphill, EV Battery Availability Indicator = 150km (EV Indicator -10km)
2nd check: Odometer 6.8km, Terrain = flat, EV Battery Availability Indicator = 149km (EV Indicator -11km)
3rd check: Odometer 8.4km, Terrain = downhill, EV Battery Availability Indicator = 152km (EV Indicator -8km)
4th and final check: Odometer 10.6km, Terrain = downhill, EV Battery Availability Indicator = 153km (EV Indicator -7km)
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As you can see, the EV Battery indicator is unrealistically variable. When accelerating uphill the kilometers available reduce at an unrealistic rate. When driving downhill or coasting along the flat using the brakes at variable intervals, the kilometers available increase.
The results of this test show that while the actual distance travelled was 10.6km, the EV Battery Indicator showed we had travelled only 7km, which is a gain over the period of 3.6km.
This is good knowledge to have to better understand the intricacies of the Nissan Leaf EV Battery Indicator.
