Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Parking the LEAF; Do it in the Shade!

Due to recent family events, I parked my LEAF outside for a week while taking a trip. The weather was warmer than normal with temps hitting the low to mid 80's which meant my poor LEAF baked in full Sun for several days in a row.  Now, I parked the LEAF at mid charge to minimize damage and yesterday when I started it up, it was at 57% SOC so everything seemed fine.

Before the trip, I was averaging 258-263 GID count with 260 recorded 8 times in the past few weeks. This morning, I got up after its first full charge in several days and it was a 251!  It was charged in the garage but had 6 TBs.  Hoping the pack just needs some time to rebalance or something here or that its a temporary loss due to the hotter than normal temps here.

The other thing that recently happened is the software update was also installed just before the trip. But many have reported a temporary gain in range and charge capacity.  As usual, Nissan has provided limited information on exactly what this software update did but its my opinion the temporary increase in range and subsequent loss back to pre-update levels is due to the BMS relearning the pack and reapplying the "TTID" or heat adjustment.

Either way, I would love to see how the capacity changes for someone who has lost a bar and gets the upgrade during cooler weather?

**edit**  7/18/2013.. Two more full charges and got 253 and 248.  Looks like I am seeing the same slow decline in capacity after the software update that others are seeing but with one key difference. I did not gain any capacity immediately after the update. 

to be continued...

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