Most miles overall?

[FFEINKY]

I'm just curious if anyone has put more than 43500 miles on their FFE. I put about 2400-2600 miles on my car per month and have racked up all my mileage in about 18 months so I figure there probably aren't too many doing this type of driving, but I'm sure there must be others with this mileage on their car, and if so have you had any major issues other than the SSN problems. I have only ever seen 1 other FFE here in KY but have never got to talk to anyone else with the same type of electric car. And all the Leaf drivers I know mostly use their car as around town type vehicles. I'm mostly on the interstate, so it's very rare to see something other than the occasional Tesla.

 

[michael]

I'm at 43861, so I win for the moment, but you will pass me very soon, as I'm around 2000 miles per month.

Biggest problem is small but detectable battery fade, down to around 16.5 kWh usable. I think this represents about 15%. What are you showing? I'm right about 2 years in service, a little longer than you. I'm in Los Angeles, so reasonably hot summers and mild winters. What's your temperature profile, I'm guessing a little warmer in summer, a little cooler in winter.

I measure battery capacity by the trip meter, both in routine daily driving (at 275 Wh/mile) and by full-blast heater rundown testing.

Yours is an important car...please tell us how your battery is doing...What are your charging practices?

 

[NightHawk]

Have you tried taking your FFE into a local Ford dealer and getting the car's PCM flash updated to the latest firmware version?
Some have reported their battery efficiency and regeneration increased significantly after that, since it probably makes it like a 2015 model.

 

[FFEINKY]

So I hit 45k miles today and from the last few weeks I have been tracking my usable battery capacity and I'm down to 16.1. I'm still able to make it to work (55 miles one way) but can already tell a huge difference with the little bit of cool weather we've had here in KY this past week. I'm scared going into the winter because I was barely making it to work when the temps were around 0 degrees this past winter. I may have to start using the wife's Volt when it really gets cold. I won't be out of warranty until 60k miles but after I hit that number I plan to see if I can find an unlock solution for the extra battery that I can't use right now. I haven't even had my car 2 years yet. Obviously this is the downside to driving a BEV in this first Gen of electric cars :-( They just haven't been really pushed to the limits yet.

 

[Elektra]

16.1, that's a big loss compared to 20 when brand new. Are you sure your battery degradation is that much?

 

[michael]

So he's at 16.1, I'm somewhere in the mid to low 16's at the same time and mileage....yes, I would say that's likely for-real.

I'm not certain what to use as the "starting" capacity, my impression is 19.5 is a reasonable number. If you accept that, then our capacities are down about 15 TO 18%. While that sounds like a lot, remember a Leaf loses its very first battery bar at 15%

In answer to NightHawk: Yes, I checked software is up to date

Also...although my best estimate of usable energy is mid-to-low 16's, the ETE still shows 17.5 when fully charged, so I don't think it's accurate.

 

[FFEINKY]

Sadly I ran the numbers for 2 weeks, and yes all I can get out of my battery is 16.1. But for people that don't drive like me it's hard to understand that every time I get in my car I run my battery down to 10% or less everyday twice a day. It obviously takes a huge toll on the battery to be ran dead and fully recharged 2 times a day for almost 2 years. I stopped getting scared of having less than 10 miles of range left when driving somewhere a long time ago because it's the norm for me ;-) Ford has made a solid car but I imagine all battery packs of first gen electrics will suffer this same kind of degradation under these circumstances.

 

[triangles]

I'm not certain what to use as the "starting" capacity, my impression is 19.5 is a reasonable number.

I'm probably wrong but I think it's likely closer to 18.5kWh. In 11 months I've only racked up just over 4k miles (15 mile commute to work and much of my transportation is done on 2 wheels. I also park my FFE in winter to keep the salt they dump on the roads here from rotting out my FFE). I've only run it down to single digits on the guess o meter a handful of times and the trip meter showed I hadn't used much over 18 kWh. I never saw anything over 19kWh but then again it's possible I just missed it. Also 2 miles on the GOM is the lowest I've ever drained the battery. Doesn't the battery have less capacity at cooler temps (even before TMS heaters kick in) so you have to take ambient temperature into consideration when determining how much battery degradation you have?

BTW FFEINKY and Michael, Thanks for for keeping us updated on this.

 

[michael]

I used to believe that too. I had two reasons for believing it:

1. My ETE read 18.5 typically, after charging (but the car already had a fair bit of use on it); and

2. the reported range of usable SOC went from about 90% to about 8% (82%), and 23 kWh x .82 = 18.9, so I went with 18.5 give or take.

However tests done by INL on new cars reported the actual battery full capacity as in the range 24 to 24.5 kWh, so 24.2 x .82 = 19.8

Others here had also said 19.5, so I decided to go with the prevailing opinion. But I agree, we don't exactly know and it probably varies from car to car as well. So maybe it's fair to say the initial capacity is roughly 19 kWh usable


And yes, absolutely. Cooler battery temps mean less capacity.

 

[jloucks]

Are there going to be battery upgrades?

Just pulling these specs out of the air, but if I could get a 150 mile battery for $7500 I'd consider it.

My FFE is over 30k. Have not noticed any fade beyond just a hair. 5%ish. I am very careful to keep it plugged in when cold or hot outside. Battery has never been unplugged and freezing (and not being driven)

 

[michael]

I believe batteries cost about $250/ kWh these days. So doubling the battery size might add about that to the price

Yes I'd go for that