Battery!

All Nissan Ariya related discussions
paulie10
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Mar 18, 2024 8:46 am

Post by paulie10 »

Hi all, I picked up my new Ariya Evolve 87kWh a few weeks back and overall am very happy with it so far! One complaint I have though is battery life and charging time. It seems to be lasting a lot less that I ever thought it would and also proving more expensive to charge! I'm wondering if there may be an issue with my car or if I may be doing anything wrong so thought I'd ask a few questions on here...

I don't have a home charger yet so generally am using a Shell Recharge lamppost charger which I believe is 4.8kW and charged at £0.53 per kWh. Should it take approx 19 hours to charge from 0 - 100%?!

The advertised range is 322 miles. Now I obviously don't expect to get near that but is it right that my car currently displays around 220 miles on 200%? I live in London and temps are pretty mild for this time of year so would expect more than that.

Finally one of the reasons I went electric is because I thought it would be a lot cheaper to run than petrol but this doesn't seem to be the case right now. Is this because I am using public chargers maybe rather than charging from home? An average 13 hour charge which gets me about 75% of battery is costing me around £35 on a lamppost charger or around £50 on a rapid charger.

Thanks in advance!

Milkfloat
Posts: 169
Joined: Wed May 25, 2022 1:52 pm

Post by Milkfloat »

For battery life, it is very much recommended that you only charge to 100% SOC if you really, really need it. Similarly, only discharge below 10% if you absolutely have to. Conservatively, for normal use, the recommendation is that you operate between 20 and 80% SOC. I personally push mine harder than that and typically charge towards 90% but never to 100% unless embarking on a very long journey. Another reason for not going to very high SOC is that, on rapid charging, the power that the battery will accept tails off beyond 80% SOC. In fact, even using a 5kW charger, the car will limit its input as it nears 100%. So, charging to 100% is a misleading time. A better measure is to charge 20 to 80 or 90% and time that. You should be able to take the full 4.8kW for the whole charge. Cost is very much because of public charging; the prices are silly. I have recently written to the Minister for transport and asked him for comment on the extraordinary charges. Put in perspective, if Instavolt got the power free of charge, they would supply it to you for 76 pence perkWh! Cost at home is circa 28p/kWh on ordinary rates, so, half what you are paying on 5kW charging. If you sign up for one of the EV tariffs then 9p/kWh or so is achievable so 20% of what you are paying!
You will see other threads about economy on the forum but something sounds wrong. At this time of year, you should certainly be getting 3.3m/kWh unless you are an extraordinarily heavy footed driver. Many, including me, will do much better than that. Ignoring what the estimated range is, what efficiency do you actually get? Rather than looking at current trip, look at the figures since the last charge? Finally, the manufacturers state the so-called WLTP range. The test makes EV's look very favourable due to very slow acceleration rates and temperatures above 20 Celsius. To achieve the number, you have to minimise acceleration and anticipate slowing/stopping by lifting off early and avoiding the use of mechanical friction brakes. You can match WLTP but it takes practice, concentration and somewhat getting in the way on public roads!
PeteTranter'sSister
Posts: 12
Joined: Wed Aug 30, 2023 5:04 pm

Post by PeteTranter'sSister »

Had an 87kWh for 12 months, in Nottingham. On a full charge, in summer months you will get about 220-250 miles indicated. Throughout a cold spell in winter, around freezing, you will get about 200 miles indicated. Nowhere near 300+ miles!

I charge overnight on Octopus at 9p/kWh, which makes for ridiculously cheap running costs, approximately 1/4 the cost of running my 3 litre diesel Jaguar. I strongly recommend that you get a home charger and just get used to charging up overnight every few days and not worrying about the range, it requires a different mentality to owning a fuel car but the vastly reduced running costs more than make up for it. This is until you start getting problems with the 12V battery and software glitches ha!
Cosmyc
Posts: 386
Joined: Fri Jul 08, 2022 6:08 am

Post by Cosmyc »

More than 300 miles is definitely possible, I do those miles on a weekly basis each charge easily on warm temps and eco driving.
paulie10
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Mar 18, 2024 8:46 am

Post by paulie10 »

Milkfloat wrote: Mon Mar 18, 2024 8:48 pm For battery life, it is very much recommended that you only charge to 100% SOC if you really, really need it. Similarly, only discharge below 10% if you absolutely have to. Conservatively, for normal use, the recommendation is that you operate between 20 and 80% SOC. I personally push mine harder than that and typically charge towards 90% but never to 100% unless embarking on a very long journey. Another reason for not going to very high SOC is that, on rapid charging, the power that the battery will accept tails off beyond 80% SOC. In fact, even using a 5kW charger, the car will limit its input as it nears 100%. So, charging to 100% is a misleading time. A better measure is to charge 20 to 80 or 90% and time that. You should be able to take the full 4.8kW for the whole charge. Cost is very much because of public charging; the prices are silly. I have recently written to the Minister for transport and asked him for comment on the extraordinary charges. Put in perspective, if Instavolt got the power free of charge, they would supply it to you for 76 pence perkWh! Cost at home is circa 28p/kWh on ordinary rates, so, half what you are paying on 5kW charging. If you sign up for one of the EV tariffs then 9p/kWh or so is achievable so 20% of what you are paying!
You will see other threads about economy on the forum but something sounds wrong. At this time of year, you should certainly be getting 3.3m/kWh unless you are an extraordinarily heavy footed driver. Many, including me, will do much better than that. Ignoring what the estimated range is, what efficiency do you actually get? Rather than looking at current trip, look at the figures since the last charge? Finally, the manufacturers state the so-called WLTP range. The test makes EV's look very favourable due to very slow acceleration rates and temperatures above 20 Celsius. To achieve the number, you have to minimise acceleration and anticipate slowing/stopping by lifting off early and avoiding the use of mechanical friction brakes. You can match WLTP but it takes practice, concentration and somewhat getting in the way on public roads!
Thanks so much for the detailed reply Milkfloat! I must confess I am quite ignorant when it comes to the charging side of things. What I do know though is even rapid chargers seem to be charging a lot slower than I would have anticipated. Yesterday I went to a rapid charger at 21% SOC, got a consistent rate of 59kWh, and it took me 26 minutes to get up to 52%. I thought I should be getting from 20 - 80% in 35 mins! Looking at my efficiency since we got the car it's 2.8m/kWh and my wife mostly drives it and is def not a heavy footed driver!
Columbo
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Feb 29, 2024 6:24 pm

Post by Columbo »

Did you preheat the battery?
Milkfloat
Posts: 169
Joined: Wed May 25, 2022 1:52 pm

Post by Milkfloat »

Paulie10, 2.8m/kWh is definitely a poor number. Is it increasing now that ambients are warming? A few things to look at; 1. Make sure that tyre pressures are at recommended level. 2. Try using B instead of D. To do that, just pull the drive selector back a second time (it will cycle back to D if pulled back again and can be seen in the dash display). This gives increased regenerative braking when lifting off the accelerator. Then, get used to lifting off early enough so as not to brake at traffic lights and roundabouts. The brake pedal should be reserved for bringing the car to a halt. 3. Don't put the HVAC into Auto. Instead, set it manually as you want it and try not to set temperature above 23C. 4. Try just a little more gentle acceleration; it really makes a difference. 5. Try 65 instead of 70mph on primary routes. It makes little difference to arrival time on short/medium journeys but, again, makes a big difference to efficiency. Finally, you are not alone experiencing slow "rapid charging". As Columbo is suggesting, pre-heating the battery can make a big difference but charging stations are often sharing a given power capability. If 3 out of 3 or 4 out of 4, say, chargers are active, they cannot give the advertised charge rate. My experience is that MFG and Ionity do best.
paulie10
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Mar 18, 2024 8:46 am

Post by paulie10 »

Columbo wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2024 11:10 am Did you preheat the battery?
I usually do but didn't yesterday actually!
paulie10
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Mar 18, 2024 8:46 am

Post by paulie10 »

Milkfloat wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2024 1:05 pm Paulie10, 2.8m/kWh is definitely a poor number. Is it increasing now that ambients are warming? A few things to look at; 1. Make sure that tyre pressures are at recommended level. 2. Try using B instead of D. To do that, just pull the drive selector back a second time (it will cycle back to D if pulled back again and can be seen in the dash display). This gives increased regenerative braking when lifting off the accelerator. Then, get used to lifting off early enough so as not to brake at traffic lights and roundabouts. The brake pedal should be reserved for bringing the car to a halt. 3. Don't put the HVAC into Auto. Instead, set it manually as you want it and try not to set temperature above 23C. 4. Try just a little more gentle acceleration; it really makes a difference. 5. Try 65 instead of 70mph on primary routes. It makes little difference to arrival time on short/medium journeys but, again, makes a big difference to efficiency. Finally, you are not alone experiencing slow "rapid charging". As Columbo is suggesting, pre-heating the battery can make a big difference but charging stations are often sharing a given power capability. If 3 out of 3 or 4 out of 4, say, chargers are active, they cannot give the advertised charge rate. My experience is that MFG and Ionity do best.
I'm not sure if it's increasing yet but will keep an eye on it. Thanks again for your help. Regarding regen braking, I have the e-pedal set to constantly on. I found that is a stronger regen than having the driving mode in B. Are you suggesting I should have it the other way around then?
Milkfloat
Posts: 169
Joined: Wed May 25, 2022 1:52 pm

Post by Milkfloat »

If you like e-pedal then fine, stick with it. I don't use it because of the way it dulls the driving experience.
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