Winter performance?
- Thread starter Mike L
- Start date
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The air is denser, tires often under inflated, and lubricants thicker resulting in higher drag. Then heater loads also lower range. Batteries that are cold soaked under freezing have charge issues but they do warm in operation. Precondition is your friend.
Bob Wilson
Bob Wilson
Richard_arch74
Active Member
Mike, if I'm going to get on the highway (just a couple of minutes from home) with a cold car, I will put the car in HV mode first thing so I'm warming the ICE at slow speeds. I would worry about running in EV mode until you get to the on ramp and then punching it to get up to highway speeds. Also, even though the car's management system periodically runs the ICE to keep it lubed, I will put the car in HV mode, at slow speeds, once in awhile just to make sure the engine stays lubed.
Am I being paranoid [emoji848]?
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ColoradoLeaf
New Member
I drive an old Leaf in Colorado. I think I lose about 10% range in freezing temps. And of course if I run the heater, the extra 5kw load knocks off another 20%. I understand the car has a battery heater that kicks in at -4 degF. I don’t take the car out if the temperature is below -12 degF to prevent lithium battery damage. My garage is 20 deg warmer than outside so I don’t worry about damage inside. We only get one or two nights a year down to -10 or worse. Oh and I never have any performance loss. The electric motor gets what it asks for.
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At minus 30degC my 2016 Leaf would lose about 40% from it's best range and I'm expecting the same from my 2018. Never had a problem taking it out and parking in the cold. It always worked (except for an intermittent issue with the heater). With winter tires traction is superb and with all that weight pressing down evenly you don't worry about one end of the car breaking loose on a turn.
If you have to stop at an intersection where there's a fairly deep drift the traction control limits so much power to the motor that you can bog down in the drift. (No need to ask me how I know) so to get out of a drift you may have to turn the traction control off. My old Leaf had a button to do this. On the 2018 you have to call up this option out of a menu operated by the steering wheel buttons. Bummer!
All in all you don't need to worry about "bricking" your Leaf by taking it out in the cold for errands or commuting. You just wouldn't want to leave it unplugged in cold outside temperatures for more than a couple days.
If you have to stop at an intersection where there's a fairly deep drift the traction control limits so much power to the motor that you can bog down in the drift. (No need to ask me how I know) so to get out of a drift you may have to turn the traction control off. My old Leaf had a button to do this. On the 2018 you have to call up this option out of a menu operated by the steering wheel buttons. Bummer!
All in all you don't need to worry about "bricking" your Leaf by taking it out in the cold for errands or commuting. You just wouldn't want to leave it unplugged in cold outside temperatures for more than a couple days.