Nissan LEAF Owners: How a Small,Passionate Group Can Influence a

Major Automotive Producer

H.M. ClearfieldNissan LEAF Owners Association

May 10, 2012

San Francisco BayLEAFs

Composition• Nissan LEAF owners predominantly—largest such organization in North Americawith 250 members from Santa Rosa to Gilroy (see map below)• Advocates for zero-emission vehicles (EV organizations, Plug-in America)• Engineers, Scientists, Marketers, Investors, Teachers, Bloggers; Silicon Valley talent

Functions• A non-profit 501(c)(3) educational corporation• Monthly gatherings in rotating Bay Area locations

• Exchange information about the LEAF• Educate new owners and the general public• Share experiences with driving an EV• How-to clinics (e.g., adapters, horn)

• Promote and publicize Nissan LEAF by participating ingreen vehicle events with established organizations

• Green Car Expo, National Plug In Day, Earth Day, etc.

Notoriety• Articles appearing in New York Times (October 16, 2011)

written by Bradley Berman (SF BayLEAFs member)

Example: Earth Day Events

Gilroy Redwood City

SF BayLEAFs supported 24 Earth Day events in April, 2012• Over 300 person-hours of labor donated• Approximately 2000 emission-free miles driven• Co-exhibited with Nissan dealers at 2 events

Public education about EV’s and sharing ownershipexperiences with the LEAF

Notoriety: NY Times Articles

Starting Point

“You know what? They cost $250,000 each toproduce and we couldn’t sell them. Nobodywanted them so we had to lease them out for$300/month and it was a hugely money-losingproposition. What you had was a very narrow,almost fanatical fan base, and mostly inCalifornia, and mostly in Hollywood, and thatgave rise to ‘Who Killed the Electric Car’, theconspiracy theory.”

Bob Lutz, former Vice Chairman, General Motors, in an interview withCharlie Rose, November 9, 2011, referring to the EV-1.

Tools of the Times/Market Conditions

• Cell Phones• Email• Film• Print• Centralized planning• GM “dipped its toes in

the market” to meetCARB requirements

• Smart phones w/textcamera, video, etc.

• Social Media (e.g.,Facebook, Twitter)

• Dedicated web sitesand blogs

• Distributed effort• Nissan “jumped in”

with corp. commitment

2002 2012

A perfect storm of conditions set the stage to make impact on Nissan

Connections to Nissan

SF BayLEAFs Member Nissan Contact Position

Brad Berman(Editor, Plugincars.com)

Simon Sproule Corp. Vice President(Global Communications)

Olivier Chalouhi(First delivered LEAF)

Katherine ZacharyTim Gallagher

Corporate Communications(North America)

Marc Geller(Journalist; Plug In America)

Mark Perry Director of ProductPlanning (North America)

Matt Howard, Partner(Norwest Venture Partners)

Eric Sipe Director of Light Comm.Vehicles (North America)

Kim Kinoshita(Consultant to Nissan)

Ryuta Kawaguchi (Japan)T. Ueno (Japan)

Managers, EV Programs(Nissan Japan)

Waidy Lee(EV Advocate, Engineer)

Koji Doda Manager IT Programs(Mountain View, CA)

Gary Lieber(CEO, GJL Enterprises)

Jonathan Carmona(TBWA\Chiat\Day)

Community OutreachManager (Los Angeles)

Objectives of December 3rd Meeting

Nissan• Solicit detailed technical feedback from owners on three areas

of the LEAF: EVSE modifications, state of charge, IT systems• Conduct a “town hall” with owners to gauge the overall

reaction to the LEAF and take questions

SF BayLEAFs• Express thanks and compliment Nissan for releasing the LEAF• Demonstrate that SF BayLEAFs members are highly enthusiastic

and eager to contribute to Nissan Motors’ success in the electricvehicle marketplace

• Learn how Nissan Motors EV Engineering team and SF BayLEAFscan help each other; suggestions include– Provide demonstrations of LEAF and equipment modifications– Provide direct feedback to Nissan from LEAF owners– Provide a mechanism for gathering user data prior to product release

Statistics

• Google Campus, Crittenden Lane, Mountain View• Officially 151 attendees, including 18 from Nissan• Over 100 LEAFs and at least 1 RAV-4 EV; charging for

approximately 35 vehicles provided• Consumed 15 boxes of Costco pizza and 125 bottles of

water, 2 coffee travelers• Over 5000 gas-free miles driven by participants• Coincided with acceptance testing of next EV

Demonstrations

Photo: R. Schreiber

Photo: G. Lieber

Photo: F. Kramer

Photo: J.A. WiegelPhoto: Unknown

LEAF Instrument Cluster

Fuel gauge/State of Charge(SOC) and Range Estimation

• Display shows State of Charge (SOC) and remaining range/distance toempty (DTE)

‒ State of charge drops in 8.5% increments and is non-linear; recalculates eachtime the car is turned off and restarted

‒ Range is based on current state of charge and energy consumed in last 500meters

‒ Commonly referred to as “Guess-O-Meter”• Center display is pre-programmed, but user-selectable

The Need for Accurate State of Charge

• Before each trip, LEAF drivers consciously asks these questions:– Can I arrive with my available charge?– Should I re-charge at my destination?– Do I need to re-charge en route?– How much extra or buffer charge do I need?

• Asking these questions is necessary because the LEAF has 100 milesrange and rapid charging infrastructure is undeveloped in North America

• We appreciate that Nissan must have simple range and SOC displays forwide market appeal and ease of use

• However, because the existing range display is based on past driving, it isof limited help in answering the above questions

• Additionally LEAF drivers have observed that the apparent rate of chargeconsumption (i.e., SOC) is highly variable, even for consistent drivingconditions

LEAF Range Display Challenges• This photo taken after driving 30 miles

downhill• Actual remaining range for average

driving conditions was approximately45-50 miles, not the 100 miles displayed

• The range calculator in the LEAF isbased only on past information; futuredriving conditions can be very differentfrom the past

• Because the LEAF range display cannotanticipate driving conditions or speed,owners devise range tables like this*

• However, the driver must look up thedriving speed and number of bars toestimate the remaining range

• The range will be affected by thebattery temperature, terrain, drivingstyle, speed, traffic controls, load, etc.

* Courtesy of Tony Williams, based on his independent study

Limitations of Existing LEAF SOC Gauge

• Battery capacity changes with temperature and time• Nissan can make firmware changes that lead to apparent

differences in charge consumption or driving economy (e.g.,NTB11-041, RXIUAA)

• Future replacement traction battery may have differentcharge capacity from original battery (hopefully larger?)

• Because of the above, counting charge bars and multiplyingby 1.75 kWh or by 7 miles/bar will become quite inaccurateover time and is distracting to the driver– This can lead to unnecessary range anxiety, particularly at low SOC

when warning lights are activated prematurely– Such kind of anxiety doesn’t exist in an ICE car because of large range

(example: Nissan Altima Hybrid refuels in 7 minutes and travels 700miles)

The State of Charge MeterLEAF Owners such as Gary Giddings have decided to produce their own versionof the SOC meter and make it available to others as an open source device

• Version 1 SOC meter‒ Atmel AT90CAN128 microprocessor‒ AVR-CAN board with JTAG programming‒ PC RS-232 interface through DB-9 conn.‒ Firmware provided by G. Giddings (free)‒ Available kit $170 US or assembled $270

• Version 2: LEAF Logging System‒ Uses 3 AVR boards for parallel recording‒ Fast 4-port RS-232/USB adapter‒ Available assembled $500 US

• Capabilities‒ Reads On Board Diagnostic messages

using OBD II protocol‒ Monitors 1 CAN bus, user selectable for AV,

EV, Car‒ Displays State of Charge, battery voltage,

current (direction) or power (use/regen)• Usage

‒ Plugs into LEAF OBD connector‒ Stores OBD messages on PC at 115 kBaud

Information from the LEAF SOC Meter

Software program CAN-Do is written in Visual Basic 6 (VB6) whichcompiles for Windows. Works with Win XP, Vista, and 7.

Traction Motor Operation

Battery TemperatureCharging Statistics

State of Charge (SOC) as measuredin “gids,” a unit invented by LEAFowners, where 281 gids = 100%

Sample Output of CAN-Do Software

Trip recording performed with software CAN-Do V1.52, 15 minute journey, 6 miles

Battery Voltage

Motor Current

Motor RPM

CAN-Do 1.58 includes GPS recording and direct output to CSV file format

6 mile trip Los Gatos to San Jose

Using the SOC Meter

Normal position for SOC Meter in the LEAF Recording of CAN Bus messages using a PC

The SOC Meter provides valuable information for the LEAF driver, but it isnot convenient to use• Safety is low as the driver must look away from the road to read the

meter or set its mode• It must be plugged into the OBD II connector and the extra cable stored

such that foot pedal operation is not hampered• A personal computer is needed if the driver wants to record a session or

install new firmware in the meter

Proposal 1: True Integrated SOC Displayfor Current LEAF

User-selectabledisplays

• Modification of one or both of the circled displays to contain‒ True state of charge from 0 to 100% (prefer by 0.1% increment)‒ Useable remaining capacity in kWh, by 0.1 kWh increment‒ Range in miles or km

• Display change to be accomplished by on board dashboard selectionbuttons to left of steering wheel or through Navigation System selections

• This would require new firmware version but can be accomplished throughNissan dealership

• SOC could also be incorporated into navigation system display

Proposal 3: Accurate Range Display

Development of a more sophisticated, driver-specificalgorithm for remaining range:• Identify driver through wireless key detection• On board diagnostics of each trip to learn the driving style

– OBD II messages provide voltage, current, etc.– Navigation system provides altitude variation– Driver profile developed and stored in on-board memory

• Driver can then use pre-set terrain profile to determineapproximate range, or set destination in navigation systemand have on-board computer compute charge required

• On board computer should be capable of the above, orCarwings can be used to transmit data on driving style oraverage energy economy

• Alternative to individual data is to crowd source tripinformation, consumption, etc.

Nissan Learnings

• Overall owner satisfaction is very high for the LEAF(in the Bay Area at least)

• Validation of configurations and features for MY13• Confirmation that an internal DTE/SOC study they

are conducting is both necessary and relevant tothe market

Photo: G. Lieber Photo: J.A. Wiegel

Nissan Press Release April 5th

Other LEAF Hacking Activity

• State of Charge (Advanced)– LEAFScan 1– LEAFScan II

• Climate control– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nMVo-sSJ44

• Portable EVSE

Affordable and Portable EVSE

• Permanently mounted EVSEs canbe expensive, swaying potentialbuyers away from EVs– $2 – 6k depending on the situation– Requires 40 Amp circuit– Limited to 25’ distance for charging

• Portable, 240V EVSE is perfect foractive North Americans– Holiday dinners > 60 miles one way– Nearly All homes have 240VAC or

multiple 120V circuits• Portable, 240V EVSE can be

made compact and very safe; weencourage Nissan to do it

Nissan Interactions 2012

• Accomplishments– “Namestorming” for future charging product; three ideas

selected for final consideration (but none selected )– Next generation EV development: Focus groups– Internal Nissan SOC/range improvement project kicked off;

validation of Proposal 3 spawned from Dec. 3rd meeting– Initial work on deployment of Nissan DCQC

• Efforts– Nationwide LEAF owners club network (w/Chiat Day)

including financial support– Sponsorship of large public events (e.g., Earth Day)– Actual placement of Nissan DCQC’s in SF Bay Area– Support for Nissan events (Drive Electric Tour, etc.)– Influence on MY14 LEAF design features

Something Happens

“You know what? Nobody starts out as an EVcrusader. You buy one because you think it’sthe right thing for the environment, or becauseyou hate importing oil from hostile nations, orbecause you think it’s cool technology. Butafter owning one for a while, you realize thatit’s changed your life.”

H.M. Clearfield, Organizing Committee Chair, San Francisco BayLEAFs,and countless other first time EV owners