Paul
The boot issue may be sorted in the next version of the Fluence.
I was at a meeting/sales pitch earlier in the year and I managed to quiz some of the Renault chaps regarding the options on the Fluence which are not being persued.
With the demise of better place Renault have completly stepped back from battery swapping and at this point they have not decided what direction is being taken. The thinking is with the current back modifications the rear suspension can carry a heavier pack in the longer boot because of no additional metal structure needed for swapping.
I was slightly concerned about existing users and I was given the corperate line, Renault are 100% looking after present generation Fluences and packs.
Tony

Hi Paul
saw your post this evening.
If the chime was not dinging away you would still have capacity below the zero mark.
The fluence has got a smaller pack than the leaf, but to get that additional 10km over the 2011/2012 leaf on the nedc is down to one great advantage the car has.
both cars are within 20kg in weight, (2013 leaf considerably lighter) the continental drive system is arguably slightly better.
But the Leaf is a sit up high short vehicle with a cd value of 0.29 (2013 0.28)
The Fluence which was already an extremly slippy low body style in ice form has a cd value of 0.25 with the modifications to ZE form.
As a result in driving above town speeds it is far more efficient.
I often wondered if I could get an additional small capacity pack into the void between the battery compartment and the invisible lower boot section could I get the capacity up to 24kw and then see what the car could do.
If you listen to Leaf owners constantly talking about the head lamp bulge to throw air away from the mirrors thinking it is the best in aerodynamics.
Fail to realise this is primarily to stop the wing mirrors from resonating at certain speeds, It is slightly changing the drag.
It anoys me a bit as it seems to be a sales ploy to partialy explain/point out this detail but the buyer fills in the blanks themselves.

In his Dec 12 post Paul commented that Leaf owners do not seem to have the luxury of a battery warranty.
In my local paper’s motoring supp. of Nov 26th Nissan UK have recently improved the Leaf package as follows.
1. Free recharging at any Nissan dealership.
2. Free loan of petrol or diesel ICE for up to 14 days!
3. Free 24 hour test drives.
4. Free EV roadside assist if battery exhausted.
5. Free battery guarantee against capacity loss below 9 bars within first five years or 60k miles.
So, is the playing field a bit more level or is it now tipped the other way?
I guess the ICE loan is a one off?
The only item I am curious about on the Leaf is the solar panel and how effective or useful this is in topping up the 12v battery.
However, I’m still looking forward to getting my Zoe early in the new year, once my HCP is enegised.

“I did use the aircon to clear the screen before moving off, that might have wasted a bit.”

As a matter of interest, how did you do that, and do you know the AC came on? When you hit the demist, I don’t think the AC comes on automatically, unless the set temp is lower than outside. You can make the AC come on by hitting ‘recycle’ with the screen vent, only, on, and then you can get heating AND AC at the same time (very wasteful on power!!!).

I think the demist function works well in cold weather simply because you get heat through almost immediately. It does draw 7kW from startup for a minute or so, though.

I’ve hit the ‘dashes of predicted range’ a couple of times, when you get a continuous bleeping. Very bl@@dy annoying, too, when you know you’ve got a good 2 miles left from the battery and only need to cover a mile. 🙂

I’ve yet to experience range anxiety. I have come to trust the SOC meter implicitly and will happily judge my journey to just a few miles left, on return, and be confident that it can be accomplished.

My Fluence suffers significant interference on FM bands when the battery (‘ignition’) is engaged. I believe it is the 12V inverter (that feeds the 12V battery circuit) that is the cause, as it is not a function of the traction motor in operation. There is a SERIOUS reduction in the FM reception sensitivity. A weak FM channel but that plays clearly can be completely silenced by the interference once the ignition is powered on (‘motor running’).

My understanding is DAB uses FM banding, which suggests this add-on will struggle to work on the Fluence.

Oddly enough, the long wave band on the Fluence (yes, it has one – the French like their LW channels!) is completely unaffected. It has the best LW reception for a car radio I have ever experienced.

” in summer I was achieving comfortably over 100 miles per charge – only Donald seems to have been able to beat that.”

Well, bear in mind back in summer it seems that only you and I had a Fluence (before the price drop to £8k)!

In summer I could, with gentle driving, do my 45 mile commute [covering town, motorway and gradient changes] twice on one battery, i.e. +90 miles. Now with the minimum heat setting and driving the same way I am also getting 70-75 miles per equivalent-full battery charge. Seems to make little difference having the heating off altogether, so in general looks like we are experiencing exactly the same thing.

Use the dash vent and footwell setting for higher temperature and you should be fine for 50 miles – just avoid sending air to the screen as it cools the air right down wastefully. Unfortunately, if you have more than single occupancy and, especially, if it rains then you’ll steam up. Find some anti-fogging cleaner or rainx for inside the front screen which should help.

You could always do what those crazy guys in their Leafs do – get an electric blanket for your passengers!!!

Hi Trevor,

I agree and this is a big security risk… someone can drive away but mind you they cant restart the car so they can only really get as far the battery will take them!

I’m going to try to lock the car from the outside while its on and see what happens…

For the first few months of intensive data logging (not much ac or heating), I got 4.6 miles/kWh indicated by the car and 4.2 miles/kWh from from-the-wall charges. With the mitigating offset of my higher voltages, I’ve no reason to doubt your 13% figure. It does vary – sometimes I get 230V, sometimes I get 250V. I watch the mains voltage, and aim to charge at times of the day/week when it is highest!!!

I’m not convinced Paul has an issue that needs to concern him just yet. With the extra energy-in monitoring that I have, I can see clearly where/when the ‘real’ energy is going. I also achieve ’50 mile battery range’ occasionally, which is a bit disconcerting at the best of times but I can see that this is a combination of the heater and my driving style/traffic type of the day and not a battery issue.

Driving in the rain (which is more prevalent this time of year) also seems to reduce range by a further 10%, for reasons I’ve not yet fully worked out!

• This reply was modified 12 years, 4 months ago by  donald.

I’ve never seen “restricted motor braking” on my Fluence (after 100% charges). Should I? (not seen it mentioned in the handbook) Perhaps I have been exercising the battery pack ‘perfectly’ and so the software has been operating the battery within its optimum SOC window all the time, so I always get a little reserve overhead?

If anything, judging on the SOC indication compared with the ‘input’ energy and on the ‘used’ energy*, my battery is currently operating with a capacity indicated as, if anything, slightly in excess of 22kWh.

*(These have been, by-and-large, nominally identical, but I get ‘high’ volts here (245V) and so I get slightly more kWh than is indicated by current-based monitoring (assumes 230V). The extra volts seems to offset the charging inefficiencies.)

I can’t say I’ve noticed the lower SOC range to indicate differently to the upper range, on mine. I’ve previously found there to be a very consistent number of miles for each octal of the gauge, for the same driving style, though I have not been paying too close an eye on that recently now the weather is a little colder. What I have noticed is that there is about 1kWh above the top octal, so that from 100% dropping to 7/8ths is around 3.6kWh, whereas each of the other octals is around 2.7kWh worth.

• This reply was modified 12 years, 4 months ago by  donald.