Is it just the Leaf?

[ScoobyChris]

First thing to say is our Leaf is old (2016 car) and this is our first winter with it, but what we re noticing is that with the auto climate control set to manage fan speed, temp and vents, a/c is only on when the car is trying to cool down the car and the heat pump is on when it s trying to warm up, whereas in all previous ICE cars the air con can be run independently of the climate control which handles maintaining the cabin air temp.

I can understand this may have been a conscious design decision to minimise the impact on range, but the downside is at this time of year, the car keeps misting up and hitting the demister all the time to clear it seems very 1980s. Equally I can set both a/c and heat pump on and the misting doesn t occur but I then need to juggle fan speed and vents to manage temp!

All the other EVs I ve driven have been in nice dry weather and I ve not paid attention to it so round about question - is this an exceptional design or something that is seen in other EVs too?

Chris

Edited by ScoobyChris on Thursday 20th November 09:36

[sixor8]

My car (Honda eNy1) doesn't have a heat pump, many don't. The range is much more affected by having to warm up the interior v cooling it down. I hit the front demist button occasionally for full blast up the windscreen too.

[confused_buyer]

I thought it would still manage automatically if you add the Aircon (even if the auto light is no longer lit)?

[ScoobyChris]

confused_buyer said:

I thought it would still manage automatically if you add the Aircon (even if the auto light is no longer lit)?

It seems not to. Just looked up in the handbook:

For auto operation, it's either heat or a/c (regulates vents, fan speed and temp)
For manual operation, you can select heat or a/c or both (dehumidified heating)
For windscreen demist it's both

Chris

[normalbloke]

i3. I just leave it on full auto, and only ever adjust the temp. It just works, never, ever had any moisture on the window, even when getting in with wet clothing. I’ve not yet had to hit the ‘ full on nutter bd demist button’ in my ownership. It just does its thing.

[Skodillac]

Yeah this is one of my only irritations with my Leaf - I've a 23 reg 40kwh and have had a 17 reg 30 and a 15 reg 24 previously. The ventilation system has remained the same across the models. It's daft. They remain the only EVs I've ever driven, so I'm interested in the answer to the OP's question too. I suspect that the majority of more recent EVs don't have this daft flaw.

[kambites]

I don't think I even understand the question! On our MG4 you just set the temperature and it does what it wants to, how would I even know if it was running the AC as well as the heating?

As far as I can tell, the petrol Mercedes CLA hire car I have at the moment behaves exactly the same as the MG, so I certainly can't see anything "EV specific" about it. Neither car has a specific "AC" button or any visual indication that the AC is running. I'm not sure I've ever even seen a car with automatic climate control and a separate AC button.

Edited by kambites on Thursday 20th November 09:41

[ashenfie]

Depends I guess some EV has little or no battery temp. management , others use the AC and others use an independent cooling/heating solution. In any car that I can think of ICE or EV the A/C needs to be on to prevent misting.

[confused_buyer]

I have a vague recollection the original Kia e-Niro had hear and aircon which operated independently.

The LEAF switches on aircon when it decides it needs cooler air than there is outside to get the cabin to the set temperature. At other times it switches to "heat" mode (although sometimes it is doing very little actual heating if the outside air is warm) with the aircon element off.

[ScoobyChris]

kambites said:

I don't think I even understand the question! On our MG4 you just set the temperature and it does what it wants to, how would I even know if it was running the AC as well as the heating?

This is the panel in the Leaf:



If you press auto and the car needs to warm the cabin up, the heat pump button lights up and if it needs to cool down, the a/c button lights up. You can select them manually, but then you lose the auto functionality for temp/fans/vents.

kambites said:

As far as I can tell, the petrol Mercedes CLA hire car I have at the moment behaves exactly the same as the MG, so I certainly can't see anything "EV specific" about it. Neither car has a specific "AC" button or any visual indication that the AC is running. I'm not sure I've ever even seen a car with automatic climate control and a separate AC button.

All my previous ICE cars have had a button, albeit newest was a 2017 BMW, but I think having the a/c on just meant it could be cycled in/out rather than it was running all the time. I've not owned a recent Nissan for comparison.



Chris

[normalbloke]

So, what happens if you select auto and a/c?

[ScoobyChris]

normalbloke said:

So, what happens if you select auto and a/c?

If you press Auto and select a/c, auto goes off. If you select a/c and press auto, a/c goes off (and heat goes on).

Chris

[normalbloke]

ScoobyChris said:

normalbloke said:

So, what happens if you select auto and a/c?

If you press Auto and select a/c, auto goes off. If you select a/c and press auto, a/c goes off (and heat goes on).

Chris

Yeah, that’s a bit dumb Nissan! On my experience of one EV, the i3, if you have it on auto, you can select or deselect a/c and it will stay on auto. The heat pump is entirely automated, and has a small light in the temp dial to illustrate when it’s on. You can also increase or decrease the fan speed while it remains on auto. It works well.

[kambites]

ScoobyChris said:

All my previous ICE cars have had a button, albeit newest was a 2017 BMW, but I think having the a/c on just meant it could be cycled in/out rather than it was running all the time. I've not owned a recent Nissan for comparison.

Fair enough. Of the (admittedly only three) cars I've had with automatic climate control, two petrol and one EV, none of them have had the ability to manually turn the AC on and off.

[Russet Grange]

I've owned a Leaf for 11 years and I still don't really know how the heating/aircon/demisting work together.

What I will say though is that after all of that time, the aircon still blows ice cold, and when I want to demist the windscreen it happens pretty quickly.

[ScoobyChris]

Russet Grange said:

What I will say though is that after all of that time, the aircon still blows ice cold, and when I want to demist the windscreen it happens pretty quickly.

Yes agree on both of those!!

Wifey was a bit confused this morning that the car was toasty and defrosted when she went to leave to do the school run while I was scraping off our 107 - guess now she knows about the app