I drove the Leaf to my brother's (in Acton) on Sunday, partly knowing I couldn't make it back. I forgot the charge cable so my plan was to hit the Kohl's on the way back.
At the top of Escondido Pass (3200 feet), the gauge clicked from 4 bars to 3. I figured that, since the rest was downhill, it would charge and flip back to 4 soon. I had it in ECO mode, I turned off the AC to help it and I even followed a U-Haul doing 55.
Despite losing 1500 feet, and showing 3 dots of recharge the whole time, it never flipped back to 4. I chalked this up to hysteresis.
However, driving up to Kohl's, it flipped from 3 to 2. Therefore, not only didn't it charge at all, but it in fact used about the same energy as if it was driving on level ground the same distance. The dots are a lie.
So I don't know what Nissan is trying to sell but the regenerative braking doesn't work for beans. You might leave it on to extend your brake life, or if you just like the engine braking behavior (I came from a manual transmission), but don't fool yourself into thinking it's doing anything.
On the bright side, charging at Kohl's was quick and convenient. The Chargepoint app is great at telling you where the chargers are. The in-dash map is completely worthless (for many reasons) unless you absolutely need to find a Nissan dealer so you can buy a different car or chew them out about their crappy regenerative braking.
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