shrink
Well-known member
skippycoyote said:Page 3 of the Customer Information and Disclosure Form:
"Factors that will affect and may hasten the rate of capacity loss include, but are not limited to: Sustained high battery temperatures (caused, for example, by exposure to very high ambient temperatures."
Good point; however, I would argue that defining "very high ambient temperatures" would make the disclosure stronger, as would an additional warm climate disclaimer. The fact that Phoenix (or was it the whole state of Arizona?) was a launch market implies to the consumer that the car will live up to stated expectations with normal usage. A lot of affected Phoenix area cars were charged to 80% regularly, which Nissan refers to as "long-life" mode.
An even stronger and clearer disclaimer, considering they are calling 15% loss in 1-year normal, would be making clear exactly that: "In warm climates because of high ambient temperatures, you may see up to 15% loss (or 20% if the reports 2-bar losses are accurate) within the first year and x amount of capacity after 5 years." I wonder how many cars they would have sold then.
With the current Disclosure Form, I don't think anyone would have expected 15% loss in 1-year.
There has been talk that Nissan is researching the matter and might "do the right thing." However, I don't see any evidence that this is the case, and if anything, that is pure conjecture.
Published reports have indicated they are aware of what's happening and have called the loss normal. Perhaps I'm missing something, but I don't see any indication they are taking it any further than that. I did see this in the Service Manual:
LI-ION BATTERY GRADUAL CAPACITY LOSS DATA CLEAR
Perform Li-ion Battery Gradual Capacity Loss Data Clear when the Li-ion battery pack assembly or Li-ion bat- tery controller is replaced with a new one. VCM saves the Li-ion battery deterioration information sent from the Li-ion battery controller and manages the Li-ion battery replacement timing. When the Li-ion battery pack assembly or Li-ion battery controller is replaced with a new one, there is a difference between the Li-ion bat- tery deterioration data stored in VCM and the actual Li-ion battery deterioration level. In this case, VCM will incorrectly manage the Li-ion battery replacement timing. So perform Li-ion Battery Deterioration Data Clear to clear the Li-ion battery deterioration data stored in VCM.
So maybe at the annual battery inspections, they are gathering this data, but they are certainly not sharing and have thus far continued to call the loss normal.
At minimum, Nissan's response thus far is very poor customer relations and can potentially hurt the brand and the movement. You would hope they'd take better care of their customers.