Considering 2011 leaf

Hello all! I am considering buying a used leaf. I was wonder what I need to look for in requards to battery or "gids". I have found a few leafs with a missing bar. I have downloaded leaf spy and feel confident I know how to use it, but I'm unsure of what the "gid" range should be.
Thanks
Jon

sscjwl said:

Hello all! I am considering buying a used leaf. I was wonder what I need to look for in requards to battery or "gids". I have found a few leafs with a missing bar. I have downloaded leaf spy and feel confident I know how to use it, but I'm unsure of what the "gid" range should be.

Click to expand...

I suppose the GIDs are more accurate, but for the most part I believe you can trust the capacity bars on the display to give you a rough idea of the battery condition.

A new battery should serve up ~ 282 gids, iirc.

My car (see sig) shows 206 gids when fully charged. This lets me drive 55 to 60 miles @3.9 kWh.

(all numbers from Leaf Spy Pro, which has been awesome)

2011 Leaf with 30k miles with 223 - 227 GIDs 65 MPH at around 60 miles


Fred

Gids at 100% charge is a useful measure but a more simple way to gauge battery degradation is to look at the Amp hour (Ah) measurement. A new 2011 probably started at ~66.25 Ah. So, if you are looking at a car with 57.5 Ah, it is about 13% degraded. If you see 53.7 Ah, it is about 19% degraded. And so forth.

If you are in a hot climate and can find a LEAF with a lot of battery degradation you might be able to get a warranty replacement of the battery. The limits are about 66% battery capacity left (~43.7 Ah) before 60 months or 60,000 miles. So a 2011 with a battery that is at 70% and 30,000 miles would likely qualify for a warranty replacement well before 60 months are up. But a car with a battery that is at 89% likely won't get a warranty replacement. (The downside of this approach is that Nissan doesn't have to put a new battery in the car, although that's what they have been doing thus far.) FWIW.