My Battery Deterioration

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bobtleaf

New member
Joined
Sep 22, 2015
Messages
2
Location
Minneapolis MN
Hello, This past June I purchased a 2012 Leaf SL with only 2,000 miles on it. Using leafspy, I've been watching the battery and deterioration seems rather rapid. Is this normal, and most importantly should I expect it to plateau off at some point?

Date Mileage SOH Ahr Hx
6/19/15 1,962 100% 65.95 101.38%
6/24/15 2,215 96% 63.41 92.63%
6/28/15 2,435 95% 62.33 88.97%
7/3/15 2,663 94% 62.25 88.71%
7/6/15 2,756 94% 61.87 87.44%
7/13/15 2,958 93% 61.22 85.22%
7/16/15 3,133 94% 61.66 86.74%
7/26/15 3,616 93% 61.54 86.31%
8/1/15 3,954 94% 61.76 87.04%
8/12/15 4,447 93% 61.18 85.10%
8/19/15 4,888 93% 61.03 84.60%
8/31/15 5,303 92% 60.48 82.73%
9/21/15 5,480 91% 59.85 80.97%

These metrics will change after a short drive too. For example, I just drove for 11 miles in normal traffic and AHr dropped from 59.73 when I started to 59.67 after I finished.

Any insight would be helpful.
 
Unless the 2012 SL spent its whole life in a very cold climate, no way that it would have a SOH of 100% or an Hx over 100.

More likely that someone cleared the historical battery data, either through mistake or to defraud the buyer.

It takes several weeks / months for the LEAF to relearn the real battery capacity, SOH, and Hx.
 
Do you know any history of the car? What state did it come from? Did you buy it from a Nissan dealer, or privately? What did the dealer/previous owner tell you about the battery condition? Did you test it with LeafSpy before you purchased, and if so: weren't you even slightly suspicious that there was no degradation after 3+ years? As Tim said, this seems to be a recurring issue where a dealer has reset the BMS data, which they are instructed quite explicitly NOT to do unless they are replacing the battery.
Also, please put your location in your profile, as climate has a major impact.
 
If the car was parked most of the time for the last couple of years BMS may not have had the opportunity to determine real degradation. Seems plausible given the very low mileage stated.
 
Valdemar said:
If the car was parked most of the time for the last couple of years BMS may not have had the opportunity to determine real degradation. Seems plausible given the very low mileage stated.
Click to expand...
Possible.
Depends on why the 2012 SL only has 2000 miles.
If just limited miles driven but used regularly at low miles not too likely.

But the LEAF does get a more accurate understanding of capacity if discharged substantially and then recharged back to 100%.
 
I purchased my new 2015 Ascenta in lasted July this year. It has done 4000 miles now and my data EXACTLY mirrors yours. Clearly, this car hadn't been stored and ambient temperature had averaged around 18-20 degrees Celsius during this time.

I find that rapid charging a couple of time gets the days back to near 100% every time but as soon as I'm back to daily user on my 42A Rolec, it stays fluctuating again.

I hope someone had some idea on what causes this as I'm incredibly annoyed that a 7-week old car is showing SOH of 92% with no obvious reason.

Regards
 
bobtleaf said:
Hello, This past June I purchased a 2012 Leaf SL with only 2,000 miles on it. Using leafspy, I've been watching the battery and deterioration seems rather rapid. Is this normal, and most importantly should I expect it to plateau off at some point?

Date Mileage SOH Ahr Hx
6/19/15 1,962 100% 65.95 101.38%
6/24/15 2,215 96% 63.41 92.63%
6/28/15 2,435 95% 62.33 88.97%
7/3/15 2,663 94% 62.25 88.71%
7/6/15 2,756 94% 61.87 87.44%
7/13/15 2,958 93% 61.22 85.22%
7/16/15 3,133 94% 61.66 86.74%
7/26/15 3,616 93% 61.54 86.31%
8/1/15 3,954 94% 61.76 87.04%
8/12/15 4,447 93% 61.18 85.10%
8/19/15 4,888 93% 61.03 84.60%
8/31/15 5,303 92% 60.48 82.73%
9/21/15 5,480 91% 59.85 80.97%

These metrics will change after a short drive too. For example, I just drove for 11 miles in normal traffic and AHr dropped from 59.73 when I started to 59.67 after I finished.

Any insight would be helpful.
Click to expand...

Where do you live and work?

Where was the car previously owned and registered?

We can't tell you anything about this without knowing the temperatures the car has been exposed to.
 
Bobtleaf, yes check back with more info, also the last 5 digits of the VIN. Perhaps do a search on MNL or other social media websites for the VIN. It's possible that the battery has been "reset". We've seen a report of a full 12 bar (>85%) battery on a used car that rapidly degraded to 8 bars (<70%). When the VIN was found on MNL or facebook to have had lost several bars YEARS before it was purchased used, it became abundantly clear that somebody had reset the battery. Unfortunately, it was never determined which party did the deed: the selling dealer, purchasing dealer, or somebody in between. However, through sleuthing, the new owner was made whole and received a new battery.
 
Hey everyone, thank you for the responses.

I live and work in Minnesota. The car is from PA, and was a business lease. The last 6 digit of the VIN is 022074.

I purchased it from a local dealer, and the day I took it home, the leaf spy metrics were:
Date Mileage SOH Ahr Hx
6/19/15 1,962 100% 65.95 101.38%
There had been 0 quick charges, and 711 regular charges.

I have done 21 quick charges, and at home I charge using the 110v charger that came with the car.
 
It's only a guess but my gut says it sat around at 100% charge never being driven for much of it's early life and the battery controller is just now getting enough charge/use cycles to catch up with reality of the degradation from the prior suboptimal use.

If that theory is correct yes, it will slow down after it cools off, it'll pick back up each summer but you shouldn't see as much hot weather that much further north and you might find it a non issue over the long run.
 
The last AHr reading of 59.85 is a 9.66% loss of capacity.
Pretty close to Stoay's model prediction assuming Philadelphia and a build date of August 2012.
See:
http://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=14858&hilit=Stoaty#p334738

The falling capacity has probably leveled out.

With 711 L2 charges still seems more likely someone cleared the battery historical data.
 

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