My Nissan Leaf Forum

ya was it not like 15%? thanks for the pic. i was looking at the "other" bars to disappear.

give us some more info on your charging patterns, distance driven, how much time you let car sit at 100%, how many turtle events, etc

and

do you garage car or have covered parking at work. i ask this because u are the 2nd AZ resident to have issues. maybe heat is more of a factor than we realized?

Steve, it's 16% if memory serves.

The first bar gone means they have 85% battery capacity left. The first bar doesn't disappear until you've lost 15%. So this doesn't sound "gradual" to me. 2% sounds gradual. Azdre, has your 'EV systems light' ever come on (and stayed on) during charging or right after you start the car?
Mine is down 10-12%, but I know it is some bad cells/module because I've had that 'EV systems light' come on three times now and my SoC gauge shows 83-85% after a 100% charge instead of 94-95% which was normal for me. After I turn off the car and restart, the light always goes out.

Since you are, AFAIK, the first to report this, would you give some more of your car's back story?

What are your charging/driving habits?

Do you charge to 100% and keep it there, or discharge to below LBW often?

What is the ambient temp where your car is driven or parked?

What sort of temp bar levels on the dash, do you see during the Summer?

I believe that if you "accept" and monitor your CW kWh use on long trips, you will get accurate reports of available battery capacity, that would certainly show a reduction, if in the order of10%.

With one year and 8,500 miles on my LEAF, I am pretty sure my available capacity has not dropped more than a few percent, if any.

Well, that's proof that I read too fast.

We've assumed the bars to be equally spaced, so 11/12 means 92%. We further assume they won't turn off the first one until it's halfway through the next one, so that's 10.5/12 or 87%. That's the number I see thrown about the most.

15% in 14 months.... wow 1% per month is "normal"
Makes leasing in hot climate more appealing.

For Nissan to claim this is normal seems more potentially damaging to them financially in terms of low future sales than discretely handling these cases in a more generous manner. For me, the trust gap with Nissan over battery capacity is growing. Consumer confidence is key if they really want this technology to grow; my confidence in the product is declining with seeing how they handle each of these extreme cases.

That's incorrect, the capacity bars are not linear or equally spaced, neither are the fuel bars. I've gotten 14 miles on the 12th fuel bar (after a 100% QC), even with my 10% battery capacity loss.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DShtvd5jJHQ
Mark Perry @ 1:05 - 70 -80% capacity left after 10 years

Let's see if I can answer all of your questions:

* We always charge to 100% (we drive it a lot, 17,000 miles in 14 months of driving).
* We do 'top it off' a lot. That's the one item we got 4/5 stars on the battery check in March 2012.
* The car sat at 100% for a month in May, 2011, not plugged in.
* It's almost always garaged or in covered parking.
* We get the low battery warning about once a month.
* Never turtled. Been meaning to try this out though.
* We've QC'd 2-3 times this spring.
* There's been no error messages (aside from the A/C fiasco last summer, please don't make me relive that one.)
* My husband is a nut about keeping the tire pressure monitored and consistant.
* I'll pull the carwings data and add it to here tonight.

I'm thinking I should take it in to the dealer for some documentation even if they turn me away initially.