My Nissan Leaf Forum

Notice that in the Gen 2 module the cells are open to the pack. Perhaps that is for improved thermal dissipation?

Did you, or any other US LEAF buyer actually pay $35k, after incentives?

If Your LEAF is down to ~70% "new" range after five years, and that ~50 mile Summer freeway range is insufficient for your needs, you will need to decide whether to buy a new battery, or sell your LEAF to someone else, who does not find it "close to useless".

Two years after the LEAF's US introduction, Nissan has now given all of us a capacity warranty significantly reducing the risk of ownership we accepted when we bought our LEAFs. I doubt Nissan executives did this out of the goodness of their hearts. I expect that it was a simple cost/benefit business calculation. And if the cost of this warranty was expected to be excessive, I doubt Nissan would have done it.

IMO, it suggests a relatively low percentage of LEAFs are now expected to sustain capacity loss below "9 bars" or ~"70% capacity" during the duration of the capacity warranty, and/or the battery packs can be inexpensively restored to higher capacity, which I consider very good news.

If any LEAF owners can't accept the inherent and unavoidable uncertainty of future cost of ownership of any BEV, I'd suggest you just sell your LEAFs now and buy yourself an ICEV or hybrid, or lease another LEAF, at the current very low (MY 2012) net price.

One other observation that I wanted to make was about the Gen 2 battery that will be part of the 2013 cars. One detail that I noticed in the photos I took in Yokohama is that the modules that hold the cells are no longer closed containers like the Gen 1 batteries have, but rather are open on the sides. Perhaps that is a small improvement for better thermal management of individual cells?

I don't think there's been a positive reaction from the hot-weather crowd yet. I really, really want to be positive. I was very positive about the Leaf for about 9 months, and I still love everything else about the car. I didn't start out with this disposition, but Nissan's response went from non-existent to guarded, and now it's just tepid, and I don't see this new warranty as improving the situation in the least for those of us with actual problems. The only way you would get to 8 bars in a less harsh environment is if you had a defective battery, in which case it's already covered, so I see this as little more than public relations BS.

I wish to congratulate edatoakrun for posting a very level message.. I was surprised.
Kudos to Nissan for clearing up the situation in Phoenix and other extreme places.. Since they have offered a wear warranty on a wear item perhaps they should step up and offer a thread depth warranty on the tires as well, at least 15k miles.. there have been many complaints on that issue here also.

I don't see that Nissan has to take any risk here. They'll have plenty of leased cars returned by the time any warranty claim may kick in. They simply need to take a battery pack from one of the leased cars that still have 9 bars or more as a replacement, and voila, done. The one returned with less than 9 bar will simple get recycled as originally planned.

...Two years after the LEAF's US introduction, Nissan has now given all of us a capacity warranty significantly reducing the risk of ownership we accepted when we bought our LEAFs. I doubt Nissan executives did this out of the goodness of their hearts. I expect that it was a simple cost/benefit business calculation. And if the cost of this warranty was expected to be excessive, I doubt Nissan would have done it.

IMO, it suggests a relatively low percentage of LEAFs are now expected to sustain capacity loss below "9 bars" or ~"70% capacity" during the duration of the capacity warranty, and/or the battery packs can be inexpensively restored to higher capacity, which I consider very good news.

If any LEAF owners can't accept the inherent and unavoidable uncertainty of future cost of ownership of any BEV, I'd suggest you just sell your LEAFs now and buy yourself an ICEV or hybrid, or lease another LEAF, at the current very low (MY 2012) net price.

Did you, or any other US LEAF buyer actually pay $35k, after incentives?

... Hopefully now there will be fewer people buying Leaf's for whom it won't be adequate and the negativity will diminish...

="TickTock"
...Am still holding my breath for the replacement cost, though, since I intend to drive my Leaf much further than 60000 miles.

Umm...yeah. Not everyone leases and given a recent post on the federal tax incentive I may only be getting $4-5k. Factor in loan interest, car taxes which had to be included in loan since I didnt' have 3k laying around. Before tax return my loan cost for the life of the loan was $44k. Welcome to the land of 0 incentives.