Nissan one or two year owner; how is the battery life going?

Hi,
I am a new happy 2015 Nissan leafer. I get a good feel factor driving it wrt not gas guzzling but miss my SUV driving a bit. Especially when folks almost tailgate and stare even when going in the far most right lane or middle lane around speed limit. Well can't make everybody happy.

Anyways, my question to folks who have been using leaf for about 1 to 2 years regarding the battery life. I have a total work commute of about 70 miles per day. I currently charge full and go in always B mode and end of day still left with about 25% charge. Like i said i am not an aggressive driver and try to utilize B mode for regen braking as much as i can; without slamming on brakes. Are you guys seeing any battery charge holding reduction after a year or so use? I just dont want to use the Eco mode but dont want to get stranded on the road after a year use of the car as it cannot hold enough charge as it used to when it is new. Any comments welcome. Thanks

It's doubtful that anything we have to say about the 2011-2014 LEAF will be applicable to your 2015 - the packs in 2011-2012 cars are way different and the 2013-2014 cars aren't giving us enough conclusive data yet - it took about 2 years for degredation to become evident in 2011s outside of the outlier state of AZ, so we may start to see something in the 2013s this summer or not if they are indeed holding up better (and we suspect they are). Even then, your pack is supposed to be superior to all packs prior, so not directly comparable.

As mwalsh said, be VERY glad you have a 2015, as most of us early adopters are dealing with a lot of battery degradation, primarily from heat. What is your location? My best recommendation for you is to get LeafSpy if you have an Android device to run it on, and keep track of your battery health. Many 2015 owners are reporting close to 100% health, even after 10,000 to 20,000 miles, so we're all keeping our fingers crossed, hoping that Nissan really has the battery chemistry figured out this time. Some 2015 owners have even seen the battery State of Health (SOH) RISE with time! :shock: There is a thread for 2015 owners who are tracking their battery health.
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=17459" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
What is your location? How long is your commute?

With the caveat above being important my Leaf after 1.5 years and 19k miles was still showing 98% health and 65 AHr. I never left it sitting in heat at 100% charge, and generally took good care. But I did charge at 80 and 100%.

Hope you are not in a cold climate.

keydiver said:

My best recommendation for you is to get LeafSpy if you have an Android device to run it on, and keep track of your battery health.

Click to expand...

LeafSpy Pro is also available for iOS for $19.99.

If all you want is just how much capacity was lost, LeafStat is only $9.99 for iOS. I don't know if it or something similarly priced is available for Android, or what if anything is available for other smartphone platforms.

Leaf Spy is available in three flavors for Android devices and Amazon Fire Tablets.
Leaf Spy Lite is free.
Leaf Spy is $9.99.
Leaf Spy Pro is $14.99.

I have an Amazon Fire HD tablet that I loaded the Pro version on. I also have an older HP TouchPad that I loaded the Android mod on and use with the Lite version. Either one will provide the battery data.

Hi, Thank for all the replies.
I am in California and my commute is 70 miles round trip. About 6 miles being city and majorly highway. The route i take is not crazy stop and go all the time but decent 60 mph for at least half of it and rest is not predictable.

I was worried that my battery may degrade in about a 1 - 5 years time reading the fine prints (i assumed the lower end, like all the fine prints).

I shall check out those apps. Thanks

With a 2015 pack you really don't have to worry much in the next couple of years, limit the number of quick charges, don't let the car sit for prolonged period of time with 100% charge, and generally keep it cool and you will have a healthy battery. How you treat the battery is more important than mileage and age, my '13 with 19,200 miles is still at 100% health while a good friend's '14 with 8,000 miles has already degraded to 97%, primarily due to his tendency to charge it at 100% and let it sit overnight daily.

"due to his tendency to charge it at 100% and let it sit overnight daily."

I didnt know that... thank you.

I charge at 100% with a 220V nightly and leave it plugged. I just noticed this morning that the percentage from 100 to 88 drop very fassst (within 2miles or so with my regular driving unlike other days it took at least 8 miles to get to that mark). I had the fan/AC on when i started but stopped it immediately after start though. Not sure if it makes a diff just having it on when engine on and stopping AC within a minute.

Might have to check out timed schedule charging which base model Leaf comes with i guess.

Shall check again tomorrow..

Did anyone hear about the U.K Taxi (July 13) that has passed 100,000 miles with a 10% loss in capacity, now this varies a bit so could be 7-10% actual. My 15 Leaf varies from 64-67 AH. With 7,500 miles since January. 100 DC charges and about 300 odd L2.

1,788 fast charges, and 7,249 odd L2 on this taxi is quiet a lot considering another MK I U.K leaf driven by Nikki Gordon Bloomfield lost her first capacity bar after 59K miles, she admitted to high use of the DC chargers.

Here's the link to the leaf Spy data on the Taxi.

o00scorpion00o said:

Did anyone hear about the U.K Taxi (July 13) that has passed 100,000 miles with a 10% loss in capacity, ...
...is quiet a lot considering another MK I U.K leaf driven by Nikki Gordon Bloomfield lost her first capacity bar after 59K miles, she admitted to high use of the DC chargers.

Click to expand...

I wonder if this is partially the difference between the original Leaf battery chemistry (Nikki's) and the 2013 model (Taxi)?

Just a thought..

desiv
(Would be nice to think it improved enough to allow that, but doesn't help me as I have a 2012.. ;-) )

desiv said:

o00scorpion00o said:

Did anyone hear about the U.K Taxi (July 13) that has passed 100,000 miles with a 10% loss in capacity, ...
...is quiet a lot considering another MK I U.K leaf driven by Nikki Gordon Bloomfield lost her first capacity bar after 59K miles, she admitted to high use of the DC chargers.

Click to expand...

I wonder if this is partially the difference between the original Leaf battery chemistry (Nikki's) and the 2013 model (Taxi)?

Just a thought..

Click to expand...

Yes I would imagine so. Seems to be growing evidence that the updated leaf batteries are holding up much better than the original.

UPDATE: today it came back to "normal" and wasn't dropping on the battery percentage. Forgot to unplug the charger after 100% percent charge overnight; need to quickly figure out the scheduled charging in manual.

Is it usual that 100% to 91% battery percentage drops in 2miles of regular (no crazy driving) city driving?

sacoffers said:

Is it usual that 100% to 91% battery percentage drops in 2miles of regular (no crazy driving) city driving?

Click to expand...

Seems a bit too much to me.
I don't have your SoC indicator with my 2012, but when I watch mine (Leaf Spy Pro) in the morning, I go from about 94% LSSoC (LeafSpy SoC) to 90%or 89% traveling about 3 miles thru town (30+MPH).
Not sure tho if that 100% of yours is a real number? I always question anything that says 100%. ;-)

desiv

Strangely my leaf AH drops when I don't drive it much, currently showing around 65 Ah will go up to about 67 after a few days driving. I would have thought in the warmer weather in Summer it would climb a bit more ?

"Seems a bit too much to me.
I don't have your SoC indicator with my 2012, but when I watch mine (Leaf Spy Pro) in the morning, I go from about 94% LSSoC (LeafSpy SoC) to 90%or 89% traveling about 3 miles thru town (30+MPH).
Not sure tho if that 100% of yours is a real number? I always question anything that says 100%."


I shall post an update after i charge it 100% and not leave it plugged overnight and see if there is any difference. Also, i was trying to read online what is the benefit of this Leaf Spy and failed to understand (wrt battery monitoring apart from recording the data in a file); please share. Thanks

Sorry I was talking about battery capacity instead of SOC ! :lol:

I can loose 10% after about 6 miles especially in the cold. First 10% seems to go the quickest. That's driving 60 odd mph.

i remembered to unplug it from power at 100% in the evening and it did make a difference of about 4 miles or so after stabilizing initially. Usually drops like a rock in the first few miles to 88% but today it was ~92%! Thanks

Hmm, I wasn't aware unplugging when done charging really had any effect. Definitely look into setting the end timer to be something like 30 minutes before you would normally leave in the morning. This has the dual benefit of not leaving the battery sitting at 100% all night and letting the battery cool down from a day out in the heat/drive before the charge starts sometime in the middle of the night.

Thank you Nfuzzy. Shall try to play with the settings a bit over the week end..