Buying a leaf with 90% SOH on Battery

I am about to buy a 2013 Nissan leaf SV. With 19k Miles.
Battery check indicates ahr = 59.50
Soh = 90% (372.58v)
Hx = 90.83%

Is this normal for a 2013? Or has it been roughly handled? Original owner is from San Jose, Ca. I plan to use it in Seattle, WA

Thanks a ton

Rohan

SOH % change from new is primarily based on heat and can't be blamed on "rough handling". Its environmental, the temperature in the part of the world where the car is. Nothing the driver did or didn't do will change the temperature in his/her city.

As to how normal that is for a 2013 from San Jose I can't tell you vs other 2013 Leafs but you can search for 2012 and 2011 Leafs in the bar loss wiki.

You may hear or read that a 2013 battery is better in some way than a 2012 but we don't have enough data to statistically validate that assertion or quantify how much better it may be.

My working theory is that the difference is so small it will be within margin of error for the accuracy of our bar loss wiki.

What you need is date of manufacture from the door jamb to figure out the months it's been in San Jose exposed to that heat.

The wiki shows us 2 cars in San Jose that lost a bar (SOH dropped below 85%) one after 36 months and one after 22 months. If yours is younger than either it is on a similar path.

That doesn't impress me as worse than expected and doesn't make me think a 2013 is worth any more than a 2012 that has the same SOH% unless you value the 6.x KW charger and be sure to check for all the other feature differences between SV, SL, 2012, and 2013.

Thashan said:

I am about to buy a 2013 Nissan leaf SV. With 19k Miles.
Battery check indicates ahr = 59.50
Soh = 90% (372.58v)
Hx = 90.83%

Is this normal for a 2013? Or has it been roughly handled? Original owner is from San Jose, Ca.

Click to expand...

Hard to say, but here are the stats of the '13 Leaf SV that I'm leasing that hitting end of 2 year lease on 7/27/15. Build month was 6/2013.
Miles: 23,342
Ahr=58.57
SOH=89% (wasn't at full charge)
Hx=88.89%

I live in a part of south SJ that's hotter than most of the rest of it.

I avoided leaving the car at above 100% for extended periods of time, and some days, I'd only charge to 80% or somewhere under 100%.

However, on some days, often on a weekend, the battery would sit at 80% or a little above overnight.

It usually was in underground parking at work and within a garage at home. I only got Leaf Spy recently, but it looks like the garage doesn't cool down that much at night in the summer, so the battery seems to end up staying kinda on the warmer side (say 75+ F) while garaged overnight. Perhaps, if I left it outside at night, it'd cool down to lower temps, but then it (along w/paint and interior) could get baked in the morning.

The used '13 SV (was a lease return) I bought w/a build month of 5/2013 seems to have better values (took these on 7/16/15). Unclear where it actually resided in the Bay Area but seems to have been registered in Saratoga and always went to a Nissan dealer in Santa Clara for service.

Miles: 23,850
Ahr=60.15
SOH=91%
Hx=92.12%

Hope you're getting a good price on it.

dhanson865 said:

... The wiki shows us 2 cars in San Jose that lost a bar (SOH dropped below 85%) ...

Click to expand...

Losing capacity bars is based on % capacity, which is Amp Hours capacity divided by brand new Amp Hours.

And it takes a month or two below the bar loss threshold for the bar to turn off.

SOH is not the same thing.
Although it often does stay pretty close to % capacity.

TimLee said:

dhanson865 said:

... The wiki shows us 2 cars in San Jose that lost a bar (SOH dropped below 85%) ...

Click to expand...

Losing capacity bars is based on % capacity, which is Amp Hours capacity divided by brand new Amp Hours.

And it takes a month or two below the bar loss threshold for the bar to turn off.

SOH is not the same thing.
Although it often does stay pretty close to % capacity.

Click to expand...

Don't tell me, tell all the people in the was 11 bars thread that started the wiki.

I'm just reporting what data I have access to. The wiki mentions bar loss not ahr loss.

You are welcome to search CayenneSJLEAFy's 34 posts for ahr data http://www.mynissanleaf.com/search.php?author_id=10094&sr=posts

Unfortunately benjwhite9 only has one post so you aren't going to find ahr data for that one.

My Vancouver based 2013 SL has almost the same stats. I think it sat part of the summer in Ontario before getting here. Would I like the stats to be higher? Sure, but its running just great.

-David

My 2013 SV was a lease return from Georgia. It was manufactured in January 2013. It has 19.5k miles and shows SOH at 85%.

cwerdna said:

I only got Leaf Spy recently, but it looks like the garage doesn't cool down that much at night in the summer, so the battery seems to end up staying kinda on the warmer side (say 75+ F) while garaged overnight. Perhaps, if I left it outside at night, it'd cool down to lower temps, but then it (along w/paint and interior) could get baked in the morning.

Click to expand...

Do you think 75F is considered too warm to keep the car for long period of time? My garage here in Seattle constantly stays at temp between 75F and 85F and that's where the majority of the time the car stays. Of course outside temp drops to low 60s but the garage is insulated so well that the temp doesn't change much.

hmmwv said:

cwerdna said:

I only got Leaf Spy recently, but it looks like the garage doesn't cool down that much at night in the summer, so the battery seems to end up staying kinda on the warmer side (say 75+ F) while garaged overnight. Perhaps, if I left it outside at night, it'd cool down to lower temps, but then it (along w/paint and interior) could get baked in the morning.

Click to expand...

Do you think 75F is considered too warm to keep the car for long period of time? My garage here in Seattle constantly stays at temp between 75F and 85F and that's where the majority of the time the car stays. Of course outside temp drops to low 60s but the garage is insulated so well that the temp doesn't change much.

Click to expand...

When it's 90+F outside the leaf battery in my work parking lot gets up to high 90s according to leafspy.

If I park it in a 75F garage it's still upper 70s or low 80s when I leave for work the next day.

I'm still seeing battery degradation due to heat.

I don't know how cool it'd have to be to avoid it but even if my garage was 55F I'd still see battery degradation due to heat sitting in the parking lot at work all summer long.

Now if you can look at your leafspy numbers and not see ahr/SOH% dropping by 6% a year then 75F in your garage isn't an issue.

Up to you if you want to cool the garage more if you have 1% ahr/SOH% drop per year or whatever you are seeing in WA state.

Mine was also a lease return from California. We have had it one month and am just below 57 ahr, 87% SOH, 85.3% Hx. So ours seems to be a little worse off but close to most of those posted above. Ours is a 2013 with 25k miles.

My longest trip on one charge was 74.5 miles and I arrived with 11% left. The return trip I arrived with 8% and was lucky because it was more uphill. My wife ran it all the way down and crawled into the driveway but didn't have the trip gauge set so I don't know how far it went that day.