Newbie w/high mileage 2015 S w/QC

A few weeks ago I purchased a 2015 Leaf S with QuickCharge that now has 47,500 miles! Here are the LeafSpy Lite (v0.30.22) battery stats that I pulled off of it, and I'm wondering if it is typical of what others have seen in terms of battery degradation:

AHr 53.35
SOH 85%
Hx 77.69%
16 QCs
1773 L1/L2's
Temps are 62.4 to 64.2 F

I suspect that this is one of the highest mileage 2015 Leafs out there at the moment. It lived in Atlanta, Georgia before I purchased it.

BTW, I see the Leaf's range as a nice upgrade from my previous vehicle - a 2012 Mitsubishi iMiev SE that only had 62 miles of EPA range and a 15 Amp 240V charger. The ONLY downside to the Leaf is storage capability with the seats down - that little Mitsubishi could haul a CRAZY amount with the seats folded down in addition to the simplicity of rear wheel drive with the iMiev. However, I'm more than happy to trade that for 22 miles additional range, 30 Amp 240V charging (w/QC), heated seats throughout (including the seatback), backup camera, widespread dealer coverage, steering wheel controls, auto climate control, and better stereo - even if the Leaf has high miles and is black (not my favorite car color).

I should mention that it went into service Oct 29, 2014 and the Nissan Dealer locally did an annual battery maintenance inspection a week ago and rated the battery 5/5 stars.

Hello. I don't wish to harsh your buzz, but what motivated you to by this particular LEAF?
You have zero chance of even possibly receiving a replacement under the degradation warranty.
Nissan dealers, by and large, are crooks. As is Nissan corporate.
Battery maintenance inspection means nothing.
You are stuck now. Your only recourse is to baby the battery forever and prolong it's usable life.
2015s can be found for less than $10K in the SF Bay Area. With 1/2 as many miles.
I mean no offense. You now need to educate future LEAF buyers.
The only way to acquire a new LEAF is via a great lease offer.
2011s are $5K in California.
Good luck.

No offense taken. I bought it for $5.5k. It was important to get a lizard battery as I'm in a hot climate - thus my insistence on a 2015.

If it fits your needs with sufficient margin to spare for future battery degradation, you have a great car for a great price. I got my 2015SV back in May 2016 with it's warranty start being April 2016. I have over 13K miles on it now and still think it is a great car. At my current rate of about 300 miles a week, I will be reaching my warranty mileage limits long before the time limits.

For that price I would have bought it too. Probably it will still be fine in 5 years for most purposes, but even if the car is trash after 3 years, you're still no worse off than if you leased a new vehicle. Not to mention, you can theoretically get the battery replaced at some point, and the price of the replacement should keep going down.

alden said:

the Nissan Dealer locally did an annual battery maintenance inspection a week ago and rated the battery 5/5 stars.

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I'm sure they did

Sounds like you have about 80% of new battery capacity, and I doubt the battery is going to like Houston any more than Atlanta. I hope your use leaves room for additional range loss. It's interesting to surmise that the prior owner charged twice daily for the most part based on the LEAFSpy data over two years. I wonder if daytime charging in the Atlanta heat was a bad idea, and I'm convinced that the default charge to 100% is bad practice.

alden said:

No offense taken. I bought it for $5.5k. It was important to get a lizard battery as I'm in a hot climate - thus my insistence on a 2015.

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Wow, great deal. Congrats!

alden said:

No offense taken. I bought it for $5.5k. It was important to get a lizard battery as I'm in a hot climate - thus my insistence on a 2015.

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great deal! You will get more miles per dollar value than anyone! Drive it like you stole it (because you practically did)!

great deal! You will get more miles per dollar value than anyone! Drive it like you stole it (because you practically did)!

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You've exactly captured my motivation for buying it - buy a 2015 as cheaply as possible and drive - drive - drive it.

I appreciate the concurrence that others think I got a good deal, too. In terms of battery capacity, I'm normally seeing 88-90 miles on the rangeometer that results in ~80 miles of real range for me. My old Mitsubishi couldn't come close to this, so I'm pleased - even if that 80 miles represents 80-85% of what I could have gotten with a pristine battery. I know, I know, it's pretty unusual to see 80 miles of real range as an upgrade - but for me (coming from Mitsu iMiev) - it is!

Despite living in Houston, I'll be cycling the battery much less than the previous owner, keeping it in a garage at home & work, so my hope is that future battery degradation due to heat and cycles will be minimized.

I also found it curious that the previous owner plugged it in every 26.5 miles of driving (on average). I suppose maybe if you're going to drive 24k miles/year you've gotta have a lot of range always on the ready, but that definitely seems excessive charging from my experience.

I've now outfitted the car with a Vantrue N1 dashcam (transferred from the Mitsu) and a new-to-me iottie phone holder: ready to roll!

I put our LEAF in the garage in the winter to stay out of the snow, but I'm going to leave her outside in the summer so that any wind around will help cool down the battery while it is charging. For similar reasons I plan to charge in the early morning hours when it is coolest, and the car is driven soon after charging is completed.

My wife would kill me if we had to micro-manage charging every day but I think a good routine that minimizes heat related charging is very worthwhile.

I don't think I'll be able to charge outside in the summer but I may put her on a schedule for early morning charging when it warms up here. I had already done that but took the schedule off after my wife plugged the car in and it didn't charge for when she needed it to have some range on the same day... Lesson learned. It's my understanding that delayed charge tailoring is not quite as easy for me as some have it since my car lacks mobile app access.

Time to train up the wife ;-)

The car has a button that bypasses the charge timer for an immediate charge.
My car also does not have the Nav screen featured timer or smartphone connection but the built-in timer is OK for occasional use.

I have to say, charging my car in Texas heat in the summer in a closed garage would worry me. You should collect some battery temperature data with LeafSpy. I gather that end charge temps in the 70s F are great, up to ~ 85F "ok," and past that the battery is not going to age gracefully if it happens daily. Incidentally, this is also why charging to 100% is best avoided: a lot more heat is sent to the battery during that last 20% of charge. If I recall correctly as much heat is collected the last 20% as the first 80%.

I'm getting a low mileage (24K) 2014 with in-service date 23-MAR-2014. 12-bars and it was at 85% charge. I did LeafSpy Pro on it and found nothing interesting about batteries but the 8mV deviation across all cells. I live in AZ and will commute with this car from Glendale to downtown Phoenix 26 miles each way. I have free charging at home and at the office (company parking lot -chargepoin+).

Questions:

Should I use 115v L1 charge as much as possible, avoid high rates of charging?

Does the 2014 have Lizard battery tech and does that involve cooling the battery during charging?

Do I need to go to a Nissan dealership for an "annual" battery check right away, since I'm buying from RedRockAutoAZ.com which is independent?

Does skipping the annual battery check void the warranty?

I've had 4 hybrid cars since 2003. Are there any significant differences in driving an EV?

Does the 12v battery have a charging system of its' own (charging when connected to AC charge cord) or is it charged from the drive battery?

Should I use 115v L1 charge as much as possible, avoid high rates of charging?

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L-2 charging doesn't heat the pack much either. It's Quick Charging that generates lots of extra heat.

Does the 2014 have Lizard battery tech and does that involve cooling the battery during charging?

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The "Lizard" packs have no active cooling either - just somewhat more heat resistant chemistry. In high heat it isn't extremely effective. There are a few late 2014 cars that may have this pack, but officially the 2014 has the same pack as the later 2013 cars. It isn't a bad pack in normal heat...

Do I need to go to a Nissan dealership for an "annual" battery check right away, since I'm buying from RedRockAutoAZ.com which is independent?

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The annual check has to be done by a Nissan dealer. Normally we don't tell people to get them religiously, but since you live in Arizona, you might want to get them...

Does skipping the annual battery check void the warranty?

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In theory, but so far not in practice. We don't know of anyone who was denied a replacement pack for that reason alone.

I've had 4 hybrid cars since 2003. Are there any significant differences in driving an EV?

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LOTS more low speed torque. You'll wonder how you could stand driving a Prius or Civic hybrid.

Does the 12v battery have a charging system of its' own (charging when connected to AC charge cord) or is it charged from the drive battery?

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It is charged by the car. Earlier leafs, especially 2013 cars, have problems with this, but as of 2014 or 2015 they seem to have largely fixed the problem. Will your car have issues with that? Can't say.

LeftieBiker said:

L-2 charging doesn't heat the pack much either. It's Quick Charging that generates lots of extra heat.

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Thanks for your reply LeftieBiker. I charged to 100% last night, after taking delivery from the dealer, as there is no option on my 2014 Leaf S for charging to lesser percentage. Today I drove about 52 miles RT (work and back) and when I plugged in the L1 EVSE at 6:30 PM it told me I needed 14.5 hours to charge back to 100% even though I still had 31 miles on the guess-o-meter. I have to be at work by about 12.5 hours so there was no way... I have ordered a Level 2 EVSE with 3.3 or 3.6 or 3.8 kW (not sure how ALL those are derived from 220-240v and 16A. The one I am getting has the L6-20 plug which will work with my existing garage circuit for the air compressor (240v 1ph 25A). I'll turn off the compressor switch so they can't be on at the same time. I ordered a black powder coated aluminum cord caddy (wall hook) with J1772 holster.

I'll keep the L1 charger in the trunk bag for emergency charging since at the office we have free use of ChargePoint EVSE.

The charge estimate is usually pessimistic, but that's still cutting it close. I believe that you can set your car's single charge timer to finish at 100% shortly before you leave for work. That's all you really need to do to avoid long periods with it sitting at 100%.

benatwhodotnet said:

....Today I drove about 52 miles RT (work and back) and when I plugged in the L1 EVSE at 6:30 PM it told me I needed 14.5 hours to charge back to 100% even though I still had 31 miles on the guess-o-meter. I have to be at work by about 12.5 hours so there was no way....

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Actually, as Leftiebiker said, it's pessimist and you'll probably get back to full, or close to it, certainly enough for the next day's 52 mi RT. However, doing this everyday will cut it too close, especially in the winter.

benatwhodotnet said:

..... I have ordered a Level 2 EVSE with 3.3 or 3.6 or 3.8 kW (not sure how ALL those are derived from 220-240v and 16A. The one I am getting has the L6-20 plug which will work with my existing garage circuit for the air compressor (240v 1ph 25A). I'll turn off the compressor switch so they can't be on at the same time. I ordered a black powder coated aluminum cord caddy (wall hook) with J1772 holster.

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There are LOTS of options for EVSE's including portable, plug-in, and hardwired. Make sure you get the correct one for your application. The 2015 S + QC package comes with a 6.6 kW charger in the car and can take "UP TO" 30 amps (40 amp circuit) at 240V. However, the car can only accept what the EVSE or the wall can provide. Hence, if plugging into an L6-20 plug, you'll get a maximum of 16 amps, still acceptable and will fill the car in 7 hours. The normal 2015 S without QC package can only accept 3.8 kW or 16 amps, so you're in good company. Just make sure that your EVSE plugs into the wall correctly, or get yourself an electrician (or at least someone who know this stuff)

^^^
Yep. http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=496673#p496673 may help the OP.