GreenPowerDP said:
The message we heard in the open letter is that the range loss that is being reported is within design specifications, and that Nissan wants to address customer concerns.
That's not exactly the message that I heard. Look carefully at the words that Carla Bailo wrote:
Carla Bailo said:
• The Nissan LEAFs inspected in Arizona are operating to specification and their battery capacity loss over time is consistent with their usage and operating environment. No battery defects were found.
Note that she says the "LEAFs" "are operating to specification" and then talks about battery capacity. She only mentions range in one sentence that I saw in the entire letter.
In fact, I do not think Nissan has any idea what the RANGE of the cars that went to Casa Grande is. Why do I say that? Because, according to the owners of those cars, Nissan didn't drive them far enough to determine range. While this might sound like a nitpick, I will say that it is a central problem in the communication chasm that exists between Nissan and LEAF owners. We have been talking about "battery degradation" around here because we know that shortens range, but as Tony, Ed and Azdre have recently been correctly pointing out, the REAL issue is range.
Does it matter? I have come to believe that it does. To start with, the Nissan LEAF starts with a very limited range compared with most cars any of us have driven before. Any reduction from that range is a big deal. Also, The recent range tests showed some cars where a large percentage of the range is bottled up below LBW and VLBW. Driving a Nissan LEAF after VLBW is akin to driving an ICE car with the fuel gauge pushing against the empty peg, except you likely have fewer miles to go and refilling is more difficult.
To make the point more clear, let's consider the extreme case: Imagine driving a Nissan LEAF which has 100% of the battery capacity of a new LEAF, but the VLBW comes on as you pull out of the driveway each time. I can tell you that I do not want to drive that car, even though it might go farther than my current LEAF. Why? Because it is virtually unusable in that condition.
By NOT testing the RANGE of the cars sent to Casa Grande, Nissan missed an opportunity to experience first-hand the problem that their customers have been complaining about.
IMO, we as a community need to break our habit of referring to range and battery capacity interchangeably. They are not interchangeable and we are contributing to communication issues with Nissan whenever we do this.