LarryKaplan
Active member
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2019
- Messages
- 36
I'm not terribly optimistic about a good aftermarket solution.
Nissan sold a half million Leafs since 2011. That's "bubkis" as my grandmother would say -- nothing. They sell almost a half million units of all their cars per month. If you assume that about half or 2/3 of those Leafs are old enough for the battery to be an issue, that's less than 350,000 potential customers worldwide. Not a lot, not enough for a larger aftermarket company, or the replacement part division of Nissan, to bother with such an expensive item that has big shipping costs. Fenix bet on that, and along with all their other incompetency, lost. We are not talking something like rebuilt alternators for the millions of Sentras out there.
What seems to be springing up are these independent shops around the world. Some areas are better served than others -- ie: the Pacific NW in the US, the Netherlands, a guy just popped up in TX, So CA, MA in the US, etc. Some are better than others and they all offer different products -- refurbished, plain old used, etc.
Until Nissan launches a refurbished battery program elsewhere, like the one they have in Japan, there is not much to hope for from them aside from paying around ten grand for a new battery (at which point you may as well buy a new car or later model). Or perhaps someone else will come along with a viable aftermarket option if they can make the business model work. Or maybe Fenix will be a phoenix ;-)
As I said, I put the $2500 refund from Fenix in my savings account for a rainy day. For now, my current range is fine. But perhaps that may end up being a down payment (along with the trade-in) on something newer.
Nissan sold a half million Leafs since 2011. That's "bubkis" as my grandmother would say -- nothing. They sell almost a half million units of all their cars per month. If you assume that about half or 2/3 of those Leafs are old enough for the battery to be an issue, that's less than 350,000 potential customers worldwide. Not a lot, not enough for a larger aftermarket company, or the replacement part division of Nissan, to bother with such an expensive item that has big shipping costs. Fenix bet on that, and along with all their other incompetency, lost. We are not talking something like rebuilt alternators for the millions of Sentras out there.
What seems to be springing up are these independent shops around the world. Some areas are better served than others -- ie: the Pacific NW in the US, the Netherlands, a guy just popped up in TX, So CA, MA in the US, etc. Some are better than others and they all offer different products -- refurbished, plain old used, etc.
Until Nissan launches a refurbished battery program elsewhere, like the one they have in Japan, there is not much to hope for from them aside from paying around ten grand for a new battery (at which point you may as well buy a new car or later model). Or perhaps someone else will come along with a viable aftermarket option if they can make the business model work. Or maybe Fenix will be a phoenix ;-)
As I said, I put the $2500 refund from Fenix in my savings account for a rainy day. For now, my current range is fine. But perhaps that may end up being a down payment (along with the trade-in) on something newer.
Everything else there gave the impression they were still in business selling/collecting $ or whatever.... Their blog entries had zip from 2021 though.
