Is there a way to tell from the dash if a 2017/2016 leaf has been upgraded to the 40kwh battery?

I read the guide that LeftieBiker so kindly took the time to write, and knowing how to check battery health by looking for the bars next to the power gauge has been a great help in looking at used cars online. However, given the most recent update about Nissan replacing defective older batteries with 40kwh versions, it would be great to know if there's some way to quickly scan for that while looking through listings. This is especially important as half the dealers I speak with don't seem to know much about Leafs or EVs at all.

Is there any way to tell from the dash if an older leaf has been upgraded to a 40kwh battery? If not, is there any way at all that I can do remotely, or walk a salesperson through, to find that information?

Thanks.

You may be able to give the VIN to Nissan's EV Help line. At this point 40kwh battery replacements are pretty rare, but they should become more common in the coming years, assuming that Nissan survives.

Does anyone have that phone number handy? I have a Leaf Specialist number, but it's years old.

There's no completely accurate way to distinguish a 30 kWh pack (which is the only one so far, for warranty claims, that Nissan has replaced with a 40 kWh pack) from a 40 kWh pack, based on photos of the dash alone...

Nominally, a brand new 2017 LEAF (with a 30 kWh pack) would show a GOM estimate of around 105 miles at full charge. A 2018 LEAF with a 40 kWh pack would have a nominal GOM estimate of around 150 miles at full charge. But there are a lot of variables that can mess with those estimates...

For instance, if you had a 2015 LEAF with a 40 kWh pack and the last time the car was driven was up a steep hill, just before the dashboard pic was taken, then based on the GOM estimate you might think it's a 30 kWh pack.

Or, a 2017 LEAF with a very healthy 30 kWh pack, driven lightly on flat terrain just before the dashboard pic was taken, could be mistaken for a 40 kWh pack based on the GOM.

There are lots of other variables...

So, you could guess right most of the time by looking at a pic of the GOM and SOC but it wouldn't be a guarantee.

LeafSpy would be a much better way to determine the pack size, based on the reported GIDs.

Thank you alozzy. So my assumption is correct, then, that older model Leafs (2017-) will correctly report the increased range when fitted with a 40kwh battery pack? I guessed that was the case, but wasn't sure.

LeftieBiker said:

You may be able to give the VIN to Nissan's EV Help line. At this point 40kwh battery replacements are pretty rare, but they should become more common in the coming years, assuming that Nissan survives.

Does anyone have that phone number handy? I have a Leaf Specialist number, but it's years old.

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I tried calling the EV Help Line number on the Nissan website. The only option I could choose was 'for current owners', but after doing so I was put on hold for approximately 15 seconds and then hung up on.

So I tried the EV chat on Nissan's website, but the representative was decidedly unhelpful. They essentially said that no information could be given to a non-owner, and that I should check with my local Nissan dealership about what my warranty would cover. They would not even provide me with the actual written warranty on the batteries, which I thought was odd.

Try the old "Leaf Specialists" number. 1-800-854-3310. They were always helpful to me. And do be prepared to hold for a few minutes.

Older model Leafs will correctly report the increased range, when fitted with a 40kwh battery pack, if the upgrade was done by Nissan.

It's also increasingly possible to find EV specialist shops offering LEAF pack swaps and upgrades and, as long as they use a CANBUS middleware bridge, the extended range of the larger pack will be reflected on the dashboard stats.

LeftieBiker said:

Try the old "Leaf Specialists" number. 1-800-854-3310. They were always helpful to me. And do be prepared to hold for a few minutes.

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Thanks, I'll try that.

I think finding a 40kwh battery in a 16 or 17 leaf will be like finding a needle in a haystack. I just looked at a bunch of cars on carvana and they all seem to have way more than 9 bars , maybe I'll get lucky,

The GOM is most likely the way. That and capacity bars. The 30 kwh is old enough now that a growing chunk of them will have lost a capacity bar by now. The 40 kwh packs aren't so a missing capacity bar would be rare at this point. I am sure "someone" has lost a bar on an early 2018 since they are now 2½ years old but I haven't seen any yet. One guy is close (86% SOC) but he has a lot of miles (probably a gig driver or something)