Capacity Loss on 2011-2012 LEAFs

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I had a SoCal 3 bar loser:

Car 222 omkar Irvine, CA
3 bars lost at 35 months (11/19/2013) / 33,700 miles
2 bars lost at 29 months (5/25/2013) / 29,500 miles
1 bar lost at 20 months (9/5/2012) / 19,000 miles
 
I had "street" encounter today at the Santa Clara County Water District (http://www.plugshare.com/?location=7989" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) which has 7 J1772 EVSEs for free charging. I talked to the guy who pulled up in an '11 blue Leaf (owned, not leased, he also mentioned the $5K CVRP, so he got his pretty long ago) to charge. He asked me what my range was... and I was like...err... that's a tough question to answer since it depends on so many factors. He mentioned his range seemed lower and that he had 40K miles. We conversed about the GOM and I told him about how it's virtually useless, etc.

Anyway, he wasn't a user on MNL yet and had never seen Tony's range chart that I pulled out. He didn't seem to know about the "fuel bars" vs. the capacity bars. I asked him if he'd lost any capacity bars and he thought he hadn't. My response was that I didn't believe him, after 40K miles in the South Bay (not sure where he lives). I looked and he was down 2 capacity bars (unless I counted wrong). I also pointed him to the pages in my manual re: capacity bars.

Anyway, I pointed him on my phone to a pic of the car w/3 capacity bars gone at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/wiki/index.php?title=Battery_Capacity_Loss" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (to which he reacted "ooohh!") and was able to find the Wiki entry on the table of capacity bars lost vs. % capacity lost that was taken from the service manual. He didn't know about this either. He did say he received a letter and from our conversation, it sounded like it was about the 5 year/60K mile capacity warranty. I briefly described to him the details about that...

From the table and his experiences now, he felt that being down ~20-ish% capacity is about right.
 
Lost 3rd bar today. 36997 miles, build date is 4/11. In Orange, CA. Only have 4 more months on my lease, so don't think I'll lose the 4th bar before then.

I now have to quick charge in Hawthorne to make my 76 miles RT commute, where as a year ago I could do the commute just fine.
 
xtremeflyer said:
I now have to quick charge in Hawthorne to make my 76 miles RT commute, where as a year ago I could do the commute just fine.
I'm impressed that you could do it a year ago - was that with 1 bar down? What kind of driving do you do on the freeway to make it?
 
drees said:
xtremeflyer said:
I now have to quick charge in Hawthorne to make my 76 miles RT commute, where as a year ago I could do the commute just fine.
I'm impressed that you could do it a year ago - was that with 1 bar down? What kind of driving do you do on the freeway to make it?

A year ago I'd set the cruise control to 62 to work and 65 home. By the end of summer id set it to 58. I finally gave in about November when it got cold and I needed the heat in the morning. Now I just sneak out at lunch and QC. Everyone there knows me and no one gives me any grief. I am ready to turn it in, but we aren't ready for a new car.
 
xtremeflyer said:
I am ready to turn it in, but we aren't ready for a new car.

As you know, our LEAF ownership and bar depletion has been very similar. Although I haven't lost the 3rd bar yet, I'm awfully close. I've got about three months left on the lease, and I'll be turning mine in early and getting another. Probably a MY2013 with SV + QC, depending on the how much I can deal. Maybe MY2014 if the cost isn't too far apart. Sure I've hated the limited range, but with the QC network expansion and me being 12 miles away from work it hasn't impacted me terribly. With the exception of only buying two tires, I haven't shelled out for any maintenance on this car in 33 months. With all things considered, it is the best car I've ever owned. Not the most fun, certainly not the fastest, but BEV is where this country needs to be.

So with all that - what are your plans for it's eventual successor when you turn it in?
 
z0ner said:
xtremeflyer said:
I am ready to turn it in, but we aren't ready for a new car.

So with all that - what are your plans for it's eventual successor when you turn it in?

I love the Leaf and agree that BEVs are the way to go. Unfortunately, I don't see my commute changing anytime in the near future and therefor, I'm not willing to deal with what I'm dealing with today in 2 years, even with the QC. I bought the Leaf originally mainly for the HOV access, but any time savings has been completely wiped away with having to stop at the QC.

I'm leaning towards the Ford Fusion Energi. They just dropped he MSRP by $4k and I can lease one for the same monthly payment I have now. Only 20 miles on Electric, but HOV access is priority one, saving gas is priority 2. If you asked me 6 months ago, I would have jumped on the RAV4EV, because the range would have been a nonissue. Unfortunately just reading all of the probls and the nonsupport by Toyota had just turned me off. Why Toyota or Nissan haven't made their hybrid SUVs plug in I have no idea. A plugin highlander or pathfinder would be in my driveway no questions asked.

Hopefully when my next car's lease is up, there will be affordable options with the range I need in all electric.
 
omkar said:
I had a SoCal 3 bar loser:

Car 222 omkar Irvine, CA
3 bars lost at 35 months (11/19/2013) / 33,700 miles
2 bars lost at 29 months (5/25/2013) / 29,500 miles
1 bar lost at 20 months (9/5/2012) / 19,000 miles

Interesting, was only in the wiki for the 1st bar lost. I'll see if I can add you to the 2 and 3 bar lost lists.

I added them but left the case number and reported dates blank for the 2 bar and 3 bar entries, also the manufacturing date looks to be in a different format (yy/mm vs mm/yy) than the other entries but I'm assuming in your case it is Oct 2011.

edit: added extremeflyer as well

#24 Jan 18, 2014 xtremeflyer Orange, CA 36,997 miles 34 months 4/11 03294
#23 Nov 19, 2013 omkar Irvine, CA 33,700 miles 35 months 11/10 00222

taking the counts to something near

September 37
October 9
November 2
December 2
Jan 2
Feb 0
March 1
April 6
May 28

June 51 (+ several with no date that are likely in Jun based on order of entry)
July 50 (+ several with no date that are likely in July based on order of entry)
Aug 59 (+ several with no date that are likely in Aug based on order of entry)
 
dhanson865 said:
#24 Jan 18, 2014 xtremeflyer Orange, CA 36,997 miles 34 months 4/11 03294
#23 Nov 19, 2013 omkar Irvine, CA 33,700 miles 35 months 11/10 00222
Oh, and so much for waiting for Spring to get 3 bar losers in CA. I sure got that one wrong.

Can some of you Californians give me an idea where Irvine and Orange are vs the list below

Palm Springs, CA 1.77
Ridgecrest, CA 1.37
Bakersfield, CA 1.23
Fresno, CA 1.17
Palmdale, CA 1.12
Van Nuys, CA 1.10
Riverside, CA 1.09
Visalia, CA 1.09
Modesto, CA 1.08
Burbank, CA 1.07
Anaheim, CA 1.06
Los Angeles Civic Center 1.00
Santa Ana, CA 0.97
San Diego, CA 0.97
Sacramento, CA 0.96
Santa Monica, CA 0.93
Santa Clara, CA 0.90
San Jose, CA 0.90
Oceanside, CA 0.85
San Francisco, CA 0.76
Big Bear City, CA 0.59


Is Irvine = Santa Ana and Orange = Anaheim or did I get that wrong?
 
dhanson865 said:
Is Irvine = Santa Ana and Orange = Anaheim or did I get that wrong?
Irvine is a transition from inland to semi coastal. NE Irvine can be somewhat warmer than SW Irvine in the summer.
Yes fairly similar to SA & Orange. Anaheim is probably a fraction warmer.
SNA (John Wayne) airport is a bit more coastal. More like Costa Mesa than Santa Ana.

Took 3 bars for the first time to get 10.5 miles to work today. :|
 
Not liking this OC 3 bar loser discussion at all.. I'm on the warmer side of Irvine (near the 5.. probably not far off downtown Santa Ana temps vs John Wayne/SNA or UC Irvine area..)
I have been taking semi extreme measures to keep the battery cool and spend little time at higher SOCs although I'm already under 59Ah with about 1 year of driving and 16k miles. (It was 66Ah, 280 Gids a year ago). In the winter the battery is usually 18-25C (5 bars) and the summer usually 25-35C (6 bars).
Not long ago I would have thought those new "high temperature" batteries would have only been needed in places like Phoenix, Palm Springs etc... not (near) coastal SoCal (!!)
 
First capacity bar finally bit the dust at 24,975 miles, 31 months, capacity 54.69 Ah. I estimate lost capacity by various methods as:

By Ah - 17.45%
By 80% charge - 17.24%
By full charge - 18.85% (but may not be fully balanced)
 
+1!

GregH said:
Not liking this OC 3 bar loser discussion at all...
Not long ago I would have thought those new "high temperature" batteries would have only been needed in places like Phoenix, Palm Springs etc... not (near) coastal SoCal (!!)
 
Stoaty said:
First capacity bar finally bit the dust at 24,975 miles, 31 months, capacity 54.69 Ah. I estimate lost capacity by various methods as:

By Ah - 17.45%
By 80% charge - 17.24%
By full charge - 18.85% (but may not be fully balanced)

taking the counts to something near

September 37
October 9
November 2
December 2
Jan 3
Feb 0
March 1
April 6
May 28

June 51 (+ several with no date that are likely in Jun based on order of entry)
July 50 (+ several with no date that are likely in July based on order of entry)
Aug 59 (+ several with no date that are likely in Aug based on order of entry)


with the CA leafs dropping a bar in winter months I'm expecting to see someone report a Feb loss in the next few weeks.

I'd also expect the March and April numbers to ramp up more this year than they did last year.
 
The suffering is over!! The car was back in my hands with a new battery on January 11th! Took the service department about three days to complete the work and Nissan corporate is VERY helpful after that fourth bar disappears. I'll be keeping this car after the lease is up and I'm hoping that the plan to provide certificates to get the new 'hot battery' to folks that fell under the warranty goes as planned.

IMG_20140113_101612.jpg
 
55,773 on the odometer is about as good as it gets.
Did you have any inclination to go 59,000 before calling for replacement?

Was that hot voucher lip service or actually in the warranty?

Really nice to see that 12 bars again :D Now is time to join the 100 mile club if not already.

Will you charge or drive any differently with the new battery?
 
smkettner said:
55,773 on the odometer is about as good as it gets.
Did you have any inclination to go 59,000 before calling for replacement? No. 9 bars sucks the big one, I average 2,200 miles/month so I was suffering in the truck lane and QCing often.

Was that hot voucher lip service or actually in the warranty? I haven't heard a thing from Nissan about that yet.

Really nice to see that 12 bars again :D Now is time to join the 100 mile club if not already. - I never tried to get into the club, but I will now.

Will you charge or drive any differently with the new battery?
Nope, I'm back to my 'old ways' in the carpool lane baby!
 
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