Capacity Loss on 2011-2012 LEAFs

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https://www.facebook.com/groups/seattlenissanleaf/permalink/1757297620968334/ is a report of someone down 7 bars (5 remaining) at 68.4K miles on an '11.

As I posted at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=505534#p505534, I think I've seen another 7 bar loser in TX before (can't find the FB post) and I quoted someone else who found a 7 bar loser.

I found http://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=489844#p489844 on another 7 bar loser.
 
cwerdna said:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/seattlenissanleaf/permalink/1757297620968334/ is a report of someone down 7 bars (5 remaining) at 68.4K miles on an '11.
So much for great battery stats from Seattle. I'm starting to think that my babying the battery has actually helped my 2011. However, I'm still under 50,000 mi, so perhaps that helps.
 
Reddy said:
So much for great battery stats from Seattle. I'm starting to think that my babying the battery has actually helped my 2011. However, I'm still under 50,000 mi, so perhaps that helps.
Our LEAF's VIN is about 900 before yours and we have slightly more capacity remaining with 10,000 more miles on the odometer. It beats me why that would since the climate is a bit warmer here.

Capacity degradation on our LEAF is now accelerating, with 2.6 Ah lost between 40,000 and 50,000 miles while we only lost 2.2 Ah between 30,000 and 40.000 miles. That is true even though the vehicle was driven those last 10,000 miles over a shorter period of time, so calendar losses during that last period should have been a bit lower.
 
RegGuheert said:
Reddy said:
So much for great battery stats from Seattle. I'm starting to think that my babying the battery has actually helped my 2011. However, I'm still under 50,000 mi, so perhaps that helps.
Our LEAF's VIN is about 900 before yours and we have slightly more capacity remaining with 10,000 more miles on the odometer. It beats me why that would since the climate is a bit warmer here.

Capacity degradation on our LEAF is now accelerating, with 2.6 Ah lost between 40,000 and 50,000 miles while we only lost 2.2 Ah between 30,000 and 40.000 miles. That is true even though the vehicle was driven those last 10,000 miles over a shorter period of time, so calendar losses during that last period should have been a bit lower.
Well, we are actually in the hottest part of WA, with several weeks per year above 100F routinely. We even had a stint of 110-115F in June one year. However, that said, my battery has always been on the "low" side, even in the early days. When I did a 100 mi trip, posting my stats, I remember Tony Williams commenting on my low numbers. My delivery was delayed about 6 mo (through the summer) due to Fukushima, so it is possible that it sat longer than it should have. :cry: Also, I am a low mileage and in-town user, charging primarily with L1. I think that those things may conspire to depress the numbers. The worst part is the lack of winter regen (just when you need more range). I've added some additional mid-day and evening trips and have actually had to charge mid-day a few times this winter. It's not a big deal, but I'm now glad that I had the EVSE upgrade done. Unless Nissan comes through with a VERY LOW COST replacement battery in the 2018-2020 time frame, I will definitely dump this vehicle for something (Model 3) with a faster charger, larger battery, and new technology.
 
Reddy said:
Well, we are actually in the hottest part of WA, with several weeks per year above 100F routinely. We even had a stint of 110-115F in June one year.
O.K., that explains it! We used to get 100F around here many summers, but that's not happening any more. It's probably been five years (2012) since we've seen 100F.
Reddy said:
However, that said, my battery has always been on the "low" side, even in the early days. When I did a 100 mi trip, posting my stats, I remember Tony Williams commenting on my low numbers.
Our battery capacity is dominated by a single cell pair (#37). This pair drops out first and the effect is much more dominant in wintertime. In summertime, we do not really see the difference. If it weren't for that cell pair, we would do quite a bit better in the wintertime.
 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/nissan.leaf.owners.group/permalink/1744888885581945/ has dashboard pics of a '12 Leaf imported to Colombo, Sri Lanka from Japan which at 176K km shows it's down to 3 (!) capacity bars, So, it's a 9 bar (!) loser. I think this is a record for me, so far. I don't recall hearing of any that are worse than this, yet.

If https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombo#Climate is accurate, that is a pretty unkind climate to Leaf batteries.

I assume the car spent more time in Sri Lanka than Japan.

If we ever seen a Leaf down to 0 capacity bars, it'll be interesting to hear how it behaves in terms of regen (presumably none or next to none), LBW, VLBW, power bubbles, how fast it can charge on L2 and CHAdeMO.
 
Reddy said:
cwerdna said:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/seattlenissanleaf/permalink/1757297620968334/ is a report of someone down 7 bars (5 remaining) at 68.4K miles on an '11.
So much for great battery stats from Seattle. I'm starting to think that my babying the battery has actually helped my 2011. However, I'm still under 50,000 mi, so perhaps that helps.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/seattlenissanleaf/permalink/1782404948457601/ has a post of someone in Woodinville, WA (which is near Seattle), that's down 6 bars after 6.5 years. and 110K miles.

mbutter at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=515596#p515596 mentions being down 6 bars on their '11. They seem to be in TX.
 
cwerdna said:
Reddy said:
cwerdna said:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/seattlenissanleaf/permalink/1757297620968334/ is a report of someone down 7 bars (5 remaining) at 68.4K miles on an '11.
So much for great battery stats from Seattle. I'm starting to think that my babying the battery has actually helped my 2011. However, I'm still under 50,000 mi, so perhaps that helps.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/seattlenissanleaf/permalink/1782404948457601/ has a post of someone in Woodinville, WA (which is near Seattle), that's down 6 bars after 6.5 years. and 110K miles.

mbutter at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=515596#p515596 mentions being down 6 bars on their '11. They seem to be in TX.

Poorly managed charging habits easily overcomes any so called climate advantage.
 
RegGuheert on August 28 said:
Our 2011 LEAF lost its third capacity bar on Friday, August 25, 2017. Wife was driving, so I do not have a picture from LeafSpy, but I estimate the following numbers:

46,100 miles
47.47 Ah
72% SOH
51.60% Hx

Our LEAF was manufactured in June 2011.
As I posted back in August, our LEAF dropped its 10th bar on August 27, 2017, right at a very typical level of 47.5 Ah. The reported capacity continued to drop through the Fall with the lowest reading of 46.88 Ah coming on October 7, 2017. To me, this seemed like a rather rapid drop in capacity.

But the next time I took a reading was on November 13, 2017, when the car reported capacity of 47.48 Ah: a 0.6 Ah increase. Then on November 16, 2017, it was back down to 47.23 Ah and on December 7, 2017, it was at 47.21. I figured it had settled in for the winter since most winters I see no change in the reported capacity of the car.

That was not to be. On January 18, 2018, the car reported 47.39 Ah. Then the next day it reported 47.62 Ah, which is above the threshold for the drop of the 10th bar. (But there is hysteresis, so the bar has not come back.)

Skip ahead to yesterday and now the car is reporting 48.21 Ah. That is an entire Ah higher than what was reported two months earlier on December 7 and 1.33 Ah higher than four months earlier on October 7.

So, is it real? I will say "Yes and no." The pack in our LEAF has always been limited by cell-pair #37, which is weaker than all the rest. This effect is particularly noticeable in the wintertime. But on January 17 I forgot to press the timer override button and ended up draining the battery down to a reported SOC of 5.9%. Cell-pair #37 was 328 mV below the highest cell-pair at that point, which was not a surprise. But I have to think that the BMS now feels that it has more capacity than it previously thought it had.

All this to say that I normally see no change, up or down, in reported capacity between about December 1 and March 1. This rise of 1.33 Ah has been entirely unexpected.
 
My car had 90-91% for more than 6 months and raised back to 98% for winter.
In about 4 weeks when battery reaches 15*C (5th bar) it will start updating again.

Just before Leaf dies seeing 350mV difference is absolutely normal.
Likely even more for older Leafs than 2014.
2.729 and 3.075 for mine.
I've done these discharges for like 30-50 times.
 
I picked up a 2011 Ocean Blue SL with 0,000 miles last month, now 30,716 (so I'm driving double the former owner's monthly average)
According to LeafSpy Pro
166 GIDs
AHrs = 48.18;
SOH - 73.45
After last night's 80% charge, current SOC 78.1 (in part because I was detailing it today and had it powered on for a bit)

Bottom line: with my current efficiency, I can drive around 40 miles, getting 4.1-2/kWh. The GOM says 10 bars and 56 miles (was 58 at end of charge).
 
RegGuheert on December 14 said:
Capacity degradation on our LEAF is now accelerating, with 2.6 Ah lost between 40,000 and 50,000 miles while we only lost 2.2 Ah between 30,000 and 40.000 miles. That is true even though the vehicle was driven those last 10,000 miles over a shorter period of time, so calendar losses during that last period should have been a bit lower.
So now I'm not so sure. As I reported previously, our LEAF has been showing increasing Ah readings recently. Since crossing 50,000 miles on December 7, 2017, at 47.21 Ah, the reported capacity has increased to 48.24 Ah on Februrary 11, 2018, with about 52,000 miles on the odometer.

So, has capacity loss accelerated from 2.2 Ah/10,000 miles (30,000 mi. to 40,000 mi.) to 2.6 Ah/10,000 miles (40,000 mi. to 50,000 mi.) or has it slowed to 1.6 Ah/12,000 miles (40,000 mi. to 52,000 mi.) or both?

Beats me, but I have a new theory about why the capacity has been increasing as of late. I think the BMS may be responding to our efforts to charge the battery to higher SOCs this winter by pressing the timer override button one or more times after the battery has completed its normal charge cycle. We started doing this because the combination of battery degradation (with the associated loss/reduction of regen), new tires and colder temperatures have made my wife's 50-mile commuted quite marginal this winter, even at temperatures of 20 degrees or more. Pressing the timer override button really DOES add more charge to the battery and I think the BMS interprets that as the battery having more capacity.

If that theory is correct, then I suppose when Spring comes around, we will get rapid reported capacity loss due to three different effects: 1) Loss of capacity due to no longer pressing the timer override button, 2) Loss of reported capacity as it warms up (It does that every year!), and 3) Loss of capacity that has been going on all along that has been masked by pressing the button.

We'll see. Perhaps the capacity loss reported over the 50,000- to 60,000-mile interval will shed some light on what is actually happening.
 
RegGuheert said:
RegGuheert on December 14 said:
Capacity degradation on our LEAF is now accelerating, with 2.6 Ah lost between 40,000 and 50,000 miles while we only lost 2.2 Ah between 30,000 and 40.000 miles. That is true even though the vehicle was driven those last 10,000 miles over a shorter period of time, so calendar losses during that last period should have been a bit lower.
So now I'm not so sure. As I reported previously, our LEAF has been showing increasing Ah readings recently. Since crossing 50,000 miles on December 7, 2017, at 47.21 Ah, the reported capacity has increased to 48.24 Ah on Februrary 11, 2018, with about 52,000 miles on the odometer.

So, has capacity loss accelerated from 2.2 Ah/10,000 miles (30,000 mi. to 40,000 mi.) to 2.6 Ah/10,000 miles (40,000 mi. to 50,000 mi.) or has it slowed to 1.6 Ah/12,000 miles (40,000 mi. to 52,000 mi.) or both?
Two weeks later, the Ah reading has dropped 1.0 Ah down to 47.28 Ah. It was 80F one day last week, so I guess it decided to head back down.
 
RegGuheert said:
RegGuheert said:
RegGuheert on December 14 said:
Capacity degradation on our LEAF is now accelerating, with 2.6 Ah lost between 40,000 and 50,000 miles while we only lost 2.2 Ah between 30,000 and 40.000 miles. That is true even though the vehicle was driven those last 10,000 miles over a shorter period of time, so calendar losses during that last period should have been a bit lower.
So now I'm not so sure. As I reported previously, our LEAF has been showing increasing Ah readings recently. Since crossing 50,000 miles on December 7, 2017, at 47.21 Ah, the reported capacity has increased to 48.24 Ah on Februrary 11, 2018, with about 52,000 miles on the odometer.

So, has capacity loss accelerated from 2.2 Ah/10,000 miles (30,000 mi. to 40,000 mi.) to 2.6 Ah/10,000 miles (40,000 mi. to 50,000 mi.) or has it slowed to 1.6 Ah/12,000 miles (40,000 mi. to 52,000 mi.) or both?
Two weeks later, the Ah reading has dropped 1.0 Ah down to 47.28 Ah. It was 80F one day last week, so I guess it decided to head back down.
Reg, I measured my battery yesterday, first time since 11/1/17, and my reading went up slightly from 45.80 (41,700 mi) to 45.91 AHr (44,700 mi). I have increased my driving slightly (750 mi/mo vs. my previous 500 mi/mo normal), so maybe the battery likes being used more. I fully expect to see degradation increase again next month. I recorded about 2 AHr loss last year, and I’m expecting something similar this year. Hopefully it won’t be worse, though the summer could be brutal with more 115 F temps. I think I’m still on target to lose the 4th bar in 2019, so at about 8 years and right around 55,000 mi.
 
I've finally lost the first bar on my second (lizard) battery. The numbers (per LeafDD):

Months = 28
Miles = 22k
Ahr = 53.42
H = 72.61

Don't know why my "H" is so bad, but I still get decent range (70+ miles @4 mi/kWh).
This is better than my first battery...but only slightly :(
 
Stanton said:
I've finally lost the first bar on my second (lizard) battery. The numbers (per LeafDD):

Months = 28
Miles = 22k
Ahr = 53.42
H = 72.61

Don't know why my "H" is so bad, but I still get decent range (70+ miles @4 mi/kWh).
This is better than my first battery...but only slightly :(

thanks for the info about the Lizard's 1st bar loss point: ~53Ahr. that's 2 Ahr below the original battery's 1st bar loss point; bar loss now seems even more like an arbitrary metric when i compare the two battery performances. sad to hear the improvement over the original battery is only slight at best.
 
At the risk of being redundantly redundant, I'll re-post the degradation chart of my 2011 SL with a 2015 Lizard battery replaced in 2016 (1st bar dropped on 12/22/17 @ 52.29 AHr):

pubchart


Interactive version: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vR0ETOtFT0c_aL4OWA7e9TP3TfOpb7hedfemyyh3oE7KUQ8JA1zFBvsXalA12A87vGNnVmqetQqGt9v/pubchart?oid=573318228&format=interactive/
 
ahagge said:
I'll re-post the degradation chart
NIce information, but regarding the Google Docs chart ...

How do you get a scale on both sides of the graph ? I've wanted that for a long time.

Also, I'm not able to open the interactive link.
 
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