2017 Leaf question with leaf spy results

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halirob

New member
Joined
Oct 2, 2022
Messages
3
Hello,
I've recently purchased a 2017 Leaf from a local ev dealer.
I didn't have leafspy at the time and trusted the dealer (my mistake) that their battery health report was correct (96%, and obviously as I've learned more now not correct), even though the car was missing 1 bar of capacity.

The car still seemed to have lots of range (165km) when fully charged so I wasn't too worried, also knowing about the 2017 battery 4 bar warranty thing.
After a month of driving, I just lot another bar, but the range when fully charged still says 165km.

I bought leaf spy and a dongle and hooked it up today.
The stats from leaf spy show : AHR 62.19, SOH 78.25%, HX 52.58, odo 43, 015 mil.

The SOH being 78.25% would match the missing bars, so that's inline, but the range not going down doesn't make sense to me.
I did check and the firmware 4C is applied.

I guess my question is, does this car with 43kmiles and a SOH 78% inline with average degradation or does this look like a car that maybe lose its 4 bars before the warranty.

thanks for any thoughts..
 
Welcome. It is possible that someone reset the BMS, and it is just finishing relearning the actual remaining capacity. It is also possible that that second bar was going to drop soon anyway. As for your second question, that also involves a bit of guessing. The range estimator is called the "Guess O Meter" for a reason: in the Gen I Leaf it just takes the last few minutes of energy consumption, and uses that, in conjunction with the remaining capacity, to estimate range. So either the GOM is weighted more towards using consumption than capacity, or you have been driving more efficiently, and that has compensated for the loss of apparent capacity.

If that dealership put it in writing that the battery had 90+ percent capacity remaining, then you may be able to return the car.
 
thanks for the reply,
the way the dealership has worded is a battery health assessment (which they call propriety), so they don't mention capacity (smart by them).

It will be interesting to track it from here on out, as It would be under the warranty if it drops another 2 bars.
Luckily its not a car we relay on for long trips, its our commuter car and has been fantastic at that.
I just hate not getting what I initially thought I was paying for, and had I had leaf spy 2 months ago I would not have bought the car.

over all I'm happy to be in the ev game now.
 
The 'range' number is close to useless. Old-timers call it a GOM (guess-o-meter.) The lack of change just means that your 11th. bar was near gone when you bought the car. One thing you should do is have the software fix done if your car is eligible. The SOH reading will be more accurate after the couple of months it takes for the pack BMS to recalibrate.

Presuming the SOH is accurate ... ...

When new, your car had 28 kWh of usable energy. Now it has 28*0.78 = 21.84 kWh

For most people, non-aggressive driving off the highway yields about 5 miles per kWh;
Average driving in the city, about 4 miles per kWh;
Fast highway driving, 3 - 3.5 miles per kWh
And in cold winter, 2 - 3 miles per kWh depending mostly on how much cabin heating is used.

Will you end up with a free warranty replacement ? Well, the pack is down 22% in about 5 years, and it has to drop about 36% in under 8 years. The door jamb has the manufacture date if you want to refine an extrapolation. Don't bother if the car is now in a different geographic location than its first 5 years. You would be mixing apples and oranges.

If you have the leisure to game the warranty and your car, you can decide whether you want to treat the battery like **** to try and reach free replacement in time, or baby the battery for a long usable car life. Part of this depends on your local climate. If you live near Hades then charge up to 100% every day for as many hours of the day as you can. A much longer useful car life is gained by charging up to 80% or so close to the time you take the car out for driving.
 
Thanks for the advice.
From what I can tell the software update (I checked under service in leaf spy) has already been applied.

I don't really want to treat the battery bad on purpose, but I'll definitely keep tabs on it. If I hit the other 2 bars and get the battery warranty great.

The car will still have more than adequate range for us, we generally don't drive is more than 100kms on a charge so far, and its not our long trip car.

I love plugging it in, it's such a great feeling.
 
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