Stoaty said:
scottf200 said:
Nissan Leaf Range Issues
BY RUSS FINLEY ON OCT 10, 2012
http://www.consumerenergyreport.com/2012/10/10/nissan-leaf-range-issues/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
While there are some good points in the article, it is marred by a selective focus that "everything is pretty much Normal(TM)". It ignores a number of facts:
--21 kwh is pretty much the agreed on usable energy in a new Leaf that hasn't sat on a dealers lot in the hot sun for months. If Nissan wants to disclose otherwise, so be it
--the results of the range test in Arizona (using 84 miles as the standard for a new Leaf at 4 miles per kwh) are spot on with the known capacities measured by Nissan at Casa Grande (only two cars, unfortunately, that we have data for)
--there is no suggestion of bias in the range test, as the article implies. The results clearly show instrument error (about 40%) and battery degradation (60%) with no attempt to skew the numbers on the part of the testers.
I would say this article is far from accurate--and I have spent a lot of time studying and graphing the results.
+1 Kinda where I went with this. My response I left in his comments section.
I am the owner of Blue917 from the Phoenix test and I have a battery pack that will require replacement, when it’s remaining capacity reaches 70%, after only 30 to 36 months of driving. What a far cry from the 5 to 10 year estimate Nissan advertised. I drive the national average of 12,000 miles a year (32 miles a day). Currently I can travel 45 miles of mixed city/highway driving at 4.5kw/mile to low battery warning on the 80% charge Nissan recommends. When the car was new, I regularly obtained 62 miles of range under very similar driving conditions. That’s only 72% of my original range from new after only 15 months and 15,000 miles of driving. Nissan can’t explain this loss to me (as a matter of fact, they state it is normal), maybe you have some ideas?
I cannot state it more clearly than to say that Mark Larson’s chart that you quoted in this article is junk. He really needs to remove the article from the web, and you need to remove it from your article. The issue with it is he assumes that all LEAFs are shipped from Nissan in a defective state. By stating that a new LEAF only has a range of 76 mile at 4kw/mile, he is stating that Nissan is delivering all LEAFs to Phoenix drivers with a damaged battery capacity of only 19kw (19kw X 4kw/mile = 76 miles), when Nissan is really delivering a battery pack with 21kw of usable energy. To assume Nisssan is shipping a defective product when new is a bad starting point for refuting the realities of degradation Phoenix LEAF drivers are experiencing.
Here are two photos of trips I took about 1 year apart, driving the exact same course, demonstrating at least a 19% reduction in range over the course of 13 months.
http://img138.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=919210887_LeafEnd11_122_251lo.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://img177.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=919219720_LeafEnd12_122_40lo.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Statements from Nissan that concern me:
A 20% capacity loss over the period of 1 year is considered NORMAL. (Why would they state this if all of us Phoenix drivers were just blowing smoke? I encourage you to contact Nissan and confirm this.)
To obtain 76% battery capacity after 5 years in Phoenix, you may only drive a maximum average of 20 miles per day or 7,500 miles per year. (Stated by Andy Palmer here) https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; … WPI#t=193s
I encourage you to speak with Phoenix owners like me that own this disaster. You may change your opinion.
Paul Sepuka, Phoenix