How is my 2015 battery doing?

[willbur4]

"Nissan used to recommend it (at a time when they had a class action lawsuit and were forced to re-engineered the batteries) but no longer does. Interesting"

Nissan still recommends avoiding charging above 80 percent for long periods. It's in my 2016 Owners manual. OP Charges to 100 percent then drives off. Seems to me that is good battery management.

 

[rcm4453]

Here is a summary of battery aging research:
http://www.electricvehiclewiki.com/Battery_Capacity_Loss#Factors_Affecting_Battery_Capacity_Loss

Here is a snippet that is worth not ignoring:

In order to prolong battery life, GM uses just 65% of the Volts battery capacity, setting the limits at about 22% SOC on the low end and 87% SOC on the high end.

The Volt battery chemistry is quite similar to the LEAF, albeit with a presumed higher quality anode. IIRC GM has expanded the SoC range in newer models but that car also has active liquid cooling and it remains WELL below 100%

IIRC Toyota uses a different Li chemistry, and also limits the SoC excursion to well below allowed by Nissan

Lastly, Tesla explicitly tells owners that the less charging to 100%, the longer the battery will last.

If charging to 100% is bad for the battery then why doesn’t Nissan give the consumer a convenient way to avoid it? Yeah I know about the EPA Monroney labeling requirement which ended the 80% charge option. Tesla gives options to set your desired SoC, Bolt EV has hilltop mode which sets it to around 90% Soc. The average driver is not going to set charge timers on a daily basis to avoid 100% charges. Nissan must know this so I’m betting they adjusted the battery chemistry after dropping the 80% charge option to accommodate 100% charging without accelerated battery degradation.

 

[SageBrush]

If charging to 100% is bad for the battery.

There is no IF here. How bad is less certain, but you can make your own best guess from the data available and your charging pattern and local climate.

As for NIssan -- ask them.
My opinion is that they made choices that first and foremost took into account their warranty liabilities. Since I as a customer and driver of a LEAF do not want to see 20-30% degradation within 5 years (which to Nissan is no problem since no costs to them are involved), my priorities (and therefore recommendations) differ from Nissan.

Put another way, if you are happy with battery aging up to the level that still keeps Nissan off the hook, you can follow their use recommendations.

 

[rcm4453]

If charging to 100% is bad for the battery.

There is no IF here. How bad is less certain, but you can make your own best guess from the data available and your charging pattern and local climate.

As for NIssan -- ask them.
My opinion is that they made choices that first and foremost took into account their warranty liabilities. Since I as a customer and driver of a LEAF do not want to see 20-30% degradation within 5 years (which to Nissan is no problem since no costs to them are involved), my priorities (and therefore recommendations) differ from Nissan.

Put another way, if you are happy with battery aging up to the level that still keeps Nissan off the hook, you can follow their use recommendations.

So basically Nissan just doesn't care now that they found a way out of warranty claims for degraded batteries. Other Manufacturers found a way around the EPA problem so why didn't Nissan? They could have just called it hilltop mode or something similar just like Bolt EV did. It just makes no sense to have an important recommendation in the owners manual but not give the consumer any way to adhere to that recommendation (like I said, the average driver won't play around with charge timers every day).

 

[SageBrush]

If charging to 100% is bad for the battery.

There is no IF here. How bad is less certain, but you can make your own best guess from the data available and your charging pattern and local climate.

As for NIssan -- ask them.
My opinion is that they made choices that first and foremost took into account their warranty liabilities. Since I as a customer and driver of a LEAF do not want to see 20-30% degradation within 5 years (which to Nissan is no problem since no costs to them are involved), my priorities (and therefore recommendations) differ from Nissan.

Put another way, if you are happy with battery aging up to the level that still keeps Nissan off the hook, you can follow their use recommendations.

So basically Nissan just doesn't care now that they found a way out of warranty claims for degraded batteries. Other Manufacturers found a way around the EPA problem so why didn't Nissan? They could have just called it hilltop mode or something similar just like Bolt EV did. It just makes no sense to have an important recommendation in the owners manual but not give the consumer any way to adhere to that recommendation (like I said, the average driver won't play around with charge timers every day).

The blame game is a waste of time.
You have a choice: follow the Nissan recommendations if you don't mind 30% battery degradation by 5y/60k miles (or 8yr/100k miles in the newer models) or modify the recommendations for a longer and healthier battery life.