Is LEAF Facing a Pending Crisis?

[armmynissanleaf]

NJ EV Association founder Douglas Stansfield says LEAF is facing a pending crisis and offers a surprising way Nissan can avert it and make early LEAF adopters happy.

[REMOVED]

Do you think retrofitting 2011 LEAF to 2016 range is a doable solution?

 

[desiv]

Do you think retrofitting 2011 LEAF to 2016 range is a doable solution?

Yes..
But that's not the quiestion..
Do you think Nissan will do this?
Nope, I don't. They are in the business of selling cars, not batteries..
And while they can make money selling batteries; they are likely to be so expensive that you start to get to the point that buying a new car with more mileage isn't much more... At least while we still have government and factory incentives.
(Not for all cases, obviously)

desiv

 

[armmynissanleaf]

I would really love to see Nissan doing this. You are right, they are in the business of selling cars, not batteries. But this is a new way of approaching cars. Or some battery company will come up with a solution to replace the old with new regardless of the size.

 

[nosuchthing]

Or some battery company will come up with a solution to replace the old with new regardless of the size.

You can wait for that -- about a decade or so.

 

[rogersleaf]

It's a stretch to call this a Pending Crisis. The economics of paying substantially more up front (despite tax credits), then later expecting residuals/resale above more conventional alternatives of comparable age is questionable assumption at best. Personally don't believe Nissan will do anything to artificially support resale. Manufacturers will typically write-off their loss and move on.

 

[minispeed]

I don't think this is a crisis at all and I doubt that the $5000 is get them to keep the cars long term. I would guess that it's to hold them over till leaf 2 arrives. After all they aren't just offering the rebate but I've also heard of people being extended lease deals. If it was just to get them to shift ownership they wouldn't extend the deals they'd only offer the rebate to buy it out. After all with the surge in leaf sales(leases) over the last 2 years extended leases will come due at the same time that later leases come due. That isn't good for the stuck with the old car problem but it is good for selling them a leaf 2.

 

[chuck101]

I appreciate that the Leafs don't hold their value. This means I was able to buy an off lease 2012 Leaf for 12 grand. This gets me into an electric car for cheaper than I would have thought possible.

Even considering I will eventually need to buy a replacement battery for my car, I am still ahead. I don't need additional capacity to feel satisfied here. I also don't see this as a crisis. I will have saved enough gas cost and other maintenance cost to pay for the majority of this battery over the time I will have owned the car. Also, there will surely soon be a refurbisher that sells refurbished batteries at less cost than Nissan is charging.

 

[ishiyakazuo]

I appreciate that the Leafs don't hold their value. This means I was able to buy an off lease 2012 Leaf for 12 grand. This gets me into an electric car for cheaper than I would have thought possible.

Even considering I will eventually need to buy a replacement battery for my car, I am still ahead. I don't need additional capacity to feel satisfied here. I also don't see this as a crisis. I will have saved enough gas cost and other maintenance cost to pay for the majority of this battery over the time I will have owned the car. Also, there will surely soon be a refurbisher that sells refurbished batteries at less cost than Nissan is charging.

+1.

 

[edatoakrun]

See the reply to the first comment here:

..There is No Crisis at Nissan, as its recent $5,000 offer to LEAF owners returning their leased cars is just a route program to balance inventory...

http://www.torquenews.com/3620/nissan-smart-leaf-strategy-manage-inventory" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[rmay635703]

At one time you could upgrade computers and it was worthwhile financially.. Now.. nope, intel doesn't even want you to be able to add an external graphics card to a laptop.

Its no different with cars, manufacturers want to sell cars, upgrades to cars is something that occured in the 1960's

 

[Nubo]

Seems to me it would engender a lot of goodwill to offer upgrades. And a significant bump in attractiveness for whatever EVs they roll out next. On the other hand, the quoted price for replacements may represent a subsidy intended to quell dissatisfaction from the initial battery fiasco. If a *profitable* upgrade price is significantly higher then it almost certainly won't happen.

 

[ishiyakazuo]

At one time you could upgrade computers and it was worthwhile financially.. Now.. nope, intel doesn't even want you to be able to add an external graphics card to a laptop.

When were graphics cards swappable on most laptops? Never. There have always been top-end models with swappable graphics, and that continues to this very day, but that was never the norm.
Just a few weeks ago I upgraded the RAM, HDD and Wi-Fi card on my Core i5 laptop, which was actually far EASIER than it was on laptops I'd previously owned, because they all were accessed from the same bay. And the battery is still replaceable
The fact is, Nissan is no doubt painfully aware that there are a larger proportion of LEAF buyers (compared to their ICE customers) who are vocal, and they will need to react to that in some fashion.