Just Passed 15,000 Miles

[hobbyguy]

Just hit the 15,000 mark on Monday! Took delivery on January 5th. Eight great carefree months of driving. Only maintenance so far has been 2 tire rotations. I did get a email from Nissan at 14,000 telling me to take the car in at 15,000 miles

"In addition to a complete inspection, NISSAN OF VALENCIA will run a diagnostic check on your EV battery and provide you with an EV Battery Usage Report. This is an essential warranty requirement for your EV battery. It's the single most important maintenance service on your Nissan LEAF and is provided to you at no charge".

So I will make an appointment soon and see what they say.

 

[TomT]

You are not actually due for the battery report until you hit 12 months. It is time based, not mileage based. However, in your case, perhaps Nissan wants to get an early idea of how things are progressing due to your advanced mileage... I'm assuming that Nissan never considered that some people might drive the Leaf as much as you and few others when they specified a time only requirement...

"In addition to a complete inspection, NISSAN OF VALENCIA will run a diagnostic check on your EV battery and provide you with an EV Battery Usage Report. This is an essential warranty requirement for your EV battery. It's the single most important maintenance service on your Nissan LEAF and is provided to you at no charge".
So I will make an appointment soon and see what they say.

 

[hobbyguy]

I know it said 12 months in the owners manual but maybe because I am above average on mileage they want to see what the status of the battery is. The email came from Nissan USA, not the dealer. It also quoted my mileage in the email, based off of CarWings I assume, they were within a few hundred miles. I will call the dealer and talk to the service manager

 

[IBELEAF]

I am curious what they say. I wonder if it's possible to detect any battery degradation at this point?

 

[91040]

Just hit the 15,000 mark on Monday! Took delivery on January 5th. Eight great carefree months of driving. Only maintenance so far has been 2 tire rotations.

Way to go! Very good to know how well the car holds up.

 

[TaylorSFGuy]

I wondered about this - I'm over 13K miles at 4 months. I wondered why they were waiting until 12 months regardless of miles driven - I have previously posted on this. Will let you know if I get the email in a couple of weeks. At 12 months I would be pushing 40K miles.

 

[evnow]

I wondered about this - I'm over 13K miles at 4 months. I wondered why they were waiting until 12 months regardless of miles driven - I have previously posted on this. Will let you know if I get the email in a couple of weeks. At 12 months I would be pushing 40K miles.

I'm guessing you bought - aren't you worried about the state of the battery in, say, 3 years, 120K miles ?

 

[mdh]

I am told that the dealer is not able to ascertain battery degradation during the battery scan. A bunch of mumbo jumbo encoded numbers are sent to HQ. Is this true? A service mgr told me this.

 

[surfingslovak]

I am told that the dealer is not able to ascertain battery degradation during the battery scan. A bunch of mumbo jumbo encoded numbers are sent to HQ.

Gudy had the check done month and half ago. He has the first privately owned Leaf. There were no specifics in his post, perhaps it's because Nissan purposefully keeps the test results vague?

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=4939&p=116485#p116485" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[mdh]

I am told that the dealer is not able to ascertain battery degradation during the battery scan. A bunch of mumbo jumbo encoded numbers are sent to HQ.

Gudy had the check done month and half ago. He has the first privately owned Leaf. There were no specifics in his post, perhaps it's because Nissan purposefully keeps the test results vague?

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=4939&p=116485#p116485" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A service mgr told me the scan only comes back with "good" and "bad" and a bunch of codes. He mails/faxes the scan printout along with warranty forms for reimbursement back to HQ, etc. who knows... my info could be all wrong

 

[TaylorSFGuy]

I'm guessing you bought - aren't you worried about the state of the battery in, say, 3 years, 120K miles ?

Yes I did buy the LEAF with the idea that one of two things would happen - 1. I could pay for a new battery with the savings realized compared to operating an ICE or 2. There will be something better that comes along when the time comes to replace the LEAF.

After all credits/incentives, the LEAF was comparable to purchasing a $23K ICE vehicle. I have always purchased new cars and driven them as long as possible - My 6 year old Honda went over 300K miles and used close to $30K in fuel. I'm saving just about $4000 a year in operating costs, even with my reduced miles. If it lasts 3 years then it only cost me $11K. If it lasts longer, so much the better. True, my LEAF isn't as nice as the other cars I've purchased - they had leather seats, a working heater, etc. I certainly could have purchased a comparable ICE car for less money but then there was the mystery of buying a car that could theoretically pay for itself - if it were to last that long.

So far so good, but I do have a nagging concern that it won't work out like I hoped. That started when 100 miles range turned out to be something significantly less. I'd be much happier if the BLINK charger worked - every time.

 

[smkettner]

Considering the miles you put on I would consider trading the Blink for something else.

 

[edatoakrun]

I'm guessing you bought - aren't you worried about the state of the battery in, say, 3 years, 120K miles ?

Yes I did buy the LEAF with the idea that one of two things would happen - 1. I could pay for a new battery with the savings realized compared to operating an ICE or 2. There will be something better that comes along when the time comes to replace the LEAF.

After all credits/incentives, the LEAF was comparable to purchasing a $23K ICE vehicle. I have always purchased new cars and driven them as long as possible - My 6 year old Honda went over 300K miles and used close to $30K in fuel. I'm saving just about $4000 a year in operating costs, even with my reduced miles. If it lasts 3 years then it only cost me $11K. If it lasts longer, so much the better. True, my LEAF isn't as nice as the other cars I've purchased - they had leather seats, a working heater, etc. I certainly could have purchased a comparable ICE car for less money but then there was the mystery of buying a car that could theoretically pay for itself - if it were to last that long.

So far so good, but I do have a nagging concern that it won't work out like I hoped. That started when 100 miles range turned out to be something significantly less. I'd be much happier if the BLINK charger worked - every time.

Since there is at least some "calendar" deterioration of the LEAF battery pack over time, you should get the most miles out of your battery pack, by putting the miles on as fast as possible.

But I certainly hope you have a real need to drive that much.

There is an argument that environmental and economic costs of owning EVs will "rebound" to ICEV levels, due to owners increasing their miles driven, due to the much lower costs per mile.

In my case, I got used to driving less during my long unanticipated wait for my LEAF, from December 2010 till last May. And I am only driving a little more, about 800 miles per month, since I got the LEAF.

But if and when I can get plugged into DC chargers, I will probably drive my LEAF a lot more...

 

[TaylorSFGuy]

But I certainly hope you have a real need to drive that much.

There is an argument that environmental and economic costs of owning EVs will "rebound" to ICEV levels, due to owners increasing their miles driven, due to the much lower costs per mile.

This is a reduction - I used to drive 49K miles a year and I'm down to 40K. I wish I could drive more due to the lower cost but 500 mile weekend jaunts are out of the question in the LEAF. My commute is just over 130 miles round trip - been doing it for 11 years. I figure I'm doing my part for the environment at this point, regardless of how long the battery lasts.

 

[IBELEAF]

Woah, 130 miles daily... it would drive me nuts. Did you consider moving?

 

[surfingslovak]

So far so good, but I do have a nagging concern that it won't work out like I hoped.

I think it's reasonable to assume that the lithium batteries Nissan is using will perform at least as well as the NiMH pack the first generation of EVs used a decade ago. Nissan is the only major manufacturer that has used li-ion for a very long time, and has a wealth R&D and data to support their design decisions. They are obviously being cautious and fairly quiet, but it's a competitive industry and they have lot to lose. That being said, there was a lot of discussion on the forum and there are some very knowledgeable and opinionated posters here. There is no consensus, but I would put the average capacity fade at 1% per 10,000 miles driven and in addition to that about 1% calender life fade per year. These are obviously speculative estimates at best, and they would apply to temperate climates. Hot climates are expected to fare worse and cooler climates are expected to do somewhat better.

According to the research I have done, internal resistance will rise as well, but not as much as was the case with NiMH and the Leaf should be usable even if the pack degraded quite a bit. Note that we have not tested this, but it should be reasonable to assume that it will indeed be the case. Nissan should repair the pack under warranty if it failed to deliver adequate power for eight years, and given your high usage pattern, I would use that for end of life estimates.

If you could relay the exact results and wording of the battery check to the forum, that would be greatly appreciated. There is some indication that Nissan will not reveal the amount or degree of pack deterioration. Reportedly, they will only give you a thumbs up or thumbs down along with some recommendations on how to prolong the life of your battery.

I don't know if this helps, but please have a look at the RAV4 EV owner gallery Darrell Dickey has assembled. I believe that Leaf's battery should perform comparably, if not better than the NiMH pack the RAV4 had.

http://www.evnut.com/rav_owner_gallery.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.evnut.com/rav_owner_100k.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.evnut.com/rav_owner_200k.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[Bassman]

You've got me beat. My commute is 126 miles roundtrip, but I telecommute once a week and have every other Friday off, so I only put about 1800-1900 miles a month on my LEAF. Just past 7800 miles the other day for roughly 4 months.

 

[TomT]

I feel like a piker! I put about 1,400 a month on mine...

You've got me beat. My commute is 126 miles roundtrip, but I telecommute once a week and have every other Friday off, so I only put about 1800-1900 miles a month on my LEAF. Just past 7800 miles the other day for roughly 4 months.

 

[TRONZ]

Yikes! Only a little over 1000 per month for me.

 

[cdub]

Wowsers... I only drive 32 miles a day...