New Leaf - Something Doesn't Add Up

I got a 2013 SL for $7900. Used leafspy to check out the battery and the SOH was 98% (i believe, high 90's at least), and 65ahr (again, I believe, can't go check right now as i had to use my friends android phone as it doesn't work with my iPhone).

This convinced me to buy the car, on top of the fact that I thought I was getting an SL for cheap. Something doesn't seem right, though. It has 60K miles on it, the full 12 bars including the specs above. Carfax did not say it has a replacement battery. Does this not spell "replacement battery"? The reason I bring this up is the battery drains very quickly. I was at 32miles left and had a 20 mile drive and when I got close to my destination the car made me drive to the nearest charging station and charge up. This just seems quite inaccurate, I was building trees in eco mode quite well...

The other thing that I found strange is that there is no backup camera. I'd just assumed there would be one since it's a "premium" trim, but there isn't any. I definitely should've paid close attention to the details when I was buying. Oh, and they only gave me one key. There was no discussion about how many keys would be given and I (wrongly) assumed that I'd be getting two and after I signed the papers they said that they just had one.

Anyways, advice would be nice. Also wondering if anyone knows what home charging station to get and if there's one that can monitor the amount of electricity used/month so that I can properly know how much I'm paying for the fuel for my car.

Let's see...

The range estimator is not a good judge of actual remaining range while driving. That can be checked by pressing the little blue button on the left side of the steering wheel, and using the lower of the two estimates shown on the Nav screen. (The higher one is the guess O meter estimate.)

Check your tire pressures, and inflate them to 40-42psi cold if they aren't now in that range. Also, you'll find that driving 60MPH gets you more range than you'd expect, compared to driving at 65-70MPH.

Yes, it's a ripoff that the 2013 SL had the backup camera as an "option." So did the SV.

If the car was driven under optimal conditions (cool but not cold, highway miles mainly) then the stats could be right, but I'd also suspect it has a newer battery.

Maybe you got SOC and SOH mixed up? It is highly doubtful that a 2013 would have 98% SOH, unless the battery was recently replaced. The GOM (guess-o-meter) is virtually worthless, so don't rely on that. You don't mention your driving conditions or speeds, but that has a big effect on range. In general "city" driving gives better range than "highway" driving.

Yes. The guess-o-meter is crap. Don't bother with it. The trees are worthless. You should use the % state of charge screen.

If you have range complaints, please answer the questions from http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=275421#p275421 in this thread.

From the Carfax, where did the car reside before? What's the build month? It's on the driver's side door sticker and there may be something more precise on the door sticker, as well.

From Leaf Spy, please list the following stats: AHr, SOH, Hx and odo reading. If any are 0, the result is invalid. Make sure the car's in READY mode (green car w/arrows) w/a connection to the device running Leaf Spy.

If that Leaf is an early build 2013, then we know it has a new pack.

I have a late 13 build and when I checked it at the dealer it was 62Ahr and 96% Hx. After some QCs it went up to 99% and 65Ahr but after a week of normal L2 its back to 62Ahr. I suspect yours might have hit the QC a few times.

If it's 3/13 or older I agree it's probably a new pack, 4/13 and newer that's normal health. You can call Nissan with the VIN to know for sure.

Either way you should be able to get 80 miles at least. Press the arrow nav button on the ledthand side of the steering wheel, this opens up the nav screen and two ranges are displayed, high and low range. The truth is somewhere between those two. From what I can tell the high number/GOM is the car's all time best efficiency and the low number is the car's worst efficiency.

If your Leaf number is the last 6 of your VIN, then it's probable that this is a late 2013 and could be the original battery. For questions like this, the climate the car has experienced and is in now are critical, so we'd ask that you update your profile with that information.

Low miles per charge aren't unusual at extremely low temperatures and/or slushy conditions, regardless of battery health. If it's below 20 degrees F and you're on the resistance heater, it can really suck down the juice and your range with it.

Any other answers you get are pure speculation without additional information.

Any other answers you get are pure speculation without additional information.

Click to expand...

Looks like Silverone has become a god, and we can now defer all questions to him, her, or it. ;-)

LeftieBiker said:

Any other answers you get are pure speculation without additional information.

Click to expand...

Looks like Silverone has become a god, and we can now defer all questions to him, her, or it. ;-)

Click to expand...

Please throw sacraficial used oil containers at my feet, LOL!

I have a 2013 that I just gave it back to Nissan when my lease ended. It has 35600 miles and the SOH normally hovering around 91 to 92%. When we quick charge it a few time the SOH usually go up. I did a 240 miles trip this past Sunday with 3 quick charge, the SOH went up to 97%.

My 2016 SV also does the same thing, when we just stay in town where it took 3 or 4 days to drain the battery, the SOH goes down. But when we made longer trips where we will drain the battery within one or two hours and then quick charge, the SOH will usually go up.

Mind you, that leaf's battery is only affected in very hot climate. And most of 2011-2012 Leaf's have perfectly fine, 12 bar battery way up until 100k km (70k miles i guess)