Update on Nissan LEAF Battery Replacement

[jlatl]

Thanks for the information.

I am hopefully a ways out from needing to replace the battery, but I want to stay current. I have a 2013 with about 30K miles on it and have yet to lose any bars, so I believe I am good to go for a while.

[rpmdk]

I was just approved to have an out of warranty battery replacement in my 2011 LEAF with a $1500 "copay".

A couple days ago I would've been ecstatic. The plan was to get the battery replaced, drive around for a year or so and then get a LEAF2 or another longer range car on the market. It seems like next year the options get much more interesting. Hopefully I would recoup the costs by the value of the car going up at least $1500 covering the copay.

But, while I was wondering around dealership row waiting for my battery test to be complete a Kia salesman got me into a Soul EV (93 miles range). I swore I wouldn't get another EV unless it has a range, at the very least, greater than 100 miles. However, there are some very amazing deals at Kia right now. They offered me $3500 trade-in for the LEAF ( which at its current 55 mile range seems like quite a deal). I could be driving a new Soul for around $200/mo. lease.

I'm really not sure what to do now. I think I got very excited about a new car.

I'm weighing the pros and cons:

is 93 miles in a Kia Soul enough range?
more is always better but after riding around in my LEAF with 55 miles range, that seems like a lot.
With the new battery the LEAF will only have 84 miles range.

will the tax incentives still be there next year?
next year seems like a safe bet, but not much after that I reckon.

will I recoup the $1500 paid for the battery?
in 2018 will a 2011 LEAF with a relatively new battery be worth $5000 ($3500 trade-in + $1500).

pure vanity, but the Soul is marketed to a much younger crowd. Will this middle age guy feel a little silly cruising around in one of those gerbil mobiles?

Most likely I'll end up more confused, but if anyone has any thoughts I'd certainly appreciate it.

[mtndrew1]

I have a Soul EV and I've been very pleased with it. One note, the Soul EPA range is calculated like the 2011-2013 Leafs because it has (or had, when it was originally certified) both 80% and 100% charge modes. Extrapolated to 100% charge the range would be 103.

That said I would get the $1,500 battery and run with it for another 18 months as you've likely hit a floor on the Leaf's resale value. Eighteen months of lease payments are $3,600 so you'd already be ahead even with some additional Leaf depreciation.

If the Model 3 materializes anywhere near the promised specs the rest of the industry will be having a fire sale. Bolts are already kind of piling up on lots and that situation won't improve if the Tesla shows up at its promised price point. Getting the new battery and waiting a year and a half would save money and give you more options IMO.

[rpmdk]

I have a Soul EV and I've been very pleased with it. One note, the Soul EPA range is calculated like the 2011-2013 Leafs because it has (or had, when it was originally certified) both 80% and 100% charge modes. Extrapolated to 100% charge the range would be 103.

That said I would get the $1,500 battery and run with it for another 18 months as you've likely hit a floor on the Leaf's resale value. Eighteen months of lease payments are $3,600 so you'd already be ahead even with some additional Leaf depreciation.

If the Model 3 materializes anywhere near the promised specs the rest of the industry will be having a fire sale. Bolts are already kind of piling up on lots and that situation won't improve if the Tesla shows up at its promised price point. Getting the new battery and waiting a year and a half would save money and give you more options IMO.

Thank you for the reply, holding on to it for more than 8 months does put me ahead of a lease.

Interesting - I didn't know those EPA figures were based on an extrapolation of the 80-100% charge. I just always assumed they took it at the full 100% charge. In your experience can you expect over 100 real world miles in a Soul EV?

[fotajoye]

This is an easy one; if you own the Leaf and it meets your needs and you can replace the battery for $1500, keep driving it with the replacement battery. EVs last longer than ICEVs and other than the battery, it's a good car to drive. Not only that; but, the longer you keep the EV, the less per year you pay for transportation unless you have a high maintenance cost. If the car won't fit your needs, take the deal on the battery and trade it toward a Tesla 3 down the line. Recent videos from Tesla point toward a model 3 car with at least 20 years of battery life. When I bought my Leaf, I had hoped Nissan was indeed interested in selling EVs and would be developing their battery technology right along...their progress in six years has been very disappointing and it appears they spent more money on PR telling you why you didn't need the battery range than they spend on engineering more range in the car.

Here is Jeff Dahn, who is working with Tesla on improving the battery life of Tesla batteries, who says their latest chemistry has already met their goal of doubling the Tesla battery life of ten years. Things in the EV World are getting exciting and I don't think Trump and his Fossil Fuel Republicans can hold off EVs much longer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WpQh4kZ_MU

[mtndrew1]

I have a Soul EV and I've been very pleased with it. One note, the Soul EPA range is calculated like the 2011-2013 Leafs because it has (or had, when it was originally certified) both 80% and 100% charge modes. Extrapolated to 100% charge the range would be 103.

That said I would get the $1,500 battery and run with it for another 18 months as you've likely hit a floor on the Leaf's resale value. Eighteen months of lease payments are $3,600 so you'd already be ahead even with some additional Leaf depreciation.

If the Model 3 materializes anywhere near the promised specs the rest of the industry will be having a fire sale. Bolts are already kind of piling up on lots and that situation won't improve if the Tesla shows up at its promised price point. Getting the new battery and waiting a year and a half would save money and give you more options IMO.

Thank you for the reply, holding on to it for more than 8 months does put me ahead of a lease.

Interesting - I didn't know those EPA figures were based on an extrapolation of the 80-100% charge. I just always assumed they took it at the full 100% charge. In your experience can you expect over 100 real world miles in a Soul EV?

With the understanding that high speed obliterates range on the Soul due to its boxy shape, yes it's easy to do more than 100 miles in a new Soul EV, especially if you're driving below 65 MPH.

The EPA for whatever reason decided that if there is an 80/100 charging option that the window sticker should reflect a 90% SOC. This is why the 2014 Leaf moved to mandatory 100% charging and the Spark and Fiat 500 only allow 100%. GM skirted this by making 90% an option via an obscure "hilltop reserve" setting and Tesla does so by allowing granular max SOC from 40%-100%.

The '17+ Soul EVs only allow 100% charging but as it's a compliance car they probably didn't want to spend the money re-certifying it just ahead of the 2018 with the larger battery (~30 kWh usable up from ~27 kWh usable). Rumored EPA range on that one is ~115 miles.

[rpmdk]

Thank you fotajoye and mtndrew1.

I think the wisest choice for me is to drive the LEAF another year and see what's available then.

It also keeps this LEAF on the road. Without the battery being replaced it's a car of very limited value. Now it can live a much longer and more productive life.

[JPWhite]

I was just approved to have an out of warranty battery replacement in my 2011 LEAF with a $1500 "copay".

That's a heck of a deal. Go for it. I had 88,000 miles on the clock, customer service didn't want to help me at all with out of warranty assistance.

I did replace my battery and the car is "good as new" with regard to range. I was down to about 50 miles of range, it's nice to not have to stop off at the Nissan dealer on a daily basis to get home.

Right now I'm waiting on a Model 3, probably be Q1 2018 before I see it.

[DaveinOlyWA]

I was just approved to have an out of warranty battery replacement in my 2011 LEAF with a $1500 "copay".

A couple days ago I would've been ecstatic. The plan was to get the battery replaced, drive around for a year or so and then get a LEAF2 or another longer range car on the market. It seems like next year the options get much more interesting. Hopefully I would recoup the costs by the value of the car going up at least $1500 covering the copay.

But, while I was wondering around dealership row waiting for my battery test to be complete a Kia salesman got me into a Soul EV (93 miles range). I swore I wouldn't get another EV unless it has a range, at the very least, greater than 100 miles. However, there are some very amazing deals at Kia right now. They offered me $3500 trade-in for the LEAF ( which at its current 55 mile range seems like quite a deal). I could be driving a new Soul for around $200/mo. lease.

I'm really not sure what to do now. I think I got very excited about a new car.

I'm weighing the pros and cons:

is 93 miles in a Kia Soul enough range?
more is always better but after riding around in my LEAF with 55 miles range, that seems like a lot.
With the new battery the LEAF will only have 84 miles range.

will the tax incentives still be there next year?
next year seems like a safe bet, but not much after that I reckon.

will I recoup the $1500 paid for the battery?
in 2018 will a 2011 LEAF with a relatively new battery be worth $5000 ($3500 trade-in + $1500).

pure vanity, but the Soul is marketed to a much younger crowd. Will this middle age guy feel a little silly cruising around in one of those gerbil mobiles?

Most likely I'll end up more confused, but if anyone has any thoughts I'd certainly appreciate it.

drive it conservatively and you will get 100 miles easily. The Soul has nearly the same size battery as the 30 kwh LEAF and 100 miles is doable at 70 mph in my LEAF. So you should be able to get 105-110 regularly and 120 if you want to with a bit of hypermiling

[GerryAZ]

$1500 makes the car you already own like new again. If you lease the Soul, you pay $200 per month and end up with no car when the lease ends. Are you sure you want to give up the LEAF? I am an old guy who likes the Soul and I might have purchased one if they had been available in AZ when I had to replace my 2011. The Soul EV is still not available here.