Explanation of Dash and Battery Indicator

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ROWEKMR

Member
Joined
Sep 16, 2017
Messages
8
Location
Chicago, IL
I considered a Leaf awhile back but after briefly driving a plug in hybrid I really want to learn more before I buy. I read about bars of battery status that is used to determine the 5 yr 60k miles battery warranty (degradation). I haven't seen one yet in person but looking at the pictures of the dash for some that are for sale I am not sure I see it. What I do see is like a semi circle string of 14 connected circles and under that it says power.On the left side is a graph that has picture of battery and right side is graph with picture of plug in charger. In the middle there is a graph depicting battery with percentage inside. I am sorry for such a newbie question but could someone explain the meaning and importance of the difference graphs on the dash.
Thanks
 
For the purposes of looking at capacity bars, look at the thinnest bars all the way on the right. The red ones count.

http://www.electricvehiclewiki.com/File:Scott_3_bars_s.jpg is an example of a fully charged 3 capacity bar loser (9 capacity bars remaining).

If you want to learn more about the dash, d/l the manuals from https://owners.nissanusa.com/nowners/navigation/manualsGuide. For the '13 owner's manual, see pages 2-5 thru 2-10. 2-10 discusses the capacity indicator I already pointed you to.

http://www.electricvehiclewiki.com/Battery#Battery_Capacity_Behavior was a table of what each bar represented in the '11 service manual. It was removed in later model years' service manuals, for unknown reasons.
 
Essentially you are looking for 12 bars.
If you want to know a lot more you should consider investing in an Android/IOS app called LeafSpy (Pro) that uses an inexpensive device called an OBDll and can give you a lot more information about the health status of the battery. This is a very cheap investment, especially considering the cost and outcome.
 
Also consider than many if not most older 12 bar cars are about to lose that 12th bar, so assume for the sake of range estimation that any pre-2015 12 bar Leaf has 11 full bars. That translates to a solid 85% of new capacity, plus a few percent more if 12 bars are showing and the car hasn't been tampered with to falsely show 12.
 
Regarding tampering (reset), there are numerous examples like http://daveinolywa.blogspot.com/2014/11/buyers-beware-this-is-must-read.html and http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=489807#p489807 (see posts in that thread by AntronX).

Unfortunately, from what we've seen, Leaf Spy won't help with that either as the SOH and Hx hours will also be inflated until the car re-learns the battery. It is crucial to get a Carfax/Autocheck to see where the car resided to see if the bars and Leaf Spy readings make sense for the previous climate and build month of the car.
 
And speaking of build month: do NOT buy a Leaf built before April of 2013, unless it either has a new pack from a warranty replacement, or you don't need more than 30 miles of range under poor conditions. Leafs built before then have much worse batteries.
 
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