185 100% charge GIDS for battery replacement

I thought I'd share some math on the battery warranty.

My understanding of Nissan's battery loss warranty is it warrants the car to be able to go 70% of original range for the first 5 years. The original maximum full charge capacity for a LEAF is around 281 GIDS. Turtle is around 5 GIDS, so that's 276 usable GIDS. 70% of that plus adding back the 5 minimum would be 198 GIDS at max charge.

If I consult the handy Nissan Leaf Range Chart, 281 GIDS at 60MPH -> 82 miles. 198 GIDS at 60MPH -> ~60 miles, or 73% of original range.

Backing out the other way, 70% of 82 miles is 57 miles. The range chart says ~193 GIDS will get you that far.

Consulting LEAF owner survey data I found online awhile back, 188 max GIDS is the bottom of the range for 9 battery bars. For 8 battery bars, folks had 184 100% charge GIDS. These cars are from hot places, have 40k miles or more, and were made in early 2011.

For reference, I have a 2012 that is halfway through battery bar 11 with 27k miles from moderate climates. My max GIDS is ~225, max range is 65 miles of normal mixed driving.

Don't count on a firm Gid total to erase the 4th capacity bar, but your calculated number is in the right neighborhood. Battery Amp hours at 100% charge have ranged from the lower 42s to upper 43s. Your mileage may vary.

werdnawerdna said:

...My understanding of Nissan's battery loss warranty is it warrants the car to be able to go 70% of original range for the first 5 years. The original maximum full charge capacity for a LEAF is around 281 GIDS. Turtle is around 5 GIDS, so that's 276 usable GIDS. 70% of that plus adding back the 5 minimum would be 198 GIDS at max charge...

Click to expand...

Not quite. Nissan bases the battery capacity warranty on losing four capacity bars. To the best of our knowledge the first capacity bar represents a 15% loss and subsequent bars are 6.25% each. This information came from an early 2011 LEAF service manual but was later confirmed by Nissan, IIRC. So, 100% - 15% - 6.25% - 6.25% - 6.25% = 66.25%

Yes, 66% is pretty close to 70% (but the battery will need to be below that number for a time before that fourth bar will drop, due to hysteresis). So that might affect your numbers a bit.

I would like to share som of my info / concerns :

Quite misleading that the they say " 80% guaranteed for the first 5 years."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Leaf :
"The 24 kWh electric vehicle battery (total capacity; usable battery capacity is about 21.3kWh [32][33]) consists of 48 modules and each module contains four battery cells, a total of 192 cells, ..."

"The 2011/12 Leaf's battery was initially guaranteed by Nissan for eight years or 160,000 km (100,000 miles)[40][41] (see Warranty sub-section below under United States for limitations)."

I am now on 17,7kWh according to LeafSpy Pro . missing 1 bar, SOH ( State of Health) according to this app 85%
Calculated from about 21.3kWh usability its 83% so calculation is close enough.

It seems like the Nissan leaf is losing 1% every 5000km. I testdrove a mk2 brand new leaf for >3000km reaching 6k it was on SOH 99%.
I checked my own picture taken from the app and after 5k km I dropped from 86% to my latest 85% SOH.

According to my original though on guarentee I would possibly reach 80% SOH in 25000 km ( 1 year ) reaching over 3 yrs of driving possibly and 90.000km.

So this would mean I get a replacement battery?

Not according to the 9/12 bars ( 70% ) statement here on the blog...

I need to get more information....

With Kind Regards,

Edwin


( End 2012 mk1, 62000km, 11/12 bars)

MyNissanLeaf said:

Quite misleading that the they say " 80% guaranteed for the first 5 years."

Click to expand...

No one has ever said that. 80% was an "estimate", few cars will fall within that estimate. Your battery will qualify for a warranty replacement after you lose 4 capacity bars or almost 34% capacity, and only if it happens within 5 years/60,000 miles.

^ As stated above, there is only one metric that matters when it comes to the capacity warranty - you must be down to 8 capacity bars within the 5 year, 60,000 mile capacity warranty. You're wasting your time and energy fretting over any other metric.

For the OP - I'm down to 181 Gids and am yet to loose bar 9.

Thank you all for the enlightenment.

Nice discussion and good references.

Ultimately, what matters for the owner is to have some knowledge regarding if and maybe when their Leaf battery might fall under warranty replacement and the math in this discussion helps provide one with some ballpark orientations.

We're currently sitting at 9 bars and 45 amp hours with a warranty expiration of October of this year, so it is useful for us to have some referents whether they be GIDs or the GOM or Amp Hours. Do we purchase a new battery, (this is where I think we will end up given our current amp hour reading) or do we wait until October... the data helps one make a decision. I appreciate the posts.

From what I've read on this forum, the bellow indicators might mean you are on the way to capacity loss for warranty replacement. Good information to look out for to help owners decide what to do next.

43 to 42 Amp Hours
55 miles on the GOM
185 GIDs