lorenfb said:
But many early adopters, e.g. Leaf buyers, were naive when purchasing a product with a total reliance on a battery,
i.e. most who have owned a consumer product (laptop) for the last 25+ years with a battery should have been aware
of its inherent problem - battery degradation.
What you call naivety I call good faith expectations built on the foundation of official statements by Nissan spokespeople. For example.
Nissan Official Video: Nissan LEAF In Depth Battery Performance. Mar 6, 2012
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DShtvd5jJHQ
Robert Brown and Mark Perry of Nissan.
1:00 Mark Perry: The battery from a chemistry standpoint over a 10 year life you will have about 70-80% capacity left after 10 years.
1:57 Mark Perry: Some people are always worried about (and I understand the worry) that I’m going to have to replace their entire battery pack, the chances of that happening are almost zero.
Nissan Official Video – Nissan LEAF Tour Questions and Answers - Battery Replacement Feb 9, 2012
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s4rX3saPUw
When will the Nissan LEAF battery need to be replaced? Juan E.
Spokesperson: The Battery will NOT have to be replaced after a couple of years, in fact the battery pack is meant to last at least 10 years or 100,000 miles, could be much longer depending on how you drive.
Andy Palmer and Chelsea Sexton Discuss the Nissan LEAF. October 4th 2012.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1tfX7fRWPI
Anticipated Battery Life
1:03 Andy Palmer: After 5 years of normal usage you’d be at 80% state of health and at 10 years in you’d be at 70%. You can see it’s basically Non-Linear.
Battery Replacement Likelihood.
6:45 Andy Palmer: When we developed the motor car we couldn’t imagine a scenario where you replaced the battery.
7:09 Andy Palmer: At Nissan we are very confident in the technology, but there was a requirement from some customers to buy. In that instance seen from Tokyo in the development process the only reason you’d replace a battery is if something went wrong with the battery in which case Nissan would replace it under its 8 year warranty scheme. Period.
7:50 Andy Palmer: We never imagined there would be a customer, and apparently there is, that after 5 years they would want to bring their battery back up to state of health of 100%. And therefore buy a battery.
Page Break
Goodwill
9:15 Chelsea Sexton: How are you dealing with the goodwill issue? Is there going to be a broad goodwill remedy for owners?
9:26 Andy Palmer answers: So far the number of people dissatisfied is relatively small. We deal with complaints and we take complaints seriously. We deal with them on a customer by customer basis. The famous seven customers in Arizona we’ve basically dealt with those customers and in some cases have taken goodwill actions. We’ll continue to try and engage customer by customer.
10:17 Chelsea Sexton: I know you’ve been dealing with some customers on a case by case basis for the Phoenix issue, but is there going to be a broader remedy for those who still love their LEAF’s but are concerned that one day this issue will be their issue?
10:38 Andy Palmer answers: If you look around the world at the LEAF, LEAF has a 5 year warranty on the battery. Everywhere except the United States where we have an 8 year warranty. We did that in the United States not because we had to but because other hybrid vehicles have a mandated 8 years warranty so we decided to put a 8 year warranty. The assumption was that it was competitive in all ways.