Nissan "Out-of-Warranty" support for battery pack degradation

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

rwherrick

Well-known member
Joined
May 14, 2011
Messages
50
Location
San Jose, CA
Hi Everyone,

I decided to start a new thread, since it was really hard to find any information on Nissan's "Out-of-Warranty" support on this forum. This mostly applies to 2011 and 2012 model Leaf owners, at least for now. Also, the discussion on all the existing threads implies that warranty battery replacement is an "all-or-nothing" affair: if your battery drops below 9 bars in 5 years and 60,000 miles, you get a free replacement, and if it drops a month or two later, you get nothing but the 90-day charging card (worth $25?). This is no longer true for many owners I know, as I will explain.

I first heard about Nissan's "out-of-warranty" program in the comments of another EV news site. My Leaf dropped the 4th bar at 48.4k miles and 66 months, so it seemed worth filing a claim. I called the toll-free EV number (1-877-NO GAS EV, or 1-877-664-2738), and requested the "out-of-warranty" assistance. You need your VIN, current mileage, how old the car is (they can look that up), and answer a number of other questions. It takes about 10 minutes to open a case. They then pull your service records, and look at the car history - something that takes about 3 business days. If you lost the 4th bar just after the warranty expired, and took good care of the car, including having regular service performed, got the battery tests done, and got favorable scores on them, you have a reasonable chance of getting pro-rated support from Nissan.

In my case, they picked up 75% of the cost, and I paid the other 25% of the cost, which was $1,564 plus tax. My friend lost his 4th bar at 61 months and 51.1k miles, and didn't miss any service appointments for the regular service. Nissan picked up 90% of the replacement cost of his battery, so he'll only have to pay 10%. The pro-rated settlements are not rare, and they've done a number of them at dealerships all over our area for owners of 2011 cars that have just passed the 5-year warranty limit. I would encourage anyone who has lost the 4th bar shortly after the warranty limit, and has kept up on the service, to consider filing a claim, and seeing if they can get partial support.

This has really improved my impression of Nissan. Like many other forum members, I felt like they had walked away from the brand (after investing $6.4B in the product launch), and were failing to support their product. Like others, I was planning on never buying another Nissan product again if all I got was the charging card, and had to buy a replacement battery in half the time it should have lasted. But after this pro-rated post-warranty support, I feel like it's a fair settlement. Hopefully in time, Nissan will be able to rebuild the reputation of the Leaf, and match the lower battery degradation numbers most other car manufacturers are obtaining. I'm glad the newer Leafs also have a better battery warranty on them.

- Bob
 
rwherrick said:
Hi Everyone,
Hopefully in time, Nissan will be able to rebuild the reputation of the Leaf, and match the lower battery degradation numbers most other car manufacturers are obtaining. I'm glad the newer Leafs also have a better battery warranty on them.
- Bob
I suspect they decided to unofficially extend the warranty on the older ones to match the newer ones on the pro-rated basis for customer retention. That, and the fact that the battery has an 8 year warranty to not go 100% out on you, I'm sure that the vagueness of the 8 year warranty might make them open to some legal action like happened before under the 5 year warranty. It's easy to see in the new warranty matches the terms of the class action settlement for the older ones.

That said, if I don't get a warranty replacement on mine before it hits the 5 year, 60,000 mile mark, and I am able to get an out of warranty replacement pro-rated, I certainly will keep my Leaf probably to 2020, or 2022. We just had the transmission replaced on our 2014 Nissan Versa (CVT version) at 45,000 miles. If the transmission hadn't just been replaced, we were planning on getting rid of it before the 60,000 mile mark due to problems with it. Now we may consider keeping it purely for long distance trips and getting another EV as my wife's main ride.

Hopefully Nissan is deciding to pay more attention to customer retention.
 
Like I said in the other thread you were lucky.

Nissan has denied plenty of out-of-warranty assistance to people just outside of warranty, like me and didn't give me any indication that they cared about me as a customer.
 
I took my 2011 LEAF in for its five year battery check. I have lost three capacity bars. The service advisor strongly encouraged me to bring it back when I lost the fourth bar. Said they we're doing partial payments for battery replacements. I was happily surprised by this and plan to do so when the time comes. If it is true, I will also feel much better about Nissan than I did before.
 
Apparently I've stayed away from the forum too long. I didn't realize people were getting out of warranty assistance.

I got one of the first 500 LEAFs back in 2011. I babied the battery as much as I could, and my reward was dropping the 4th bar 3 months after the warranty expired. I just called the NO-GAS line. For them to proceed with a case I need to get another battery test which will cost around $100. Before I spend that money I wanted to see if people have been having much luck going this route.
 
I called the 877 Nissan number and spoke to Brian about my battery (down 4 bars at 50,000 miles). The car is 6 years and 4 months old, so way out of warranty. He said I needed to get a battery test before he could help me, but hinted that they would offer to help in some way (no promises). Had test done locally for $79, and sent him the results. He came back in 3 days with an 80/20% deal (I pay 20% for the replacement). I'm in the process of getting it ordered now...

So, by all means, call the 877 no gas ev number and see what they'll do. They seem to be helping several folks out locally with a similar deal, so that's good news....
 
drees said:
Like I said in the other thread you were lucky.

Nissan has denied plenty of out-of-warranty assistance to people just outside of warranty, like me and didn't give me any indication that they cared about me as a customer.
Seems worth your time to try again.
 
These reports of a quasi pro-rata warranty are VERY welcome news. I sure hope that Nissan makes it official and published.
 
SageBrush said:
drees said:
Like I said in the other thread you were lucky.

Nissan has denied plenty of out-of-warranty assistance to people just outside of warranty, like me and didn't give me any indication that they cared about me as a customer.
Seems worth your time to try again.

The old story that "if you don't get the answer you want from one phone agent, hang up and call another one" would be applicable here
 
SageBrush said:
These reports of a quasi pro-rata warranty are VERY welcome news. I sure hope that Nissan makes it official and published.

+1 This is great news and a welcome change of heart on Nissan's behalf. Glad to see them finally looking after their early adopters.
 
OrientExpress said:
The old story that "if you don't get the answer you want from one phone agent, hang up and call another one" would be applicable here
I tried that the first time with no luck, they came back with the same answer. I was going to wait until the car dropped another bar (should be another 2-3 months or so), but maybe I'll try again. Getting LBW after 35 miles really sucks. I hit LBW every other day now. First year I think I hit LBW like 3 times total!

Congrats Randy on getting the 80/20% deal!

Aussie said:
SageBrush said:
These reports of a quasi pro-rata warranty are VERY welcome news. I sure hope that Nissan makes it official and published.
+1 This is great news and a welcome change of heart on Nissan's behalf. Glad to see them finally looking after their early adopters.
I would not hold your breath. I was hopeful, even august last August when I asked for out-of-warranty assistance. There have been reports of out-of-warranty assistance from Nissan for at least a year and even before the Klee settlement Nissan was replacing battery packs for Arizona owners. The baffling and frustrating part about the process is that there appears to be no clear determination as to what the criteria for granting any out-of warranty is.
 
This looks encouraging BUT, in my own case my 1 (almost to 2 bar) down car could no longer reliably handle my daily work commute so couldn't imagine what it would be once it was at 4 down; although I've got AAA for towing, being late for work, etc. or staking out the public charger access would have been too much of a PITA. This bodes well with whoever might have ended up with my '12 SL though --- I can still remember years ago saying to those who worked for me with 2nd-hand beater cars that always made them late for work --- get something reliable that you can trust to get you to work on time --- my LEAF would have NOT unfortunately been that car sorry to say so unless I opted for an outright on-my-own-dime battery replacement, which seemed liked throwing money away (still have not seen much on the 'value' increasing vs not on resale values) those who can wait for this must be in the minority (very low daily driving needs) but pleased to see that at least some are taking Nissan to task on extending the usability of their cars ---
 
SageBrush said:
Durandal said:
[That, and the fact that the battery has an 8 year warranty to not go 100% out on you,
What does this mean ?
On the 24kWh models, while there is the 5 year battery capacity warranty, there is an 8 year warranty against complete failure. That doesn't mean 1 bar or 2 bars, but just completely dead, won't even go down the road for 1 mile at speed.
 
Durandal said:
SageBrush said:
Durandal said:
[That, and the fact that the battery has an 8 year warranty to not go 100% out on you,
What does this mean ?
On the 24kWh models, while there is the 5 year battery capacity warranty, there is an 8 year warranty against complete failure. That doesn't mean 1 bar or 2 bars, but just completely dead, won't even go down the road for 1 mile at speed.
I'm reasonably sure that the 8 year warranty you speak of is for defects in workmanship. It is most certainly not a warranty against aging, but it is also not a distance warranty even though defects would typically be identified by range loss.

There was a thread here a couple months ago of a new 30 kWh LEAF that came from the manufacturer with a weak cell that lead to range of about 30 miles. Nissan originally refused warranty care but eventually someone was found at corporate with a few brain cells remaining who realized this was a manufacturing defect and replaced the battery.
 
Randy said:
I called the 877 Nissan number and spoke to Brian about my battery (down 4 bars at 50,000 miles). The car is 6 years and 4 months old, so way out of warranty. He said I needed to get a battery test before he could help me, but hinted that they would offer to help in some way (no promises). Had test done locally for $79, and sent him the results. He came back in 3 days with an 80/20% deal (I pay 20% for the replacement). I'm in the process of getting it ordered now...

So, by all means, call the 877 no gas ev number and see what they'll do. They seem to be helping several folks out locally with a similar deal, so that's good news....



That's encouraging. Maybe I'll fork over the money for a test.
Thank you
 
While I don't see it happening, I'd appreciate a cut-rate deal from Nissan on a replacement battery pack (ideally with 30+ kWh). That would enable us to use the LEAF a lot more.

The "trouble" is, our LEAF is only missing two capacity bars (though it seems pretty close to dropping a third bar), but its reduced range and crippled regen make it impractical for a good fraction of our routine driving. So it stays in our cool mountain environment and is used only for shorter drives (virtually no trips off the mountain, just used within our local mountain communities). As a result, the battery capacity is dropping at a very slow rate; it's possible that it will be missing only three capacity bars when it reaches eight years old. Admittedly, it's been a couple of years since I've bothered taking it down the mountain for a battery check.

Part of our issue is that the 24 kWh pack was sort of marginal for us from the beginning. But in early 2011, the 24 kWh LEAF was the only "mass market" EV with room for five people, so we did our best to make it work for quite a while.

Buying a used Tesla last year was helpful to me in recalibrating my expectations for our aging, greatly-depreciated LEAF. Now that we have an EV with lots of range and Supercharging, the LEAF is filling the role of a "second car" pretty well. Sure, it won't go far, but it's pretty low maintenance and it has more value to us than it would have on the used car market.
 
abasile said:
Part of our issue is that the 24 kWh pack was sort of marginal for us from the beginning. But in early 2011, the 24 kWh LEAF was the only "mass market" EV with room for five people, so we did our best to make it work for quite a while.

Buying a used Tesla last year was helpful to me in recalibrating my expectations for our aging, greatly-depreciated LEAF. Now that we have an EV with lots of range and Supercharging, the LEAF is filling the role of a "second car" pretty well. Sure, it won't go far, but it's pretty low maintenance and it has more value to us than it would have on the used car market.
Exactly my assessment -- the 24 - 30 kWh LEAF is a great second car to have for local commuter duties. After a bar or two are lost, any notion of the car being more useful than that are dispelled.

Nissan's problem is getting people to pay $30k for a commuter.
 
Several owners here took Nissan to BBB arbitration for the battery issues past warranty expiration and got a new pack for free. Hopefully Nissan has finally realized that spitting the cost is a better deal.
 
I finally prevailed in convincing Nissan to provide out-of-warranty assistance to replace my battery pack!

A new lizard pack is in the car now and the car feels almost new again. Drove almost 70 miles from 80% to almost VLBW to test it out (though I think the 80% charge was actually a bit more than 80% as the cell voltages seemed a bit high at 4.04-4.05 V for 80%) - that was at a mediocre 4.2 mi/kWh.

Battery took in 23.74 kWh from the wall according to Blink charging back up to 100%, so it will should take in about 25 kWh from the wall from turtle to 100% which is what you'd expect from a new 24 kWh battery. Regenerative braking is back to normal and efficiency appears to be up a decent amount thanks to the improved regenerative braking along with less voltage droop under load.

History:

Apr 2010 - Reserved
Jun 2011 - Delivered
Sep 2013 - 12th bar gone 22k mi
Nov 2014 - 11th bar gone 33k mi
Oct 2015 - 10th bar gone 43k mi
Aug 2016 - 9th bar gone 53k mi - out of warranty assistance denied
May 2017 - 8th bar gone 61k mi - re-started quest to get out of warranty assistance
Aug 2017 - out of warranty assistance granted!

Contrary to what we were originally led to believe, there does not appear to be any "glide path" with regards to rate of capacity loss. If anything it seemed to accelerate. Also, even here in San Diego's mild climate the rate of capacity loss is about double what Nissan said to expect.
 
Back
Top