2017 Leaf S - My first EV

[woodenpickle]

Purchased a 2017 Leaf S with ~70,000 miles on it a month or so ago from a local Nissan dealer. We paid around $8500. This is my first EV, and I've learned a lot since buying it. We bought it for our daughter that turned 16 in February to drive to school and her after school activities, all close to home, so it works well for that. So far it's been fun, and I feel like it was a good option for our first EV. I definitely didn't add the roadside assistance option for it on our insurance initially... but the first time she called me saying something about a turtle light (the first week she drove it), and the range indicator just blinking dashes, I called the insurance and add it. Hadn't really thought about the fact that there's not an easy way to get the car back home to charge if it runs out of juice away from home. But that's the kind of stuff you learn about real quick with your first EV I'd imagine.

Anyway, when we charge it overnight, it shows a range of about 68-70 miles. Which really is plenty of range for what it gets used for, although it doesn't really feel like it gets that much range of actual driving. I've seen a lot about battery warranties on this forum, and it made me curious about ours. I don't remember how many bars are showing on the dash, but I just connected with LeafSpy Lite and it shows 65.01% SOH. I kind of feel like the dealer sold it to us knowing it was below the warranty threshold, so I'm thinking I will go bug them about it.

Anyway, this forum has been very helpful and informative, so thanks.

 

[Drew21]

The range estimate is a guess based on recent driving and so may not represent future driving.

As an example, my wife commutes roughly 35 miles roundtrip and charges mostly at work and sometimes at home. The last 4-5 miles to her work are downhill and then flat. The last 2 miles to our house are downhill. In both cases, the last driving our Leaf does before being charged is very efficient. After charging, our range estimate is biased by this recent highly efficient downhill coasting and therefore often shows more than 100 miles, which is not realistic for a 2014 (24 kWh) Leaf that recently dropped from 11 to 10 bars battery SOH. Once my wife leaves from home or work she immediately starts driving uphill and the range estimate drops precipitously because the Leaf is now calculating range based on inefficient uphill driving, Over the middle 10 miles of her commute, which is semi-rural rolling hills with 25-45 mph speed limits, the range estimate stops dropping and often starts to increase again.

Over time you learn to estimate your own range based on your driving style on your roads. If your daughter is bombing down the interstate at 80 mph, she won't get far in a Leaf with a degraded battery. If she's driving conservatively at lower speeds she will maximize range for whatever battery capacity her Leaf has left.

As for the dealership and battery warranties, it's worth talking to them. I can't remember how many SOH bars 65% battery capacity would be, but the battery warranty specifies 8 SOH bars over 8 years/100K miles.

 

[Araknai]

The range estimate is a guess based on recent driving and so may not represent future driving.

As an example, my wife commutes roughly 35 miles roundtrip and charges mostly at work and sometimes at home. The last 4-5 miles to her work are downhill and then flat. The last 2 miles to our house are downhill. In both cases, the last driving our Leaf does before being charged is very efficient. After charging, our range estimate is biased by this recent highly efficient downhill coasting and therefore often shows more than 100 miles, which is not realistic for a 2014 (24 kWh) Leaf that recently dropped from 11 to 10 bars battery SOH. Once my wife leaves from home or work she immediately starts driving uphill and the range estimate drops precipitously because the Leaf is now calculating range based on inefficient uphill driving, Over the middle 10 miles of her commute, which is semi-rural rolling hills with 25-45 mph speed limits, the range estimate stops dropping and often starts to increase again.

Over time you learn to estimate your own range based on your driving style on your roads. If your daughter is bombing down the interstate at 80 mph, she won't get far in a Leaf with a degraded battery. If she's driving conservatively at lower speeds she will maximize range for whatever battery capacity her Leaf has left.

As for the dealership and battery warranties, it's worth talking to them. I can't remember how many SOH bars 65% battery capacity would be, but the battery warranty specifies 8 SOH bars over 8 years/100K miles.

This one should be just about to lose its 9th bar and become an 8 bar.

 

[Araknai]

Purchased a 2017 Leaf S with ~70,000 miles on it a month or so ago from a local Nissan dealer. We paid around $8500. This is my first EV, and I've learned a lot since buying it. We bought it for our daughter that turned 16 in February to drive to school and her after school activities, all close to home, so it works well for that. So far it's been fun, and I feel like it was a good option for our first EV. I definitely didn't add the roadside assistance option for it on our insurance initially... but the first time she called me saying something about a turtle light (the first week she drove it), and the range indicator just blinking dashes, I called the insurance and add it. Hadn't really thought about the fact that there's not an easy way to get the car back home to charge if it runs out of juice away from home. But that's the kind of stuff you learn about real quick with your first EV I'd imagine.

Anyway, when we charge it overnight, it shows a range of about 68-70 miles. Which really is plenty of range for what it gets used for, although it doesn't really feel like it gets that much range of actual driving. I've seen a lot about battery warranties on this forum, and it made me curious about ours. I don't remember how many bars are showing on the dash, but I just connected with LeafSpy Lite and it shows 65.01% SOH. I kind of feel like the deal sold it to us knowing it was below the warranty threshold, so I'm thinking I will go bug them about it.

Anyway, this forum has been very helpful and informative, so thanks.

Did the turtle indicator show up suddenly before the battery was really low? Or did it just run down faster than expected?
I assume this happened in February?

In the cold the weaker cells in the pack will be unable to give adequate power under load and trip the turtle. In this scenario it will have plenty of capacity to continue driving a ways in the power limited turtle state.

 

[woodenpickle]

This one should be just about to lose its 9th bar and become an 8 bar.

Just ran out and checked it.. it's showing 8 bars. Does that mean the warranty may apply?

 

[woodenpickle]

Did the turtle indicator show up suddenly before the battery was really low? Or did it just run down faster than expected?
I assume this happened in February?

In the cold the weaker cells in the pack will be unable to give adequate power under load and trip the turtle. In this scenario it will have plenty of capacity to continue driving a ways in the power limited turtle state.

I honestly don't know.. my daughter was driving it. She had driven it around quite a bit that day, and we do live in Utah, so it was probably colder that day. I could ask her, but from what I remember, it wasn't sudden, seems like she said it was showing she had 7 miles, then it just went to 3 blinking dashes and the turtle showed up.

 

[Araknai]

Just ran out and checked it.. it's showing 8 bars. Does that mean the warranty may apply?

Yep, pretty sure it is now eligible. Might have a fight on your hands over it but recently I've been hearing more success stories on the warranty front. People talk about the dealer holding the car for months on end while they wait for evaluation of the case from headquarters, only to be offered a weak buyback deal. But it's definitely worth fighting for as you get a new 40kwh pack as replacement.

 

[Araknai]

I honestly don't know.. my daughter was driving it. She had driven it around quite a bit that day, and we do live in Utah, so it was probably colder that day. I could ask her, but from what I remember, it wasn't sudden, seems like she said it was showing she had 7 miles, then it just went to 3 blinking dashes and the turtle showed up.

I imagine this battery would work quite well for 9 months of the year for quite some time yet and give you trouble the other 3.

 

[woodenpickle]

I imagine this battery would work quite well for 9 months of the year for quite some time yet and give you trouble the other 3.

Right on.. yeah it seems like it runs out fairly slow in general. I drove it to my sisters place (about 13 miles away) a little after we bought it and it didn't seem to go down very fast. It's a good 5-6 miles of all downhill from my house to the interstate, then 4-5 miles of freeway, then around 3-4 miles through town to her place. And when I looked at it with LeafSpy the other day, all the cells looked pretty even. So yeah, I think you're right, it seems like it's been taken care of and should be alright. But I'll definitely try for the battery replacement if I can. We've got two more girls that'll be turning 16 over the next few years, so we'll need it for them.

As for the warranty thing, is it better to go through the dealer we bought it through (they're kinda jerks), or is it better to email Nissan directly to get things started? Also, I remember seeing something about whether we have the BMS update for 2016-2017 models or not. Do you know how I can tell that from LeafSpy?

 

[Araknai]

Right on.. yeah it seems like it runs out fairly slow in general. I drove it to my sisters place (about 13 miles away) a little after we bought it and it didn't seem to go down very fast. It's a good 5-6 miles of all downhill from my house to the interstate, then 4-5 miles of freeway, then around 3-4 miles through town to her place. And when I looked at it with LeafSpy the other day, all the cells looked pretty even. So yeah, I think you're right, it seems like it's been taken care of and should be alright. But I'll definitely try for the battery replacement if I can. We've got two more girls that'll be turning 16 over the next few years, so we'll need it for them.

As for the warranty thing, is it better to go through the dealer we bought it through (they're kinda jerks), or is it better to email Nissan directly to get things started? Also, I remember seeing something about whether we have the BMS update for 2016-2017 models or not. Do you know how I can tell that from LeafSpy?

This guy's walks through how to tell if you've got the firmware update. Letter C at the end of the battery PN reported in Leafspy.



As for the dealer, Idk if you even can go direct. But I've heard of people locally advising to go to a dealer on the opposite end of town vs the other. So maybe you have an option to go to a different one?

 

[woodenpickle]

This guy's walks through how to tell if you've got the firmware update. Letter C at the end of the battery PN reported in Leafspy.



As for the dealer, Idk if you even can go direct. But I've heard of people locally advising to go to a dealer on the opposite end of town vs the other. So maybe you have an option to go to a different one?

Cool.. there is another dealer in the county south of me (where I work) that I could hit up. I'll get things going and hope for the best.

 

[Hlillie]

This guy's walks through how to tell if you've got the firmware update. Letter C at the end of the battery PN reported in Leafspy.



As for the dealer, Idk if you even can go direct. But I've heard of people locally advising to go to a dealer on the opposite end of town vs the other. So maybe you have an option to go to a different one

Cool.. there is another dealer in the county south of me (where I work) that I could hit up. I'll get things going and hope for the best.

Thanks for sharing this video, spares us the headache of figuring out where to look for it!

 

[Bombastinator2]

Purchased a 2017 Leaf S with ~70,000 miles on it a month or so ago from a local Nissan dealer. We paid around $8500. This is my first EV, and I've learned a lot since buying it. We bought it for our daughter that turned 16 in February to drive to school and her after school activities, all close to home, so it works well for that. So far it's been fun, and I feel like it was a good option for our first EV. I definitely didn't add the roadside assistance option for it on our insurance initially... but the first time she called me saying something about a turtle light (the first week she drove it), and the range indicator just blinking dashes, I called the insurance and add it. Hadn't really thought about the fact that there's not an easy way to get the car back home to charge if it runs out of juice away from home. But that's the kind of stuff you learn about real quick with your first EV I'd imagine.

Anyway, when we charge it overnight, it shows a range of about 68-70 miles. Which really is plenty of range for what it gets used for, although it doesn't really feel like it gets that much range of actual driving. I've seen a lot about battery warranties on this forum, and it made me curious about ours. I don't remember how many bars are showing on the dash, but I just connected with LeafSpy Lite and it shows 65.01% SOH. I kind of feel like the dealer sold it to us knowing it was below the warranty threshold, so I'm thinking I will go bug them about it.

Anyway, this forum has been very helpful and informative, so thanks.

It does it very slowly though. A few percent an hour. This is ok for commuting because you can do it overnight, but you might wind up having to spend several hours at that library

 

[Bombastinator2]

Right on.. yeah it seems like it runs out fairly slow in general. I drove it to my sisters place (about 13 miles away) a little after we bought it and it didn't seem to go down very fast. It's a good 5-6 miles of all downhill from my house to the interstate, then 4-5 miles of freeway, then around 3-4 miles through town to her place. And when I looked at it with LeafSpy the other day, all the cells looked pretty even. So yeah, I think you're right, it seems like it's been taken care of and should be alright. But I'll definitely try for the battery replacement if I can. We've got two more girls that'll be turning 16 over the next few years, so we'll need it for them.

As for the warranty thing, is it better to go through the dealer we bought it through (they're kinda jerks), or is it better to email Nissan directly to get things started? Also, I remember seeing something about whether we have the BMS update for 2016-2017 models or not. Do you know how I can tell that from LeafSpy?

Hills and aero matter a lot. I live in Minnesota where it gets really cold in the winter. Out of the 145mi I had in the summer, I got an
Bout 125 below freezing and 99 below zero. Commuting was fine below zero, I just had to plug it in every day.