As the owner of a 9-bar car in Phoenix, I want to give my perspective on this battery lease program and the battery capacity warranty program. There were three main reasons why I purchased instead of leasing my Leaf:
1. Lease rates were high even with substantial down payments in June 2011.
2. I remembered images of people who leased EV1's trying to save them from being repossessed and crushed while those who purchased the original RAV4 EV's kept driving electric.
3. I intended to keep the car long enough to justify purchase instead of lease and I had a plan to use the old battery for backup power once the capacity dropped enough to need replacement. I anticipated that I would get 4 years on the original battery since I expected Phoenix to be harder on batteries than cooler climates even though Nissan indicated 80% remaining capacity after 5 years and 70% after 10 years with no temperature disclaimers.
When we began seeing early capacity loss last summer, I became concerned about the cost to keep my car on the road with adequate range for my daily needs. I became even more concerned when I found out there was no way to purchase either replacement modules or an entire replacement battery (at any price) and wondered what would happen if a battery were damaged due to road hazard or accident. The initial reaction to capacity loss by Nissan (normal, no problem) and their apparent surprise that owners would actually want to buy a battery added to my concerns about long-term use of my Leaf. I just kept driving and hoped that things would work out. Although there was some media attention in Phoenix, I believe that Tony's range test in September was the catalyst that forced Nissan to address premature capacity loss. Special thank you to Tony for organizing the test and to everyone else who participated--without this effort and the subsequent discussions on the My Nissan Leaf Forum keeping the capacity loss issue in the limelight, there would be no battery capacity warranty or replacement program.
The 9-bar capacity warranty and this battery replacement program (lease or rent, whatever it is called) are not perfect, but they do give me some assurance from Nissan that I will be able to keep driving my Leaf for a while. Since I am averaging about 1,000 miles per month, I will likely receive at least one battery replacement/refurbishment during the 5-year, 60,000-mile warranty. I don't want to give my battery away so I probably will not use this lease/rent program, but it is good to have as a worst-case alternative. At $100 per month for the battery lease combined with my off-peak power costs for charging, my total monthly "fuel" cost to drive the Leaf would be about the same as current gasoline costs for a similar-sized car.
When I reach the point a few years from now that I need to buy a new battery, I hope Nissan is willing to sell either a complete battery pack or 96 modules. If Nissan will not sell modules, I will be looking for aftermarket alternatives and will only use this lease program if there are no other options available.
Gerry
(owner of silver 679 in the range test)
1. Lease rates were high even with substantial down payments in June 2011.
2. I remembered images of people who leased EV1's trying to save them from being repossessed and crushed while those who purchased the original RAV4 EV's kept driving electric.
3. I intended to keep the car long enough to justify purchase instead of lease and I had a plan to use the old battery for backup power once the capacity dropped enough to need replacement. I anticipated that I would get 4 years on the original battery since I expected Phoenix to be harder on batteries than cooler climates even though Nissan indicated 80% remaining capacity after 5 years and 70% after 10 years with no temperature disclaimers.
When we began seeing early capacity loss last summer, I became concerned about the cost to keep my car on the road with adequate range for my daily needs. I became even more concerned when I found out there was no way to purchase either replacement modules or an entire replacement battery (at any price) and wondered what would happen if a battery were damaged due to road hazard or accident. The initial reaction to capacity loss by Nissan (normal, no problem) and their apparent surprise that owners would actually want to buy a battery added to my concerns about long-term use of my Leaf. I just kept driving and hoped that things would work out. Although there was some media attention in Phoenix, I believe that Tony's range test in September was the catalyst that forced Nissan to address premature capacity loss. Special thank you to Tony for organizing the test and to everyone else who participated--without this effort and the subsequent discussions on the My Nissan Leaf Forum keeping the capacity loss issue in the limelight, there would be no battery capacity warranty or replacement program.
The 9-bar capacity warranty and this battery replacement program (lease or rent, whatever it is called) are not perfect, but they do give me some assurance from Nissan that I will be able to keep driving my Leaf for a while. Since I am averaging about 1,000 miles per month, I will likely receive at least one battery replacement/refurbishment during the 5-year, 60,000-mile warranty. I don't want to give my battery away so I probably will not use this lease/rent program, but it is good to have as a worst-case alternative. At $100 per month for the battery lease combined with my off-peak power costs for charging, my total monthly "fuel" cost to drive the Leaf would be about the same as current gasoline costs for a similar-sized car.
When I reach the point a few years from now that I need to buy a new battery, I hope Nissan is willing to sell either a complete battery pack or 96 modules. If Nissan will not sell modules, I will be looking for aftermarket alternatives and will only use this lease program if there are no other options available.
Gerry
(owner of silver 679 in the range test)
