Late 2013 LEAF: 2017 and Onwards of Battery Data

[SageBrush]

When I bought our LEAF second hand in Jan 2017 it showed 64 Ahr battery capacity. This was almost certainly a reset and within 6 months the battery had settled down to ~ 90% SOH. The next 18 months the car lived in Colorado and since then it has lived in Albuquerque. Needless to say, Albuquerque is warmer. In ~ July of this year the car lost its 12th capacity bar when SOH was ~ 84%.

Regarding the data: For the most part I grab LeafSpy data about once a month and plop it into a spreadsheet. The following graph is that data.

Ignoring the gyrations through the seasons I seem to be losing ~ 0.5 kWh of capacity (about 2 miles of our type of driving range) a year. We are still able to use the car for our purposes by charging to 80% SoC so in effect we have a good 20% SoC buffer to rely on in the future when serious battery range loss has occurred. So far, no drama with the car and I remain somewhat optimistic that the car will give us another 5 years of (admittedly limited) service. Maintenance costs to date include wiper blade inserts and new tyres followed by an alignment. The OEM set had worn asymmetrically on the outsides.

Later battery updates are down-thread

 

[Lothsahn]

I too hope you get 5 years. Keep in mind that the car will start scaling back the regen braking as the battery degrades, which may cause your range loss to accelerate, even though it may help battery health.

 

[SageBrush2]

Another year, time for an update.
Battery aging has slowed down, but our use has been markedly affected by Covid-19 and I'm not sure how much that matters.

This LEAF will have her 7th birthday in October. As an American LEAF she has aged gracefully -- perhaps one of the top few percent and this is outside of the PNW. We do pamper her to unusual extremes but I think the larger truth is that we just got lucky with a better than typical quality battery.

 

[SageBrush]

Another year of LEAF data

My LEAF will be 8 years old in October.
The first 6 months on a dealer lot in CA,
then 2.5 years in Silicon Valley, then
2 years in SW Colorado and the last 3 years in New Mexico

Covid is still limiting car use. The most obvious effect is lower summer battery temperatures from the reduction in driving.
Latest SOH under 83%. 11 Cap bars. 5 - 6 temp bars in Covid summer

 

[alozzy]

Lucky you, I just dropped a bar - down to 10 now.

 

[DougWantsALeaf]

Your 13 has been excellent. In retrospect, I do wish we hadn't moved to 100% charging every night after year 1. When the 2014s came out without the 80% mode we thought, ah, it must be safe. It still took 5 and change years for the first bar to drop, but with care, bet we could have gotten another year out of that 12th bar.

 

[SageBrush]

In retrospect, I do wish we hadn't moved to 100% charging every night after year 1.

That has been on my mind lately. My wife wants more range. If I change the charge on the 24 kWh LEAF to 100% I accelerate degradation. If I swap the car to a new LEAF, same problem. I realize that I can mitigate the damage by keeping the time the battery spends at 100% SoC to a minimum but that is going to cause wifely annoyance.

I think my near term plan is to bump the car up to 100% SoC for this winter, and then next spring see about hooking our Grizzl-E up to wi-fi and controlling charging via Amp monitoring. Apps that support 'smart' home charging are just starting to show up. That solution means that each charge session becomes an App affair. Oddly, that bothers me more than my wife.