Nissan LEAF Update from Andy Palmer

[JPWhite]

Fair enough, for what its worth lets assume you even get 12 bars after replacement but why would they tie in the number of bars to the warranty? In this all-digital world Im surprised that they did not opt to go for an absolute measurement of the battery capacity. Think there is any spin to that?

Richard on the EVTV clip pondered the same question. I wonder why there isn't a percentage available on the touchscreen in the center console.

The LEAF is capable of reminding you to take the car in for service and you can check on service intervals/reset them etc on the touch-panel. Why not have a service icon appear in the dash when the capacity drops below 70% informing you take the car in for service. It could be set to expire at 60,000 miles. It's just software, a software update could be performed at the next battery check. They need to address the accuracy of the capacity gauge anyways.

 

[ronwright38]

This is Jeff from Nissan.

Today I'm bringing you a note from Andy Palmer, Executive Vice President, Nissan Motor Company. In this letter, Andy addresses issues that you – LEAF owners and members of the mynissanleaf.com community – have brought to us through the forum, discussions and our dealers.

The first thing about this note is that it is formal, to say the least. I understand this, as does Andy. In his note to me earlier this morning, he said that it was “understandably formal”, but he asked if we could provide a more friendly and engaging introduction (that's what I'm attempting to do here). I hope that you can appreciate why the letter is in the more “formal” style. It has to be. We live in a world where every word is parsed and dissected by lawyers and regulators. Andy is addressing issues in this note that relate to regulated and contractual matters, issues that are regulated by hundreds of different organizations in the various countries where we sell the Nissan LEAF. That said, understand that Andy has signed this note.

The second thing about this note is what it is not. It is not a notice for any owner to take action at this time. In this letter, Andy announces changes to Nissan’s LEAF warranty coverage that will go into effect during the Spring of 2013. Why does it take so long to implement the changes? It will take time to formally notify each customer, as is necessary by regulation in most, if not all of the countries where we sell the LEAF. Also, we need to insure that every dealer is prepared to welcome and assist a customer when they arrive at the dealership.

Finally, in this note Andy does not attempt to address every question that you have raised. Foremost, he wants to announce the warranty changes that will be coming in the next few months. He realizes that there are other issues to address.

I want to take this opportunity to announce that we will host an open house in the Phoenix area on Tuesday, January 8th. I am working with Tim Gallagher, who I think most of the west coast MNL people know well, to arrange this event. I will come back to you shortly with the details, but you can count on Andy Palmer attending, as will Billy Hayes, the newly appointed Vice President of Global Sales for the Nissan LEAF. Tim, Dave Reuter and I also will be there. Just as a heads up, this may be a breakfast event due to the various schedules that we’re attempting to juggle. If so, we would start at around 8 or 8:30 a.m. Let me know your thoughts on that. Tentative location is the Valley Ho in Scottsdale. Tim will have a quick charger on hand for those who require it.

In line with the Phoenix event, Chelsea – as a part of her advisory board efforts – has asked a few member to help ensure that the right questions are asked. I believe that Tony Williams and Phil Sadow are among those she is working with on that topic.

I didn’t intend for this “introduction” to be so long, but I think that we had a number of issues to cover. Below is Andy’s note. I look forward to your comments on it, on the event and on other issues that you would like to bring to me.

Let me close with my best wishes to every one for a happy and health New Year.

Cheers!

Jeff

______________________________________________________
Special announcement regarding the Nissan LEAF
from Andy Palmer, executive vice president, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.


Good morning and Happy Holidays to all our Nissan LEAF owners in the U.S. and abroad.

As we approach the close of 2012, I wanted to provide an update on a subject that has interested a number of Nissan LEAF drivers in the U.S. desert southwest and select other markets. I’m speaking, of course, about concerns regarding the rate of battery capacity loss in the Nissan LEAF’s Lithium-ion battery.

My comments today will be specific to Nissan LEAFs in the U.S., but the actions I will explain will apply and be specifically communicated to each owner worldwide in the coming months in accordance with applicable law.

Throughout the latter half of this year, our technical teams have worked diligently to ensure that the batteries installed in Nissan LEAFs were operating to specification. As we’ve gone through this process, we have listened to your concerns, and have communicated with you in various ways, including through the MyNissanLEAF owners’ forum and other third parties.

Nissan has been taking your concerns very seriously, yet we know that some of you have not been satisfied with the pace of our support activities. Since launch, the Nissan LEAF has garnered some of the highest customer advocacy of any vehicle in the Nissan lineup, so we understand the importance of maintaining and growing that advocacy. And the only way to do that is by earning a high level of customer trust in our product and our support of it.

Simply put, we want to take actions which will further improve our customers’ satisfaction with their Nissan LEAFs while demonstrating industry-leading confidence in the integrity of our battery system. Nissan is fully committed to the long-term viability of electric vehicles and we will continue to demonstrate that with action.

So today, we are announcing that we are enhancing the warranty coverage of the battery system that powers the Nissan LEAF electric vehicle. With this action, Nissan becomes the first and only manufacturer in the automotive industry to provide limited warranty coverage for battery capacity loss for electric vehicles.

Under an expanded New Electric Vehicle Limited Warranty, Nissan will protect against capacity loss in LEAF batteries that fall below nine bars, of the available 12 bars displayed on the vehicle’s battery capacity gauge, for the first five years or 60,000 miles in the United States, whichever comes first. For LEAF vehicles whose batteries have fallen below nine bars during this period, Nissan will repair or replace the battery under warranty with a new or remanufactured battery to restore capacity at or above a minimum of nine bars.

A vehicle whose battery has nine remaining bars indicated on the gauge is retaining approximately 70 percent of its original battery capacity. This new limited warranty coverage remains subject to the other terms, conditions and exclusions of the Nissan New Electric Vehicle Limited Warranty, which otherwise remain unchanged.

As previously mentioned, we are also looking at opportunities to improve the precision of the battery capacity gauge that displays remaining capacity in the LEAFs electric vehicle battery, and intend to have more to report on this topic in the New Year.

The specifics of this new limited warranty coverage will be communicated to each owner in a dedicated communication early next year. The expanded warranty coverage will apply in the United States to the upcoming Model Year 2013 Nissan LEAF upon its release. Importantly, Nissan will provide this expanded coverage to all model year 2011 and 2012 Nissan LEAFs sold and distributed by Nissan in the United States to date, effective upon a date to be announced but which is anticipated to be in the Spring of 2013.

Our actions today are intended to put customer minds at ease regarding the topic of battery capacity loss. Even though it is expected the great majority of owners will never have to use this enhanced warranty, we want each Nissan LEAF owner to have the security that should capacity loss exceed this defined threshold, Nissan will cover the repair or replacement of their battery under warranty.

I’m certain that there will be questions regarding the specifics of what we’ve announced here today. The attached ‘Q&A’ is intended to address some of those, although our dialogue on this subject will not end here. We intend to continue communicating with LEAF owners and we hope to add more information early in the New Year.

Also, many of you may have heard about or already read a recent LEAF customer survey that Plug-In America (PIA) administered. The survey, available here, is a valuable read for any LEAF owner concerned about the performance of their electric vehicle battery. I would encourage every LEAF owner to digest PIA’s data, which came from over 240 vehicles, with contributions from over 25 states, two Canadian provinces, and the UK, representing over 3 million miles driven.

Finally, in early January, we will also announce the details of the new, model year 2013 Nissan LEAF for the U.S. As many of you know, this vehicle – and the batteries that power it – will be built right here in the United States at our plant in Smyrna, Tennessee. There are exciting changes coming with the 2013 Nissan LEAF, and we can’t wait to tell you about them very soon.

In the meantime, Happy New Year to each of you, and thank you again for your advocacy and support of the electric vehicle movement.
Hi I live in Arizona and would like to go to the meeting on the 8th can some one get more info. on where it will be held and what time??
Ron wright E-mail at [email protected] Thank You.

Best Regards,

Andy Palmer
Executive Vice President – Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.

 

[palmermd]

Ron, your posts are all impossible to read because you keep putting your text into other quotes...people do not have the time to go back to the original post and compare to see what you added. This particular case was much easier that your other posts, but you should go back to all your posts and clean them up for ease of reading.

 

[evchels]

Mtg details here: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=11057&start=80#p255674" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Also emailed to Ron directly.

 

[ronwright38]

Ron, your posts are all impossible to read because you keep putting your text into other quotes...people do not have the time to go back to the original post and compare to see what you added. This particular case was much easier that your other posts, but you should go back to all your posts and clean them up for ease of reading.

How do you reply to the Quote? New to this.

 

[Herm]

Course had Nissan started at the Infiniti end of the market I'd still be driving a dino burner, so I'm personally glad they did what they did and I have my LEAF, just think it was a strategic error on their part.

Price the Infiniti version it the same as the current version.. perhaps add $200 worth of soft padded plastics, better carpet, seat fabrics etc.. The Leaf is pretty luxurious as it is.

 

[Reddy]

Ron, your posts are all impossible to read because you keep putting your text into other quotes...people do not have the time to go back to the original post and compare to see what you added. This particular case was much easier that your other posts, but you should go back to all your posts and clean them up for ease of reading.

How do you reply to the Quote? New to this.

Ron, hit the "Quote" button at the right, bottom of the person's post. Then add your response text to the BOTTOM of the message AFTER the last "{/quote}". Then your message should show up below everyone else's. You can also "Preview" your message prior to hitting "Submit". This should help. After a while, you'll start to see the pattern in the above quoted messages. Then, you can add your own in between or with added colors to help people read. When just starting out, it's best to keep things short and simple.
Reddy

 

[DesertDenizen]

Another thing I do is if it is a long previous post I am quoting I delete most of it. If you just quote the first line or two, readers will understand what it is you address.

 

[cwerdna]

Ron, your posts are all impossible to read because you keep putting your text into other quotes...people do not have the time to go back to the original post and compare to see what you added. This particular case was much easier that your other posts, but you should go back to all your posts and clean them up for ease of reading.

Yep. Whenever I see posts like that here or anywhere else, I skip them.

Can be too difficult and time consuming for people to figure out if anything is different. Sometimes, the person who replied has changed and added NOTHING.

 

[JRP3]

Unfortunately Jack still seems to be in denial that the packs have lost any actual capacity, and as usual blames it all on a faulty BMS :roll:

which one is jack. i assume the skinny guy and not the beer drinker.

Skinny???? You mean less overweight? No, Jack is the one carrying the keg around his waist, and blaming the range problems on the BMS instead of any actual capacity loss.
My preferred viewing method is to download the video and play it back in VLC player at double, sometimes triple speed. Makes it sound like normal human speech.

 

[cwerdna]

First question regarding this statement.... how will this be communicated to owners of Pre-Owned/Used LEAFs? Nissan Corporate has no idea who I am and that I own a LEAF. I was told by the dealership where I took my car for it's one year battery checkup that the information about my ownership of the car is not communicated with Corporate by the dealership. The dealership has that info based on my service request, but they specifically told me they don't share that information with Corporate. And since I didn't purchase my car directly from Nissan, it causes me concern that I will not get the limited warranty coverage information communicated to me directly by Nissan.

Second, and more importantly... WILL this coverage be in effect for the car, no matter if it is the original owner, the 2nd owner or the 3rd/4th/5th owner of the car, as long as the 5 years/60k miles has not yet been hit? The statement says "Nissan will provide this expanded coverage to all model year 2011 and 2012 Nissan LEAFs sold and distributed by Nissan in the United States to date, effective upon a date to be announced but which is anticipated to be in the Spring of 2013." My car was not sold to me by Nissan, so does this cause a problem for those of us who have purchased pre-owned LEAFs?

I don't think the bolded part is right. I'm pretty sure Nissan corporate has your contact info or should have it. They need it in order to send out recall notices, if there's a recall.

They also should be tracking it in order to track service history. Toyota does and I'm 95% sure I'd seen service history on my Nissan service receipts (w/work done at other Nissan dealers, even in other states).

I've gotten recalls and other non-recall (e.g. "limited service campaign" or warranty extensions for certain failures) via snail mail from Toyota Motor Sales. I'm pretty sure I've also received recall notices from Nissan when I had recalls on my former 2 Nissans.

IIRC, usually the recall notices (I think the ones from Nissan) have a thing where you can return it w/selections like "no longer own car. Car destroyed." or "no longer the owner, new owner is _____", something to that effect.

If you look at documents like the ones at http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/acms/cs/documentList.xhtml?docId=05V555&docType=RCL" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, you can see reports as to how many were repaired, scrapped, failed to receive notification (i.e. mail returned), etc.

 

[ronwright38]

Thank's for the info.

 

[ronwright38]

Andy can you tell me if the leaf i leased at Avondale Nissan a 2011 in april of 2012
it was sitting in the showroom for 6 months and I did not know about the 12 Bar's battery
range as mine was 11 Bar's that people told me that they had 12 Range Bar's and they have the same mileage 14,500 miles , my car was never driven over 50 MPH and I all ways use the Cruise control
I would like to know how to get the battery's checked to see which are weak, as the check at the
Dealer show 5 Stars. The only way i can get for distance is 55 mile adding the trip and the range meter.?? it show give more miles.

 

[Stoaty]

Andy can you tell me if the leaf i leased at Avondale Nissan a 2011 in april of 2012
it was sitting in the showroom for 6 months and I did not know about the 12 Bar's battery
range as mine was 11 Bar's that people told me that they had 12 Range Bar's and they have the same mileage 14,500 miles , my car was never driven over 50 MPH and I all ways use the Cruise control
I would like to know how to get the battery's checked to see which are weak, as the check at the
Dealer show 5 Stars. The only way i can get for distance is 55 mile adding the trip and the range meter.?? it show give more miles.

You will probably have more people reading your posts if you don't use run-on sentences. I gave up by the beginning of the third line.

 

[KJD]

Andy can you tell me if the leaf i leased at Avondale Nissan a 2011 in april of 2012
it was sitting in the showroom for 6 months and I did not know about the 12 Bar's battery
range as mine was 11 Bar's that people told me that they had 12 Range Bar's and they have the same mileage 14,500 miles , my car was never driven over 50 MPH and I all ways use the Cruise control
I would like to know how to get the battery's checked to see which are weak, as the check at the
Dealer show 5 Stars. The only way i can get for distance is 55 mile adding the trip and the range meter.?? it show give more miles.

Ron,
What is the manufacture date of your car? Look on the black tag on the drivers door post.
Please add location information to your user profile.

 

[Nubo]

Andy can you tell me if the leaf i leased at Avondale Nissan a 2011 in april of 2012
it was sitting in the showroom for 6 months and I did not know about the 12 Bar's battery
range as mine was 11 Bar's that people told me that they had 12 Range Bar's and they have the same mileage 14,500 miles , my car was never driven over 50 MPH and I all ways use the Cruise control
I would like to know how to get the battery's checked to see which are weak, as the check at the
Dealer show 5 Stars. The only way i can get for distance is 55 mile adding the trip and the range meter.?? it show give more miles.

You will probably have more people reading your posts if you don't use run-on sentences. I gave up by the beginning of the third line.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhJJMn4yTho[/youtube]

 

[LEAFfan]

Thank's for the info.

Ron, I sent you a PM (new messages at top left of screen).

 

[LEAFguy]

Fair enough, for what its worth lets assume you even get 12 bars after replacement but why would they tie in the number of bars to the warranty? In this all-digital world Im surprised that they did not opt to go for an absolute measurement of the battery capacity. Think there is any spin to that?

I'm thinking that the reason that Nissan references bars in this warranty is because that is the currently available instrumentation. My feeling is that if (when?) Nissan adds a more granularized tracking methodology (whatever it might be), the warranty will be changed at that time to reflect the newer battery capacity instrumentation. It would be difficult, if not impossible, for a consumer to rate the battery in anything other than bars currently. As the instrumentation is improved, it is highly likely that the warranty will reflect the newer instrumentation.

 

[scottf200]

Fair enough, for what its worth lets assume you even get 12 bars after replacement but why would they tie in the number of bars to the warranty? In this all-digital world Im surprised that they did not opt to go for an absolute measurement of the battery capacity. Think there is any spin to that?

I'm thinking that the reason that Nissan references bars in this warranty is because that is the currently available instrumentation. My feeling is that if (when?) Nissan adds a more granularized tracking methodology (whatever it might be), the warranty will be changed at that time to reflect the newer battery capacity instrumentation. It would be difficult, if not impossible, for a consumer to rate the battery in anything other than bars currently. As the instrumentation is improved, it is highly likely that the warranty will reflect the newer instrumentation.

Wow that would seems like a legal department nightmare. I guess they could just do future sales.

 

[jspearman]

So, for anyone curious, this warranty announcement is the end of any other action by Nissan for warm-weather owners. I spoke to Rob Dickens at Nissan--in arbitration--a month ago about pursuing a buyback, and he asked if I could wait for the announcement before doing anything else. I stupidly said yes. As someone else suggested before, they are using this warranty announcement as a firebreak against further action, and they were right. I think he had asked other owners to wait, too, so I guess we were all fooled by this wonderful news. I just wish I would have screamed louder, sooner, but I had dumb faith that Nissan would do the right thing.

So what they have done with the warranty is pretend to fix a problem, but it also allowed them to never admit that there was a problem in the first place. Brilliant! Congratulations to Nissan for spending no money, making people in temperate climates breathe a sigh of relief that everything is okay, and walking away from the issue like nothing ever happened. I'm just disgusted.