Sudden extreme battery charge loss while driving

[Bluesquarex]

2018 Nissan Leaf
60K miles
Owned for 3 1/2 years

I was driving down the freeway at 70 mph on my normal route to work the other day with about 70% charge. (on cruise control) Out of nowhere, the "find a charging station" warning comes on, and it's at 2%. Nothing happens to the speed of the car, and about 5 seconds later, it returns to the 70% charge. (weather - 40 degrees F)

I figured I would wait and see if it happens again, which it did. Yesterday, on the same route, but on the way home (so approx 40% charge), 70 mph on cruise control, 40 degrees out, and it does the same exact thing. I wait a few seconds, and it doesn't return to normal. So I pull over on the side of the freeway and it slowly works its way back up to the charge it was at. (say 30 seconds or so)

It never entered turtle mode, but I pulled over because I didn't want to be on the freeway and it all of a sudden do that.

I did look at the battery life indicator and noticed that it was down one. The last time I looked at it (maybe a month ago) it was full.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Lisa Marie

 

[cornbinder89]

Likely a weak cell in the battery pack. A real time scan of the battery while the problem is happening will tell the tale.
Leafspy or other EV scanner will do the job.
The solution is most often a new cell or battery pack.
Sorry for the bad news.

 

[goddesser]

2018 Nissan Leaf
60K miles
Owned for 3 1/2 years

I was driving down the freeway at 70 mph on my normal route to work the other day with about 70% charge. (on cruise control) Out of nowhere, the "find a charging station" warning comes on, and it's at 2%. Nothing happens to the speed of the car, and about 5 seconds later, it returns to the 70% charge. (weather - 40 degrees F)

I figured I would wait and see if it happens again, which it did. Yesterday, on the same route, but on the way home (so approx 40% charge), 70 mph on cruise control, 40 degrees out, and it does the same exact thing. I wait a few seconds, and it doesn't return to normal. So I pull over on the side of the freeway and it slowly works its way back up to the charge it was at. (say 30 seconds or so)

It never entered turtle mode, but I pulled over because I didn't want to be on the freeway and it all of a sudden do that.

I did look at the battery life indicator and noticed that it was down one. The last time I looked at it (maybe a month ago) it was full.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Lisa Marie

Same thing happened to me last week, in massachusetts, it was very cold 20-24 degrees F and it did go into turtle mode and plummeted from 80 miles left to 11 miles left...thanks for the advice to the person who replied!!

 

[Steve52]

I was driving down the freeway at 70 mph on my normal route to work the other day with about 70% charge. (on cruise control) Out of nowhere, the "find a charging station" warning comes on, and it's at 2%. Nothing happens to the speed of the car, and about 5 seconds later, it returns to the 70% charge. (weather - 40 degrees F)

The Leaf's battery management system, (BMS) uses the weakest cell to calculate the remaining HV battery capacity. Therefore, when you have a bad cell under load such as highway driving, the bad cell voltage drops more than the other cells and the BMS says that the charge state of whole battery has drastically dropped. As cornbinder89 said, use Leafspy to confirm the diagnosis and get the vehicle to a dealer to start a warranty claim as soon as possible.

 

[ducky8888]

Same thing happened to me when going up hills. I would go from 50% to 10% and then back up when the hill leveled out. One day I decided to see if it was related to load and floored it up a hill. The car shut down, all kinds of warnings and chimes and zero power. Had to pull off the side of the freeway and get a tow home. The next day it was back to normal so I dropped it off at the dealership and ended up with a new (refurbished) battery. Happened to me at almost exactly 45k miles. While they had it, for a couple weeks in all, I asked what they would give me as a trade in, they said something like $7500, when I picked the car up from service I asked what the total cost of repairs was, he said it was just south of $15,000.

 

[gabrieldaigle]

These reports are popping up more and more as time goes on between multiple Leaf groups online. My 2020 was at about 3 and 1/2 years as well when the same thing you spoke of started happening. It was diagnosed with 5 bad modules, is still sitting at Cerritos Nissan after 3 months, and with no ETA. I'm so disappointed. I absolutely loved this car. So much more than my 2012 Nissan Leaf. But Nissan got me again. Fool me once...shame on you. Fool me twice...shame on me. I certainly don't hold out much hope for Nissan to do the right thing which, in my opinion, would be swapping the old batteries for new properly tested batteries that won't fail after such a short amount of use. I would suggest that you get video of the problem happening to present to the dealer. It's your best chance of getting things covered under warranty. Best of luck to you on your journey moving forward.

 

[Jerther]

2018 Nissan Leaf
60K miles
Owned for 3 1/2 years

Likely a weak cell in the battery pack. A real time scan of the battery while the problem is happening will tell the tale.
Leafspy or other EV scanner will do the job.
The solution is most often a new cell or battery pack.
Sorry for the bad news.

2018! Is your traction battery warranty out? I sure hope not! Hurry up to a dealer if it isn't! Make sure they can replicate your problem!

 

[mrklar]

Hi, just to add to the collective documentation, here a video of this morning. Normal highway onramp and speed on flat surface.

Nissan leaf 2018, 63700 km odo.

Submited a warranty claim last week, appointment with dealer january 7 2025.

 

[tractioninc]

We encountered this issue for the first time two weeks ago. We have now seen it happen half a dozen times, all while driving on the expressway at high speeds in cold winter temps. It's deeply concerning that the cause is an issue with the traction battery since our 2018 Leaf has only 56K miles. We're the second owners--is there any chance that we would be covered by Nissan's battery warranty?

 

[mrklar]

We encountered this issue for the first time two weeks ago. We have now seen it happen half a dozen times, all while driving on the expressway at high speeds in cold winter temps. It's deeply concerning that the cause is an issue with the traction battery since our 2018 Leaf has only 56K miles. We're the second owners--is there any chance that we would be covered by Nissan's battery warranty?

In my case, im in canada. I called nissan corporate directly here in canada and the agent told me that he considers the issue as a security issue and that is covered by the battery warranty 8years/160000km. So the case is already open with them before I go to a dealer for investigation that they asked me to perform. So, I think there is a good chance that it's covered in the end and that they remedy the situation.

 

[Drew21]

For a 2018 Leaf, you're close to the end of your battery warranty. I don't know if they go by January 1 or the production date for your specific vehicle. Here's the relevant information from the 2018 Warranty Booklet.


If you want to have any chance of help from Nissan, you should probably make an appointment with the nearest dealership ASAP.

 

[Wamuthoni]

For a 2018 Leaf, you're close to the end of your battery warranty. I don't know if they go by January 1 or the production date for your specific vehicle. Here's the relevant information from the 2018 Warranty Booklet.

View attachment 6165
If you want to have any chance of help from Nissan, you should probably make an appointment with the nearest dealership ASAP.

This happened to my 2021 62K leaf and 163000 miles on the clock. I took it to the dealer and gave me a £29,988 for a battery pack replacement. My fight with Nissan UK is that they have refused to give me the technical report, which they claim that it is an internal report which should not be released to third parties. I expected to be told hiw many cells affected or modules. For some reasons, the battery health is still at 100%. I think there is a bigger problem with these cars.

 

[Stanton]

all while driving on the expressway at high speeds in cold winter temps.

This is the "ultimate stress test" for an EV...and usually reveals weak/bad cells. 40 kWh packs seem to be more prone to bad "quality control", and I eventually replaced a weak cell/module in mine.

 

[NissanGB]

It seems like my 30kWh Leaf (made in 2016....) is doing the same... My analisis lead to at leas one cell with high internal resistance. Any ideas on what the best way is to reach out for warranty?

 

[Steve52]

This happened to my 2021 62K leaf and 163000 miles on the clock. I took it to the dealer and gave me a £29,988 for a battery pack replacement. My fight with Nissan UK is that they have refused to give me the technical report, which they claim that it is an internal report which should not be released to third parties. I expected to be told hiw many cells affected or modules. For some reasons, the battery health is still at 100%. I think there is a bigger problem with these cars.

You can do your own troubleshooting by using Leaf Spy to look at cell differences at SOC of 50% or lower. It will show you how many cells are drastically lower in voltage. However, this is of little use unless you plan to have the HV battery taken apart and replacing individual cells.

 

[mrklar]

Update, yesterday my car died on the highway with "no power error". I was recording with leafspy and what I see is no good, the voltage of cells are really low, in the danger zone under 2.6 volt. I could not restart it and it got towed to the dealer. When the traction battery shut down, the heater ate the 12v battery and it died too after.

 

[cornbinder89]

Heck of a "Christmas present"! Yeah, bad battery

 

[Jerther]

Keep your towing receipt. This will be eligible to a refund by Nissan.

Leaf spy en français... Bizarre ça!

Did you try to start the car after letting it sit while waiting for the tow truck?

 

[mrklar]

Keep your towing receipt. This will be eligible to a refund by Nissan.

Leaf spy en français... Bizarre ça!

Did you try to start the car after letting it sit while waiting for the tow truck?

Yes I tried, but the 12v battery was dead because the heater drained it when the traction battery went offline.

 

[mrklar]

Keep your towing receipt. This will be eligible to a refund by Nissan.

Leaf spy en français... Bizarre ça!

Did you try to start the car after letting it sit while waiting for the tow truck?

Yes I tried, but the 12v battery was dead because the heater drained it when the traction battery went offline.

My insurance have a road assistance service, so I did not pay.