Want a leaf, have some questions?

[bigbearballs]

I'm looking for a 2013-1015 Leaf SV with quick charging. What should I be looking for in car spy to know I've got a good one? I'm probably going to buy one from carvana since they deliver and their prices seem reasonable. Also, is there a way to post that I'm looking for that particular car in the for sale forum. I tried to post with no luck. Maybe I need more posts since I'm so new..

 

[LeftieBiker]

You need to use the Leaf Spy app and an OBII diagnostic port reader to check the battery pack's capacity and "health" or "Hx." Do a little reading about that here, first.

 

[Flyct]

I'm looking for a 2013-1015 Leaf SV with quick charging. What should I be looking for in car spy to know I've got a good one? I'm probably going to buy one from carvana since they deliver and their prices seem reasonable. Also, is there a way to post that I'm looking for that particular car in the for sale forum. I tried to post with no luck. Maybe I need more posts since I'm so new..

I'm 500 miles from Carvana's Atlanta facility. None of their Leaf show battery degradation screen. I was interested in one of their leafs, called them and asked for a picture of the range screen. I made 3 calls and they never followed through with sending me pictures.

One Foum member posted recently that he purchased from Carvana's and when his car arrived it had horrible range due to excessive battery degradation. Fortunately forum members suggested he drive it over to a Nissan dealer and low and behold the degradation was so bad it qualified for a free warranty traction battery replacement so he got lucky.

If your local they have a money back time period.

 

[LeftieBiker]

It sounds like they specialize in Leafs with degraded batteries. If you just want a nice used one, avoid them! If you are willing to play the "battery lottery" then I suggest a 2012, as that combines a high likelihood of several bars lost with enough time remaining on the battery capacity warranty to maybe get a free battery. (From what we are seeing with the 2013-2014 packs, they still lose bars, but are very unlikely to lose enough to qualify for a free pack from Nissan.) Still, I know that if I tried that, I'd get a Leaf with a solid 10 bars, combining low range with low chance of getting a free replacement...

 

[cwerdna]

Can you update your location info via your user name in the upper right > User Control Panel > Profile tab? That way, we don't need to ask in future posts/threads or do sleuthing to deduce it.

What are your daily driving needs in terms of miles? How much city vs. highway? Will you have the ability to charge at your work/destinations?

 

[bigbearballs]

Can you update your location info via your user name in the upper right > User Control Panel > Profile tab? That way, we don't need to ask in future posts/threads or do sleuthing to deduce it.

What are your daily driving needs in terms of miles? How much city vs. highway? Will you have the ability to charge at your work/destinations?

I'm in Austin and I just updated it, thanks. I will have the ability to charge at work, about a 40 mile round trip and it's mostly a highway drive but with some stop and go. So, about 60/40 highway to city.

I am off the carvana band wagon as I see there are much better deals on autotrader. What are your opinions on this one?

http://floridafinecars.com/CarsForSale/NISSAN-LEAF-2013-HOLLYWOOD-FL-Stock=71484/HOLLYWOOD

It's an SL without QC, that's rare right?

 

[bigbearballs]

It sounds like they specialize in Leafs with degraded batteries. If you just want a nice used one, avoid them! If you are willing to play the "battery lottery" then I suggest a 2012, as that combines a high likelihood of several bars lost with enough time remaining on the battery capacity warranty to maybe get a free battery. (From what we are seeing with the 2013-2014 packs, they still lose bars, but are very unlikely to lose enough to qualify for a free pack from Nissan.) Still, I know that if I tried that, I'd get a Leaf with a solid 10 bars, combining low range with low chance of getting a free replacement...

So, this is a good thing right. That 13-14 packs lose bars, but not a lot.

 

[LeftieBiker]

So, this is a good thing right. That 13-14 packs lose bars, but not a lot.

It's a good thing for people with roughly 40 mile range requirements. It may also mean that too many people who need 50+ miles of range buy a 2013 or 2014 and get disappointed in a year or two. Nissan's main concern seems to have been avoiding giving out any more free replacement packs.

 

[bigbearballs]

So, this is a good thing right. That 13-14 packs lose bars, but not a lot.

It's a good thing for people with roughly 40 mile range requirements. It may also mean that too many people who need 50+ miles of range buy a 2013 or 2014 and get disappointed in a year or two. Nissan's main concern seems to have been avoiding giving out any more free replacement packs.

Thank you. Is there a good guide to keep the health of a battery at max potential?

 

[LeftieBiker]

Thank you. Is there a good guide to keep the health of a battery at max potential?

Keep it as cool as possible, especially avoiding charging while the car or the air is hot (except that it's fine to charge if the air is hot but the pack shows less than 6 temperature bars). Avoid leaving it at 100% charge for more than a couple of hours. Especially avoid Quick Charging (if the car has that option) when the pack is hot, meaning 6 or more temp bars showing on the dash gauge. Avoid parking the car for hours in a really hot unshaded parking area if it's 100F or hotter, if you have a choice.

 

[user 10599]

From reading this forum for a while, the following would appear to be the main points for extending battery life:
1 - Avoid extremes:
a - don't charge to 100% if you don't need it. The 2013 model like mine has a nifty setting that stops the charging at 80%. Someone else can post which other models have this. New models don't, so you have to use the timer and guess how long to have it charge if you want it to stop at a certain point.
b - don't discharge it all the way down. Just as having the battery sit at over 80% degrades it faster, apparently, so does having it too low. I've heard people suggest that keeping it between 80% and 20% as a good guideline for daily use. That leaves 60% capacity for use, which should do fine for your 40 mile roundtrip commute, especially if you have charging available at work. Of course, the full capability is available should you need it, but if you want to maximize the battery life, this should help.
c - don't live in a very hot or cold climate. If you do, enclosed garages are your friend. In the cold, range drops and heater use goes up, which means that you will use more of your capacity each trip (see 1.b. above). In the heat, park in shade or garages to keep the car cooler.
2 - Quick Charge only when you need the quick charge. Apparently, quick charging is hard on the batteries. I'm guessing that is a heat issue.

That sums up the basics of what I recall. Keep in mind that I'm an accountant, not an engineer, so I may have over-simplified the above - though not intentionally.

 

[user 10599]

and of course someone replies while I'm composing my response so now it looks like I'm being redundant. Leftiebiker has some sage advice.

 

[LeftieBiker]

don't charge to 100% if you don't need it. The 2013 model like mine has a nifty setting that stops the charging at 80%. Someone else can post which other models have this.

That feature, which is indeed nice, is available only on the 2013 Leafs. Nissan discontinued it after the EPA used it to lower the overall range estimate.

 

[bigbearballs]

I appreciate all the replies, I will be sure to do all of those things. Another question, do you think it will be ok to buy a used leaf with 11 bars and 25k miles, it's a 2013. There is no other way to get info about the car because it's out of state at a used dealership. Also, didn't all 13 sl leafs come with QC? This is the picture they listed on their website and it doesn't look like it has the qc port... http://images.digital-officespace.com/1/71484/34.JPG

 

[juice13]

I'm also in the hunt for a 2013 and found this handy chart for options on the MY2013:
http://insideevs.com/2013-nissan-leaf-overview-and-specifications/

QC was standard on the SL along with the LED headlights.

 

[LeftieBiker]

I appreciate all the replies, I will be sure to do all of those things. Another question, do you think it will be ok to buy a used leaf with 11 bars and 25k miles, it's a 2013. There is no other way to get info about the car because it's out of state at a used dealership. Also, didn't all 13 sl leafs come with QC? This is the picture they listed on their website and it doesn't look like it has the qc port... http://images.digital-officespace.com/1/71484/34.JPG

If you can't use Leaf Spy, you have to assume that any car you see online has/is about to have one less bar than is showing. Thus an 11 bar car should be considered a 10 bar car, especially about 20k miles. IF it turns out to have 11 solid bars, that's a bonus, but don't count on it.

 

[mitrals]

I appreciate all the replies, I will be sure to do all of those things. Another question, do you think it will be ok to buy a used leaf with 11 bars and 25k miles, it's a 2013. There is no other way to get info about the car because it's out of state at a used dealership. Also, didn't all 13 sl leafs come with QC? This is the picture they listed on their website and it doesn't look like it has the qc port... http://images.digital-officespace.com/1/71484/34.JPG

The picture is blurry. There is a QC port. All SLs come with QC.

 

[bigbearballs]

I've gotten some battery reports from the dealer. Has anyone had experience with these? It gives four different aspects of the battery a 1 to 5 star rating.

Quick Charging info
Freq. charging when battery state is high
Driving
Storage

 

[garsh]

a - don't charge to 100% if you don't need it.

Charging to 100% actually seems to be fine. Just don't leave it sit with a 100% charged battery for multiple days. I charge to 100% daily.

b - don't discharge it all the way down.

Likewise, discharging all the way doesn't seem to affect battery life much. Just don't leave it sit with a low battery for multiple days. I hit Very Low Battery Warning almost every day on my drive in to work, but I plug it in upon arrival.

c - don't live in a very hot or cold climate.

Hot climate is bad for battery life. Cold climate is very good for battery life. But range is temporarily decreased in cold weather. The range returns when the weather warms back up.

 

[jjeff]

I'm also in the hunt for a 2013 and found this handy chart for options on the MY2013:
http://insideevs.com/2013-nissan-leaf-overview-and-specifications/

QC was standard on the SL along with the LED headlights.

Nice, do you know of a similar chart for a 2012 Leaf? I tried searching the site you linked for '12 but found nothing like the nice chart they had for the '13's.
I have a '13 S w/QC and 6'6Kw charger and have been enticed by the low prices of the '12's SL trim level and was wondering what I'd lose. I really like my SOC display(use it all the time) and believe I'd lose than on a '12 and also regularly use my 6.6Kw charger and think I'll also lose that. All the SLs I've seen come with a QC which I've never used even once on my '13 S but not sure if thats tied into the 6.6Kw charger on the '12's. Also kind of wonder how the heating system will differ. My '13 lacks the heat pump(kind of a bummer) but it's a air system which I prefer, I believe the '12's have to heat a liquid for heat? not sure I'd like that.