WIfey’s 2016 Leaf rear-ended by a SUV

[Wavebender]

During a snowstorm yesterday, wifey was rear-ended by a braking/sliding SUV. She was stopped in heavy traffic and the 20-year-old girl driving her GMC Terminator lost control. The rear bumper is badly cracked and the left rear body panel is clearly misaligned. I wonder if any of you know about possible electrical or battery issues unique to the Leaf that could be cause by such an accident? Is the battery pack even close to the rear bumper?

[Drew21]

Sorry to hear about the unfortunate accident.

The battery pack is located between the front and rear axles, so should not have been affected. There isn't much under the car behind the rear axle (at least not on my wife's 2014). Regardless, you should have the car checked over by a qualified technician. For example, the real rear bumper (underneath the plastic) is an aluminum crossbar that mounts to the rear of the unibody. Was that damaged, or was the rear unibody tweaked in any way? If the rear quarter panel is misaligned, is that cosmetic or was the underlying structure damaged?

Hopefully the F.U.V. driver has good insurance and your car can be fixed quickly and completely.

[knightmb]

During a snowstorm yesterday, wifey was rear-ended by a braking/sliding SUV. She was stopped in heavy traffic and the 20-year-old girl driving her GMC Terminator lost control. The rear bumper is badly cracked and the left rear body panel is clearly misaligned. I wonder if any of you know about possible electrical or battery issues unique to the Leaf that could be cause by such an accident? Is the battery pack even close to the rear bumper?

That's actually the best place to get hit because the area between the battery and the rear bumper is a couple of feet of empty space. When shopping for salvage Leaf batteries, the rear accident ones are the most searched for, just for that reason.
If you can get the insurance to total the vehicle out (with the insane used car prices), and provided your wife had no major injuries, you might come out on top financially. If you knew someone that would come drop the battery and buy it, you get a double-win on that.

[Wavebender]

During a snowstorm yesterday, wifey was rear-ended by a braking/sliding SUV. She was stopped in heavy traffic and the 20-year-old girl driving her GMC Terminator lost control. The rear bumper is badly cracked and the left rear body panel is clearly misaligned. I wonder if any of you know about possible electrical or battery issues unique to the Leaf that could be cause by such an accident? Is the battery pack even close to the rear bumper?

That's actually the best place to get hit because the area between the battery and the rear bumper is a couple of feet of empty space. When shopping for salvage Leaf batteries, the rear accident ones are the most searched for, just for that reason.
If you can get the insurance to total the vehicle out (with the insane used car prices), and provided your wife had no major injuries, you might come out on top financially. If you knew someone that would come drop the battery and buy it, you get a double-win on that.

That is great news, thank you! I wanted to tell our insurance adjuster about potential battery pack damage in case they were unfamiliar with EVs. Wifey was not hurt but her young passenger has some neck pain. We’re getting him an x-ray tonight. The young idiot “driving” the 6-ton GMC does have insurance and immediately expressed great remorse over her actions, so I think it’s not going to be much of a problem for us to get this fixed if it’s just a new rear bumper needed. But I wouldn’t want to be in the room when she tells daddy about it!

[LeftieBiker]

You may need to have the "actual bumper" (good way to put it!) replaced and its mount straightened, but likely no more than that and the quarter panel fixed. Make sure that the insurance company is told about ALL damage under there. I remember when I got rear-ended on an exit ramp by a hit & run driver, the damage estimate for a new "bumper" was actually for the plastic bumper cover only. I got $600, which wasn't nearly enough, so I had to do the work myself, buying new collapsible bumper mounts, straightening the mounting point myself, on the side that needed that, and repairing the plastic myself, then repainting it all with an electric paint sprayer. I got to pay myself maybe $250, but I would much rather have gotten new parts installed and painted by a body shop.

[Wavebender]

You may need to have the "actual bumper" (good way to put it!) replaced and its mount straightened, but likely no more than that and the quarter panel fixed. Make sure that the insurance company is told about ALL damage under there. I remember when I got rear-ended on an exit ramp by a hit & run driver, the damage estimate for a new "bumper" was actually for the plastic bumper cover only. I got $600, which wasn't nearly enough, so I had to do the work myself, buying new collapsible bumper mounts, straightening the mounting point myself, on the side that needed that, and repairing the plastic myself, then repainting it all with an electric paint sprayer. I got to pay myself maybe $250, but I would much rather have gotten new parts installed and painted by a body shop.

Wow. I didn’t know about any of that. I will be sure to bring all this up with our adjuster. We’ve been USAA members since forever and they have always been very good to us, so I’m not terribly worried, but I imagine they don’t get a lot of experience with Leafs so I will share your thoughts with them, anonymously of course.

[LeftieBiker]

This applies to pretty much all cars and most light trucks, these days. You have a flexible plastic bumper cover, with a metal (usually, anyway) thin-walled beam under it, and the beam is mounted to mounts that are designed to collapse and absorb kinetic energy in the process. I've also seen setups where all there is under that bumper cover is blocks of stiff plastic foam that replace both the beam and the collapsible mounts.

[gcrouse]

I got rear ended by a Jeep Cherokee that smashed up the bumper and rear hatch really well a few years back and battery pack didn't have any structural damage they needed to fix when I took it to the body shop.