2016-2017 model year 30 kWh bar losers and capacity losses

[GaleHawkins]

Thank you all for your input, I have scheduled my Warranty appointment for this weekend.

Great news. You will be impressed.

[johnlocke]

Dec 1 update. 285 GID's, SOH=78.76%, Hx=52.48%. 83654 total miles, 38725 miles on new battery, 145 L3 total, 31 on new battery, 1654 l2 total, 780 on new battery. I'm driving a lot less now so wear and tear on the battery is less but it's still losing power at about the same rate per month as before. I lost 5 GID's last month even with less driving. It's possible that I will hit 4 bars down before the100K warranty limit. If it continues at the same rate, I'll hit 8 bars at around 94,000 miles. That would give about 50,000 miles on the second battery. If I got a third battery before the warranty expires and it was a 40KWH unit, I might keep the Leaf for a couple more years. Otherwise I'll probably trade it in. It may depend on whether or not the new administration puts new tax credits in place for USA built EV's. It may be a matter of just getting a longer range EV. I don't notice it so much on a daily basis but we were evacuated during the last fire for a week and the problem with daily charging was painfully evident. Also as I lose range on the Leaf, keeping it charged in case I have to make an unexpected trip becomes a requirement. Although the 40KWH would help a lot, It's not enough to fully solve the problem and I still worry about the degradation of the battery over time.

[WetEV]

Although the 40KWH would help a lot, It's not enough to fully solve the problem and I still worry about the degradation of the battery over time.

Battery degradation is a fact of life. Would 60 kWh be enough to solve the problem? Or 90 kWh? Or 150 kWh?

[GaleHawkins]

Dec 1 update. 285 GID's, SOH=78.76%, Hx=52.48%. 83654 total miles, 38725 miles on new battery, 145 L3 total, 31 on new battery, 1654 l2 total, 780 on new battery. I'm driving a lot less now so wear and tear on the battery is less but it's still losing power at about the same rate per month as before. I lost 5 GID's last month even with less driving. It's possible that I will hit 4 bars down before the100K warranty limit. If it continues at the same rate, I'll hit 8 bars at around 94,000 miles. That would give about 50,000 miles on the second battery. If I got a third battery before the warranty expires and it was a 40KWH unit, I might keep the Leaf for a couple more years. Otherwise I'll probably trade it in. It may depend on whether or not the new administration puts new tax credits in place for USA built EV's. It may be a matter of just getting a longer range EV. I don't notice it so much on a daily basis but we were evacuated during the last fire for a week and the problem with daily charging was painfully evident. Also as I lose range on the Leaf, keeping it charged in case I have to make an unexpected trip becomes a requirement. Although the 40KWH would help a lot, It's not enough to fully solve the problem and I still worry about the degradation of the battery over time.

Thanks for the update. My 40 kWh was about losing about 0.01% of SOH daily. About 4 months ago I started to charging to 100% after 30-60 miles trying to make sure battery temperature was no more than 5-10 degrees over evening temperature. If I got home at 6pm I would plug it in like 11pm so it would charge and chill before the next morning. SOH started dropping about 0.01 every 3 days and the weather was cooling down some.

It got totalled 7 Nov 2020 with SOH at 96.07 and SOC at 89% . 3 weeks later SOH was down to 96.06 and SOC was still at 89%. We stripped off the front cap and all parts in front of motor and got the front end off of concrete so we could test D and R. It was smooth up to near 20 MPH then would start making some noise. The son expected traction control was the noise source so we took it out for 2 mile test drive. It drove out fine but I never got it over 68 MPH.

[johnlocke]

Although the 40KWH would help a lot, It's not enough to fully solve the problem and I still worry about the degradation of the battery over time.

Battery degradation is a fact of life. Would 60 kWh be enough to solve the problem? Or 90 kWh? Or 150 kWh?

You're right. Given the rate of degradation for any Nissan battery, size doesn't ultimately matter. Bad design trumps everything. Even a 60 KWH battery won't give me the 150K mile lifespan I'd expect from a new battery. I just live in a climate that requires active cooling. Leaf doesn't have that. If the current battery does fail before the end of warranty, a new 40KWH battery is likely to last 75K mi. A 60 KWH battery would be good for over 100K mi. but not a lot more.

[cwerdna]

^^^
I was going to point you to a used Bolt but '17 to '19's are still on stop sale AFAIK. https://www.nhtsa.gov/vehicle/2017/CHEV ... WD#recalls still has 14 associated documents, several of which mention the stop sale.

Maybe you an jump on one for cheap once that's lifted. Thermal management when plugged in will keep Bolt battery down to 27 C (80.6F) per https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/batte ... ost-512173.

Every now and then, I hear of really cheap '20 Bolts available new (no stop sale and no recall on those) and sometimes really cheap lease deals. Not sure if they're too good to be true. Besides that, we're getting more and more EVs competition over time.

OT: https://www.facebook.com/groups/nissan. ... 668180670/ is someone else in AZ (Prescott) with in initials CD with a '17 Leaf who was given approval for a HV battery replacement after being down to 8 bars.

[fergy126]

Thank you all for your input, I have scheduled my Warranty appointment for this weekend.

Warranty replacement was approved, waiting on the battery to arrive at the dealership. I was told it would arrive in the middle of next week.

[fergy126]

Thank you all for your input, I have scheduled my Warranty appointment for this weekend.

Warranty replacement was approved, waiting on the battery to arrive at the dealership. I was told it would arrive in the middle of next week.

Received a call today that "batteries are on back-order" and would receive a shipment update around the 30th of December. The wait continues.

Meanwhile with the cold temps (35-45 degF) have made completing my commute (45 mi) a struggle, I think I will have to drive my ICE vehicle until the replacement is completed.

[outerspaceguy]

FYI: My 2017 Leaf lost her 3rd bar today (Dec 16 2020). About 19k total miles (I dont drive a ton, since work is close to home). She lost her second bar on Jan 13 of this year, so a degradation rate of nearly one bar per year. I am guessing that I might be calling in that warranty as early as about a year from now.

Every year's Battery report has been done (they all came back great), and the firmware was updated way back when that came out.

[Driver8]

outerspaceguy, what confirmation of how a hot climate affects the battery. I'm still at 12 bars (88% SOH) on my 2017, with about 29K miles driven (and the previously owner almost exclusively rapid charged it).

Sounds like you'll be getting to battery replacement pretty quickly.