Long term capacity vision

I think Nissan should be given a lot of credit for making this car and taking some chances on it. To improve owners embracing the car, Nissan should provide a long term vision of what Leaf owners can expect with regard to dealing with battery capacity loss. Such as: future batteries for the car will be swappable (for a price); if you lose more than x% of capacity, the battery will be replaced; lease the battery only option.
Ther must be a better business model than just trust us and hope it works out that you have a car in 3 or 5 years that is still useful.

Nissan originally planned to do this but legal and business considerations in the U.S. torpedoed it.

Leaf1 said:

if you lose more than x% of capacity, the battery will be replaced; lease the battery only option.

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Leaf1 said:

I think Nissan should be given a lot of credit for making this car and taking some chances on it. To improve owners embracing the car, Nissan should provide a long term vision of what Leaf owners can expect with regard to dealing with battery capacity loss. Such as: future batteries for the car will be swappable (for a price); if you lose more than x% of capacity, the battery will be replaced; lease the battery only option.
Ther must be a better business model than just trust us and hope it works out that you have a car in 3 or 5 years that is still useful.

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All of these proposals, would have required Nissan either to raise the price, or further restrict the LEAF driver's access to the total battery capacity.

A LEAF "owner" can "buy" battery insurance, by leasing the car. When your lease expires, you will have a much better idea of battery performance.

I have no doubt Nissan could also have offered a more comprehensive Battery warranty by limiting our use to a smaller percentage of total battery capacity (such as GM did with the Volt) limiting kW output at a higher (low) SOC, and further restricting charging and maximum SOC, under hotter battery conditions.

Result, IMO, would probably be a better warranty, but a worse BEV.

edatoakrun said:

Result, IMO, would probably be a better warranty, but a worse BEV.

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That's a good point, and if you look at what Renault is doing with Zoe in Europe, not something to be feared. I don't think that they are using any less aggressive usable-to-total capacity ratio there. I believe that it's just a question of cost. Battery leases will increase the total cost of ownership moderately. Obviously, you can get the manufacturer shoulder some of the risk of battery degradation, but at a price. I still like this model, because it makes EVs more competitive with gas cars. We are so used to budgeting for monthly fuel costs, and many folks don't get the total cost of ownership equation. This arrangement or an attractively structured complete vehicle lease could help there.

Great points indeed!