OrientExpress said:
Accelerated vs. Nissans claim of 80% capacity after 5 years.
And there is nothing so far in any of the concerns expressed in this thread (or any other), other than speculation to suggest otherwise.
You act as if we have somehow collectively imagined that these cars have lost capacity. We have not imagined anything. Nissan has STATED that the cars with one missing bar have lost 15% of their capacity due to usage or aging. Nissan has STATED that the cars with two missing bars have lost 21.25% of their capacity due to usage or aging.
Here is what the 2011 LEAF Owner's Manual Revised says on page 2-10:
2011 LEAF Owner's Manual Revised said:
LI-ION BATTERY CAPACITY LEVEL GAUGE
This gauge indicates the amount of charge the Li-ion battery is capable of storing.
When the capacity of the Li-ion battery decreases with age and usage, the level of the gauge will also decrease.
So the question becomes "How much does it decrease?" Nissan provides us with the answer to that question on page MWI-23 of the LEAF Service Manual: Revision Unknown. Please note that this information is NOT in the version of the Service Manual that I have, but assumedly it was in a different version. Here is a
link to the Wiki with a chart that apparently came from some version of the 2011 LEAF Service Manual. Can someone please tell us what version that is from?
So, is the Li-ion battery capacity level gauge level a function of temperature? Not according to Nissan. Here is what they say on page MWI-24 of the 2011 Nissan LEAF Service Manual, Revision April 2011:
2011 Nissan LEAF Service Manual: Revision April 2011 said:
Li-ion battery capacity level gauge is immune to temperature change.
The point is that all of this information came from Nissan and some cars are apparently indicating 2 bars missing.
OTOH, there is also this statement on page EV-3 of the 2011 LEAF Owners's Manual Revised:
2011 LEAF Owners's Manual Revised said:
The capacity of the Li-ion battery in your vehicle to hold a charge will, like all such batteries, decrease with time and usage. As the battery ages and capacity decreases, this will result in a decrease from the vehicle's initial mileage range. This is normal, expected, and not indicative of any defect in your Li-ion battery. NISSAN estimates that battery capacity will be approximately 80% of original capacity after five years, although this is only an estimate, and this percentage may vary (and could be significantly lower) depending on individual vehicle and Li-ion battery usage.
Emphasis mine. Note that this statement was also in the original manuals that came with our cars.
The point is that the capacity losses are real according to Nissan, but their response is that they are normal. What seems to be missing in all this is that Phoenix owners were never told that they should ALL expect for that bolded section to apply directly to their car. Caveat emptor at its best if you ask me.