I find this entire post to be terribly patronizing. Of course I'm rightfully concerned, and even if it doesn't have immediate impact on my life, it leaves a very heavy question mark hanging over our car like the sword of Damocles.
A tad dramatic for a question mark, don't you think?
I bought a car with expectations created by Nissan, both explicit and implied, and the car is not performing as it was described. If they knew it was a problem and covered it up to get the car to market, then we have a serious problem on our hands for which I would definitely sue, but that's being overly presumptuous on my part for the time being. If they were simply ignorant of the effects of extreme ambient temps--which seems highly doubtful, but possible--then they need to get in front of this issue and take care of those affected.
They did know that high heat could be detrimental to the vehicle, as it is for all vehicles. Would you have preferred they not offer it in that market until 2017?
The issue has absolutely nothing to do with me and the way I drive or charge, and again, I find this unacceptably patronizing on your part. Those of us who have lost bars only have this in common: heat, and lots of it.
Understood, thanks for letting us all know of this issue, first adopters are always going to be impacted by something, and many companies will settle issues like this given time. Screaming and sueing about these issues often leads to a dumbing down of what becomes available, so either accept, decline, or wait and see what will transpire. I am glad to see you found a solution that works for you (Leasing a new one and selling the old one). I do doubt that Nissan knew this was an issue, although they hint that it could be an issue in the information I read before I bought - namely that 140 degree temps for several days could have a bad effect on the battery. I did read that one owner in that area sought to recover 3 miles of charge on a full battery - not a good idea unless you had four flat tires and went up a mountain - not an informed owner and protecting everyone else from those that don't get educated will have us using the same amount of battery as a Volt. Nissan chose to allow us to use a large amount of the battery, and I value that. A fix for this "issue" would be to give all of us 10 bars on the gauge instead of 12 (18KWH usable or less), so the degradation would not show up for an even longer time. I prefer the way Nissan believed it should work, although your experience shows that belief may be suspect. If they waited for all the kinks to be worked out we would never see any car delivered.
The Leaf is definitely outstanding, and my wife would be sad to see it go, as would I. But none of us should have to settle with a product that doesn't honestly work the way the manufacturer said it would, especially a product that costs over $30K. I wouldn't settle for a computer that didn't work the way Apple said it would, or even a meal that was mediocre after being promised something spectacular, so why should I settle for a car that does 20%,30%,50% less than promised? That doesn't make any sense to me as a consumer.
20, 30, or 50%? Even two bars down would give you far more utility than that - if I am overly patronizing, it is likely due to you over dramatizing.
If Nissan won't make it right, or if they have covered up this problem, then they deserve bad publicity, lost confidence, lost sales, and the loss of my business. Again, I hope they make it right.