The consensus seems to be that, although Nissan is only guaranteeing to provide a replacement with more than 70% capacity, they will go above that to avoid the cost of replacing the battery multiple times, especially if the car has many years or many miles to go to reach 5 years or 60,000 miles.dm33 wrote:Say the benchmark is 70% as in the original note. If capacity of 69% causes it to be a warranty issue, then the fix may only bring it up to 71%?
That doesn't seem very useful.
At the rate my LEAF's battery is degrading, I'd expect to reach less than 70% capacity by the end of the summer of 2014 (at a little over two years and 20,000 miles). Although it's possible, I'd be very surprised if I had to get the battery replaced multiple times between September 2014 and the time I return the car to Nissan in July 2015. Down here, the degradation doesn't slow down much during the late fall, winter and early spring. Temps can remain in the 70s and 80s all winter long.
However, if it does appear to be headed in that direction, I'll get another car and have the LEAF sit in my driveway most of the time. The battery will still degrade due to the warm temperatures. Then Nissan can have fun replacing the battery as often as they want.