Warning: Battery Replacement Cost Increase (now $8500)

And what group 20 years ago are you referring to?

powersurge said:

... The only logical transaction is for the Leaf driver to BUY the battery, and then FINANCE the cost of the battery.

Click to expand...

Does anyone know if there's a lender that would finance a battery?

I would presume the battery would need to come with a warranty for at least the same amount of years as the loan, and the car would have to have full coverage insurance, and that the lender would have to be placed as a leinholder on the title.

DaveinOlyWA said:

Lets go back about 20 years. There is no way a company would spend Billions to warehouse products (sometimes for years) just to repackage them and ship them all over the World knowing the profits on each package would be a few cents each...

Click to expand...

Sears catalog. Sears was badly mismanaged, or Amazon would be a footnote in history.

WetEV said:

DaveinOlyWA said:

Lets go back about 20 years. There is no way a company would spend Billions to warehouse products (sometimes for years) just to repackage them and ship them all over the World knowing the profits on each package would be a few cents each...

Click to expand...

Sears catalog. Sears was badly mismanaged, or Amazon would be a footnote in history.

Click to expand...

Sears was mismanaged from the ground up in nearly every aspect of their operation. I am amazed they have lasted this long.

WetEV said:

DaveinOlyWA said:

Sears catalog. Sears was badly mismanaged, or Amazon would be a footnote in history.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Funny, a business that been around for 125 years is badly mismanaged.

bowthom said:

WetEV said:

DaveinOlyWA said:

Sears catalog. Sears was badly mismanaged, or Amazon would be a footnote in history.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Funny, a business that been around for 125 years is badly mismanaged.

Click to expand...

Sears was a soundly run company until the 1980's when the management screwed around with the business model trying to bring it upscale and bought KMart for the low end of the market. They never recovered from that. Sears Roebuck was the original Mail order company that sold anything and everything (including kits for building an entire house). It was the Amazon of its day.

bowthom said:

WetEV said:

DaveinOlyWA said:

Sears catalog. Sears was badly mismanaged, or Amazon would be a footnote in history.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Funny, a business that been around for 125 years is badly mismanaged.

Click to expand...

That is how it "normally" goes. Sears was very much like the auto industry. They made promises to their employees that they could not keep. Competition forced them to be more competitive. Realize there was a time not so long ago (during MY lifetime) where Sears was almost the ONLY place to shop for a lot of America. So they negotiated, forced, or used employee attrition to get their way.

This caused more than a bit of a rebellion. I saw way too much "not my department" back biting there.

evordie said:

Anyone seen this?

Click to expand...

Warrants a new thread.

This seems wonderful... BUT we do not know WHAT was done, and whether the effect is temporary.

I remember that you could rejuvenate NiCad batteries by shocking them with higher voltage and amperage... But I do not know how long that "hack" worked....

evordie said:

Well, according to their replies (posted yesterday), it is not a temporary push-up: the process "will give you your typical 12 bars of life".
Man, this would help many people, if price is fine.

Click to expand...

Does it work in Missouri?

I've found (basically by accident) a method to trick the car (a 2014 LEAF) into thinking it had like new battery capacity, just by driving and charging. However, the amount of power the battery takes from LBW to 100% doesn't change... So I don't think the increase is real.

As for this, show me.

They disclosed in reply to user post - BMS reset was used + some other steps. BMS reset will help with capacity boost, although temporary. Other steps, may be some deep discharge and multiple "top offs" - nobody knows. We do know though Nissan BMS assumes battery capacity loss based on usage pattern and it is not always reflects real battery capacity, most likely very conservative projection. So yes, BMS reset may help to get those over-estimated capacity losses to be restored to actual battery capacity.

IssacZachary said:

powersurge said:

... The only logical transaction is for the Leaf driver to BUY the battery, and then FINANCE the cost of the battery.

Click to expand...

Does anyone know if there's a lender that would finance a battery?

I would presume the battery would need to come with a warranty for at least the same amount of years as the loan, and the car would have to have full coverage insurance, and that the lender would have to be placed as a leinholder on the title.

Click to expand...

Mr. Zachary,
You are making this way to complicated. Loan? Full Insurance Coverage? Title lienholder?

I am referring to your typical manner of buying something in the 21st century... Put it on your credit card. If anyone needs major car repairs, they put it on the credit card and pay it off somehow. You could negotiate several payments over several months. Why does that sound so strange?

I know you will say... "But what if the person doesn't have credit?" Well, in today's capitalistic Utopia, if you want something, you gotta pay for it.., If you can't buy the chips, you can't join the poker game.....

evordie said:

Still trying to understand what they do.
From the same guys and web, under 'Battery reconditioning":

"Our battery reconditioning process is not invasive, does not use chemicals and is completely electronic. We use a frequency pulse to break down sulfate crystals that build up along the plates over time. Our process transforms these crystals back to active material allowing electrons to flow freely through the plates again. A reconditioned battery can last for more than two years and in many cases the process can be repeated".

Is this only valid for lead acid batteries?

Click to expand...

Sulfate crystals are what you get with lead (sulfuric) acid batteries. That said, I just recovered 1% of my SoH on my 2012 Leaf since I've been trickle charging daily at work in addition to my normal L2 charging at home. I think it's giving it additional time to balance the pack.

Durandal said:

That said, I just recovered 1% of my SoH on my 2012 Leaf since I've been trickle charging daily at work in addition to my normal L2 charging at home. I think it's giving it additional time to balance the pack.

Click to expand...

SOH is an estimate. SOH isn't accurate to 1%

IssacZachary said:

powersurge said:

... The only logical transaction is for the Leaf driver to BUY the battery, and then FINANCE the cost of the battery.

Click to expand...

Does anyone know if there's a lender that would finance a battery?

I would presume the battery would need to come with a warranty for at least the same amount of years as the loan, and the car would have to have full coverage insurance, and that the lender would have to be placed as a leinholder on the title.

Click to expand...

I thought Nissan offered a finance option on the battery, did they do away with that too?

powersurge said:

...Put it on your credit card. If anyone needs major car repairs, they put it on the credit card and pay it off somehow. You could negotiate several payments over several months. Why does that sound so strange?...

Click to expand...

I guess I didn't even think about credit cards. That would work for many people. I'm the kind of guy that lives in the mountains far away from civilization and has no clue as to how the world works. I'm still raising pigs and cattle and farming potatoes.

I just got a credit card a few years ago. I only use it to auto pay my bills and I have it set up to be automatically paid off each month. I never pay interest or fees on it ever. The credit limit has risen from $1,000 to $6,000 although I never use that much. And thankfully it has also built my credit up enough I was able to get a loan on the Leaf and then later on the Avalon. Before that I just bought cars for cash. I had a hard time getting the credit card though. I had to go down to the big city to get it because here at my bank they wouldn't approve me for not having any credit history.

Kinda refreshing to see someone like Zachary. My wife and I cut up our credit cards 8 years ago and are debt free now (except the house). Changed our life.

If I need a new battery, I'll probably budget for it and pay cash... Or just get a new Leaf. But yeah, I guess credit cards is how most will do it. But geesh, 8-30% interest on $8k...

Lothsahn said:

Kinda refreshing to see someone like Zachary. My wife and I cut up our credit cards 8 years ago and are debt free now (except the house). Changed our life.

If I need a new battery, I'll probably budget for it and pay cash... Or just get a new Leaf. But yeah, I guess credit cards is how most will do it. But geesh, 8-30% interest on $8k...

Click to expand...

If you need to put it on a credit card and pay it off, you would be better off buying a new car. At 14% interest ( common rate for a credit card) and paying it off over 60 months would cost almost $200/mo. And you end up with a junker. Much better off to put that money toward a new car with a bigger, better battery and upgraded electronics. $200/month would be a third of the car payment or maybe half of the lease. If Nissan upgraded the battery then maybe but $12000 in payments to put a Nissan battery into an old Leaf just doesn't make sense.

I too pay off my credit cards every month. It's more convenient than carrying cash or writing checks. I just pay one bill on the First of the month ( and yes I even charge the utilities on it). It does take a certain amount of discipline though.

johnlocke said:

If you need to put it on a credit card and pay it off, you would be better off buying a new car. At 14% interest ( common rate for a credit card) and paying it off over 60 months would cost almost $200/mo. And you end up with a junker. Much better off to put that money toward a new car with a bigger, better battery and upgraded electronics.

Click to expand...

Sadly $200 per month is about all I can afford. So I got a 60 month car payment on a used ICE car for $10,000 instead of getting another battery. I'm paying less than $200 per month with about a 4.5% interest rate.

I’m extremely disappointed after reading this thread. I have a 2011 Leaf that gives me 35 miles on a good day. All along I had been mentally preparing myself to fork over $5000 to get a new battery, and now it’s $8500. And if I don’t replace the battery, the car wouln’t be worth anything.