Comments on: Nissan Leaf Owners Hope For The Best, Fear The Worst

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 00:12:21 +0000

Hi, just bought are first electric car. Traded in my smart car which also did a wonderful job in saving me money. Now with the purchase of the Leaf were going to be rich! lol ….I use the Leaf for my commute to work which I work a grave yard shift.12 midnight till 8am. So as you can imagine my commutes both ways are awsome! Pretty much free sailing.My drive to work one way is 30 miles on the money. 60 miles round trip…. I use about 40 miles off the charge on the way into work(elevation going down) and about 50 on the way home.(due to im going up in elevation on way home) I can actually make it on one full charge which is great! I dont take risks like that in life so better news is I work in a Green building in Manhattan. They allow me to park in the building on the nightshift and since they are a Green Building they allow me to trickle charge it during my working hours which is a plus. I get at least 65 to 75 for the ride home!I also use it around my town…All the regular stuff you do with a veichle. All said and done I have done the math…with my truck just before I bought the smart car…I was burning 6 to 8 thousand a year on gas!!!! The look of the truck just wasnt worth it so I bought a samrt car which lowered that to just about 4 to 5 thousand a year. Ok imagine this…..Now I dont buy gas anymore for my travels to work. I am saving 4 to 5 thousand a year!!!! I am bugging out. Finally electric has come round! I have to say its totally awsome! I am very happy. Id be falling over the edge if it got at least 150 miles. lol Solar next? Complete freedom of energy! lol Thanks Nissan

By: Mick P

Mick P — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 17:37:45 +0000

What a bummer for Nissan and Leaf Owners. If the lemon law forces Nissan to buy back cars will Nissan refurbish, rename and resell them? What would they call the thing then, the Wilt? I came within an inch of buying a Leaf but opted for a Prius Plugin instead. I am banking that Toyota's extensive experience and transitional approach will eventually get us there. I am a Hybrid of a person. I am a conservative with environmental/reduce foreign oil dependance concerns. This is what happens when the White House pushes a solution beyond the free market's normal development time frame. We are borrowing insane amounts of money form China to fund technologies that are not yet ready. If this debt sinks our economy we can forget about anything green.

M poole

By: Michelle Robinson

Michelle Robinson — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 13:45:39 +0000

According to Sandia Lab report on LiFeBATT, 5 years ago, the first 15% of LiiFePO4 lose capacity rather fast, but the remind 85% will last a long time.

I has LiFePO4 in my Vehicle since 2007, I took t out last month to measure capacity, some Amperage has lost but there are more than 1/2 of capacity left, which could be use in home energy storge, and replace with new fresh battery pack, i driver must have the same long range.

By: bloggin

bloggin — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 01:45:05 +0000

This is one of the primary reason the Focus Electric with liquid cold/heated batteries will be my choice for an EV. Besides the fact it looks a whole lot better than the Leaf. It costs a bit more for the more advanced thermal technology, which is why you will pay a bit more for the Volt Plug-In Hybrid and the Focus Electric(which also comes with faster 240 charging).

I think Nissan is still dealing with their decision to try and do things on the cheap side. First they had to add the battery heating to deal with charging issues due to cold climates. Now it's the inevitable challenge to add some sort of liquid thermal management to deal with the hot climates. Just adding more fans won't help the situation blowing around hot air.

Ford's system is tied to the electric air conditioner, so cooled liquid is circulated around the batteries to maintain optimum temperature. The same with the heater to keep the batteries warm in cold climates. What's cool about their technology is that there is a special reserve of battery power just for the heating/cooling of the batteries, so when the car is parked in hot/cold climates, so it does not impact your overall driving range. Along with using the grid power to maintain optimum battery temp while charging.

If I were a Leaf owner, in a hot or cold climate(just because you live in a cool climate this year, does not mean you can't move to a hot climate later), I would not settle for a quick fix, but a long term solution for all climates, which would be a thermal system, along with battery replacement.

Seriously, if you are looking of buying an EV, just 'lease' the Focus Electric, which already has this issue worked out. Along with being a much nicer car(non-clown car) to start with. Hopefully no one is actually 'buying' and EV these days, when battery tech is advancing so quickly, and battery cost is dropping so rapidly.

By: Old Man Crowder

Old Man Crowder — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 13:13:40 +0000

Maybe Nissan could start targeting buyers in the more temperate climates. Instead of Texas, Arizona and California, why not focus more on the Oregon, New York and the rest of the north east?

Or.. gasp!!... CANADA!!

Coldness saves batteries!

By: Dr. R

Dr. R — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 08:52:36 +0000

Perhaps, but if they simply replace the batteries owners in hot climates will see the same degradation issues after about a year.

By: Roy_H

Roy_H — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 05:28:08 +0000

As I said before. There were plenty of clues, most importantly Nissan’s refusal to provide a warranty and their statement that all LEAFs returned from lease would be outfitted with new batteries before being sold. So part of me says “buyer beware”, but still these people bought their LEAFs in good faith and for the extreme cases (3 bars) Nissan should replace the batteries without fuss.

By: Tony Williams

Tony Williams — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 02:28:44 +0000

Thank you for a well rounded summary of the issues. I couldn't have said it better myself.

Tony Williams
San Diego, California USA
Driving my second LEAF

By: MrEnergyCzar

MrEnergyCzar — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 00:49:07 +0000

They should just add more packs being that there is space for more in the Leaf, isn't there? 3 bars is a big loss..... Liquid cooled batteries make better sense.

MrEnergyCzar

By: Van

Van — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 00:00:57 +0000

You can assume some sort of internal interim report has been passed up the chain, perhaps not in electronic form, to provide management with a heads up.

Tick tock