What started back in May as a few owners noticing one less bar on their Leaf’s battery capacity display has now turned into a larger issue. Up to 50 Nissan Leaf owners are said to be having the same issue.
The battery capacity loss is being noticed in hot areas of the country like Arizona. The in car display showing battery capacity is sometimes omitting the last bar (a 15% loss), and in a few cases as many as three bars have been lost (27.5%). One owner on the MyNissanLeaf.com forum has just lost bar number four, which means a full third of the Leaf’s range has been lost. Owners on the MyNissanLeaf forum have been recording data in the Nissan Leaf Wiki chronicling members who have experienced the issue.
From CBS airing a TV news segment to Nissan’s Mark Perry pleading with owners experiencing the issue to call the Nissan EV Hotline (877-664-2738), all of the publicity around this has prompted Nissan to issue a public statement directly on the MyNissanLeaf.com forum.
To sum things up, Nissan acknowledges the battery loss, takes the concerns very seriously, but is still saying that “Battery capacity loss of the levels reported may be considered normal depending on the method and frequency of charging, the operating environment, the amount of electricity consumed during daily usage and a vehicle’s mileage and age.” Nissan is committed to investigating each customer’s vehicles and perform diagnostics on the vehicle and battery to better understand the real-world driving and charging history of the owners.
Nissan also mentions that less than 0.3 percent of Nissan Leafs in the U.S. have experienced a loss of any battery capacity bars.
To read the full release, visit the My Nissan Leaf Forum
