Nissan Leaf Battery Woes

millys77

Hi, looking for some advice...

I have a 2019 Leaf that has done 47,000 miles and has had the Service EV light come on. Long story short is the car has been diagnosed by Nissan as needing a new battery which is not covered under the 5 year warranty as it's 6 years old and is not covered under the 8 year warranty for degradation as it has full capacity despite not being able to drive anywhere in it. I am told that all modules are swollen and distorted in the existing battery, which causes voltage leaks and requires a new battery. I only use this car for driving around town and school runs, so nothing in my opinion could have been done to avoid this problem.

Nissan told me for £12k they can provide a new battery but they will only guarantee this new battery for 12 months as the 5 year battery warranty only comes with a new car. The dealership tells me I am very 'unlucky' but looking online it seems maybe I am not. Clearly I don't want to pay £12k and potentially be 'unlucky' again in 15 months time.

I have logged a complaint with both the dealership and Nissan UK but they are very keen to just say 'tough' and provide no other solutions other than buy a new battery with a limited warranty or write off the car/sell it for scrap.

Is this just what happens with EV's? Is there anything else I can do?

Thanks

WellKnownSid

The Leaf doesn't have any active cooling unlike almost every other EV and Nissan seems to have a very narrow view as to what will trigger the 8 year battery warranty.

There are a growing number of EV specialists who will be able to swap the battery for very little (there is a YouTube video of a guy doing it on his drive) - I would take that route as they'll either replace the damaged modules (normally it's the ones at the rear) or the whole thing with a salvaged battery for much much less.

How are you charging your battery?  It would be very hard to have 'all modules' swollen unless it's been really badly treated.

My son works for a main dealer - different brand - and he tested the SoH of an 'ex demo' car they had.  It was just 94% state of health despite being only six months old because being a 'demo' car it spent most of its time plugged in so the charge never dropped below 100% except when it was being test driven - where it dropped to 99% before being plugged in again!

Keep_pedalling

I suspect you Leaf has mainly been charged using rapid chargers. Unlike the vast majority of EVs the leaf had no active battery management so are prone to overheat on charging. (There are EVs out there with 10x the mileage still running on the original batteries). I presume this is the smaller 24kW hour battery as the larger ones all had an 8 year warranty.

There are companies out there who specialise in battery repairs / replacement using good condition used battery modules. Cleeveley for instance use recovers 1-2 year old modules

https://www.cleevelyev.co.uk/

born_again

millys77 said:

Hi, looking for some advice...

I have a 2019 Leaf that has done 47,000 miles and has had the Service EV light come on. Long story short is the car has been diagnosed by Nissan as needing a new battery which is not covered under the 5 year warranty as it's 6 years old and is not covered under the 8 year warranty for degradation as it has full capacity despite not being able to drive anywhere in it. I am told that all modules are swollen and distorted in the existing battery, which causes voltage leaks and requires a new battery. I only use this car for driving around town and school runs, so nothing in my opinion could have been done to avoid this problem.

Nissan told me for £12k they can provide a new battery but they will only guarantee this new battery for 12 months as the 5 year battery warranty only comes with a new car. The dealership tells me I am very 'unlucky' but looking online it seems maybe I am not. Clearly I don't want to pay £12k and potentially be 'unlucky' again in 15 months time.

I have logged a complaint with both the dealership and Nissan UK but they are very keen to just say 'tough' and provide no other solutions other than buy a new battery with a limited warranty or write off the car/sell it for scrap.

Is this just what happens with EV's? Is there anything else I can do?

Thanks

Take it to one of the many HEVRA garages that can repair the battery. Nissan are only interested is replacing them. Leaf's are a easy fix.
This is by the guy that owns Cleevely EV repairs.

https://youtu.be/-ySOspbt0BM?si=pH9-MqvzsFAUrXr_

millys77

WellKnownSid said:

The Leaf doesn't have any active cooling unlike almost every other EV and Nissan seems to have a very narrow view as to what will trigger the 8 year battery warranty.

There are a growing number of EV specialists who will be able to swap the battery for very little (there is a YouTube video of a guy doing it on his drive) - I would take that route as they'll either replace the damaged modules (normally it's the ones at the rear) or the whole thing with a salvaged battery for much much less.

How are you charging your battery?  It would be very hard to have 'all modules' swollen unless it's been really badly treated.

My son works for a main dealer - different brand - and he tested the SoH of an 'ex demo' car they had.  It was just 94% state of health despite being only six months old because being a 'demo' car it spent most of its time plugged in so the charge never dropped below 100% except when it was being test driven - where it dropped to 99% before being plugged in again!

I just charge it from home, i have the normal charging point on my house. I dont use the rapid charging chargers.

millys77

Keep_pedalling said:

I suspect you Leaf has mainly been charged using rapid chargers. Unlike the vast majority of EVs the leaf had no active battery management so are prone to overheat on charging. (There are EVs out there with 10x the mileage still running on the original batteries). I presume this is the smaller 24kW hour battery as the larger ones all had an 8 year warranty.

There are companies out there who specialise in battery repairs / replacement using good condition used battery modules. Cleeveley for instance use recovers 1-2 year old modules

I just charge it from home, its the 40kW Battery.

WellKnownSid

millys77 said:

WellKnownSid said:

The Leaf doesn't have any active cooling unlike almost every other EV and Nissan seems to have a very narrow view as to what will trigger the 8 year battery warranty.

There are a growing number of EV specialists who will be able to swap the battery for very little (there is a YouTube video of a guy doing it on his drive) - I would take that route as they'll either replace the damaged modules (normally it's the ones at the rear) or the whole thing with a salvaged battery for much much less.

How are you charging your battery?  It would be very hard to have 'all modules' swollen unless it's been really badly treated.

My son works for a main dealer - different brand - and he tested the SoH of an 'ex demo' car they had.  It was just 94% state of health despite being only six months old because being a 'demo' car it spent most of its time plugged in so the charge never dropped below 100% except when it was being test driven - where it dropped to 99% before being plugged in again!

I just charge it from home, i have the normal charging point on my house. I dont use the rapid charging chargers.

I would get a second opinion.

Without abuse there are few reasons why “all modules” will be affected especially at your mileage.

Did they actually take the battery apart or is it guesswork at this stage?

millys77

WellKnownSid said:

millys77 said:

WellKnownSid said:

The Leaf doesn't have any active cooling unlike almost every other EV and Nissan seems to have a very narrow view as to what will trigger the 8 year battery warranty.

There are a growing number of EV specialists who will be able to swap the battery for very little (there is a YouTube video of a guy doing it on his drive) - I would take that route as they'll either replace the damaged modules (normally it's the ones at the rear) or the whole thing with a salvaged battery for much much less.

How are you charging your battery?  It would be very hard to have 'all modules' swollen unless it's been really badly treated.

My son works for a main dealer - different brand - and he tested the SoH of an 'ex demo' car they had.  It was just 94% state of health despite being only six months old because being a 'demo' car it spent most of its time plugged in so the charge never dropped below 100% except when it was being test driven - where it dropped to 99% before being plugged in again!

I just charge it from home, i have the normal charging point on my house. I dont use the rapid charging chargers.

I would get a second opinion.

Without abuse there are few reasons why “all modules” will be affected especially at your mileage.

Did they actually take the battery apart or is it guesswork at this stage?

They took the battery off the car and inspected it at one of their specialised garages.