[smokingfrog]

Interesting review

We have owned our Leaf since May 2011. We have loved the car but are now getting quite concerned. My husband drives the car, on average, 20-40 miles/day to and from work and running errands, mostly 100% on city roads. We live in San Diego, so no issue with winter weather and we live 7 miles from the ocean so seldom have daytime temperatures above 85. Originally, we would get 65-70 miles per 80-90% charge. Last fall we noticed that there was considerably less remaining charge left after a day of driving. He began to track daily miles, remaining “bars”, as well as started charging it 100%. For 9 months we have only been getting 40-45 miles on a full charge with only 1-2 “bars” remaining at the end of the day. Sometimes it will be blinking and “talking” to us to get to a charging place ASAP. We just had it into the dealership. Though on a full charge, the car gauge shows 12 bars, the dealership states that the batteries have lost 2 bars via the computer diagnostics (which we are told is a different reading from the car gauge itself) and, that they say, is average and excepted for the car at this age. Everything else (software, diagnostics, etc.) shows 100%, so the dealership thinks that the car is functioning as it should. They are unable to explain why we can only go 40-45 miles on a charge, but keep saying that the car tests out fine. If the distance one is able to drive on a full charge decreases any further, it will begin to render the car useless. As someone else recommended, in retrospect, the best way to go is to lease the Leaf so that battery life is not an issue.

http://www.nissanusa.com/leaf-electric-car/ratings-reviews?next=model.overview.leaf.ratings_reviews.button2

[palmer]

They are unable to explain why we can only go 40-45 miles on a charge,

Because batteries are not ready for prime time. Try again in 10 years.

[thackney]

Please read post 109

[Roman_War_Criminal]

Interesting....we’re looking at a lease in any case.
But good read.
Thanks!

[Greysard]

We have owned our Leaf since May 2011 [...] they say, is "average and excepted [expected?] for the car at this age."

It's quite uncommon to refer to a 3 year old car as "car of this age." It's nearly new. Sorry to hear that the battery is exhibiting memory effects. I used many laptops, and not even one battery in them survived for more than 2-3 years. This made me deeply suspicious of Li-Ion batteries; they are great as a power source, but they don't last.