

Nissan Beefs Up LEAF Battery Warranty to Cover Capacity Loss - MikeCapone
http://www.treehugger.com/cars/nissan-beefs-leaf-battery-warranty-cover-capacity-loss-will-others-follow.html

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greenyoda
_"This policy change tells us a few things: First, Nissan is very confident
that its batteries won't suffer from too much capacity loss within those 5
years or 60,000 miles."_

Depends what you consider "too much". If your battery can only be charged to 9
out of 12 bars after five years (which is considered acceptable under the
warranty), that means you've lost 25% of your battery capacity, or 25% of your
car's range.

Since after five years it will only get worse (and the warranty will have
expired), it also suggests that nobody will want to buy your five year old
Leaf unless you discount the price by the cost of a new battery (several
thousand dollars).

Gasoline powered cars don't have either of these problems, which suggests that
electric cars will remain a small market unless the price of gas goes up
sharply.

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fossuser
"Gasoline powered cars don't have either of these problems, which suggests
that electric cars will remain a small market unless the price of gas goes up
sharply."

 _or_ battery technology improves substantially which seems likely either in
capacity or price, but probably both.

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ams6110
Not sure what battery technology improvements are on the horizon but unless
they are order of magnitude improvements electric cars are still impractical
for my needs, and I suspect for many other folks as well.

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krisoft
Is there some technological difference, which allows them to provide such a
warranty, compared to the competition? Or it's just different spin, on how you
communicate the expected lifetime of the batteries?

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iaw
To be honest, I don't know the answer to your question, but I do know that
battery capacity is heavily influenced by the following : -thermal cycling
-maximum temperature -charging parameters

I would hazard that Nissan has performed a number more tests on the leaf
batteries in the last couple years and developed a better model for battery
decay based on their enforced management of the above listed characteristics.

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rdl
I hate not having a second parking spot. A $199/mo lease on a Leaf seems like
a no-brainer in California: HOV lane access, free parking and charging in a
lot of places, and enough range for pretty much anything inside
SF/Oakland/Berkeley that I'd do. Keep an ICE car for anything longer. It's
probably enough that if you lived in San Mateo County, you could go everywhere
you'd normally care about (SF to San Jose), round trip.

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iaw
What the article is _really_ saying is that Nissan expects the Leaf to deplete
to 80% capacity by year 5 outside of extraordinary circumstances.

