Friday, April 4, 2025

The Adjustment (Updated from April 30, 2018)

 The new Gen 2 batteries promise to not only deliver more range but will also be more robust lasting longer with a better chemistry. 

Well, at least that was the promise. I was buzzing along seeing a very slow drop in stats after taking the car off the lot a few months ago. As always I try to get a car that whose battery is less than a month old so my build date of 01/18 was perfect when I picked up the car in Mid February. 

As always, I was logging LEAF Spy readings every morning (that I drove the car) and unlike the Gen 0ne packs that bounced around all over the  place making it nearly impossible to see how the pack was doing, my Gen 2 pack was moving like Molasses. It was actually quite boring. Losing .01% here and there a few times a week. I figured it would be more than 6 months to lose one percent but then one day I checked it and...

I had lost over ¼% OVERNIGHT!  What happened? That was more than what I had lost in the first 4,000 miles and 2 months of driving!  But that was only the beginning. The next day it was another .38% loss and it kept going and going.  When the dust finally settled a week later, I had lost almost 2%. 

I quickly verified this with a full charge reading and yeah; GIDs and kwh available also dropped accordingly. 

I wondered what did I do wrong?  How come the stats NEVER go up like they did on the Gen Ones? At first I thought maybe I was DC'ing too much. After all, its free and hard to resist plus with working all over the Puget Sound Region, sometimes a full charge wasn't enough so boosting it during the day became a common habit. I have work I need to do to complete any assignments so I would simply stop, plug in, get the work done then go.  This saved me from having to cut into my home time to do it so it was a win-win. 

Although hot weather hasn't been a factor yet, I did do a few trips when the pack got heated to 10 temperature bars but only a few times. So guess we will continue to monitor. 


EDIT  (10-15-2018) 


Back again and yeah, it has happened again and seeing a pattern here.  Unlike Gen 1's, the stats NEVER go up. Only a slow decline or no change.  I have gone thru 2 more adjustments and they are coming in once every 3 months AND Aligned with my build date (01/18)   Interesting! 

I have to admit I am "not" concerned with the rapid drop having lost over 5% in nearly 12,000 miles simply because this is new chemistry which was supposed to hold up better. There is also a major revamping of the BMS control over DC charging (unfortunately) slowing the charge rate much earlier than my 30 kwh to reduce heat buildup.  I suspect the rate of degradation will slow dramatically in year 2. 


4 comments:

  1. Do you have a lowered dark gray 2015-17 SV (maybe SL, I didn't see the seats/headlights/solar panel)? If yes I saw you on I-5 southbound going over the Nisqually delta on Jun 23 and wanted to tell you that you're one of the reasons I'm a Leaf owner. The others are the heated steering wheel and lack of need for gas.

    I have a 2017 and Nissan finally gave me a battery under warranty after waiting 14 months. A real game-changer!

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    1. Definitely frequent the area but drive a Blue 2019 Plus. I am happy to hear you have gone EV! Congrats on the new pack! The extra range makes all the difference. I am still over 200 miles of range and currently looks like I will be for another 5 years!

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    2. I hate that there is no maintenance that can spare a BEV from battery degradation...metaphorically it's a cell phone that you also pay to put tires on and hope that the battery lasts through the second set. When you have to charge it twice a day you toss it in a drawer I guess? It doesn't become slow to respond like a phone does, it just ceases to be of any use.

      So there must be more than one Leaf enthusiast in Thurston County. I don't think I would do the lowering because the Leaf doesn't have all that much suspension to begin with but the one I saw was OCD clean and wasn't bouncing all around. Maybe he got the secret 110 kWh battery that weighs 1,600 lb.

      Thanks for all the detailed info over the years! I'm sure this car will be another flash in the automotive pan, especially after Nissan goes tits up, but it is cheap and cheerful while driving however many miles one can wring out of it on a charge.

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    3. Have you seen the specs on the 2026? Dual DC charging ports covering every format. Now it remains to be seen if they can bing it here at a reasonable price w\o suppport

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