This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
Lost first battery capacity bar after one year of ownership. This results in a 15% loss in capacity. Difficulties are occuring to achieve driving distances and habits from the previous year. Vehicle will soon no longer function as an form of transportation if range continues to diminish. The capacity loss seems to be a defect in the battery and is unacceptable to loose a large amount in a short time frame.
2011 Nissan Leaf electric vehicle, purchased on 8/6/2011, lost a battery capacity bar on 06/21/2012 - 10 months, 15 days after purchase. This is a 15% loss of battery capacity. Nissan advertises an expected 80% capacity remaining after 5 years. I took the car to the dealer the next day for inspection and was told my battery is "normal, " and so is the lost capacity. I disagree and believe the batteries Nissan is using in this car are unfit for the high temperatures in my local area of phoenix, AZ.
Battery capacity has decreased over 15%, in just 7200 miles. Please investigate defect in Nissan Leaf battery. Please have Nissan institute recall for defective batteries in 2011/2012 Nissan Leaf vehicles.
The Nissan Leaf is a 100% battery operated vehicle. There is a built-in battery capacity indicator that is displayed as 12 indicator bars. Each bar represents a % of the batteries capacity to hold a charge. Nissan claims that gradual capacity loss is normal and that driver should expect to have 80% of their capacity left after 5 years and 70% after 10. I lost my first bar at the beginning of April, second bar first week of June, and third bar first week of July. Nissan has not defined what these bars mean, however, I do not believe that the loss of three bars in 4 months after owning the car for a year is gradual. I have sent my car to 2 different Nissan dealerships and even let Nissan North America take my car for 16 days for testing. So far, Nissan has told me that everything is normal. I believe that having a 100% battery operated vehicle marketed to a mass customer base and being driven on our streets and highways should have a dependable battery.
The problem is the battery, we where told by Nissan that there would be a slow loss of capacity and up to 20% loss at 5 years. This is only in hot climates like Arizona, tx and ca. The car should have had a battery cooling system. Now after pay $40,000 for the car in the first year my driving range is down so much in my second year the car will be worthless to drive or sell.
- Chandler, AZ, USA
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My Nissan Leaf has experienced a 1 capacity bar loss for it's lithium-ion battery, reducing the amount of available miles to drive. I believe that this is premature and that this is in relation to living in a hot weather climate area (summer months). Nissan has been informed by me of this condition. This is not the only instance, if possible, please see attached site: mynissanleaf.com/wiki/index.php?title=real_world_battery_capacity_loss.
About a month and a half ago, I purchased a 2011 Nissan Leaf from my local dealer. Everything was going great until about a month ago when I was driving on the highway around 20 mph or so when the power suddenly shut off. The entire dashboard instantly went off but the radio+touchscreen remained on. The car came to a crawl and I was able to pull over and restart without any problems. It was a little scary to say the least. I called the dealership where I bought the car from and left a voice mail for the service dept. Since it was Saturday but never received a call back. I kind of shrugged it off that day thinking it might have just been a quirk so I didn't follow up with the dealer. About a week and a half ago, I was pulling into a parking lot going around 10 mph and the same thing happened. I called the dealership and took it in the next day. They've had the car for about a week and said that Nissan told them to drive it and try reproducing the problem. I didn't expect them to reproduce it since it has only happened twice within weeks. As expected, they couldn't reproduce it so I was told that I would have to take the car back since they couldn't do anything about it. I am taking the Leaf back tomorrow to start driving again but definitely have concerns since my wife also drives the car and who knows what she would do in a shut-off while driving situation. Luckily, the past two incidents were not in high speeds and I was able to react quickly. My worst nightmare would be if we got rear ended due to instantly losing power. I have called Nissan directly to let them know about my car but no one has called me back. I assume they were already in touch with the dealer. I don't like the fact that I am being handed the car back at a potential safety risk.
I borrowed a Leaf from a co-worker to drive overnight. I parked in my driveway (not by a plug) and plugged the 110V charger into an extension cord to charge the battery. I awoke at midnight to a strong burned plastic/ozone type smell in my bedroom, which is above the garage. I went to the garage and found the extension cord was overheating, melting the plastic insulation from the wiring. I disconnected it, opened doors for a while to air out the house and went back to bed. Glad I had enough battery to get to work the next morning. My concern is that I assumed the car charger was self regulating so it wouldn't be a problem using an extension cord. As a borrower, I didn't read an owner's manual or any information warning me to avoid an extension cord. I'm very strong auto-technology based, yet still made this dumb mistake. It was dark, I was in a hurry to get home, quickly plugged it in and went inside. If I wasn't sleeping near the garage, I assume it would have continued this path of overheating until the wire burned thru or a fire occurred. I assume if someone plugs it directly into old wiring in a house, it could overheat that wiring too. I expect many people could do the same thing as I did since no one has a plug outside, and no one in California can actually get a car in their garage because its filled with stuff. I have no problem with the car as it was marvelous to drive. But this charging issue needs to be looked at closely since we are beginning to read stories of house fires with evs.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Midlothian, TX, USA