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nissan looking at 150 mile epa range, implies battery costs continuing down

Discussion in 'Prius, Hybrid, EV and Alt-Fuel News' started by austingreen, Jan 31, 2014.

  1. austingreen

    austingreen Senior Member

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    You are right I think. Some idiot at Nissan did say that, but since then they have stood up and are standing by their product, even though the first ones aged too fast in the heat. Since the problems they have put out a new waranty to replace the battery if it loses more than 30% capacity in 5 years or 60,000 miles, and a $100/mo cost for battery replacement.
    Nissan Leaf battery replacement will cost $100/month, offers new pack at any time
    [​IMG]

    IMHO 30% is much more than it should lose, but at least they are standing up and replacing batteres that aged too fast. I'm sure if they put in a 150 mile battery they will test it even in the hot sun for less than a 20% loss in those 5 years or 60K miles.
     
  2. Troy Heagy

    Troy Heagy Member

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    The point is: Your Leaf's range is expected to drop to only -55 miles in a few years.

    If you live 35 miles from work a brand-new leaf can do the range, but as it ages it will no longer be able to do it. (Unless you get a recharge from your employer.). EVs *need* access to the work charger to get back home..... hybrids do not.
     
  3. 2k1Toaster

    2k1Toaster Brand New Prius Batteries

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    Average driver goes 40miles total. 35miles commute one way is not average. And you bought the wrong tool for the job if you bought a Leaf expecting it to go 70miles/day for its whole life.
     
  4. Troy Heagy

    Troy Heagy Member

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    Well several Leaf owners did buy the car thinking, "it can go 73 round trip," per the sticker on the window. It worked fine for them the first year but not so well after aging/capacity loss.
     
  5. 2k1Toaster

    2k1Toaster Brand New Prius Batteries

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    How is it the car's fault or technology's fault for stupid buyers? Everyone has a cell phone or laptop that doesn't last as long as it did when brand new. If you can't rub two neurons together and figure it out, then there really isn't much more that should be done to help it.

    If you buy a Lamborghini Murcielago it comes with launch control. Every time you use it, you burn away a lot of the clutch, the tires, and the strains are tremendous on the rest of the system. It takes about 6K miles off the life of the clutch each time you do it. So take your brand new car, launch control it 20 times and you need a brand new clutch. That's not Lamborghini's fault, that is just stupid pilot error.
     
  6. Troy Heagy

    Troy Heagy Member

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    How is it the customer's fault that Nissan did not tell them, "30% loss of range in 3 years is normal." (Nissan did eventually reveal that fact but not until after the sale.)
     
  7. 2k1Toaster

    2k1Toaster Brand New Prius Batteries

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    When you buy your cell phone do they tell you that the expected battery lifetime is just over a year with full charge/discharge cycles?
     
  8. austingreen

    austingreen Senior Member

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    Absolutely that is Nissans fault for pretending that is normal.

    Nissan has changed its stance and now says 25% degradation is normal after 5 years in a hot climate like Pheonix, much less is expected in LA or the Bay Area's cooler climate. They warant it for 30% degradation for 5 years, and 8 years for other things than degradation. We should not pretend that 30% is normal or expected.

    100% charge rate is 84 miles aer on a new leaf. 70% is 59 miles. The epa does account for some bad weather, but you will use more battery in bad weather.

    Anyone that bought a leaf instead of leased one, has no real grounds to complain. There were many stories warning about this behaviour. With battery costs coming down, it looks like its a good move for nissan to make available a longer distance leaf.
     
  9. 2k1Toaster

    2k1Toaster Brand New Prius Batteries

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    104.8mi in -17C weather. Includes a good portion with HVAC on and the first half driving it with jackrabbit starts. I had to creep home, but it made it.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
    Tracksyde, Zythryn and austingreen like this.
  10. Dogwood2

    Dogwood2 Member

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    Noting news articles posted elsewhere...

    GreenCars.org has posted their Greenest Vehicles of 2014. This takes into account not just the "green" usage, but the manufacturing footprint. Top cars include the Prius and Leaf.

    With respect to Tesla...here's how Edmunds summarized it.
    Some of these cars are neat, but they're not necessarily as "green" as advertised, and government subsidies don't turn brown into green. Maybe this is an unavoidable phase, and manufacturing scale and technology improvement will make long-range electrics greener over time. Or maybe not. I'm not trying to settle the argument; just posting a cautionary note.
     
  11. austingreen

    austingreen Senior Member

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    You may thing that, or maybe greencars.org has a lot in common with cnw ;-(

    greenercars.org | the greenest vehicles of 2013
    Is a prius c really "greener" than a prius liftback? That depends on a lot, but this report says it is. Why? Why that liftback has more aluminum and a bigger nimh battery, and so the liftback must be more brown. About 4% browner acording to the scoring. What if people actually drive more miles in the liftback (market research tell us this is likely) and at the end of life that battery and aluminum are recycled (also likely)? Most would say the liftback was greener, even before considering that the liftback likely substitutes out more browner cars.

    What about the tesla S? What if it is powered by wind or sun, lasts 150,000 miles and then is recycled, the batteries going to grid back up, the aluminum going to other aluminum cars, or cans, or any aluminum products. Then we may score it very differently than greenercars.org. What if we are concrned about tail pipe emissions in cities, or in destruction of the environment to get oil sands from canada. There are lots of green ideas that are different than ghg on the us average grid.

    No just becasuse a website gives you a ghg definition of green, it doesn't mean its so. Now greenercars.org does a better job than cnw, but the notion that it ranked the tesla S so low is an indicator that greencars.org methodology is deeply flawed, not that the tesla is a brown car.
     
  12. Troy Heagy

    Troy Heagy Member

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    I think it was unfairly punished because they assume it has a lot of toxic chemicals. I wonder how the 4000-pound Volt was penalized? I don't see it listed anywhere.

    It appears both these cars scored worse than the diesel Passat (37) or diesel Jetta/Gulf (36). I also noticed the Civic CNG is no longer #2 in cleanliness.... it held that positivism for almost a decade (behind the 66mpg insight).
     
  13. Troy Heagy

    Troy Heagy Member

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    Comparing greenercars American Council for an energy efficient Economy (ACEEE) to Cnw is like comparing Al Gore to an oil baron. It makes no logical sense. ACEEE is a green organization that would like to see everyone crush their cars and bike to work. (The only way to score 100 on their scale is to cease breathing.)
     
  14. austingreen

    austingreen Senior Member

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    I'm sorry if that offends you but when your green criteria give an Honda Odessy gets a green score of 36, and a tesla S gets a green score of 37 something is really wrong. You have too choices. You can look and realize that like CNW things are weighted poorly, or you can claim, they have green in their name, so we should not question their methodology. If Green is your religion, and GHG is much more important than unhealthy pollution or destruction of the envvironment, yes, go with their results unquestioning. I've just shot them off an email asking them to do a sanity check on whether they mean green or something completely different? But go ahead follow blindly and defend it. I mean we definitely are charging all the Tesla S's on the national grid, and they will never be recycled.:mad:

    now ofcourse Al Gore and Oil Barrons both say they are for the environment;) But except for the Koch Brothers I bet Gore personally uses more energy than the other other oil rich (Hamm, Kaiser, Kinder, etc). All of them use politics to enrich themselves (Gore got government money for Fisker and other of his start ups). Frankly yes they have quite different points of view, but I wouldn't trust any of them to really tell the truth. See I took the bait.
     
  15. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    What is the Leaf battery replacement price?

    Is there any pro-rating?

    Are there any independent or owner options?

    Bob Wilson
     
  16. austingreen

    austingreen Senior Member

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    Hey bob,
    I didn't mean this to sound as if Nissan currently had a 150 mile car for sale. They are asking cusomers about it, and the additional cost on the survey is $5000 or less which is exciting for those of us that want batteries to go down in price.

    The current leaf battery is waranted for 8 years, but to retain at least 30% of its usable range for 5 years. They don't have any public prices to buy a replacement, but they will lease you a replacement after that period for $100/mo. The new higer capacity battery may be more than that lease rate, no word from nissan.
     
  17. PriusC_Commuter

    PriusC_Commuter Active Member

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    It's really hard to decide if it's worth that battery warranty for the Leaf without knowing how much a replacement battery outright costs. If you're spending an extra $100 a month for "battery replacement" you've spent $9600 after 8 years ($6000 in 5 years) just for the battery warranty... And I would highly assume you would get the same battery size you originally bought it with, not an improved version.
     
  18. austingreen

    austingreen Senior Member

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    I may have misunderstood the waranty, and the leaf is not on my list living in a hot state, but I think it is $100/mo after your battery is out of warnaty. If you are planning to own that leaf for 13 years and expect the battery to fail at the earliest out of waranty 61 months for capacity, then yes, I don't think its a good deal. If on the otherhand you drive for 9 years, it fails and you want your car for a couple more years, that seems quite fine. Say you drive 120,000 miles in 9 years and your battary is out of waranty, then sure $2400 for a couple more years may make sense. No one knows what these batteries will cost then, other than less than today. If it needs liquid conditioning for the latest and greatest nissan can't just shove that in the car.
     
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  19. Troy Heagy

    Troy Heagy Member

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    Duplicate..... for error
     
  20. GrumpyCabbie

    GrumpyCabbie Senior Member

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    Tell that to Mercedes, BMW and Jaguar then :)

    Build a sporty Jag out of Aluminium and it's fine but dare to make a few panels of it on a hybrid and you're killing the earth o_O