Nissan LEAF: Nissan to extend warranty to cover battery capacity loss

Nissan has revealed it plans to extend the warranty on the Nissan LEAF EV to warrant against battery capacity losses.

We’ve asked many times why makers of electric cars seem to believe that their batteries will continue to hold the same amount of charge as they age, especially as every battery powered gadget we’ve ever owned loses its ability to hold the same charge as every month passes, and becomes pretty useless after a couple of years hard use. But we’ve never had a sensible answer.

Nor, really, have owners of the Nissan LEAF in the hotter parts of the US who have been fighting Nissan over the capacity loss of the batteries in their cars over a relatively short period of time.

Nissan has said that LEAF owners can expect their batteries to lose up to 20 per cent of their capacity to hold a charge after five years, although they’ve never warranted that. But now, after vociferous complaints from owners in Phoenix, Nissan has decided to change its warranty to cover capacity loss on the batteries in the LEAF, and do so retrospectively.

Nissan are now to warrant that the LEAF’s batteries will lose no more than 30 per cent of their capacity after five years or 60,000 miles, and if they do Nissan will replace them. Not necessarily with new ones, but batteries that still have more than 70 per cent capacity.

It helps alleviate the anxiety for first and second owners over battery life, although what it will do for the residual value of LEAFs when it’s though the battery pack costs £19k to replace is anyone’s guess.

And how reassuring is it anyway to be told that your new car might get 40mpg when it’s new, but it’s perfectly alright if it only manages 28mpg after five years? Because that’s the ICE equivalent of what Nissan are saying.