Comments on: Nissan Leaf battery degrades quickly in hot climates http://tucsoncitizen.com/wryheat/2012/09/19/nissan-leaf-battery-degrades-quickly-in-hot-climates/ by Jonathan DuHamel Sat, 18 May 2013 22:40:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: John Noble http://tucsoncitizen.com/wryheat/2012/09/19/nissan-leaf-battery-degrades-quickly-in-hot-climates/comment-page-1/#comment-17765 John Noble Mon, 01 Oct 2012 03:09:00 +0000 http://tucsoncitizen.com/wryheat/?p=1502#comment-17765 Living in Phx, only owned for 10 months and down bars… 5 stars on all my battery
treatment reports… this is nuts! I have treated my car perfectly but
Nissan has treated me horribly thus far. Much worse than the news
reports! Why does Nissan celebrate temperate region owners for 40K miles in one year, but throw AZ owners with 20K miles under the bus? Shameful Nissan, no class. I have owned 3 Nissans, but never again after the past few
months of Nissan being impotent and cold. Come pick up my car Nissan.

P.S. Thank you Jonathan DuHamel for standing with us Arizona Leaf owners on this issue!

]]> By: Jonathan_Duhamel http://tucsoncitizen.com/wryheat/2012/09/19/nissan-leaf-battery-degrades-quickly-in-hot-climates/comment-page-1/#comment-17737 Jonathan_Duhamel Wed, 19 Sep 2012 19:41:00 +0000 http://tucsoncitizen.com/wryheat/?p=1502#comment-17737 Thanks for the first person experience. Regarding your question, yes, the jobs are good; I just have a dislike of crony capitalism. Private enterprise should stand on its own.

]]> By: Richard Slaughter http://tucsoncitizen.com/wryheat/2012/09/19/nissan-leaf-battery-degrades-quickly-in-hot-climates/comment-page-1/#comment-17736 Richard Slaughter Wed, 19 Sep 2012 18:58:00 +0000 http://tucsoncitizen.com/wryheat/?p=1502#comment-17736 Yep, the Arizona impacted leafs are definitely a huge concern. I’m disappointed in Nissan’s response to the issue. For perspective, this is actually impacting a small subset of owners … My own leaf was exposed to over 30 days with temps of 100+ in the summer of 2011, and an even worse summer this year, but has yet to lose any.
Still, my anecdote, and the fact that they’re a small set of customers, definitely should not detract from the seriousness of this issue to those impacted.

I wonder, though, if Nissan may be holding out on replacing any damaged cells until the Tennessee plant comes online next month. There’s been a great deal of discussion lately of Nissan’s next-generation battery beginning to roll out; the timing coincides with the TN plant starting up…

As for cold weather and heater use, it’s definitely a huge impact, but not unexpectedly large (at least it was about what I expected) – When temps dropped into the 20′s last year, I lost about 10% from the cold, and with normal heat/defrost usage I lost another 10%. Since I normally got about 75 miles, that put me down to about 60 in winter ( though I actually took one trip just seeing how far I could push it and it was notably worse, but I had to try). Also, it’s important to note that the heater efficiency has already been addressed in the 2013 model. The A/C in the leaf is exceptionally efficient, and starting with the 2013 the heat will be consolidated with the A/C utilizing a heat pump design. If the heat is anywhere near as efficient as the A/C is, it will move from the notable but not critical consideration it is now, to essentially a non-issue altogether.

Anyway, just some thoughts. As much as I love the leaf, I definitely won’t argue that this Arizona issue needs exposure. Nissan needs to support the people impacted.

OH – one more quick note. You mention the $1.4B loan to Nissan, as if that’s something that shouldn’t have happened. Do you really want to send the Smyrna,TN plant workers whose jobs are a direct result of that loan home without their jobs? Do you really think that, regardless of the Leaf’s outcome, the repayment of that loan would ever be in question?

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