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Comment by turtlebits | Hacker News Reader

The 2015 Leaf has the worst battery degradation of any EV. That's Nissan's fault.

However, battery prices are going drop further. Your Leaf has a 24kWh pack. At the current $100/kwh price, thats $2400 for a completely new battery. In the future I'm sure you could get an even higher capacity replacement.

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In the future? Talk about the present http://www.dalasevrepair.fi/

That might have been an intentional choice if they knew either they'd sell to suckers and leave them on the hook for the new battery, or have to subsidize a new battery in 5 years, knowing it would be cheaper, like writing a call on batteries.

The battery had literally zero temperature management, no heating or cooling. They literally could've added a 12 volt chassis fan to make it not suck so bad.

Rapidgate was a thing, the battery heated up when driving, you stop to recharge -> battery heats up even more -> overheat -> limiters engage and you're charging at hand crank levels of power.

The LEAF has a battery heater. It does suck for having only passive cooling.

The funny thing is their electric vans do have thermal battery management.

The Leaf was built with Japanese climate in mind, where peak temperatures are usually not as high. I always found that strange, given that automotive components are usually tested for outlier conditions.

AFAIK, it also overheats under CHAdeMO charging in very cold temperatures. I don't think it was the climate, just saving $$.

Is that historical or recent Japanese climate? It's gotten worse lately - Tokyo at 35C 100% humidity is still not Death Valley but it's unpleasant for humans and presumably batteries too.

A Korean car company made a car with the Japanese climate in mind? Perhaps you meant the Korean climate?

Are you under the mistaken impression that Nissan, maker of the LEAF, is a Korean car company? (They are a Japanese company.)

The main reason the leaf had bad degradation was the 24kwh battery size. People charged them to 100%, drove a good portion of their capacity each day, and cycled the battery often.

In comparison, a tesla could charge to 80%, never drain to below 20%, and charge weekly instead of daily.

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