There are taxis that put a lot of miles on the old 30 and 24kWh batteries. They stood up really well. The 40s are different chemistry but hopefully as robust.

LeafSpy is the best tool for checking the battery out.

 

There is a battery condition gauge accessed on the battery screen selected by the buttons on the left steering wheel spoke.

You can select the battery temperature, condition, charge time and power meter by pressing the up and down buttons.

Press < or > to choose the page - the battery page has a car symbol in the top of the display which is the left most one.

Leafspy will give more detail and also what type of charging has been done - slow or quick.
I would ask the seller about this - he/she may have just plugged it into the granny charger every night, or a 7kw home charger, or many rapid charges.

It's not clear on the Leaf 2s what effect the charging regime has on battery degradation but daily moderate use and charging does seem to do little harm (eg taxis). Whereas a few long journeys every week, with multiple rapid charges may not be as harmless.

 

There is a battery condition gauge accessed on the battery screen selected by the buttons on the left steering wheel spoke.

You can select the battery temperature, condition, charge time and power meter by pressing the up and down buttons.

Press < or > to choose the page - the battery page has a car symbol in the top of the display which is the left most one.

Leafspy will give more detail and also what type of charging has been done - slow or quick.
I would ask the seller about this - he/she may have just plugged it into the granny charger every night, or a 7kw home charger, or many rapid charges.

It's not clear on the Leaf 2s what effect the charging regime has on battery degradation but daily moderate use and charging does seem to do little harm (eg taxis). Whereas a few long journeys every week, with multiple rapid charges may not be as harmless.

The seller is a dealer. I did ask him about how it'd been used before, but he said he didn't know. I guess LeafSpy would be the best option to get more detail, but I don't know how likely it is that he'd let me check that sort of thing while viewing it!

 

I think I'd be hesitant to buy one without LeafSpy. The gauge in the car is not very accurate.

It will give you some idea of the history too because it tells you the number of rapid charges and the number of normal charges.

 

The battery warranty is 8 year, as mentioned, or 100K miles, so in 20K miles the battery warranty will be no more. Mechanically the LEAF is more or less bullet proof, although there are little things that go wrong like having to grease the drive shaft, but certainly no show stoppers.

Battery is key, you need LEAF Spy and check for weak cells, although NISSAN have a good record in replacing cells and as mentioned 20K miles to sort any battery issues out. Personally, at the right price, I would prefer to buy an high mileage EV over a very low mileage one, battery’s are made to be used, not stood around, festering, however they don’t like abuse either, it’s a judgment.

 

The battery warranty is 8 year, as mentioned, or 100K miles, so in 20K miles the battery warranty will e no more. Mechanically the LEAF is more or less bullet proof, although there are little things that go wrong like having to grease the drive shaft, but certainly no show stoppers.

Battery is key, you need LEAF Spy and check for weak cells, although NISSAN have a good record in replacing cells and as mentioned 20K miles to sort any battery issues out. Personally, at the right price, I would prefer to buy an high mileage EV over a very low mileage one, battery’s are made to be used, not stood around, festering, however they don’t like abuse either, it’s a judgment.

This video shows a battery repair on a 120k miles leaf which had been used as a taxi and was rapid charges several times a day. The repair cost £900 and the battery had 87% soh which seems pretty good for the usage.

Even if you can't use leaf spy a Nissan dealer can give you a battery report showing how it's been used. You can also see the battery capacity on the dash. Ideally take it for a long run to check the range.

 

I have an update, if anyone is still paying attention to this thread!
I asked the dealer for a picture of the Battery Capacity display and he sent this over:

Full capacity, after 80,000 miles in 3 years? I'm extremely surprised! Is this thing accurate and the battery is just that good, or is it hiding something?

 

You will need to use Leafspy to confirm the gauge is accurate.
Much depends on how the battery has been treated - how many quick charges, how many L1/L2 charges. Leafspy will tell you. It's quite possible the gauge is correct because it doesn't relate to the age or mileage.

 

Don't worry, we are still here, until we get a better offer anyway 😀

Basically what this is showing that the Battery State of Health (SoH) is at least 85%, or above, that said it might be just ready to drop a point but 85% SoH or better.

You need a LeafSpy reading for accuracy and check for weak cells.

The 40Kwh when new had a usable capacity of 37.5 KWh which was a range of (4 x 37.5) = 150 miles this is summer range and you can knock about 20% of that for the depths of winter temperatures.

So at 85% SoH - that would be 32Kwh's available - so a potential range of 128 miles in summer less in winter, if that works for you and the price is right, it might be worth a punt.

 

You could check the service history, it might have had a new battery or some replacements cells at some point.

 

I'm considering buying a 2018 40kWh Nissan Leaf I've seen on AutoTrader, but it has 80,000 miles - which seems a lot for 3 years!
Some napkin math suggests that's ~90 miles per working day, every working day since it was registered - which

First of all, some questions for you...
What is the asking price of the car.
Have you compared the asking price against the benchmark pricing on the Autotrader Valuation(part-ex, private sale and retail).
If it had been a taxi, I would have thought it would average more than 90miles per day. You've had some suggestions to look for wear. Also look at the back seat pads and the boot area for wear and tear.
As others have suggested, Leafspy or walk away.
Please let us know what you decide!