Hello everyone!
First post here and it's a saga!
Had a cell fail on my Leaf 30 kWh - the long and short of it is Nissan have refused to replace the cell under warranty. My only recourse is to take the car to Swindon (115 miles away) leave it there for 5-10 days and pay £2400 to have the cell replaced.
This is not acceptable! So I have taken it up with the Motor Ombudsman on the basis that Nissan have failed to meet the New Car Code which they have signed up to.
It will take some time for my case to be resolved (if it can) but thought I might share my experiences here so that others (And I'm pretty certain there are others) may benefit.
My thinking is that this is a wider issue than just my case and Nissan have to answer to offering a headline "8 Year Battery Warranty" that doesn't cover manufacturing defects - the only thing that explains a failed cell.
Please let me know if you have had similar issues as this could be a larger case than I am putting to the ombudsman. Also please read on especially if your Leaf is still under 5 years old as you may be able to get a cell replaced within 5 years of purchase if you are more fortunate than I & diagnose it within 5 years.
The ombudsman has asked for technical data that proves the fault is a manufacturing defect so if anyone has any "ammunition" I can send them I would be grateful if you could get in touch or leave it here.
Here are the main points:
Car was bought and registered by myself in Nov 2016
Noticed range dropping lower than hoped in early 2021 (around 80 miles max range achieving a comfortable 4 miles / kWh) - contacted dealer who reassured me this was within normal range - 12/12 battery bars.
January 2022 - Range had dropped off again significantly - around 70 miles range - still at 4miles/kWh
Did the calculations and ascertained that as new getting expected range from 28kWh capacity compared to Jan 2021 5 years 2 months later, I now have a battery capacity of 17.5kWh - 62.5% of original capacity. Only just dropped to 11/12 battery bars.
Contacted dealer again & was reassured this was within expected range for battery deterioration "they only do 90 miles new" and if I was concerned to contact Nissan customer services - more from them later!
Bought a Leaf Spy as I knew something was up - Ascertained very obviously there was a weak cell - **This is cheaper than taking your car in for an "at risk" diagnostic and I highly recommend getting it even if you don't think anything is up.
Nissan customer service agreed something was up and directed me to get it diagnosed at the garage. *You need to ask for CVLI diagnostic specifically to find a weak cell, the standard battery check will not show up this problem.
Garage were helpful, did 2 tests in conversation with Nissan engineer and found a faulty cell - recommendation replace cell - NOT WARRANTY!
At this point both me & the service team were shocked to hear this. The car was sold with an 8 Year battery warranty specifically to reassure EV buyers that they aren't going to be landed with a huge bill within 8 years.
Back to Nissan customer service - they're having none of it - "if I hadn't missed a service they might consider goodwill" - "The cell failure would have shown up within the 5 year electronic system warranty if it was a manufacturing fault"
I point out that a cell failure can only be a poorly manufactured cell as the expected wear and tear predicts a decline of no more than 35%(ish) over an 8 year period.
I also point out that this cell has been bad for some time but the car doesn't warn me, the garage reassure me it's fine, it doesn't show on the health bars, doesn't show at servicing checks - how was I to catch it within the 5 year time-frame? (that I was only just over 2 months out of any way).
No help whatsoever - just - take it to Swindon, hand over £2400 and hope another cell doesn't fail a week later or you're back to square 1.
This for me undermines the viability of this vehicle and would strongly recommend you don't buy one without thoroughly checking for a weak cell first.
The Ombudsman has deemed it worthy of investigation. I have handed over the details and await their investigation.
My main beefs are
1 - The car was bought with 8 year battery warranty - a warranty normally covers manufacturing faults but not normal wear and tear. Nissan's so called warranty appears to ONLY cover normal wear and tear - this was not made clear to me upon purchasing the vehicle.
2 - Cell failure can only be due to poor manufacture as it is part of the battery which is now operating outside of normal parameters.
3 - There is no way to discover a failed cell in a reasonable time-frame - There is no indicator available to the user - no fault code & no warning light. The battery health bars only relate to the overall capacity of the mainly good cells, failed cell is not picked up at servicing, contacting dealer with concerns leads to reassurance that operation is normal.
4 - Using an EV with a failed cell is bad for the remaining cells as they are put under a lot of stress having to compensate for the failed cell - this will lead to premature battery failure so should be repaired as a matter of urgency.
5 - The failed cell data is available to the battery management system so could easily have shown a warning to the user by at least January 2021 when I believe the cell must have begun to fail - I believe this to be a fault with the design of the car and unfair to the owner to expect them to report a fault which is impossible to detect.
Your thoughts / support / kind words are welcome
Dave..
*Forgot to mention - car has done about 57,500 miles - 119 QCs - cell 46 has failed - see leafspy report:
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First post here and it's a saga!
Had a cell fail on my Leaf 30 kWh - the long and short of it is Nissan have refused to replace the cell under warranty. My only recourse is to take the car to Swindon (115 miles away) leave it there for 5-10 days and pay £2400 to have the cell replaced.
This is not acceptable! So I have taken it up with the Motor Ombudsman on the basis that Nissan have failed to meet the New Car Code which they have signed up to.
It will take some time for my case to be resolved (if it can) but thought I might share my experiences here so that others (And I'm pretty certain there are others) may benefit.
My thinking is that this is a wider issue than just my case and Nissan have to answer to offering a headline "8 Year Battery Warranty" that doesn't cover manufacturing defects - the only thing that explains a failed cell.
Please let me know if you have had similar issues as this could be a larger case than I am putting to the ombudsman. Also please read on especially if your Leaf is still under 5 years old as you may be able to get a cell replaced within 5 years of purchase if you are more fortunate than I & diagnose it within 5 years.
The ombudsman has asked for technical data that proves the fault is a manufacturing defect so if anyone has any "ammunition" I can send them I would be grateful if you could get in touch or leave it here.
Here are the main points:
Car was bought and registered by myself in Nov 2016
Noticed range dropping lower than hoped in early 2021 (around 80 miles max range achieving a comfortable 4 miles / kWh) - contacted dealer who reassured me this was within normal range - 12/12 battery bars.
January 2022 - Range had dropped off again significantly - around 70 miles range - still at 4miles/kWh
Did the calculations and ascertained that as new getting expected range from 28kWh capacity compared to Jan 2021 5 years 2 months later, I now have a battery capacity of 17.5kWh - 62.5% of original capacity. Only just dropped to 11/12 battery bars.
Contacted dealer again & was reassured this was within expected range for battery deterioration "they only do 90 miles new" and if I was concerned to contact Nissan customer services - more from them later!
Bought a Leaf Spy as I knew something was up - Ascertained very obviously there was a weak cell - **This is cheaper than taking your car in for an "at risk" diagnostic and I highly recommend getting it even if you don't think anything is up.
Nissan customer service agreed something was up and directed me to get it diagnosed at the garage. *You need to ask for CVLI diagnostic specifically to find a weak cell, the standard battery check will not show up this problem.
Garage were helpful, did 2 tests in conversation with Nissan engineer and found a faulty cell - recommendation replace cell - NOT WARRANTY!
At this point both me & the service team were shocked to hear this. The car was sold with an 8 Year battery warranty specifically to reassure EV buyers that they aren't going to be landed with a huge bill within 8 years.
Back to Nissan customer service - they're having none of it - "if I hadn't missed a service they might consider goodwill" - "The cell failure would have shown up within the 5 year electronic system warranty if it was a manufacturing fault"
I point out that a cell failure can only be a poorly manufactured cell as the expected wear and tear predicts a decline of no more than 35%(ish) over an 8 year period.
I also point out that this cell has been bad for some time but the car doesn't warn me, the garage reassure me it's fine, it doesn't show on the health bars, doesn't show at servicing checks - how was I to catch it within the 5 year time-frame? (that I was only just over 2 months out of any way).
No help whatsoever - just - take it to Swindon, hand over £2400 and hope another cell doesn't fail a week later or you're back to square 1.
This for me undermines the viability of this vehicle and would strongly recommend you don't buy one without thoroughly checking for a weak cell first.
The Ombudsman has deemed it worthy of investigation. I have handed over the details and await their investigation.
My main beefs are
1 - The car was bought with 8 year battery warranty - a warranty normally covers manufacturing faults but not normal wear and tear. Nissan's so called warranty appears to ONLY cover normal wear and tear - this was not made clear to me upon purchasing the vehicle.
2 - Cell failure can only be due to poor manufacture as it is part of the battery which is now operating outside of normal parameters.
3 - There is no way to discover a failed cell in a reasonable time-frame - There is no indicator available to the user - no fault code & no warning light. The battery health bars only relate to the overall capacity of the mainly good cells, failed cell is not picked up at servicing, contacting dealer with concerns leads to reassurance that operation is normal.
4 - Using an EV with a failed cell is bad for the remaining cells as they are put under a lot of stress having to compensate for the failed cell - this will lead to premature battery failure so should be repaired as a matter of urgency.
5 - The failed cell data is available to the battery management system so could easily have shown a warning to the user by at least January 2021 when I believe the cell must have begun to fail - I believe this to be a fault with the design of the car and unfair to the owner to expect them to report a fault which is impossible to detect.
Your thoughts / support / kind words are welcome
Dave..
*Forgot to mention - car has done about 57,500 miles - 119 QCs - cell 46 has failed - see leafspy report:
