leaf will now have a capacity loss waranty

personally, I think leasing is the route to go on this technology wave anyway. improvements are going to be worthwhile, especially on three year horizons. I think the next leaf is planned to have a 6+kw charger which is almost like doubling it's daily range.

 

Yes. '13 Leaf is rumored to have a 6.6 kW charger but it's unclear if it'll be standard or optional.

We might hear more about the January 8th Phoenix town hall meeting. We will almost certainly hear more by the start of NAIAS (aka Detroit Auto Show).

 

a 6.6 KW charger might address deep discharge degradation issues in the warmer climates. recovering 20 miles of range with an hour of charging could easily result in keeping the SOC over 40%.

 

Well, even if there were only the lease option available, the battery degradation still presents a very practical problem for many potential consumers who require a given range for their daily commute year 'round in "other than ideal" environments. There is also a very good chance that another year or two down the road the range will no longer be suitable for many current leasees' daily commutes that are 30 miles one way, as has already been witnessed in Arizona. This publicity ploy of a warranty will do little or nothing to remediate this reality.

 

I have to say after a HCH battery failure at 60k miles in NC, I wouldn't buy any car with a battery that wasn't cooled adequately. Sure it was replaced under warranty and now with new software I have a battery that isn't used when the car has been parked in the sun - good for this battery's life but bad for my sweating with no acceleration in the summer,

No wonder the Edmund's book value is identical to the gasser despite the higher initial cost....

 

4 miles per kwh @ 21kwh is 84 miles. The math simply isn't right. If you're measuring your kw usage via the Leaf guess-O-meter, then you're probably only getting the epa 2.9 miles per kwh in the 'real world' - since you say you get 60 miles. I'm light footed and get 5miles per kwh at the wall and regularly do 100 miles per charge.
That said, and tangenting back to the OP's " capacity warranty" ... the Leaf always had a capacity warrtanty - it was just a pathetic one. Now, it's a teeny less pathetic. Still, I'm getting full capacity after 24K miles of driving. But I'm very conservative w/ charging techniques.
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Not really... they didn't warrant "gradual" capacity loss (plenty of debate on MNL on what's "gradual") and never really gave a % at which they'd replace. They'd theoretically replace it if there were "sudden" capacity loss and/or if it was insufficient to move the car.