Battery issues with 50% loss after 2 years

The Leaf is a BEV and a different animal compare to a PHEV like the Prime since it can only rely on the battery for use while a PHEV can use the ICE to carry most of the load if the battery is being stressed. The beauty of dual fuels.

 

my guess-o-meter is at 30 miles after a brutal April, so no degradation here after 17 months

 

5 years with my first plug-in Prius resulted in negligible degradation at most. Though, that was in Minnesota, where extreme heat is not the norm. I would always let the battery-pack rest before recharging too.

Today was my first day getting over 30 miles per charge this year, 13 months into Prime ownership.

 

50% in 2 years? I think there would be quite an uproar if that were actually true. The articles that I read relate to one study showing 15 to 20% loss in 2 years for the previous Leaf model 30 kWh battery, which if true would be three times faster degradation than the earlier 24 kWh battery. However this is preliminary data which needs to be validated with a larger data pool. The current 40 kWh battery is too new to know if it fares any better than the 30 kWh.

Either way battery degradation is a topic that is often left out by the EV proponents who like to bash PHEV. Their typical argument is that x percent of drivers have daily commutes that fit within EV range. But they should not be looking at the range of a brand new EV, but the range after 5 years of battery degradation which shrinks the number of people whose daily driving fits within that range. No fun having an EV that when new can get you to and from work, but then after 4 years no longer can make that distance, or can no longer make it to work during the winter only during the summer. Whereas battery degradation on a PHEV has a pretty much trivial effect on overall range.

 

no worries, leaf was an anomaly, your prime battery will be solid for many years to come.

 

It is actually in the low 80's, which you can clearly see that is what Prime does...

Notice on the dashboard that 100% is actually 83% on the aftermarket gauge.

 

Sid - the original 2011 owners (21kWh battery) in extremely hot areas, such as Arizona, parts of Texas & New Mexico primarily, did not realize the damage that DC quick charging could do, especially immediately after running 50 or 60 miles & then recharging. Heat is the greatest enemy of the plug-in traction pack. So when you run for an hour in high temperature, then couple that with high DC rate of charge which compounds the heat, yes, you can destroy capacity in short order ... & YES - that could be as high as 40% in 2 years. Nissan was pretty quick to change out that less resilient chemistry, & that 1st batch of owners reached a (class action) settlement for Nissan's advertising that misled owners to believe that the packs' capacity would not only run for more years than they would, they had literature that suggested the 2011 model would travel a 100 mile range. Yea, only at 30mph on flat ground, moderate temperature.
Those are not Dynamics shared by the Prius family vehicles. I highly doubt that Toyota will go air cooled when they finally produce a long range EV in the not too distant future.

 

Sid - the original 2011 owners (21kWh battery) in extremely hot areas, such as Arizona, parts of Texas & New Mexico primarily, did not realize the damage that DC quick charging could do, especially immediately after running 50 or 60 miles & then recharging. Heat is the greatest enemy of the plug-in traction pack. So when you run for an hour in high temperature, then couple that with high DC rate of charge which compounds the heat, yes, you can destroy capacity in short order ... & YES - that could be as high as 40% in 2 years. Nissan was pretty quick to change out that less resilient chemistry, & that 1st batch of owners reached a (class action) settlement for Nissan's advertising that misled owners to believe that the packs' capacity would not only run for more years than they would, they had literature that suggested the 2011 model would travel a 100 mile range. Yea, only at 30mph on flat ground, moderate temperature.
Those are not Dynamics shared by the Prius family vehicles. I highly doubt that Toyota will go air cooled when they finally produce a long range EV in the not too distant future.

The plugin car's "buffer" - it's space at the top of the charge that is best not used. That area is where most of the heat is generated during a charge. All plugins do that to one degree or another. Even with the top in buffer, many manufacturers will go a step further and slow charging as the buffer zone is neared. ChargePoint users can observe that on a graph that their app provides, even where some plugin's L2 charge speed is only 3.6kW's. Conversely, a Tesla will charge @ over 100kW's but throttle down below 5kW's if charging up to its full capacity - even so it's thermal management system is liquid. It's mostly about keeping it cool.
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no, prime is the second toyota phev, no pigs necessary, i took care of that for you.

 

you get the benefit of my beta testing.

 

Maybe the first air cooled phev . The Volt is the 1st liquid cooled phev iirc
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no, pip is the first air cooled phev. where have you people been the last 6 years?

 

Go to the dealer and ask them to fix or replace the battery out of the 10Year Warranty.

 

There are at least three good reasons to not compare the LEAF to the Prime in terms of battery degradation:

1. Toyota is not Nissan
2. The Prime battery has air cooling, the LEAF has only convection from the case
3. The Prime battery does not use about 35% of capacity, split between top and bottom

 

Not to mention the loss of range due to cold weather, traffic, high speed or excessive use of accessories such as AC, wipers, etc.