Previous thread?

Soarer

Morning all..
I remember reading a thread from a previous poster about their process of buying a Leaf in the UK and bringing her home. Can't seem to find it though.

Anyone have any ideas of where it's at?

Dexter1979

There is a useful guide on the Irish EV Owners website:

EV Purchase and Import Guide

You could join the Irish EV Owners Facebook group. Plenty of people have bought abroad there.

Soarer

Good man Dexter.

Soarer

Soarer wrote: »

Morning all..
I remember reading a thread from a previous poster about their process of buying a Leaf in the UK and bringing her home. Can't seem to find it though.

Anyone have any ideas of where it's at?

Make sure all 12 battery "capacity" bars are still showing, just one missing means a 15% capacity loss. In the below picture, look at the bars to the right, the left represents guesstimated range. It doesn't show though how close you are to the 15% loss until you actually loose the first bar. The Leafspy app and bluetooth OBD II dongle will tell you much more.

Soarer

Thanks MadLad.

And beside the battery, is it basically just normal wear and tear depending on the mileage? Like tyres, shocks, drives, etc.? Would you have any worries about a car with 50-60 thousand miles on it? Should there be at least one capacity bar gone at that sort of mileage, or does it all depend on how hard a life it's had?

Soarer

Soarer wrote: »

Thanks MadLad.

And beside the battery, is it basically just normal wear and tear depending on the mileage? Like tyres, shocks, drives, etc.? Would you have any worries about a car with 50-60 thousand miles on it? Should there be at least one capacity bar gone at that sort of mileage, or does it all depend on how hard a life it's had?

Yes, it greatly depends on how the battery is treated, the fastest way to capacity loss is heat and the Leaf's battery chemistry is the most sensitive to heat.

The fastest way to heat the leaf battery in Ireland is to fast charge in Summer , just once can get the battery to 35 degrees C from a charge level of 30-75%

2 fast charges in one day could easily see north of 45 degrees C. Then drive aggressively and brake aggressively this all adds to the heat.

In winter you could get away with 2-3 fast charges in one day at a temp of 0-5 Degrees C. Cold means the battery will take a lot longer to fast charge but cold is better for longevity.

Some leaf owners are convinced that fast charging will have no effect on battery longevity, but they're living in dreamland. Just pure ridiculous.

One ev battery will be different to the next, just because one ev battery doesn't last as long doesn't mean another one won't last twice as long.

The BMW I3 for instance has a very different battery to the Leaf and is cooled byt the AC so fast charging won't heat it up. It could very well last a long time.

But sure, abuse the battery enough and you could very well loose 20% capacity by 60K miles.

Yes suspension components can wear, drives etc and the electrics cost big bucks out of warranty if they fail until much more parts become available for repairs, but in general the Leaf is a very reliable car.

September1

In general empirical evidence does not agree with what Mad_Lad says so be wary of that. Like his fast charging theory.

In general biggest influence is climate so if possible get car from as much North as possible. You can also get a good idea with OBD Bluetooth and Android phone. Other influences is mileage, either extremely high and low is bad. Next is usage pattern but it is difficult to measure it.

September1

September1 wrote: »

In general empirical evidence does not agree with what Mad_Lad says so be wary of that. Like his fast charging theory.

In general biggest influence is climate so if possible get car from as much North as possible. You can also get a good idea with OBD Bluetooth and Android phone. Other influences is mileage, either extremely high and low is bad. Next is usage pattern but it is difficult to measure it.

NO, you're wrong, it's not my theory, anyone can research the effects of heat on lithium batteries, especially the Leaf chemistry, You keep roasting your leaf battery and it will suffer faster degradation, this isn't a theory.

Research the effects of charging a hot battery to a high state of charge too while you're at it.

Why did Nissan in the beginning say heat would not be an issue and then turn around and have to replace batteries in the hot climates of the U.S ?

Why did Nissan not offer a 100K mile warranty on the battery like BMW ?

Why did Elon Musk CEO of Tesla say it was a mistake for Nissan not to have thermal management of the battery even before the problems due to heat arose ?

Have you seen how hot the battery gets over one fast charge in Summer ?

You may do low daily mileage so you will probably get a long time out of the battery and might be willing to put up with any capacity loss by charging more frequently but for someone wanting to keep the leaf they need to be aware that there are things they can do to keep as much capacity for as long as possible.

September1

You are very confused but yet very certain and loud. I try to explain it to you in so many threads. Fast charging is one thing. Prolonged exposure to heat is other thing. There is also number of other factors that are very important for battery degradation. Fast charging does not result in prolonged exposure unless you do it 24/7 - if you need to charge it so frequently you probably did not buy it in first place. Most surprising thing is that even as LEAF owner you are not able to grasp that fast charging in not hourly event.

Few owner were kind to allow me to inspect their cars with OBDII and definitely Irish LEAFs with higher FC event counts seem to have more capacity remaining over time - assuming similar age.

September1

September1 wrote: »

Few owner were kind to allow me to inspect their cars with OBDII and definitely Irish LEAFs with higher FC event counts seem to have more capacity remaining over time - assuming similar age.

Many fast charges won't be bad if they don't get the battery hot. You're not getting what I say.

All I will say to people is research this yourselves. We can argue this forever.

September1

Deleted User wrote: »

Many fast charges won't be bad if they don't get the battery hot. You're not getting what I say.

All I will say to people is research this yourselves. We can argue this forever.

You see, you are still confused. Heat is ok, if it happens occasionally. Only prolonged exposure is issue. You can safely get battery hot, there is even thing called BMS that prevents it from being too hot by restricting charging speed.

September1

September1 wrote: »

You see, you are still confused. Heat is ok, if it happens occasionally. Only prolonged exposure is issue. You can safely get battery hot, there is even thing called BMS that prevents it from being too hot by restricting charging speed.

occasionally there won't be any long term (noticeable) adverse effects but we're not talking occasional , or did you think I was ? occasional isn't exactly what I was meaning when I was talking about fast charging abuse.

The BMS does a pretty good job but by the time it limits the current to the battery it is already at a temperature that is too hot. It limits the current so actual damage does not occur which is where Nissan would be liable under a warranty claim.