My coworker just lost his first bar on his 2012. He wasn't happy considering how few miles the car had. I had to explain that mileage doesn't matter much for Leaf battery degradation.
to quote Mike Walsh:
Quote:
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Main factors (in order of importance) when it comes to 2011/2012 LEAF battery degradation – HEAT (the big one); time; cycling.
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I'd add that is likely true for 2013 and half the 2014s as well. Too early to say there is any improvement in the 2013 battery chemistry.
doing the math based on time instead of miles to it being an issue for me:
I'm at 81% SOH% (my coworker is at 85%)
If I'm losing 6% capacity a year* and 45% SOH is as low as I can comfortably go for my commute I have about 6 years left before I need to replace the battery.**
I figure well before 2020 I'll be able to buy a replacement battery from Nissan or a 3rd party for a couple of thousand and make this Leaf behave like new or better. (old battery was 24 kWh, current talk is that there will be a 30 kWh replacement battery available soon, and possibly better than that by the time I would be looking for a replacement)
It's possible I'll pay sooner than I hit 45% just for the convenience factor. It's also possible that my car is totaled in an accident before then. It's possible I'll want to buy a better car and sell this one for someone else to make the battery replacement decision.
For now I'm not worried about it. That's a decision I can make years down the road.
*I don't actually know what the rate of loss will be. So far in 3 years it is right at 19% so 6% a year is close enough for guesswork. I don't know if the first owner kept the car garaged or not. It may be that my degradation rate will match theirs or it may be slightly slower due to my cool garage.
**It remains to be seen if I can do my coldest winter drive on 40% SOC. If I could I'd be stuck charging on both ends of the drive and would have little leeway for unexpected events.