Photo courtesy of Nissan, © Nissan
LEAF customers Shannon and Christin Monroe The Florida family have logged nearly 24,000 miles in 18 months.
Of all 64 cars in the Nissan’s lineup, the LEAF has the most satisfied customers, with approval ratings at or above 95 percent. So the dissatisfied are “a small number, but an important one.” year was how the battery data was developed for degradation in Phoenix. “A typical purchaser had no idea that at 15,000 miles per year they were generating the degradation of two ‘Nissan-LEAF-Years’ per one normal Earth year. In addition, [Nissan] failed to mention that the batteries would degrade 10 percent in the first year, as is normal for this lithium manganese chemistry,” Williams
explains. “So, consumers expecting a linear 4 percent slope per year to 80 percent capacity in 5 years were not so pleasantly surprised.” As for the PR aspects of the matter, Nissan has taken some good steps; establishing Sexton’s advisory board was an excellent move. Four of the 12 LEAFs tested in Phoenix were bought back by Nissan, and they reimbursed the independent testers for their efforts (about $2,600). By and large, most of the LEAF’s buyers are happy with their cars, and early EV adopters have welcomed the chance to be the guinea pigs of the electric revolution - provided that they’re treated as cohorts and not pesky consumers. GM set a good example when it bent over backwards after the infamous Volt “battery fires.” Ironically, that issue caused a much bigger firestorm in the press, although in the end it turned out to be completely irrelevant to drivers.
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