Extend a Helping Hand to Nissan Leaf Owners

[larry4pyro]

It's shocking to see how Nissan is treating owners of Leafs in Arizona and surrounding areas. These owners are experiencing rapid battery degradation, to which Nissan's reply is everything is normal. These folks deserve better. That is why I am suggesting that GM offer to buy these Leafs and offer a special incentive to theses owners for coming over to the Volt. The purchased Leafs should then be scrapped or put to use in a non-vehicle manner such as classroom trainer in high schools, artificial reefs in the ocean or practice targets for our military.

[mwfromva]

Or you could resell them in cooler climates...

[Henry_FL]

I don't see it the same way ...

No where have I seen it posted the actual range of the leafs isn't meeting the warranty, but I do see people obsessing about the LCD bars which can be re calibrated similar to what the Volt does with its battery reserve.

For sure why the hell should GM waste a penny buying used leafs?, that's just retarded. Leaf owners picked there car, and can sue Nissan if indeed there is something the cars are failing to meet there warranty on.

[ShannonVolt]

I'm with Henry, I see no benefit for GM to purchase used Leaf's from owners just to offer a special incentive. However I do believe that GM could capitalize on this if they play their cards right.

[BAZINGA]

I don't see it the same way ...

No where have I seen it posted the actual range of the leafs isn't meeting the warranty, but I do see people obsessing about the LCD bars which can be re calibrated similar to what the Volt does with its battery reserve.

For sure why the hell should GM waste a penny buying used leafs?, that's just retarded. Leaf owners picked there car, and can sue Nissan if indeed there is something the cars are failing to meet there warranty on.

I'm not sure what this would cost GM (trying to re-sell a car that has a history) but I'd rather GM continuing to invest and improve the Voltec and let the better car win.

My money is on the Voltec.

[CarZin]

I actually think this is a good idea. My opinion is that this Leaf battery issue is going to be a big deal. Nissan screwed up. And this is going to affect ALL electric cars, because the general public has proven incapable of parsing technical data. GM would actually control the story by saying, "Hey, we don't have those problems. Trade in your Leaf for a Volt and let us prove it." It would force media to ask the question, 'Why is GM doing this? What is so different about their battery than Nissan's?'

All it is going to take is the wrong idiot, like Seton Motley, to write about it and drudge to publish it to be a big issue, and then the media will control the issue, not GM.

[analog_pal]

Do nothing. I feel for those folks, but the radical wingnuts will run this as EV cover-up or mis-use of government funds, at least until GM gets out from under TARP. Let Nissan handle it or not.

[Dan & Nan]

I don't see it the same way ...

No where have I seen it posted the actual range of the leafs isn't meeting the warranty, but I do see people obsessing about the LCD bars which can be re calibrated similar to what the Volt does with its battery reserve.

That's because their warranty isn't related to miles, but to being able to propel the car. They say the Leaf should have 80% capacity in 10 years, but that's not in writing. All that's promised is propulsion, not distance.

You should really check out their forum. There's several folks who's range is down 25%, at least two who are around 30% lost and one guy was on the local CBS station talking about how his range was 90 and is now 40 miles (presumably before LBW). They're really not flapping their gums because their dash lights aren't working. Recalibrating lights won't bring back lost capacity.

The CBS story (and they're filming a followup tonight) was interesting. Mark Perry said they were only investigating 5 cars and they just found out about it. There's almost 40 Leafs that have lost at least one bar. Actually, there's probably way more than that, the list is compiled of forum members, but there's 400 Leaf's in Arizona. Which means that almost 10% of the Arizona Leafs have posted a loss. Since the first story aired last night they added about 5 new Leaf's to the list. Who knows how many more they'll discover in the coming days.

As far as just finding out about it, I find that highly doubtful. The threads on MNL have been going for months, and Nissan plugs their computer into the Leaf at checkups. Obviously they've had info for a long, long time.

To the OP question, I don't know, it certainly could work. I don't think GM wants to go down the smashing EV road again though, but they could always resell them for city vehicles (which they always were). A Leaf trade-in program might even be a good way to boost Spark EV sales since some of them don't want an EREV.

[scottf200]

I'm with Henry, I see no benefit for GM to purchase used Leaf's from owners just to offer a special incentive. However I do believe that GM could capitalize on this if they play their cards right.

I think it would backfire in various ways. The number one way would be that the LEAF owner would get a Volt and then turn around and immediately sell it ... making GM look like a fool.

[scottf200]

Well summarized above, Dan.

There's almost 40 Leafs that have lost at least one bar. Actually, there's probably way more than that, the list is compiled of forum members, but there's 400 Leaf's in Arizona.

The MNL wiki tracking this:
Battery,_Charging_System#Real_World_Battery_Capaci ty_Loss
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/wiki/ind..._Capacity_Loss