Old Leaf battery bars... what's believable?

[defblade]

I'm looking at changing jobs to a very boring 10 miles each way commute almost entirely on 20-30mph limit roads.
I'm thinking about getting an older Leaf to do it in as there is no joy to be found in the trip and I might as well do it in the easiest to drive, cheapest to run, white goods car available. It would also make a decent family/dog/tip local run car. 50 miles real range would be plenty. We have a choice of ICE cars if more range is required!

I know and understand a fair bit now about battery health bars and their implications... also about being able to reset the BCM monitoring to show 12 bars for a while, at least, on a car with a degraded battery using a posh code reader

So I'm slightly worried by some of the cheaper Leafs that appear to have 12 or 11 bars still showing at 40-50,000 miles or so... is this realistic for one of these when priced in the £3-4k range?

I will be getting LeafSpy if I do go this route, but I'd rather be able to rule out possible dodgy cars by their adverts without wasting my time traveling to see them.

[CABC]

I bought one with similar bars/mileage. I get real mileage of 60-80 depending on temperature.
I think most of these were granny charged and are therefore healthy. 50k over 10 years is 5k per year. isn’t much, 2-3 charges per week.

[ashenfie]

Yes spotting an unbalanced cell or cells would be important. Leaf have a decent track record of having repairable batteries. I'd personally ignore the health bars and learn all you can about using leafspy

Edited by ashenfie on Tuesday 10th February 07:40

[confused_buyer]

We currently have a 2014 one knocking around with 93k miles on it which has 10 bars (78% actual state of health) and another 64 plate one with about 45k on 11 bars so yes it is quite possible for a 10-12 year old Leaf to have 10-12 bars.

The 24kWh ones actually seem to do better than the later 30kWh ones when it comes to battery life.

[gmaz]

I think Toaster Pilot ( https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/profile.asp?me... ) buys and sells lots of leafs, so his input would be useful.

[Russet Grange]

Our Leaf is a '64 Reg owned from new. Around 88k miles now, still on 11 bars. Only ever gets granny charged these days and probably only ever been fast charged 50 times.

Range? Well as with all EVs, this is a huge variable. Warm/calm day, flat roads, just pottering alond at 50mph would see me happy to go 70 miles.

Freezing cold, heater on, headwind, 60mph uphill - You'd be lucky to cover 20 miles (though in reality 20 miles only uphill isn't a realistic scenario).

An absolute steal of a car if the range can work for you.

[ScoobyChris]

Interesting our 2016 one is now on 9 bars I think but summer range is around 90 miles (using a/c) and winter is around 65 (using a/c and heat) which doesn’t seem to tally!

When we were looking to buy I think the best ones we found had 10 bars.

[confused_buyer]

ScoobyChris said:

Interesting our 2016 one is now on 9 bars I think but summer range is around 90 miles (using a/c) and winter is around 65 (using a/c and heat) which doesn t seem to tally!

When we were looking to buy I think the best ones we found had 10 bars.

Are you sure it's not a 30kWh? 9 bars equates to under 75% SOH so only about 15kWh mas usable on 24 or about 19 on a 30 which would match your mileage.

[ScoobyChris]

Yes ours is a 30 Tekna.

[sixor8]

I've been looking at these myself recently, and I wouldn't trust 12 bars, as mentioned, it can be forced using a connector to the OBC socket.

Many traders seem shy to show the display, for obvious reasons, or perhaps ignorance because no other EV has a permanent SOH display. Nor a battery temp gauge because the Leaf has no temp control of the battery.

I'd be happy with 10 bars myself, I don't do many miles these days, but it isn't always the low mileage ones. I've seen sub 50k mile cars with 8 bars or less, and high mileage cars with 10. Depends on the abuse and no of fast charges I expect.