Nissan Leaf Battery Life Bars - Understanding Them Correctly

If you own or are going to buy a Nissan Leaf, you should know that the vehicle has a very good feature called "Battery Life Bars". Those are graphic bars that indicate how much capacity your battery is now capable to hold and whether you need to worry about the installation of the new battery soon.

Unfortunately, a lot of people misunderstand what those battery bars in Nissan Leaf are trying to tell them, so you will find a proper explanation in this article. We are going to see whether it's good or bad when your battery bars are high or low. And we'll also offer a step-by-step guide to check the used Leaf and to see whether you actually need to buy it or not.

Here's what we are going to talk about:

• Nissan Leaf battery life bars - what do they mean?
• How much battery capacity losses in a used Leaf are OK?
• How soon will the Leaf battery lose its capacity and show it on the life bars?
• What should you look at when buying a used Nissan Leaf?

Let's get started!

So, what do those battery bars mean in your Nissan Leaf?

We'll be focusing on the old Leaf (the first generation), but actually what we are going to tell you here is also applicable to the second-gen vehicle. Just pictograms and the design of the sash are different.

So, when your Leaf was new, it had 100% of battery capacity available because the battery was new, too. With every charging, some small part of the capacity of your battery disappeared. After a hundred charges, the capacity losses became really noticeable and they could even cause one life bar to go off.

So, here's how the Nissan Leaf battery life bars work:

• the battery life bars are light bars on the right side of the dash (or a battery pictogram in the new Leaf);
• make sure you understand where they are, they are white small bars, not the white-blue ones that determine the current charge;
• when the car is new, these bars are all flashing and indicating that the battery offers 100% of its capacity;
• when the battery deteriorated over time or because of some damage, the computer analyzes the damage and turns off some bars;
• the life bars turn off one by one starting with the top bar and going down;
• when the life bars are halfway down the dash, it should make you think about the battery replacement or buying another vehicle;
• these bars will not turn on again unless you replace the battery, they don't indicate a charge, they indicate the remaining battery capacity.

And so, this is a very important feature of the Leaf that helps owners understand how many miles their Leaf can go between charges and how often they should charge it to avoid any inconvenient situations on the road.

We should say that first-gen Leafs weren't very good in terms of driving range, so, when the battery deteriorates, these cars become very uncomfortable to drive. Your battery may just run flat in the middle of the road from work to home.

How many battery life bars in the Leaf are OK?

You may think that if a full capacity of the Leaf's battery can get you to the 73 miles distance, the half capacity will be enough for about 35 miles. But unfortunately, it isn't going to work like that. The deteriorated battery is unpredictable. You can just turn on your radio when you still have 20 miles on your dash, but suddenly in 5 minutes the car will be flat and will just stop.

When you observe the half-capacity, i.e. half of the battery life bars are not flashing anymore, this is the perfect time for replacing the battery. But it doesn't mean that anything more than that is better.

We believe the optimal battery capacity according to the life bars in your Nissan Leaf is from 100% to 80%. Anything lower than that should be considered a dead battery with a lot of possible surprises on the road.

We should just make the example: when your Leaf has 60% of battery capacity, it will go approximately 30 miles between charges in summer. But winter weather may change everything. It can go 10 miles and stop.

So, we wouldn't rely completely on a Leaf with less than 80% of the battery capacity. You may think it's only true for old (first-gen) Leafs. But actually, it's true for all electric cars including the new Leaf with a much better driving range.

How soon will your Lead lose its battery capacity?

Well, it's really hard to predict, but what we can say for sure, it will be sooner than you may expect once even one life bar is off. We base our answer to this question on our own experience and also on reports by many Leaf owners.

So, once your Leaf starts losing the bars, they will turn off quite quickly, one by one, until you see half of them flashing. What we are trying to say is that you can see a battery with 90% of capacity and think "Oh, it's still 90%, so I will drive the Leaf for a dozen years before it dies". But you are wrong. Once the battery started deteriorating, it dies quickly.

Here are some of the most evident things showing the Leaf battery is going to die soon:

• the driving range changes - one time you can go 60 miles between charges, the other time it's only 40 miles;
• malfunction messages appear and disappear, some of them are connected with batteries, some are not;
• the Leaf may suddenly just go off while the battery still has 10-15% of the charge and there is some range displayed on the dash;
• the estimated range is never true - this shows that the onboard diagnostic system is not working properly and can't measure the capacity of the battery;
• different amount of battery life bars is displayed after every start of the vehicle.

All these symptoms together with quick life bars deterioration show that you are about to become a happy client of a Nissan dealer for a battery replacement. By the way, Nissan batteries can be repaired and rebuilt because they are made of separate sections. So, you can actually install new sections and reduce the costs but dealers won't do this. You will need to find an experienced mechanic for this task.

How much is it to replace a battery in your Nissan Leaf?

The battery replacement cost depends much on the chosen battery and on the year of your vehicle (the generation). The cheapest new replacement battery will cost around $5000 while the most expensive one can go up to $12,000.

As we've already told you, the Leaf battery can be repaired by replacing the worn-out sections. Yes, it won't add a lot of lifespan to your old battery, but at least you won't need to spend so many dollars and you will still be able to use your Leaf for two years or so.

Battery repair won't be carried out by dealers but a lot of shops will offer this service for good prices. The eventual price will depend on how bad your battery is doing right now.

How to buy a used Nissan Leaf 1st generation?

Well, when you are going to pay a lot of money for the Nissan Leaf, you should obviously look at how good it is, not just in terms of battery. We decided to create a small step-by-step guide so you know everything you should control when you are buying a used Leaf and aren't sure its condition is pretty good and it's worth the money someone asks for it.

Here are the steps:

1. Control the mileage. We haven't seen many Nissan Leafs with over 150,000 miles on them and still in good condition. If you are going to drive your Leaf for at least 3-5 years, better choose a vehicle with up to 100,000 miles on its dash.
2. Control the body. The worst problems with these cars are with their bodies. They may rust and throw other bad surprises with paint. Look at the Nissan carefully and figure out if some parts were painted. If the Leaf you are looking at has an accident record, better choose another one.
3. Control its history. You better spend a couple of bucks for a Carfax report or some other service offering access to the vehicle's servicing and accident records. If your Leaf hasn't been serviced regularly, you should be careful or just forget about this vehicle.
4. Control the battery. Only now when you are sure everything is fine, you can touch the battery business. Look at the bars and maybe drive 5 miles on your future Nissan Leaf to see if the estimated range changes rapidly.

Anyway, the best option is to buy a clear vehicle with clear records and checked by professionals. But if you are keen on cars, we are pretty sure you can detect a bad Leaf by yourself without paying any money to specialists.