In Japan, I Could Get A Refurbished 24 kWh Nissan Leaf Battery For $2,400, But In US, It’s $10,000

October 8, 20204 years ago Guest Contributor 0 Comments

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By Jared Greenberg

I am a proud owner of a 2013 Nissan Leaf. I am currently at 93,665 miles on our car. I have reached out to Nissan and they have not done anything that resolves my battery problem.

When I use the Leaf Spy app, my battery State Of Health (SOH) shows as 63.44%. I work 37 miles away and I cannot drive 70 mph to work anymore — just 64 mph to make sure I make it to work. And this is during the summer. During the winter, I have to do 60 mph or less. Also, this is in South Florida. I would like to keep my car, but with my real-world range being around 35 miles, that starts to limit the use of our Leaf as a daily driver.

37 miles later, after driving 64 mph to make sure I made it to work. As you can see, I am on empty, so my real-world range is not at all realistic. Image by Jared Greenberg.

I would like to replace my battery with the 62 kWh battery, but Nissan does not offer this option. I have contacted a company in Portland, Oregon, and they can supply a 62 kWh battery for $8,000, plus $2,000 in shipping, so total would be $10,000, but it doesn’t have any warranty.

There are over 150,000 Leafs in the US going to need batteries when they reach 100,000 miles or less. That $1,500,000,000.00 worth of new battery costs. If Nissan charged $2,400 that’s $360,000,000.

Regardless, that’s a lot of money to be made in keeping these Leafs able to be used as a daily drivers as they age and with the batteries lasting only 100,000 miles that is a revolving door of battery replacements, due to lack of thermal management.

I have read that if I was in Japan I could get a refurbished 24 kWh battery for $2,400. A replacement battery here is way too expensive for me to justify when my current battery doesn’t even last over 100,000 miles. What car requires a replacement of a part that costs $9,600 every 100,000 miles?

I think more needs to be written about this to encourage Nissan to offer the refurbished replacement 24 kWh in the US for $2,400 installed, and if the customer would like to upgrade to the 40 kWh or 62 kWh, they can. But it needs to be affordable. I would be willing to spend $5,500 for a refurbished 62 kWh battery installed with a 120,000 mile warranty that will retain at least 180 miles per charge for 120,000 miles. When you purchased a used Leaf for $10,000 it hard justify putting in $10,000 every 100,000 with nothing to guarantee results. What do you all think?

Quote from a local dealer:

Wed, Sep 23, 9:21 AM

HI JARED

2013 LEAF BATTERY

PART# 295B0-3NF8A

PRICE $ 8650.00
LABOR TIME 7.5 HRS @ 139.00 = 1042.50
WARRANTY 5YR 60,000 MILES

THANK YOU FOR CONTACTING US. WE LOOK FORWARD TO DOING BUSINESS WITH YOU.

THANK YOU
WAYNE STEVENS, PARTS MANAGER