Nissan Leaf

The Nissan Leaf uses passive air cooling for the battery. Especially the 24 kWh variant (ZE0) loses significant capacity in warm climates or with frequent fast charging. Remaining capacities below 70% after 80,000 km are documented.

Symptoms: Decreasing range, fewer capacity bars on display, shorter distances per charge

The Leaf ZE1 (40 kWh) drastically throttles fast charging speed after multiple CHAdeMO sessions on a long trip. The cause is the absence of active battery temperature management. Nissan improved the software but did not fully resolve the issue.

Symptoms: Charging speed drops drastically during the second or third fast charge session, charging times double

In the Leaf ZE1 40 kWh the DC fast charging power drops sharply after multiple fast charges on a single journey — down to 16 kW instead of 50 kW. Nissan released a software update that reduces the throttling to ~40 kW.

The optional heat pump in the ZE1 loses refrigerant (R1234yf) through rubber hoses and seals. Below 50–60% refrigerant fill the heat pump switches off, leading to a large increase in energy consumption in winter.

Leaf ZE1 models with the 30 kWh battery demonstrably degrade faster than the 40 kWh variant. After 4 years, 30 kWh vehicles often achieve only the range of older 24 kWh models.

Some Leaf ZE1 vehicles show errors during DC fast charging via CHAdeMO. Error messages at the vehicle or at the charging station are known and can indicate communication errors between vehicle and charger.