I see a lot of inexpensive used electric cars for sale, like nissan leafs and kias and chevy bolts. How do you inspect them and their batteries? Are there scan tools for these cars?
Side note: On an electric car. When you see bright Orange tubing or wiring, DO NOT TOUCH.
That’s high voltage! It can potentially kill or do some damage.
That is why it is orange.
For Prius, there is Dr Prius to check the battery life. It’s an app for your phone that you use with adapter.
I’m guessing there should be one out there to check the battery life of the others. But I have never investigated myself.
The Prius one is pretty cool, because it gives you the status of individual cells. How it does that is amazing, and beyond my capability of electricity understanding.
Find a mechanic experienced with electric cars you would never want to harm yourself or miss something significant.
Yes, extremely complex ones, and usually only mechanics who are trained to work on electric cars should be checking them out because of the high risk involved.
DO NOT mess with them if you don’t know what you’re doing.
If your going to inspect any EV you should check up on the KNOWN problems it has as a whole and go from there. Some have some costly issues and I would be afraid to purchase a vehicle with such concerns as it may not be worth it. EV's are really in their infancy stage and rapid improvements will be forth coming as witness Toyota and their Solid State Battery technology coming in 2021. But for the present if your interested in the hand me down 2nd stuff...their are some worth considering and some just a dead end. Probably Tesla is the number one EV I would consider but again it is not affordable for most and their serviceing is practically nill. Parts are hard to get as well. For most people - it would be out of their budget. Other considerations like he Leaf have issues with battery capacity loss which has plagued them. Others like the Volt and the Bolt - meh....Volt is discintinued and the Bolt has been redesigned hoping for windfall...which I feel is going to be still born. But moving on...inspections...as many have said..those orange wires mean something and hey can be lethal if you do not handle them in the precise way recommended. In most case the traction battery is probably of the most interest as it is costly if its found weak and needs replacement...probably the very reason the vehicle was on sale. You would have to find out what the cost is at a rebuilt price. Now not all rebuilts are not the same as some are pretty shoddy and you won't find out until it gets installed and then you drive the vehicle and see how it performs. You can check the conditions of EV batteries using a scan tool to see the specific voltages of the individual cells and what their values are relative to each other. As pointed out the Techstream Toyota software can do exactly this along with other software programmed to do the same. You can check for codes still present and possible faults coming in the future if their is a history menu of the vehicle. A interesting side note to checking a car out their is an incident with Tesla I might point out. A Tesla was for sale. The seller advertised it with the features and options it has. One note worthy mention was that it had optioned in was the Autonomous Level Drive mode which was like some $10,000 option I think...so the buyer knowing that instantly opted to buy the vehicle...like RIGHT NOW! The buyer takes possesion and then registers the vehicle to the DMV and also to Tesla as required for updates. Well a few months later...he notices that the car has NO autonomous mode option he had before! As you probably know..Tesla has software updates through its internet connection continuously. He calls up Tesla and asks why that option is gone. Tesla replies that when a car is sold that the software options DO NOT transfer with the car but only from owner to owner. Meaning..the software options are more like a subscription service. New owner tells past owner the situation and wants a refund....well I don't know what the resolve came to being but begs the question of how future software options will be in light of what happend here. Okay..sorry for the WALL of TEXT...
Your wall of text was informative. Thanks.
the low price is probably a hint to the battery health.
Doesn't the cluster display the estimated range? It must factor in the declining battery health. Just compare that to new.
It is because of resale value literally ALL Nissan Leafs are very very low priced because that is the market value I would have an experienced mechanic who knows about electric cars check the battery level though.
I was really looking at the nissan leafs because they seem to have the most on the road and the longest track record. They seem to depreciate very quickly. I have seen many around me that have under 25,000 miles for about $9,000
The Nissan Leaf is currently the best-selling electric car in the world. Since its inception, the EV has been powered by a lithium-ion battery pack. Early versions of the car had a 24 kWh battery, whereas 2016 and up models have a 30 kWh version. A recent study claims the 30 kWh battery degrades three times faster than the 24 kWh variant.
Study findings
Although the study has not yet been peer reviewed, it has sparked interest throughout the electric vehicle community. Key findings indicate that, after two years of age, the 30 kWh battery declined an average of 9.9% percent annually. By comparison, the 24 kWh battery declined 3.1% annually. The study concludes by saying the degradation rate of the 30 kWh is too rapid to be considered normal.
Nissan responds
Shortly after the study was released, Nissan's EV communications manager, Jeff Wandell, responded.
"Nissan is aware that a limited number of customers have expressed concerns with the previous generation of the Nissan Leaf 30 kWh battery. Leaf owners are some of our most devoted customers. We take their concerns seriously, and have technical experts currently investigating the issues raised."
Nissan has struggled with Leaf battery issues in the past. A class-action lawsuit was filed against the automaker for decreased battery capacity in 2011-2012 Leaf models. Some theorize the issues are due to the fact Leaf batteries are air cooled, instead of liquid cooled. Most other EVs use liquid cooling.
2018 Nissan Leaf has all-new battery design
You'll note, in his statement, Wandell referred to the 30 kWh battery as the "previous generation". That's because the brand-new, 2018 Nissan Leaf has a 40 KWh battery pack. So far, this new pack has received nothing but praise. Its robust design gives the car a range of up to 150 miles. In addition, fast charging can get it up to an 80 percent charge in 40 minutes.
Whether or not the latest battery will eventually have performance issues has yet to be seen. Right now, the jury is still on the older 30 kWh battery as well. The study faulting this battery will need to be verified before it can be taken at face value.
The newer leafs are very nice.. using the Nissan scan tool you can check the storage capacity as well as the charging characteristics and it will tell you ways to increase the batteries life expectancy
