Warranty Book and the Battery

Hello out there. This is Post number 5 for me. Although I haven't taken delivery yet of my MIEV (scheduled date is 31 Jul 12), I do have an on line copy of the warranty booklet. If you look at a hard copy at page 8 or on line copy at page 11, the book talks about gradual loss of battery capacity over time. While I may not like that, I accept it. My question is this. Suppose the battery capacity loss after four years is 15%. Will I be able to detect that by observing after I did a full charge using the Level 1 charger for, let us say 24 hours, I only see about 13.5 bars instead of 16 bars, or do I need to go my dealer to determine the capacity loss? I'm just looking for indicators down the road, and my outlook on life is not to see through rose colored glasses, but the real world as it is. Thanks for any comments. Bill.

I don't think you'll see it in number of bars, I think you'll see it in range remaining. This is an assumption on my part but I think the charge gauge is intended to work like a gas gauge, a full charge will show as a full battery, regardless of the battery's ability to perform. The manual recommends that every month you drive the battery down to one or two bars so the computer system will be able to better estimate driving range. I think that's where the adjustment will be made to the range remaining as the batter loses capacity.

No Bill - You'll always see 16 bars after a full charge - The loss of capacity will show up as fewer miles driven per bar than you used to get . . . . plus, your RR number when you take it off the charger will slowly decrease as the battery pack loses capacity

My experience is that we get considerably more than the 62 miles the EPA claims for the car and after a few years and a 15% loss, the actual range will have decreased . . . . probably down to something like the 62 number we thought we were getting when we bought the car
Don