nissan leaf lemon law buy-back

Hot on the heels of the first Fisker Karma lemon-law buyback, Nissan has confirmed that it bought back two Leaf electric vehicles in Arizona under that state's lemon law in response to ongoing battery issues there. There's a long and vibrant discussion of the situation over on My Nissan Leaf. Almost 400 pages of vibrant.

The problem seems to be that Arizona's constant warm temperatures are affecting the Leaf's battery pack, degrading performance. Mason and Andrea Convey got in line early for their Leaf, but have now spent four disappointing months working to get Nissan buy it back. Scott Yarosh told local TV station KPHO that his Leaf only had 42 miles of range left on a full charge when he ended his lease before its time was up. While he was originally charged with early termination fees, he eventually got all his money back. He added that he thinks Nissan is trying to buy his silence (watch the KPHO report below). And there are others unhappy with their Leafs, as you can read on My Nissan Leaf.

David Reuter, Nissan's vice president of corporate communications, sent AutoblogGreen a statement saying the problems were limited to "a small handful" of Leaf owners and that two Leafs have, indeed, been repurchased. He pointed out that more than 38,000 Leafs have been sold around the world (14,000 in the U.S.). In fact, around 450 were sold around Phoenix, he said, and "the majority of those to very satisfied owners." He also said that "gradual battery capacity loss" is "normal" and "is expressly excluded under the vehicle's warranty and can be impacted by extreme heat, high speed, high mileage and charging method and frequency." There is no defect in the Leaf, he said, but "in the interest of customer satisfaction," Nissan bought the cars back. The full text is available below.

So, customers, are you satisfied?


CBS 5 - KPHO

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"Nissan works hard to satisfy individual customers when they express unhappiness with their ownership experience. Based on internal data, LEAF customers are some of Nissan's most satisfied worldwide. However, in Phoenix, a small handful of Nissan LEAF customers have complained of gradual battery capacity loss, which is a normal occurrence in battery electric vehicles, is expressly excluded under the vehicle's warranty and can be impacted by extreme heat, high speed, high mileage and charging method and frequency. In the interest of customer satisfaction, Nissan has recently repurchased two customer vehicles as a good will gesture. The company's investigation has determined that there is no defect with the Nissan LEAF, but we did use a buyback formula modeled on an Arizona state repurchase law, given its established criteria. The Arizona state repurchase law was only used for formula guidance in determining appropriate terms and conditions of the repurchase, including calculation of the repurchase amount."

Also, keep in mind that the customer concerns in Phoenix are from a very small handful of LEAF owners in the context of our worldwide population of vehicles. We have sold more than 38,000 LEAFs worldwide to date, with more than 14,000 of those in the United States. In Phoenix, we have sold approximately 450 vehicles, with the majority of those to very satisfied owners. In fact, worldwide LEAF customers are some of Nissan's most satisfied. It's important that this perceived issue is placed in context. We are not happy that we have any customers with concerns and we're working hard to improve our customer communications to better meet their expectations.

If you have any further questions please feel free to let me know.

Thanks,
David P. Reuter
Vice President, Corporate Communications