2018 Nissan Leaf Powertrain & Transmission Problems

Vehicle randomly shuts down when car is underload traveling at highway speed up an incline and with the climate on. Diagnostics are showing multiple cells that are bad in the main battery manufacturer is stating that it is normal wear and it is normal. I’ve only had the car for 300 miles. It was a previously owned car that was supposed to carry an eight year warranty on the drivetrain and battery. They are not honoring the warranty and the vehicle is dangerous to drive and in fact cannot be driven the situation occurred on three occasions where the vehicle just randomly shuts down on the freeway in the middle of the highway. This is a serious concern that will definitely cause injury or death. I attached photos of two occasions when the battery discharged almost immediately, and the one photo shows on the vehicle was completely disabled. I have more supportive photographs and computer printouts from diagnostics if requested..

I was traveling home from work at approximately 60MPH (speed limit) and I experienced a rapid drop in the state of charge from ~60% to ~25% in 15-20 seconds. I slowed the vehicle to 55MPH and it recovered most of the state of charge. When accelerating to 60MPH a few miles later I experience the same behavior and was forced to maintain 55MPH. I was forced to turn off the electric cabin heater, heated seats, and heated steering wheel as well. I have been able to recreate the issue if the battery is: cold (outside temperature less than 15F and the vehicle has been outside for 8+ hours), less than 60% charged, and put under high load (going up a steep grade/60MPH+) the vehicle will register a battery discharge rate of ~5%/second and continue until the vehicle puts itself into turtle mode, the load is reduced, or I assume, shut off. Battery discharge is "phantom" where the vehicle, when under less load (i.e. slower/slowing), will return to a higher charge, and when no load (i.e. stopped), will return to close to the original charge. Depending on how long the high load is maintained it can drastically reduce the real state of charge on the battery. The Nissan dealership identified it as at least one bad battery module, but no fault codes were registered by the vehicle outside of experiencing turtle mode. This issue forces the driver to slow down to reduce load on the vehicle and abrupt speed changes may be required to keep the vehicle operational. This can put the driver into a dangerous situation of being forced to slow down regardless of road conditions or other driver behaviors. If all of the conditions for the battery listed in the first sentence are met, the vehicle will register a rapid battery state of charge decline, it may indicate turtle mode is active (helps reduce battery load), and it will indicate low charge around 10% state of charge. I have personally experienced all of this as the driver, and any assumptions I have made I have identified.

Our 2018 Nissan Leaf experienced an error message when we tried to start it saying "Warning Service EV System No Power". Mileage: 29,862. It would go into neutral, but not into drive. We called GEICO to have it towed to dealership Leith Nissan on [XXX]. On [XXX], John Day from Leith Nissan called to request permission to install a new 12V battery. I approved the cost of replacing the battery. They said that they were able to drive the car after the 12V battery was replaced. But then they plugged it into the charger, and got an error message "EV System No Power", and they couldn't drive it anymore. Sometime after that there was a thermal event that caused the Power Distribution Module to explode and for soot to pour out of it. These incidents are described by the technician Ryan in these videos [XXX] Nissan indicated that the electric power train is no longer under warranty. Our Q:When did you receive the car? ([XXX] repair order opened [XXX]) When did you first start working on the car? [XXX] When did the thermal event occur? (unsure of occurrence date) When did you replace the 12 volt battery? [XXX] when were you told to replace the high voltage battery? [XXX] when did you replace the high voltage battery? [XXX] Is the replacement high voltage battery a new battery or a used battery? (new battery) Has the replacement high voltage battery been maintained at a charge or is it at 0% charge? And what charge is it at now? (SOC unknown at this time) when were you told the pdm needed to be replaced? ([XXX] after HV battery was installed and further diag was performed) When did you replace the pdm? (not yet completed -- were in process but stopped due to BUS bar bolt discovery) Vehicle was left unattended with no HV warnings with service plug removed but inside vehicle with no cover over port to HV battery. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)