Nissan is warning owners not to fast charge their Leaf until the problem can be repaired.
A new recall campaign impacts certain Nissan Leaf owners in the U.S. — specifically those with 2019-2020 model year models. According to documents the automaker filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), as many as 23,887 cars could abruptly catch fire while DC fast charging due to excessive lithium deposits within the battery cells.
In certain circumstances, those excess deposits could create additional electrical resistance while fast charging, overheating the battery pack and causing a fire. That information alone should have Leaf owners in the affected population taking notice, but it’s particularly telling when even Nissan notes the risk in such a straightforward fashion, rather than euphemistically calling it a “thermal event”. That said, impacted owners may notice interrupted charging, unusual noise, a burning smell or smoke coming from the battery pack while using the CHAdeMO port.
The potential battery fire risk affects both the base 40-kWh Nissan Leaf, as well as the 60-kWh “Plus” models.
Nissan notified dealers of the issue in late September, and is currently sending out an Interim Owner Letter until it can actually implement a fix. For the time being, the company is advising owners to avoid Level 3 chargers (or “quick charging”) their vehicles until they can get to their local dealer. As for an actual remedy, Nissan is working on a software update to “prevent progression to thermal incident”. The fix will not, at least from the information published through the NHTSA, involve actually replacing the battery pack.
According to the defect information report, the recall population includes 14,940 2019 Nissan Leaf models, and 8,947 2020 models. Manufacturing records pinpoint the build dates between August 29, 2018 and November 3, 2020. All impacted owners are still under their battery warranty, so the company will not reimburse owners for repairs in this case.
Owners can find out more information through the NHTSA’s recall website (reference number 24V-700), or by plugging their VIN into Nissan’s recall page (reference R24B2).
