This years Nissan Leaf has battery issues

(PhysOrg.com) -- Only an extremely small amount of new cars go from the lot to the road without owners having some kind of problems. It seems that one part or another will invariably cause problems. As it turns out electric cars are no exception to this rule, and the Nissan Leaf is here to prove it.

Like most new car issues the problem at hand is only effecting a small amount of users thus far, but several reports of the cars simply running out of battery with little to no warning have occurred in the 2011 model year. The stories all go a little something like this:

The owner of one of these new Leaf's will be driving along, usually on a highway, and they will get a notice that they are low on battery. You will get an estimated number of miles left from the on-board computer system. Whether you stay on the highway, or move onto less populated roads to get to your destination quicker, the car will up and die within the next five minuets, with no extra warnings to give you an indication that you are not going to make it home. There you sit, stranded on the side of the road, unable to even turn your car off.

It's not exactly a pleasant scenario, but it is happening. Many of the stranded are asking the same question. Why is this happening to me?

Well, it seems that according to the company, you are looking at the wrong gauge. The miles left is an estimate, and cannot be relied upon until your car gathers more data about how you drive. The simple solution is to look at the state of charge gauge, which should give you a more accurate reading. So as it turns out this one may be a mix of mechanical failure and human error.

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