Computer Glitch Turns Nissan Leaf Into Non-Starter

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Some of Nissan’s Leaf cars were beset by the opposite of the alleged sudden unintended acceleration: Sudden unintended arrest. Once started and turned off, the Leafs refused to start again. Which of course would turn the Leaf into a PR embarrassment: Who wants the first serious mass market EV to be a non-starter? After having received complaints both in Japan and the U.S., Nissan decided to do something about it.

According to The Nikkei [sub] “all 8,000 or so of the Leafs built in Japan and the U.S. will be covered by the repair service, though only a ‘very small proportion’ of the vehicles have been affected by the glitch.”

The fix will be fixed in a flash, literally: The car computer will be reprogrammed. And then it’s ready to go. The fallout of the little trouble is that we know how many Leafs have been sold by now. About 8,000. From what we hear there had been supply problems before the March 11 tsunami, and it is imaginable that at the moment, Nissan has more pressing problems than hunting down batteries.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Syke Syke on Apr 16, 2011

    OK, we've got a car that's totally different from anything else on the market (I'm talking major manufacturers here), so I'd expect a glitch here or there. Anyone who thinks that this level of technology, heavily software based, will be perfect from day one is absolutely unrealistic. After all, two days ago, I got 15 updates to my XP system at work. And that's been out how long now? And is supposedly obsolete by two generations?

    • Jimal Jimal on Apr 16, 2011

      The tin foil hat wearer in my thinks that some/all of those updates are part of the planned obsolescence for XP. I've noticed on several occasions that a new install of XP runs quicker than before all the updates are install, all other things being equal (fresh install with no other software installed). Another way to look at it is there are computers that came out with XP installed when it was new that had no problem running it then but cannot run it now.

  • Steven02 Steven02 on Apr 16, 2011

    Hopefully it is only a software issue, but I would think this would have been caught in testing. I wonder why it wasn't, if there is some sort of circumstance that wasn't tested that is causing this.

  • Siuol11.2 Siuol11.2 on Apr 17, 2011

    Really Husky, a piece of engineering excellence? What exactly is it about being three years late to market with me-too tech that makes the Volt so great?

    • See 1 previous
    • Mcs Mcs on Apr 17, 2011

      Technically, the Volt is a plug-in hybrid. So, that would put them on track or slightly ahead of everyone else. I think they knew they were behind on hybrids and figured that by the time they got anything to market, the competition would be shipping plug-ins. So, that's what they built.

  • Carlson Fan Carlson Fan on Apr 17, 2011

    "Rob….To be honest, I expected better from you. " Really? Why would you expect any better from a troll like Finfrock. That's like going over to the "Is Ford...Underperforming" story and telling Z71 Silvy your disappointed he didin't have anything intelligent to offer in one of his posts. Both are like 2 peas in a pod, probably separated at birth......LOL 1500 Volts out in the real world and the one that's involved in a garage fire belongs to someone who likes to play with electricty and is siting next to his homemade electric car. You'd have to be pretty thick and/or a troll to think that is nothing more than a coincidence. While I like the Leaf and am glad Nissan built it, there is no denying it was somewhat rushed to the market. It is not surpising that there have been a few software glitches.

    • See 3 previous
    • Volts On Fire Volts On Fire on Apr 18, 2011

      @Volts On Fire From the Hartford Courant: "A fire apparently reignited inside the battery of a new Chevrolet Volt car early Monday, less than five days after the Volt, an electric hybrid, was involved in a blaze that destroyed a Barkhamsted garage where it had been plugged in for recharging..." AHEM... Most curious how the damn thing can't seem to stop catching on fire, no?

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