[ck2]

Are the leaf's batteries lithium based? Or some kind of nicd variation?

Because lithium won't matter if they are new or 4 years old, you'll get practically the same capacity from them.

After 5 years they will drop to 80% capacity and then get worse from there. Lithium is good until suddenly it's not good anymore. I have LiFePo4 on my bicycle and I have to be careful because lithium will happily destroy itself to give you the range you push out of it.

I suspect the leaf is not lithium based though, would be too expensive of a pack. We really need to solve that pricepoint, would change everything if cars could use LiFePo4

Ah, wikipedia to the rescue - it is indeed Lithium based http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Leaf#Battery Well then you will definitely get 5 years out of that unless you drive like a maniac to the end of it's capacity. I'd still feel safer if it was LiFePo4 vs Lithium ion though - LiFePo4 won't explode or burn (but it does take up more space).

[dalke]

LiFePO4 - I was confused for a moment wondering if there was polonium in the battery. One kg of 210Po would produce 140kW, and you would only need to refuel every few months.