How do you check a Honda e before purchase?

[Rei]

When buying a Nissan Leaf you hand Leaf Spy software to check the battery. Is there something like that for the e?

Is there another way to check the battery?

[happyV]

There is my app. That can read out the SoH. But you have to compile it yourself.
https://github.com/DanielH1987/HONDAeInsight

[Rei]

Thanks, I will have a look at that. It seems like there is no way to set things like cell voltages like you can with LeafSpy though.

How bad is battery degradation and how good are Honda with the warranty? I've seen some that are 3 years old with less than 1000 miles, which makes me think the battery might not be in good condition due to low use.

[EEEE]

You can read cell voltages with a decent scan tool (I can see them in my icarpro cr max) , but the voltages themselves wont tell you much. I wouldn't worry about the state of health, life is too short.

[Rei]

It will be my only car, it's not a toy for me. I'll keep it long term so I want to make sure it's okay.

[Verone]

I have a friend back in the UK who had his delivered pretty much at the launch of the E in summer 2020. He's had zero issues with the battery, and is seeing pretty much no degradation so far after three years and just short of 43,000 miles.

There are ~10 year old Nissan Leafs on the road that are showing 3-5% degradation after 80k+ miles of driving. The vast majority of this battery degradation stuff is just bullshit from the media who for some reason (lobbying from oil companies most likely) seem to hate EVs with a passion.

The same media companies who report every time an idiot runs out of charge on the side of a motorway, but don't mention the countless morons with ICE cars who run out of fuel, or misfuel their cars, or that electric cars "constantly" catch fire, when in reality ICE cars burst into flames more often.

So long as the car passes a regular health check the same as any other, don't stress about battery deg - it's not even worth the worry.

[Rei]

My concern is with the low mileage ones. The Leaf degraded a lot more if left unused for a long time. I think that goes for most EVs, especially if they are left at high or low state-of-charge.

The e seems to have very large buffers so maybe it's less of an issue, but there isn't much information. I see some people have had batteries replaced under warranty though.

[happyV]

The interesting part is: the SoH of my car is 85.52%, but the usable capacity is still 28.5kWh. (if you take the distance traveled multiplied by the average consumption)
So my educated guess by looking at the numbers I collected with my app: they are shifting the window AND the SoH is one indicator but not the only one.

[Rei]

Thanks. What is the age of your vehicle and mileage?

TBH that's rather a lot of degradation for a max 3 year old car, unless it's done mega miles. I wonder if the SOH can be improved with charging.

[londiniumperson]

The interesting part is: the SoH of my car is 85.52%, but the usable capacity is still 28.5kWh. (if you take the distance traveled multiplied by the average consumption)
So my educated guess by looking at the numbers I collected with my app: they are shifting the window AND the SoH is one indicator but not the only one.

One issue here is that I assume that you don't know the reported SoH when the car was new, therefore 85% may or may not be a relevant guide to the actual battery state.
Also please could you point us to information to understand how the SoH on the Honda is calculated or reported?
Does it matter what SoC the battery is in when a SoH value is checked, i.e. should the car be at 100% SoC, 10% or somewhere in between, or does it not make any difference?

As for the Leaf, I seem to recall that a couple of rapid charges can improve this on the Leaf, but then this may just be internet myth or anecdotal.

Thanks.