TL;DR version:

Nissan refuses to give North American buyers of the early 2018 LEAFs a software update that buyers in other countries were offered, and that was included from the factory for late 2018 LEAFs. This update corrects the "#Rapidgate" issue that cripples charging speeds on road trips. We ask that Nissan North America offer us this update to fix our vehicles free of charge to meet the expectations we had when purchasing the LEAF.

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Like many other buyers of the 2018 LEAF, I was excited about the new generation of a great electric vehicle. Sure, early LEAFs had some problems with battery durability, but those issues were largely resolved by 2015. With an EPA-rated range of 151 miles, the new LEAF could go almost twice as far as older models, and was a much more visually appealing car. With more power and features like the e-Pedal, it's a great vehicle!

Those of us who had faith in Nissan and jumped in early quickly found out that there were problems with fast charging. In cooler weather, heat built up far more quickly in the car's battery pack than in previous models when traveling on the highway. When we went to use CHAdeMO stations, we noticed that the vehicle might give us one or two sessions at normal-ish charging speeds around 50 kW, but after that, speeds were much slower. This made road trips difficult, even in areas with good charging infrastructure.

In warmer weather, many owners noticed that they couldn't get even one normal speed charging session. Just from driving around, heat built up and the battery would charge the car slower to protect itself. Even with the smaller battery capacity, the 2017 LEAF was able to go on trips much easier because it didn't suffer from these issues.

Nissan did respond to the criticism. Later 2018 vehicles came with a newer battery management software revision that was less paranoid about charging speeds. For later buyers, this made road trips much easier. I know this because I've talked to many owners who use the LeafSpy app to read software versions through the OBD II port.

European buyers later reported that Nissan was offering a software update for early 2018 buyers to get the newer software version that allowed better charging rates. We have compared notes, and can see that they're getting the same software that came in later 2018 cars.

The problem is that North American buyers in Canada, Mexico, and the United States were not offered this update, despite later 2018 vehicles coming from the factory with the newer software.

We only ask that Nissan Corporate and Nissan North America give their early buyers the same software update that buyers in other parts of the world were offered.

This software update should be given to customers free of charge, regardless of warranty status, because it would make the vehicle perform like we expected it to when we purchased it.