Nissan has yet to identify a fix for the restart problem plaguing the Leaf battery car.
Despite a painfully slow production launch designed to weed out potential defects Nissan has confirmed that at least some of the Leaf battery-electric vehicles it has sold experience occasional problems starting up.
The maker says it is tracking the problem but still has not isolated the precise cause and is still unsure whether it will require a recall or a less drastic response to fix the defect.
“When we know the exact cause, we will decide whether to issue a service bulletin or take other steps,” said Nissan spokesman Toshitake Inoshita.
The problem is the latest setback for Nissan, which was forced to halt production of the lithium-ion-powered Leaf for a month due to the earthquake, tsunami and subsequent power shortage that struck Japan on March 11th.
The maker has said it hopes to market 20,000 of the battery cars in the U.S. alone, this year, but sales of the Leaf have gotten off to a slow start, with sales of only about 452 through the end of March. In Japan, sales totaled 3,300 through February, with the recent natural disaster disrupting sales reporting for March.
Company officials have defended the slow start-up, insisting they have intentionally held back production to minimize quality problems with the all-new technology. The start-up problem seems to support that cautious approach.
Reports of the defect have come in from both the U.S. and Japan and it appears the occasional failure of the vehicle to start may be linked to Leaf’s climate control system. So far, however, Nissan admits it has not been able to precisely lock down the source, nor come up with a fix.
Since the defect is not safety-related, the maker does not legally need to issue a recall though it says it will want to deal with the problem as effectively as possible.
Prior to the March 11 disaster, Nissan officials had promised to begin ramping up production — and eliminating back-orders — by May. The month-long shutdown and ongoing parts shortages could leave dealers with short supplies well into the summer.