Nissan is the one manufacturer in Australia that does not express its battery capacity guarantee as a percentage. The LEAF and ARIYA are covered for 8 years — stated as 96 months — or 160,000 km, and the guarantee is against capacity falling below nine bars of capacity as shown on the vehicle's battery capacity level gauge. The cover is provided to the original and subsequent owners.
We have deliberately not converted that into a percentage. Nissan does not publish one, and any figure you see quoted is somebody's interpretation rather than a manufacturer commitment.
The terms
| Applies to | Years | Kilometres | Capacity guarantee | Transfers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nissan LEAF, ARIYA | 8 (96 months) | 160,000 km | Below nine bars on the vehicle's capacity gauge | Yes |
Battery defects sit under Nissan's 5-year, unlimited-kilometre vehicle warranty. The 8-year, 160,000 km term above is the capacity cover only, and Nissan expressly excludes gradual capacity loss from the defects warranty.
What the bar gauge actually is
The LEAF displays battery health as a column of segments beside the charge gauge — twelve when new. Segments disappear as capacity falls. Losing the first bar happens at a meaningful amount of degradation, and losing four bars — dropping to eight — is what triggers the guarantee.
The practical problem is that bars are coarse. A car can sit just above a bar boundary for a long time, and two cars showing the same number of bars can differ noticeably in actual capacity. That is precisely why a tested figure is more useful to a buyer than a glance at the dash.
The LEAF's particular reputation
Early LEAFs are known for degrading more than most electric cars of their era, largely because the pack is passively cooled. In a hot Australian summer, a passively-cooled pack has no way to shed heat other than time, and heat is the main driver of capacity loss.
That is not a reason to avoid a LEAF — a well-kept later car with a healthy pack is a genuinely good cheap EV — but it does mean that on a LEAF, more than almost any other model, the individual car matters far more than the model average. Two 2019 LEAFs with the same odometer can be in materially different condition depending on where they lived and how they were charged.
How the nine-bar wording maps onto the ARIYA, which does not use the LEAF's twelve-segment gauge, is not clear from Nissan Australia's published terms. If you are buying an ARIYA, ask.
What to check on a used LEAF or ARIYA
- Bars remaining on the gauge, as the warranty measure
- The tested State of Health, as the real one
- Where the car has spent its life — a Darwin car and a Hobart car of the same age are not the same purchase
- Rapid-charge history, which on a passively-cooled pack matters more than on a liquid-cooled one
Terms verified 13 September 2026 from Nissan Australia's new vehicle warranty terms. Manufacturer terms change, and the terms that apply to any given car are those in force when it was first sold. Always confirm with the manufacturer for the specific vehicle.