Suppliers defend Leaf fix

The Motor Industry Association has expressed concern over the safety of a locally-adapted software patch for the 30kW Leaf – but the suppliers are defending their work.

The fix is to issues with the Battery Management System software which may cause the health of the battery to be incorrectly indicated. Read more about GVI Electric and EVs Enhanced’s product here.

Motor Industry Association chief executive officer David Crawford contacted EVtalk to express concern over the fix. He has made similar communications to other government and industry organisations.

Crawford says his concern is with vehicles being given the new software from a market for which they were not built. He understands USA and UK fixes have been issued, but the Japanese fix has not yet, or only just, been released.

“The critical point is that the software fix is specific to the market the vehicle was produced for,” Crawford says. “A software fix designed for the US or UK market will not work for vehicles made for and sourced from Japan. Worse, it could seriously damage the vehicle’s controller that manages charge flows.”

GVI’s Hayden Johnston was not available for full comment; however, he indicated he is hugely disappointed the new vehicle industry would take aim at firms trying to support customers where new vehicle distributors had failed to do so.

Walter Larason of EVs Enhanced stood by his fix when approached by EVtalk.

“I have done weeks of research on this before determining it was not going to cause any issues whatsoever,” Larason says.

“I am confident I know a lot more than people making the statements would,” he notes. “It sounds like scaremongering.”

“If (Nissan) want to make it go away they need to step up and offer to make a fix like a good company would be expected to.”