2018 Nissan Leaf Recalls & Complaints

Incident: October 1, 2026 · Filed: October 28, 2026

My High Voltage battery failed on my car at ~50k miles in 2022. Nissan replaced the battery under warranty. It has failed again now at 110k miles and is way worse than the previous failure. The car will abruptly shut down under load on hills or high speeds on the highway and I will get a P33ED battery fault code. Nissan customer service told me they would offer assistance and after 2 months of waiting on them to find the part number for the battery, they now informed me they won't help. After doing some research, there is a recall out for 2019-2022 Nissan leafs with possible fire related issues because of the batteries and the P33ED code that i am getting is directly related to this recall. I believe I have a recalled battery in my vehicle but Nissan won't offer any assistance because my VIN isn't necessarily recalled. I feel unsafe to charge or operate this car, especially under any type of speed or load and Nissan is offering no assistance in repairing the vehicle or even verifying the battery manufacturer date.

Incident: August 28, 2026 · Filed: October 14, 2026

I purchased this EV in 2021 with ~30k miles on it. On cold days ~20 degrees, the battery would drop rapidly under a load (going uphill, high speeds, etc) It would continue to drop until you were not under load anymore. The dealer said nothing was wrong until I had my family in the vehicle and it totally shut down on the highway going 70 mph and i lost all brakes, steering, etc. They finally took me seriously and put a new battery in at ~55k miles in 2022. I continued to have similar issues in the winter on really cold days, but not nearly as bad so i lived with it. At about 100k miles, it started doing a very similar issue, but way worse, and at any temperature. It got so bad i couldn't drive without the battery always being fully charged. Took it to the first dealer who said nothing is wrong with it even though i had videos of it happening. I then called nissan corporate and opened up a case and asked them directly "before i take it to another dealer for a second opinion, is this something that you can offer financial assistance with" and that lady said "yes, we can offer assistance for sure". I took it to another dealer who did some tests and confirmed it needed a battery. Shortly after that, the car now shuts down under even a slight load. A small backroad hill will shut it down and I get an error code P33ED now. This code is related to a battery recall on 2019- 2022 models that can cause a battery fire! After almost 2 months of nissan saying they didn't have the part available, they just informed me they won't offer any assistance because im out of warranty! Not only did i have the battery replaced once, but it has already failed a second time, and they installed a battery that is now recalled but wont honor the recall because my vin is a 2018. I am beyond frustrated with their lack of care about my families safety since this could catch fire! I am hoping to reach out to you for some additional guidance on this situation. Thank you.

Incident: March 3, 2026 · Filed: August 3, 2026

vehicle brakes went out on the driver during normal operation.

Incident: July 28, 2026 · Filed: July 31, 2026

vehicle was being driven like normal with no warning lights or icons. vehicle was bring driven at 35 miles an hour when suddenly the ABS fault message appeared on the dash, the dash started beeping and brakes became very hard to press.

Incident: June 29, 2026 · Filed: July 16, 2026

This is the second high-voltage traction battery failure on this vehicle. The original HV battery failed and was replaced by Nissan under warranty at an authorized dealer on XXX, at approximately 59,000 miles. The Nissan-manufactured replacement pack has now failed after approximately 16 months in service. On XXX, at ~74000 miles, the vehicle was diagnosed at Johnson City Nissan ([XXX]) with an internal short circuit within the high-voltage battery pack The error codes were P31E7-00 0B and P0AA6-1A 0B. Dealer service personnel identified the condition as an internal short in the pack. Due to the fire risk associated with an internal short in a lithium-ion traction battery, I declined to take possession of the vehicle, which remains at the dealership. An internal short can lead to thermal runaway without warning, whether the vehicle is being driven, charging, or parked. The failure of a factory replacement battery pack in 16 months, following the failure of the original pack, indicates a potential manufacturing or design defect in Nissan's service replacement HV battery packs for this platform. I am reporting this so NHTSA can evaluate whether other Leaf replacement packs exhibit similar internal short failures. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

Incident: July 9, 2026 · Filed: July 11, 2026

Car was fast charged on July 9th. 2026. After fast charging from 13% to 80%, and driving for a few miles, the overheating warning came on and car was forced to stop on the side of a busy highway until the engine cooled off. While there is an active recall for a similar problem (24V700), my car is not included and we were not notified.

Incident: May 28, 2026 · Filed: May 31, 2026

Fail component: mechanical linkage (transmission rod) between the motor and the wiper arms. The ball pops out of the socket resulting in the wipers not working despite motor running. This happened with full speed wipers running. I repaired it, and two weeks later it disconnected again while running wipers at full speed in heavy rain. This left me without windshield wipers in heavy rain on a road with a 55mph speed limit. If I had not been able to quickly exit this would have resulted in significant risk to myself and other motorists. I was able to drive home on slower side roads, but the lack of wipers remained a safety issue. I have not taken in into a dealer or shop to have it reproduced. I will take photos while fixing. No incident or police reports were filed. There were no warning lights or alarms before or after this occurred. It seems this is a known issue that is common to Nissan vehicles including the leaf.

Incident: January 20, 2026 · Filed: January 21, 2026

This vehicle is equipped with a feature known as "e-pedal" also known as one-pedal driving which is quite common on EVs. When this mode is activated, the accelerator pedal acts as a speed command (vs. power) and when the pedal is not depressed, the vehicle applies brakes until it comes to a standstill. Recently, the system has demonstrated a fault condition, where the Vehicle Control Module (VCM) issues a fault warning and disengages the e-pedal mode. This appears to occur randomly after the vehicle has been at a standstill for over one minute (e.g. waiting at a traffic signal) where the driver is using the one-pedal system vs. continuously applying pressure to the brake pedal. The safety issue is that when the system detects a fault and disengages e-pedal, the vehicle starts to move forward, requiring the driver to take immediate action to stop unwanted motion. This can lead to a collision with a vehicle or pedestrian in front of the vehicle. The desired behavior is that when the VCM detects a fault with the e-pedal system, it should engage the Park mode and prevent the vehicle from moving forward. The driver must then depress the brake pedal and affirmatively command the Drive mode before moving. Just disengaging the e-pedal (brake) without prior warning of a fault is a safety hazard.

Incident: January 6, 2026 · Filed: January 8, 2026

On 1/6/2026, as I slowed down as I was turning into my parking lot. I had Eco and e-pedal ON for regenerative braking. As I was turning into the parking lot, the car suddenly accelerated, went over the curb, across the street, over another curb before finally stopping after colliding with a structure. I was driving slowly and distinctively recall braking. This sudden unintended acceleration put safety at risk and caused significant property damage. There were no warning signs or messages. The car is in the yard now and will be available for inspection.

Incident: November 27, 2025 · Filed: December 19, 2025

The front windshield wipers on this car fail in light ice or snow. They've broken every winter I've owned this car (four years). This results in me driving around without front windshield wipers until I can get it fixed, watching the weather forecast and hoping I don't get caught in rain or snow. It happens despite my best efforts not to use the wipers in freezing weather unless absolutely necessary, going so far as to drive in light snow or rain without wipers to avoid breaking them. I've fixed it myself (not easy, especially in winter weather) and paid a mechanic to fix it for me at least three times. Most recently, the mechanic replaced the entire motor and linkage assembly which was extra expensive, but the right wiper broke again this Thanksgiving. (Until this last time, both wipers have always broken together.)