Nissan's Atypical Recall for 5,300 LEAF Cars over a Rare Restart Problem

Nissan Motor Co. has decided to perform a service campaign worldwide to fix a restart issue on 5,300 LEAF electric vehicles in Japan, North America, Europe and other countries to ensure customer satisfaction. However, they claim that it is not a safety issue. The company says it chose to perform the service campaign, which is a notch or so below a recall, because the problem does not pose a safety threat. According to Nissan Motor Co., this service campaign is to fix a potential software flaw. This software flaw is alleged to have been keeping the vehicles from restarting once they are switched off.

After looking into consumer complaints that the car fails to start on occasion, Nissan assured that it will reprogram the vehicle control module software in 5,300 LEAF electric cars, worldwide.

The Nissan LEAF electric vehicles will not stop running while being driven and this is not a safety issue

The Nissan LEAF electric vehicles may fail to restart after being turned off

According to Nissan Motor Co., a very small proportion of LEAF owners have reported restarting issues that required technicians to reprogram the cars’ vehicle control modules. According to Nissan Motor Co., this is an incorrect way of diagnosis programming.

According to Nissan:

About 500 LEAFs in the US will be affected by this service campaign

The restart issue in Nissan LEAF electric cars resides in the air conditioning system

It was not clear whether it is a software or a hardware issue

Only a small number of cars is affected and the problem is not serious enough for a recall

The owners will receive a message through the car's on-board computer, early this week asking them to contact their Nissan dealers to arrange a service visit

Nissan Motor Co. will also contact potentially affected car customers through traditional channels also

The LEAF electric car has just begun to gain acceptance among American consumers in an age where the gas prices are skyrocketing. This restart issue in the Japanese electric car can become a major hurdle in its way to becoming a favorite with the consumers, globally.

This "service campaign" is an atypical recall in the sense that it is not like any other safety recall because:

The NHTSA has not posted a recall notice on the Nissan LEAF

The NHTSA, which oversees vehicle recalls has not opened a defect investigation into the Nissan LEAF

There actually were no complaints posted by consumers regarding the Nissan LEAFs on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Web site, as of Friday afternoon

The defect is mostly a public-relations problem so Nissan decided to reprogram all the LEAFs that are on the road, around 5,300 so far

Nissan voluntarily decided to perform a service campaign in a proactive bid to ensure that their customers are satisfied

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