[bribagz]

Double the battery loose the boot, ruin the handling........................But it's an option.

3rd-Party Nissan LEAF Battery Pack Upgrades — Doubling To 48 kWh

 

[Paul_Moxhay]

You'd have to be pretty desperate for the extra range to spend that and lose your boot. You'd lose your warranty too so not sure it is such a good idea until the 5 (or 8) year warranty is expired.

Not for me

 

[bribagz]

Nor I..

 

[Sandy]

Makes a lot of sense though of an old Series 1 once its out of warranty. If a cover is fitted you'd still have maybe 50% of your usable boot. And who really uses their entire boot capacity all of the time? Handy if you spend your life pounding the motorway, you could do it at a real 70mph and not an indicated 56mph (thats actually 49mph).

 

[BarryP]

I could quite fancy a portable plug in version. perhaps by 12 kwh increments, for those longer trips.

 

[Edd Beesley]

Cool stuff. I'm really interested in what the car thinks is going on, like, does it now know it's got a 48kwh battery instead of 24kwh, or does it think it's still 24kwh but that you're managing to drive round at 8-10mpkwh?

 

[bribagz]

Cool stuff. I'm really interested in what the car thinks is going on, like, does it now know it's got a 48kwh battery instead of 24kwh, or does it think it's still 24kwh but that you're managing to drive round at 8-10mpkwh?

That makes my head hurt ;-)

 

[bribagz]

Cool stuff. I'm really interested in what the car thinks is going on, like, does it now know it's got a 48kwh battery instead of 24kwh, or does it think it's still 24kwh but that you're managing to drive round at 8-10mpkwh?

I think 10-12Kwh in a small pack could worth looking at.

 

[bribagz]

I could quite fancy a portable plug in version. perhaps by 12 kwh increments, for those longer trips.

A suit case type you can remove if you need the boot!

 

[Electric Toad]

Having a 3kw charger may cause issues. It will take a while to charge!

 

[Edd Beesley]

Having a 3kw charger may cause issues. It will take a while to charge!

So long as it works with chademo, that's the main thing!

 

[Electric Toad]

But that may be costly.

 

[Edd Beesley]

A suit case type you can remove if you need the boot!

This is unlikely to happen both for physical (how do you secure each suitcase? in a dedicated racking system that then can't be used for anything else? are there always live electrical connections in that racking?) and electrical ones (is each suitcase connected in parallel to the main pack? how can a small suitcase give out the same amperage in a main pack? what if the suitcase is at a different state of charge when you connect it?)
It just won't happen, I'm afraid.

 

[Sparky2]

Cool stuff. I'm really interested in what the car thinks is going on, like, does it now know it's got a 48kwh battery instead of 24kwh, or does it think it's still 24kwh but that you're managing to drive round at 8-10mpkwh?

@Mike Schooling has already put an extra 24 kWh battery into the boot of a written-off Leaf here in the UK. He says it works fine, but I will let him explain about the effect on the BMS, etc. 12 kWh module may also be a possibility after the 5 year warranty expires...

 

[Mike Schooling]

Yes we have already done it in the uk about a year ago (another thread on here) to a crashed gen1. It works, we can charge all 48kwh and drive it around the yard here and have confirmed capacity by running it down with the aircon and heater a few times.

We got to the stage of working out the packaging (to make it safe/legal) and then wanted to do some road testing.

The weight is what makes it a non starter really. I fitted the cells and prototype enclosure (not connected, just for physical weight which is about 350kg) in my running gen2 leaf and it ruins the existing range and makes the car a dog to drive.

We expended a fair bit of effort playing about with the suspension (mainly lifting and 'hardening' the rear) but it doesn't really improve things.

We also investigated the insurance issue and found some companies willing to cover it for a reasonable price (i would say about 20% above a standard leaf).

That's as far as we took it.

It technically works but makes the boot more or less unusable (in a gen 1 it is the same height as the 'hump') and ruins the handling of the car.

 

[Brads]

It would be a great idea to have a home storage battery which could be used as a range extender for long trips. Maybe when the solid state batteries are common it will happen. I suspect you would need something equivalent to an internal CHAdeMO connection and a 'rack' as Ed mentioned. The extra pack could always be a 'leased' option too.

 

[Sandy]

Yes we have already done it in the uk about a year ago (another thread on here) to a crashed gen1. It works, we can charge all 48kwh and drive it around the yard here and have confirmed capacity by running it down with the aircon and heater a few times.

We got to the stage of working out the packaging (to make it safe/legal) and then wanted to do some road testing.

The weight is what makes it a non starter really. I fitted the cells and prototype enclosure (not connected, just for physical weight which is about 350kg) in my running gen2 leaf and it ruins the existing range and makes the car a dog to drive.

We expended a fair bit of effort playing about with the suspension (mainly lifting and 'hardening' the rear) but it doesn't really improve things.

We also investigated the insurance issue and found some companies willing to cover it for a reasonable price (i would say about 20% above a standard leaf).

That's as far as we took it.

It technically works but makes the boot more or less unusable (in a gen 1 it is the same height as the 'hump') and ruins the handling of the car.

Wonder when folk will start believing that some super amazing 60kwh Leaf won't be hitting the market any time soon.

30kwh for sensible sized cars, leave the tank sized batteries for the tank sized cars.

 

[Sparky2]

Wonder when folk will start believing that some super amazing 60kwh Leaf won't be hitting the market any time soon.
30kwh for sensible sized cars, leave the tank sized batteries for the tank sized cars.

Carlos Ghosn has already promised (in Japan) a 48 kWh Nissan EV for 2017 launch... Do for me perfectly!

 

[Sandy]

Carlos Ghosn has already promised (in Japan) a 48 kWh Nissan EV for 2017 launch... Do for me perfectly!

Link?

Best I've seen is they've said technically they could fit 48kwh but no where was it actually concrete.

 

[BlackLeaf]

Bear in mind that Mike had to put all the batteries in the boot, which is why the handling was wrecked.

Nissan could, if they really wanted, put 12kWh under the bonnet which would balance out the other 12kWh in the boot.

However, I doubt they will do so as it would still be a 2.5 tonne supermini ... just a balanced 2.5 tonne supermini.