Augmenting Li-ion batteries to the Leaf for higher capacity

[Interleaf]

I was tempted to mention this as well. I have tried long and hard to source 18650 cells for my laptop business where I refurbish them. Unfortunately, by the time I buy 6 to 10 cells (depending on laptop) it more or less equals what I can buy an aftermarket battery pack for with the cells already in there. Unless you are buying them 100,000 at a time, you'll never get a price anywhere near that. I think the last ones I bought were about $7 a piece.

Now, factor in battery balancers. those will probably cost more than the batteries themselves, or at least darned close. 18650 cells are useless without systems in place to protect them from being over or under charged.

Also need to factor in structural components. You need something to hold all of these cells. That is going to add extra weight.

Now when we've mentioned safety... it isn't just the cells that need to be safe. The whole system has to be safe. There have to be fuses and relays and insulators and all kinds of things in place to make sure the lethal and hazardous amount of power in such a pack can never cause a fire or electrocute somebody. But there is even more to it than that.. You need to take the safety of the vehicle into account. What happens when the vehicle is in an accident? Will the add-on pack be safe? Will it come flying forward into the passenger area and kill somebody? Will it explode because a short circuit was created inside due to it being crushed? Also need to have safety mechanisms in place that make sure power is disconnected when the car is shut off. Also need to make sure that the system won't damage the Leaf's existing battery by overcharging parts of it, or maybe even draining parts of it when the car is off for long periods.

I'm not trying to say this can't be done. But it is a huge engineering undertaking to make it work and make it safe. Just ask all of the people who've upgraded their Prius. It is the same concept. I highly suspect you'd be looking at $13,000 or more for a mass-produced kit to give anywhere near 10Kwh of power.

Try Ebay.

14 Wh for $1.70. Here it is:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-x-3800mAh-18" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... a01724e142

more here:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=18650" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[klapauzius]

Try Ebay.

14 Wh for $1.70. Here it is:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-x-3800mAh-18" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... a01724e142

more here:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=18650" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-x-3800mAh-18" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... a01724e142 has been removed...
I wonder if this is for real?

 

[EVDRIVER]

Just like the many newbie EV converters some of you folks are going to quickly learn what it costs and how much time it takes to do all this today and abandon this idea all together. But like many threads here it will continue on for pages and pages until it dies out or someone tries to do it and never finishes once the learn the reality of using a browser to build something vs actually doing it and making it work. If anyone is serious about such endeavors I suggest a more technical forum not here and certainly not Facebook :lol: . Carry on.....