athensevguy
New member
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2019
- Messages
- 1
Hi everyone, new member & Leaf owner here. I picked up a 2012 with 45K miles on it recently at a pretty good price. Of course, the range on it is dismal (45 mi / charge is what it guesses). I've been reading a lot of posts about battery upgrades, and that seems like a dead end for now. At least for me. $8500 at Nissan for a new 24 kWh battery is just insane. So, looking for options and I have a question / strategy for review:
I found a few suppliers selling "tested" gen 1 modules on eBay. They have decent ratings and seem to be a reputable US business. What about just buying 48 of those modules, cracking open the battery case, and swapping out the modules. From the "upgrade is possible" thread, it seemed like moving from 24 kWh to 30 or 40 kWh was problematic because of the BMS limiting how much of the battery was available, but if I'm looking to just swap out old 2012 modules for new tested 2012 modules with higher capacity, would it be pretty straightforward and avoid some of the headache? Getting back to an ~75-80 mile range would be a huge improvement, and hopefully it would last me long enough for Nissan to come to their senses and offer the Japanese refurb plan here (I know, don't hold my breath).
And, I've got another EV conversion project going on that I think the spent Leaf batteries could be repurposed for, so not a total loss. A 360 Volt 24 kWh battery can be pretty strong if reconfigured down to a 72 or 96 volt system, if I can find space for all the modules that is (converting a 79 Triumph Spitfire).
I found a few suppliers selling "tested" gen 1 modules on eBay. They have decent ratings and seem to be a reputable US business. What about just buying 48 of those modules, cracking open the battery case, and swapping out the modules. From the "upgrade is possible" thread, it seemed like moving from 24 kWh to 30 or 40 kWh was problematic because of the BMS limiting how much of the battery was available, but if I'm looking to just swap out old 2012 modules for new tested 2012 modules with higher capacity, would it be pretty straightforward and avoid some of the headache? Getting back to an ~75-80 mile range would be a huge improvement, and hopefully it would last me long enough for Nissan to come to their senses and offer the Japanese refurb plan here (I know, don't hold my breath).
And, I've got another EV conversion project going on that I think the spent Leaf batteries could be repurposed for, so not a total loss. A 360 Volt 24 kWh battery can be pretty strong if reconfigured down to a 72 or 96 volt system, if I can find space for all the modules that is (converting a 79 Triumph Spitfire).