Uninformed question about the main battery

[Bombastinator2]

What is the chemistry of the leaf main (traction) battery? I know it’s got individual cells. I think they’re 18650s though they might not be. So I guess I’m asking about the individual cells. Are they NiMH? LiPOD? Li what?

 

[cornbinder89]

Don't know the exact chemistry, but they are NOT 18650's they are flat cells like a Polaroid SX-70 battery. 18650 is a round "spiral" cell.

 

[Bombastinator2]

Good to know. Plate batteries. I thought they be more standard. They may be spiral though. Just about all the lithium batteries (but not all) are film batteries if you roll them up you get that “spiral cell”. They may still be film batteries, just folded rather than rolled. The only one I know of that isn’t is LiPo. Those can be made into just about any shape. It’s an early, cheap, and fairly powerful chemistry. It has problems though that I suspect would keep them out of cars (though not people’s ears for some reason. I won’t use wireless earbuds. Those things model airplane fliers are so scared of? Not gonna put one inside my skull thankyouverymuch)

 

[Stanton]

There are plenty of (old) threads with battery details, but in order not to spread mis-information, please read the following link (https://www.nissan-global.com/EN/INNOVATION/TECHNOLOGY/ARCHIVE/LI_ION_EV/).
The Leaf battery modules are definitely not cylindrical, and the newer packs (40 kWh+) utilize a different chemistry and packaging than the original (24 kWh).

 

[Bombastinator2]

There are plenty of (old) threads with battery details, but in order not to spread mis-information, please read the following link (https://www.nissan-global.com/EN/INNOVATION/TECHNOLOGY/ARCHIVE/LI_ION_EV/).
The Leaf battery modules are definitely not cylindrical, and the newer packs (40 kWh+) utilize a different chemistry and packaging than the original (24 kWh).

Reading the thing you sent (thanks btw) there is some sort of nickel based thing that is specific(?) to leafs. I’ve never heard of the chemistry but that doesn’t mean much. my battery experience is with what are effectively power tool batteries. It only talks about one chemistry though with the difference being their method of construction. It’s real possible there is another chemistry. They only talk about one though. Doesn’t mean there aren’t two, and if there are I don’t know which it is. I’ve got a 2019sv. I possibly should have added that.

 

[knightmb]

Reading the thing you sent (thanks btw) there is some sort of nickel based thing that is specific(?) to leafs. I’ve never heard of the chemistry but that doesn’t mean much. my battery experience is with what are effectively power tool batteries. It only talks about one chemistry though with the difference being their method of construction. It’s real possible there is another chemistry. They only talk about one though. Doesn’t mean there aren’t two, and if there are I don’t know which it is. I’ve got a 2019sv. I possibly should have added that.

Nickel is used in most EV batteries, just in different levels. The more you use, the better power density you get, the longer the life of the battery, etc. but then you also get more expensive batteries. Because of the cost of Nickel (and Cobolt), some EV manufactures are trying to move away from it. Tesla for example is using LiFePO4 (lithium iron phosphate) batteries in their baseline model vehicles to help reduce cost at the expense of less range and a little more weight.

Battery technology is in constant flux and it's hard to design a EV for "years" around a battery chemistry to then find out that said chemistry is being replaced with a better one. There are plenty of superior battery technologies that could give some insane boost to EVs but they are just too expensive or not safe. Otherwise, we could all drive around on Nuclear Batteries and never need a charging station.

 

[Bombastinator2]

Nickel is used in most EV batteries, just in different levels. The more you use, the better power density you get, the longer the life of the battery, etc. but then you also get more expensive batteries. Because of the cost of Nickel (and Cobolt), some EV manufactures are trying to move away from it. Tesla for example is using LiFePO4 (lithium iron phosphate) batteries in their baseline model vehicles to help reduce cost at the expense of less range and a little more weight.

Battery technology is in constant flux and it's hard to design a EV for "years" around a battery chemistry to then find out that said chemistry is being replaced with a better one. There are plenty of superior battery technologies that could give some insane boost to EVs but they are just too expensive or not safe. Otherwise, we could all drive around on Nuclear Batteries and never need a charging station.

Oh yeah. They get more powerful all the time plus there is other weirdness. I was using ihs stuff for a while many years ago. It didn’t explode. It just turned into hot black goop. Saved my thigh once. But it was only made in only one place and the factory burned down so no more of those ever again. Stuff is like twice as powerful now. Probably just too much energy density for that.