Saving a Battery from a Damaged LEAF sold at Auction

While enjoying my 2015 Leaf S, like many others I wonder what happens when I lose all those bars and my battery has degraded. Sure, I could pay $6500 and get a new one.

But I noticed a LEAF with heavy front-end damage for sale at a local auction and wondered...what if I bought this relatively low mileage vehicle and removed the still functioning battery for the $250 bid price? (Maybe more, the auction hasn't ended.)

Could I store that for a few years for ultimate replacement of my own battery? I would want to bid on exact model years...and as time goes on, those batteries are going to be degraded just like mine. Maybe cheap, but not so much battery left.

So, I wonder how Nissan stores its supply of batteries for replacement? Could you keep the battery "trickle charged" at an optimum level?

Or maybe the whole plan is laugh-worthy! Currently, I only have 11k miles and remain at a full 12 bars with around 165 GIDS. All of this is theoretical, of course, so feel free to weigh in with your observations.

Thanks!

Batteries degrade just from sitting on the shelf, and to add insult to injury, often times in an uneven manner across the cells. So to answer your question: don't waste your money. And incidentally, this issue is one of the reasons I am skeptical of the idea of buying a "new" battery from Nissan down the road. It will be unused, but already aged and once the 1 year battery warranty is up I doubt Nissan will care if the buyer sees accelerated aging.

If this is a pre-4/2013 battery, don't bother. Age degradation is too high on the first gen packs. If a later pack, you'd have to find a way to disconnect the BMS temporarily. Lithium cells have very low self-discharge rates, but the BMS maintains a vampire drain from them.

It is probably better to just start saving money for a future new battery purchase from Nissan if you plan to keep your car long enough to need it. You get a new 5-year, 60,000-mile capacity warranty and 8-year, 100,000-mile defect warranty when you buy a new battery.