How disappointed should I be that Nissan did not include liquid battery cooling on the Leaf E-Plus?

[WetEV]

What is really sad, of course, is all of those people who are rooting for Nissan to fail. Spreading FUD. Bad advice. Pointless suggestions.

 

[jlsoaz]

I called them to see if I could firm up whatever answer I could get on whether I could get an upgrade, and if not, why not? The answer I got, if I recall, was that there was too much complication to installing the then-new 30 kWh pack in the old 24 kWh spot.

This is bunk. The physical dimensions are the same. The connectors are the same, except that the 2011/2102 need an adapter, which has already been built for the 24kWh replacements. Mux has shown spoofing the BMS to provide proper 3 digit range estimation for a larger pack. A hacker in Ukraine has mounted a 40 kWh pack in a 24 kWh and shown it driving the expected range of a 40 kWh pack.

All of the pieces have been demonstrated working. Nothing is particularly difficult. The only explanation is exactly what John said: " Nissan doesn't want to. Nissan is in the business of selling cars, not batteries."

[...]

Ok thanks for the information. Nice to get some clarity on it, though it's so many years later.

My opinion is that Tesla has proven the business model. If you sell upgrades to existing owners and support your product, you generate buzz and excitement. When you produce a defective product and don't support your customers, you have poor resale values, high depreciation, and low NPS.

The assumption is that an owner seeking a battery will be converted to a new car buyer. This is true sometimes, but most will likely not return to Nissan now that competitive EVs exist.

The high depreciation scares away new buyers and raises leasing prices, which are key problems with Leaf sales today.

Yeah, I am not likely to be leasing a new vehicle again. I see it in effect as another way the vehicle manufacturer and financing companies can get me to help pay the depreciation. When I did it the one time in 2012, I saw it as a special case, where I had made so much noise for so many years about EVs that it was hard for me to wait longer.

 

[LeftieBiker]

Lease deals can be very good - when they want to move out the remaining stock in the next model year.

 

[Evoforce]

OP, I'm glad you joined TEVA!

 

[smkettner]

What is really sad, of course, is all of those people who are rooting for Nissan to fail. Spreading FUD. Bad advice. Pointless suggestions.

I think most are calling for Nissan to better succeed with improved battery chemistry and temperature management.

 

[jlsoaz]

OP, I'm glad you joined TEVA!

Thanks.

Tucson EV Association is a good one.

 

[WetEV]

Battery cooling and heating has threshold(s). If the battery temperature never ever exceeds the temperature threshold where the cooling would turn on, then the cooling system has exactly zero effect on battery temperature and thus battery capacity loss. There are limits on how low of threshold can be for cooling. Too much cooling leads to condensation.

The most aggressive cooling system I'm aware of is the Chevy Volt. It starts cooling if the battery exceeds 30C. For the year and a bit that I could monitor my 2012 LEAF with a LeafSpy like application, the battery temperature never went over 30C. My 2014 has been over 30C. In the summer. On a hot day wiith 3 QCs. I probably lost an extra half a day of battery life on that day if compared with a hypothetical actively cooled LEAF with a 30C threshold. I'm not heart broken.

Recent hot weather, and a long drive 194 miles with a DCQC, and the e-tron's thermal management turned on about half way through the DCQC.

I wasn't expecting that. I thought I would never manage to turn on the TMS on the e-tron. Probably saved about 8 hours of battery life.

 

[SageBrush]

Recent hot weather, and a long drive 194 miles with a DCQC, and the e-tron's thermal management turned on about half way through the DCQC.

I wasn't expecting that. I thought I would never manage to turn on the TMS on the e-tron. Probably saved about 8 hours of battery life.

My Tesla Model 3 routinely spins up the cooling during a Supercharger session, even at stations below 150 kW.