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- Jun 13, 2011
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I would certainly hope so, but this will likely require some advance planning on Nissan's part and genuine interest to accommodate existing EV owners. The VCM is just a guess, but Mark Perry mentioned at the meeting at Google couple of weeks ago that the new 6.6kW charger will require a new VCM in addition to different wiring harnesses. It would appear logical that if a charger upgrade required a new VCM, so will a battery pack upgrade.mxp said:Unless one assumes that the "batt upgrade" implied is simply just the higher cap battery pack and no other upgrades is demanded by the owner. i.e no 6.6kW charger and VCM. Is this even a viable option...
I wish that Nissan handled equipment upgrades via a simple firmware update, but there is a good chance that they won't do that, and will require a new VCM instead. The problem with that of course is, that they might not want to produce a highly specialized, low-volume part for the few thousand owners wishing to upgrade their battery. The standard VCM used in MY2014 or MY2015 vehicles on the other hand, might not understand the old 3.3kW charger and potentially other components, such as the old dashboard instruments (although there aren't that many other things to worry about beyond that).
My best guess is that independent shops will attempt to perform these upgrades instead of Nissan, just like fotajoye said earlier. I wish it wasn't so, but upgrades and low-volume tweaks of standard components might be simply under the radar of large-volume car manufacturers. I think that the Leaf community is very fortunate to have Phil, and and hopefully his track record will attract others.