How to tell what Kwh battery car has 24 30 40 etc

[Aftrburnr]

Is it possible from VIN # to tell what Kwh battery a Leaf has? Tried decodethis.com no luck. Short of plugging Leafspy in... Looking at some Leafs that are at copart auction but they don't report what Kwh the car has. You can see pics of the bars tho, saw one that had 12 a 2017 and one maybe had 10 2016, but pic was cut off.

Going to upgrade my 24 Kwh 2015 that has 9 bars and disassemble it, use the cells for my solar system

Thanks!

 

[Stanton]

Is it possible from VIN # to tell what Kwh battery a Leaf has? Tried decodethis.com no luck. Short of plugging Leafspy in... Looking at some Leafs that are at copart auction but they don't report what Kwh the car has. You can see pics of the bars tho, saw one that had 12 a 2017 and one maybe had 10 2016, but pic was cut off.

I bought a car from Copart for my 40 kWHr pack upgrade, and the listings for the bigger (62 kWh) pack was always a "Plus". However, I used another trick to verify which size pack was in it: the car weight. They usually have a pic of the door jam that lists the curbside weight...and I remember the 40 kWHr packs were always ~1000 kg. Once you verify the weight for whatever pack type you're looking for, it will be consistent across all years for that body style (another advantage of the Leaf not changing much).

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

AZO 24 kwh
BZO 30 kwh
AZ1 40 kwh
BZ1 62 kwh

 

[Aftrburnr]

@Stanton Thanks for that! Had a look at some of the weights of the cars, my 2015 with 24 Kwh is 4193, some 16 & 17 were 4431 prolly 30 Kwh...

@DaveinOlyWA Perfect sir! Clue! Looks like #s 4, 5, & 6 of the VIN correspond to what you've indicated!

In some of these though with 10 or 12 bars, can't tell if battery hasn't replaced without plugging in Would not rather drive 70 mile round trip lol

The one I was looking at that can be bid on right now 24 Kwh I did see a couple 30 Kwh but can't bid on them right now and from what I've read, 30 Kwh not the most popular choice. But, I guess if you can get one for $150-$500, not a bad deal.

Did see one 2023 it was an SV PLUS CZ1 in the VIN. Quite a bit of fun watching the live auctions hehe

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

@Stanton Thanks for that! Had a look at some of the weights of the cars, my 2015 with 24 Kwh is 4193, some 16 & 17 were 4431 prolly 30 Kwh...

@DaveinOlyWA Perfect sir! Clue! Looks like #s 4, 5, & 6 of the VIN correspond to what you've indicated!

In some of these though with 10 or 12 bars, can't tell if battery hasn't replaced without plugging in Would not rather drive 70 mile round trip lol

The one I was looking at that can be bid on right now 24 Kwh I did see a couple 30 Kwh but can't bid on them right now and from what I've read, 30 Kwh not the most popular choice. But, I guess if you can get one for $150-$500, not a bad deal.

Did see one 2023 it was an SV PLUS CZ1 in the VIN. Quite a bit of fun watching the live auctions hehe

2023 plus is a downgrade to 60 kwh.

 

[cwerdna]

All US '16 SV, '16 SL and '17 Leafs were 30 kWh.

All '11 to '15 + '16 original S were 24 kWh.

30 kWh '16 "S 30" https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1106593_nissan-leaf-s-quietly-gets-30-kwh-battery-upgrade-higher-price came near the end of '16.

Press kits (look at specs tab):
https://usa.nissannews.com/en-US/releases/release-bc61419969d1446daf58c4f84915aad3-us-2016-nissan-leaf-press-kit
https://usa.nissannews.com/en-US/releases/release-f6fcf40f78a54118a8a01526272638f0-us-2017-nissan-leaf-press-kit

See bulletin at https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=566296#p566296 for confirmation about VIN character for 24 vs 30 kWh. The carmd link is dead but https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2020/MC-10171223-0001.pdf works for NTB14-059d. NTB20-001 at https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2020/MC-10171230-0001.pdf confirms 30 kWh character.

All '18 Leafs were 40 kWh. You could get 40 kWh from '18 to current. '19 marked the beginning of Leaf Plus as a choice (arrived around Spring 2019). Plus was 62 kWh from '19 thru '22. Then for some reason, '23 and '24 Plus are 60 kWh.

More example press kits:
https://usa.nissannews.com/en-US/releases/2022-nissan-leaf-press-kit?selectedTabId=%23release-25819c9aeb4792ebec3d4ddceb03b7e8
https://usa.nissannews.com/en-US/releases/2023-nissan-leaf-press-kit?selectedTabId=%23release-4eda35dfd61f8a41b0b1418dcc2da8a1

Google for stuff like yyyy leaf press kit, replacing yyyy with the year.

 

[Stanton]

The one I was looking at that can be bid on right now 24 Kwh I did see a couple 30 Kwh but can't bid on them right now and from what I've read, 30 Kwh not the most popular choice. But, I guess if you can get one for $150-$500, not a bad deal.

I wasn't quite sure what you were trying to do, but if you aren't swapping the entire pack (case and all), then you have to swap "like modules for like modules". For example, you can't put 40 kWh modules into (the slots for) a 24 kWh pack...and that says nothing about BMS issues (you need a CAN-bridge/converter for pack swaps).
I would avoid 30 kWh packs no matter what you do (I don't even care if they look ok on LeafSpy).

 

[Aftrburnr]

@cwerdna That's some terrific info there as well, thanks! I like being able to look at the VIN and see what Kwh the car has

@Stanton I was going to, on my 2015 24Kwh, which is now 14.6 Kwh 9 bars, 50-60 miles of range, swap the entire pack to a 10-12 bars 40 Kwh. Not sure right now, I believe I can swap to the 40 Kwh pack and use Leaf Spy to pair the replacement pack with the car? If I do need a can bridge, I'll do that as well. A 30 Kwh pack wouldn't be enough of an improvement in range to justify doing and as I've read, something called rapidgate is a problem on the 30Kwh packs After removing the old pack, going to repurpose the cells for my solar system

I did have a chance to get out to Copart and have a look at the one I have a bid on, they take you out to the car and almost stand over you while you look at it, couldn't find it at first lol, pretty bad frontal accident. Did see that it has Chadmo on it, didn't see that from the auction pics/description, maybe retrofit to my 2015?, main battery only had like 4ah left on it and 12 volt was at like 11.2v, It's prolly been sitting there for 2 months. Did plug in Leaf Spy, battery was 74.58 SOH with 10 bars but it was a 24 Kwh pack. If my cheap cheap bid wins, ok, fine! We'll se this Tuesday. I really need to be looking at 2019-21 models for a 40 Kwh pack, none are able to be bid on right now, upcoming auction...

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

traction battery was what? How did you determine that w/o starting it? Too long sitting that low will kill it. They need to do "something" with it soon.

 

[Aftrburnr]

This unit was marked "runs n drives" Keys/fobs are zip tied around the steering columns. Pushed brake, started car. Then plugged in bluetooth dongle and started LeafSpy, got the info. They don't let you take anything into the yard but phone n dongle fit in my pocket They do have jump boxes n case you need. There's prolly 2,500-3,000 cars on the property, they don't care about the cars, I sure do know it needs to be charged, they're just the auction house copart.com

The traction or Main battery 24 Kwh had 74.58 SOH 10 bars and 12v was down to 11.2v from LeafSpy. Took a few additional pics, I saved screen shots. Was an Allstate Rapid Claim

 

[Aftrburnr]

Refreshed the auction page, still winning, somebody put a couple bids in, $25.00 increments right now, these are pre-bids before auction, it's now up to $200.00 O my! :lol:

 

[Stanton]

@Stanton I was going to, on my 2015 24Kwh, which is now 14.6 Kwh 9 bars, 50-60 miles of range, swap the entire pack to a 10-12 bars 40 Kwh. Not sure right now, I believe I can swap to the 40 Kwh pack and use Leaf Spy to pair the replacement pack with the car? If I do need a can bridge, I'll do that as well. A 30 Kwh pack wouldn't be enough of an improvement in range to justify doing and as I've read, something called rapidgate is a problem on the 30Kwh packs After removing the old pack, going to repurpose the cells for my solar system

I did have a chance to get out to Copart and have a look at the one I have a bid on, they take you out to the car and almost stand over you while you look at it, couldn't find it at first lol, pretty bad frontal accident. Did see that it has Chadmo on it, didn't see that from the auction pics/description, maybe retrofit to my 2015?, main battery only had like 4ah left on it and 12 volt was at like 11.2v, It's prolly been sitting there for 2 months. Did plug in Leaf Spy, battery was 74.58 SOH with 10 bars but it was a 24 Kwh pack. If my cheap cheap bid wins, ok, fine! We'll se this Tuesday. I really need to be looking at 2019-21 models for a 40 Kwh pack, none are able to be bid on right now, upcoming auction...

A couple of things before you spend $ on that auction ending Tuesday.
Assume you will need a CAN-bridge if you want the pack swap to work (size doesn't matter).
The condition of the car doesn't matter, so long as the battery pack/case is in tact (those things are tough). Now for my 2 cents: I would not go to all the time and trouble of what you're trying to do without upgrading to (at least) a 40 kWh pack, and I wouldn't buy anything that doesn't rate out 90+% on the Ahr and/or SOH (you're just trading one problem for another). It sounds like you are basically trying to do what I did a couple years ago, so it will probably be worthwhile to read the article I wrote about my experience (https://www.myeva.org/blog/keeping-your-nissan-leaf). Hopefully it will save you some time and trouble (and maybe $).

 

[Aftrburnr]

@Stanton Yep good advice, the juice has gotta be worth the squeeze! Don't need a can-bridge if replacing with same Kwh, just LeafSpy to pair. If going for something larger, you do. I WILL be needing a can-bridge and LeafSpy as I want to go from 24 Kwh to 40 Kwh. Anything less, not worth it! So, I will be looking for an 2018-21 lightly used 10-12 bar 40 Kwh pack. Of course, I will go check the car out first with LeafSpy

I've been outbid now, it's up to $550 didn't think my cheap cheap bid would go, it was a 24 Kwh pack Leaf anyway which I didn't really want but like you, getting a feel for how this auction works. Gonna watch the live auction on Tuesday and see just how much $ this one actually goes for, just keep waiting and looking for a nice 40 Kwh pack. then again, maybe a 62 Kwh, I know that's MORE work!

 

[cwerdna]

AZ1 40 kwh
BZ1 62 kwh

Yep. https://www.nissanusa.com/content/d...f/2022/2022-nissan-leaf-dismantling-guide.pdf page DG-8 confirms this for gen 2 (40 vs. 62 kWh).

The below confirm AZ0 vs. BZ0 starting from 4th char of the VIN for 24 vs. 30 kWh which is only a question really for '16 US-market Leaf.
NTB14-059d https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2020/MC-10171223-0001.pdf
NTB20-001 https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2020/MC-10171230-0001.pdf

'11 and '12 US market Leafs (24 kWh) have VINs starting with J. All '11 to '15 + '16 original S were 24 kWh only.

 

[dhh002]

Is it possible from VIN # to tell what Kwh battery a Leaf has? Tried decodethis.com no luck. Short of plugging Leafspy in... Looking at some Leafs that are at copart auction but they don't report what Kwh the car has. You can see pics of the bars tho, saw one that had 12 a 2017 and one maybe had 10 2016, but pic was cut off.

Going to upgrade my 24 Kwh 2015 that has 9 bars and disassemble it, use the cells for my solar system

Thanks!

Anyone been successfully buying from Copart auction and swapping their battery pack? I have a 2013 leaf in need of an affordable upgrade.