Increased range with new battery

[hieuous]

I'm sure this has been discussed but i haven't found anything when searching.

is there a remote possibility that they will upgrade the battery to allow more range?

for instance...when they add power adders to a ICE car. will they ever have a battery that adds range?

i love my leaf but i'm struggling a bit with 70 miles and i just got the car a couple days ago.

 

[davewill]

No. Nissan has no incentive to breathe new life into the old LEAFs. A third party add-on pack using up part of the cargo area is possible, and has been available in the past. It's not really something to bank on, though.

 

[hieuous]

No. Nissan has no incentive to breathe new life into the old LEAFs. A third party add-on pack using up part of the cargo area is possible, and has been available in the past. It's not really something to bank on, though.

so there is something available? why wouldn't they? a new battery with higher capacity would enable them to charge more.

 

[davewill]

There WAS something available from Enginer, but no longer. Nissan could well make a higher capacity pack for a future model, I just don't think they will ever make one available for the older cars. They'd rather sell you a new LEAF.

 

[hieuous]

There WAS something available from Enginer, but no longer. Nissan could well make a higher capacity pack for a future model, I just don't think they will ever make one available for the older cars. They'd rather sell you a new LEAF.

true, i see your point.

what did enginer offer?

edit: sorry i thought that's a user on here.

 

[davewill]

true, i see your point.

what did enginer offer?

edit: sorry i thought that's a user on here.

There's a user on here with a similar name (he's the guy who does the EVSE Upgrades). If you follow the link I posted (or google Enginer) you'll see the Prius conversions they do. They were offering much the same packs to fit into the LEAF's cargo area.

 

[hieuous]

true, i see your point.

what did enginer offer?

edit: sorry i thought that's a user on here.

There's a user on here with a similar name. If you follow the link I posted (or google Enginer) you'll see the Prius conversions they do. They were offering much the same packs to fit into the LEAF's cargo area.

yep, i just noticed that...looks absurd though.

i guess we are stuck with the range we have now.

 

[davewill]

No, I don't really think it's all that absurd. The timing and the pricing wasn't right, but at a future time it could be attractive. If I found myself 5-8 years down the road, liking the car but needing another 4-8kWh to keep it viable for my use, I could see being in the market for something like that.

I could also picture a third party refurbishing the pack itself, in the future, although actually increasing the capacity would be difficult. That thing is pretty full.

 

[UkrainianKozak]

I'm sure this has been discussed but i haven't found anything when searching.

is there a remote possibility that they will upgrade the battery to allow more range?

for instance...when they add power adders to a ICE car. will they ever have a battery that adds range?

i love my leaf but i'm struggling a bit with 70 miles and i just got the car a couple days ago.

What kind of power adders are you talking about? I haven't heard of any manufacturer offering to upgrade an engine or replace a fuel tank with the bigger one.

As of after-market, people are already doing generator dollies for extended range, Enginer company offers extendedafter-market battery add on options to add 4, 8 or 12 kW battery to Leaf (http://www.greencarreports.com/news...attery-mod-gives-extra-range-but-at-what-cost)
But you really need to be dedicated to pursue it. I don't think it is financially viable... you'd be better off renting a car for long trips.

What I feel will happen is newer model will become cheaper and range will increase, so it'll be more realistic to count on.

Or you can't imagine how one strategically located level 3 charger in your area might change your experience... We now have 5 fast chargers around Seattle area, and doing 100 miles per day without carefully planning for downtime feels like a breeze... (well, you still have to plan, but you have much more to play with when you have fast charger, with 2 years ago I wouldn't dare to drive leaf if I knew I needed to drive over 100 miles in a day)

For regular commute having the charger at work also doing wonders, doubling your range and there are programs/incentives from blink and charge point to get workplace chargers installed.

 

[hieuous]

I'm sure this has been discussed but i haven't found anything when searching.

is there a remote possibility that they will upgrade the battery to allow more range?

for instance...when they add power adders to a ICE car. will they ever have a battery that adds range?

i love my leaf but i'm struggling a bit with 70 miles and i just got the car a couple days ago.

What kind of power adders are you talking about? I haven't heard of any manufacturer offering to upgrade an engine or replace a fuel tank with the bigger one.

As of after-market, people are already doing generator dollies for extended range, Enginer company offers extendedafter-market battery add on options to add 4, 8 or 12 kW battery to Leaf (http://www.greencarreports.com/news...attery-mod-gives-extra-range-but-at-what-cost)
But you really need to be dedicated to pursue it. I don't think it is financially viable... you'd be better off renting a car for long trips.

What I feel will happen is newer model will become cheaper and range will increase, so it'll be more realistic to count on.

Or you can't imagine how one strategically located level 3 charger in your area might change your experience... We now have 5 fast chargers around Seattle area, and doing 100 miles per day without carefully planning for downtime feels like a breeze... (well, you still have to plan, but you have much more to play with when you have fast charger, with 2 years ago I wouldn't dare to drive leaf if I knew I needed to drive over 100 miles in a day)

For regular commute having the charger at work also doing wonders, doubling your range and there are programs/incentives from blink and charge point to get workplace chargers installed.

right now i live in las vegas. there aren't ANY public chargers let alone a level 3 charger.

 

[UkrainianKozak]

There WAS something available from Enginer, but no longer. Nissan could well make a higher capacity pack for a future model, I just don't think they will ever make one available for the older cars. They'd rather sell you a new LEAF.

You can still do it, seems like they don't want to officially support it, but you still can buy parts and do the conversion:
http://enginer.us/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=Leaf+Installation+Manual

 

[hieuous]

There WAS something available from Enginer, but no longer. Nissan could well make a higher capacity pack for a future model, I just don't think they will ever make one available for the older cars. They'd rather sell you a new LEAF.

You can still do it, seems like they don't want to officially support it, but you still can buy parts and do the conversion:
http://enginer.us/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=Leaf+Installation+Manual

how much would it cost and how much would you gain?

 

[DanCar]

is there a remote possibility that they will upgrade the battery to allow more range?

This will be common once there are hundreds of thousands of battery EV cars. You'll be able to get the latest chemistry and run the risk of explosion.

 

[TomT]

The kit has a poor reliability record, which make be one of the reasons why it was discontinued... It was also something of a kludge in the way that it interfaced to the Leaf...

And I think the chance of Nissan offering an updated higher capacity pack is less than zero!

You can still do it, seems like they don't want to officially support it, but you still can buy parts and do the conversion:
http://enginer.us/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=Leaf+Installation+Manual

 

[Christopher]

right now i live in las vegas. there aren't ANY public chargers let alone a level 3 charger.

No level 3 chargers but looking just now I see 20 public level 2 charging stations in the Las Vegas area (via the PlugShare web site or smartphone app).

 

[UkrainianKozak]

The kit has a poor reliability record, which make be one of the reasons why it was discontinued... It was also something of a kludge in the way that it interfaced to the Leaf...

And I think the chance of Nissan offering an updated higher capacity pack is less than zero!

You can still do it, seems like they don't want to officially support it, but you still can buy parts and do the conversion:
http://enginer.us/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=Leaf+Installation+Manual

That's exactly what I'm saying.
Doing that will drain you time and money, if you do it yourself you'll spend about $6K for 8kW kit, which will give you 30-35% more range, and it'll be like adding a turbocharger and Nox system to Nissan Versa yourself, if you want to speak in ICE terms
There's no guarantee on reliability, definitely voids the warranty and costs lots of time and money.

No other manufacturer upgrades their cars after sale, so it's unreasonable to expect it from Nissan.

 

[smkettner]

70? Slow down. Use climate climate control moderately. Keep in mind GOM is rather pessamistic at the low end... you have 5 to 10 miles after very low battery warning (second warning) before turtle.

 

[hieuous]

right now i live in las vegas. there aren't ANY public chargers let alone a level 3 charger.

No level 3 chargers but looking just now I see 20 public level 2 charging stations in the Las Vegas area (via the PlugShare web site or smartphone app).

oh i was looking at that as well, but i live all the way on the south west corner of the map and none of those are remotely practical for me to use.

a couple lvl 3 chargers would be absolutely awesome here. but we only have a handful of electric cars anyways.

 

[hieuous]

70? Slow down. Use climate climate control moderately. Keep in mind GOM is rather pessamistic at the low end... you have 5 to 10 miles after very low battery warning (second warning) before turtle.

driving around town is fine, but when i go to class which is about 25 miles away there are alot of hills which kill me.

moderate climate control in vegas is next to impossible.

 

[smkettner]

Vegas will be a challenge. And the heat will have you down another 15 miles in range within two years.