SHENZHEN FACTORY TECHNOLOGY battery packs- is it real?

[noelho]

Thanks for informed comments. You are 100% correct. I took the leap of faith. I sent the money and now have a defective product. I seem to be the only buyer reviewing a Chinese Pack. Why is that? Where are the hundred other happy customers that they say have? I am still taking this a step at a time. Helen Mao says that she has a solution that includes a re-programmed Nissan BMS. I am sending her a spare BMS to program. I will post the results. I really would like to see an affordable battery replacement solution. I know I could sell 100 + of these a year and make a lot of Leaf owners happy.

I assume you were sold the VIVNE assembled modules? Or were you sent the factory made modules from one of the other brands (CATL/TAFEL/CALB/etc)?

In either case, how do the modules look to you? Secure enough for long term road vibration?

 

[Bombastinator2]

I was just looking for that video on youtube. That explains why i couldnt find it. I wanted to post a comment, asking if the glue was the only thing used to secure the cells to the module casing.

The module casing looks pretty solid and likely isnt going anywhere, but after the bus bars are welded on, I would expect the cells to be secured down from the top too. I wonder how the glue/cell covers will hold up with road vibration over the years. Will the cells come loose?

If the cells are only glued, which hasn’t been determined one way or the other yet, it would depend on how and what kind of glue was used. Modern adhesives can be pretty impressive.

 

[noelho]

If the cells are only glued, which hasn’t been determined one way or the other yet, it would depend on how and what kind of glue was used. Modern adhesives can be pretty impressive.

True, some epoxies are as strong as welds, however, the cell cover looks to be some kind of plastic, and that could be the point of failure after extended vibration?

The cells being welded together with bus bars should help keep it all together though.

 

[MikeinPA]

SHENZHEN FACTORY -- is it real?​

There, I fixed the post title.

 

[Bombastinator2]

True, some epoxies are as strong as welds, however, the cell cover looks to be some kind of plastic, and that could be the point of failure after extended vibration?

The cells being welded together with bus bars should help keep it all together though.

My standard fix fo vibration issues is damping with rubber so I was thinking more in that direction. What kind of plastic matters though. Some are more prone to it than others

 

[kmcmahan]

I assume you were sold the VIVNE assembled modules? Or were you sent the factory made modules from one of the other brands (CATL/TAFEL/CALB/etc)?

In either case, how do the modules look to you? Secure enough for long term road vibration?

I bought a complete assembled battery pack. I have not opened it up ....yet. I just found out recently that it was made by AUG. It was marketed and sold to me by Robert Lou ,Shenzhen Factory Technologies.

 

[kmcmahan]

Many thanks for all the information you share regarding purchasing a 50-62kWh battery for a Nissan leaf ZEO. I am also deciding to order, but after reading the whole topic I decided to wait a little longer. In a few months, it will be revealed whether the mentioned purchase is worth the money or not. In the final stage, the cells can be used as an energy storage device for a solar power plant. Regarding the risk of security and various certifications and bureaucratic obstacles for import, I will not complicate things too much, because all other variants with range extenders are much more risky.

I was thinking the same thing. If the pack doesn't work out, i could use the cells for energy storage.

 

[noelho]

I bought a complete assembled battery pack. I have not opened it up ....yet. I just found out recently that it was made by AUG. It was marketed and sold to me by Robert Lou ,Shenzhen Factory Technologies.

Ah. Interesting. Looks like AUG uses the factory assembled modules for the 64kWh pack.
https://www.augenergy.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=61

Any luck getting help from them?

 

[Bombastinator2]

Ah. Interesting. Looks like AUG uses the factory assembled modules for the 64kWh pack.
https://www.augenergy.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=61

Any luck getting help from them?

64kw?! What does it go into?

 

[MikeinPA]

Hm, it looks like Luo is installing the low cost CAN bridge right into the Leaf BMS. So, not a BMS "flash", just hide the CAN bridge in the BMS?

Video by Luo: and screen shot:

 

[MikeinPA]

I bought a complete assembled battery pack. I have not opened it up ....yet. I just found out recently that it was made by AUG. It was marketed and sold to me by Robert Lou ,Shenzhen Factory Technologies.

Good luck! With all of these claims floating around, you appear to be the only real-life purchaser I can locate on line. Maybe they are selling these within China? But, if people are finding these through on line resources like this forum, then they should also be commenting here as well.

Edit: two purchasers, not one: https://mynissanleaf.com/threads/53kw-catl-upgrade-on-2013-leaf-s.35205/post-648677 Probably the same vendor.

Check out these websites https://chuenergy.en.alibaba.com/ https://augbattery.en.alibaba.com/ Obviously the same web site creator, probably the same owner. Who are these people?

 

[ZE0SV]

I want to tack on to this and say I did a little more digging into what cells they actually use. At least for VIVNE, I see in a shorts video on their channel, they all appear to have a QR code. I took a screenshot of that QR and looked more into the numbers printed on it.

They appear to be using a ELE8AE cell (top).
Some more information on these cells can be found by doing a google search of just the cell name. However I will warn, they are websites in Chinese, you’ll need to translate them and I recommend private browsing, otherwise website will load very slow and tracking cookies will be placed in your browser.

More detailed specifications on the ELE8AE cell are also found on PDFs when searching. They are half English half Chinese so I took the liberty of translating a couple of pages.

And this one with specifics on the cell:

IF we take their QR code at face value, the cells are produced by CATL (or as directly translated “Ningde Era” in much of these articles).
Not saying they can’t make a bunch of QR codes and put them on the cells, that would be next level counterfeiting however.
Sidenote: Placement of the QR code is also important with CATL cells they are next to the negative pole.

We are slowly learning that the re-flash of the BMS is really just a pre programmed CANbridge tucked inside the BMS/Battery pack with new voltage parameters. Yes, it will “display the whole new mileages” but with the hidden consequence that GOM range is based on percentage capacity no matter how degraded the battery is and will always display the same range (as mentioned by Simon in his 53kWh thread.) Time will tell if this will correct itself, or if it will become a problem in the future. Also, I agree with Mike, if any one of their “many happy customers” have purchased a battery pack from either Robert Lou or VIVNE we’d love to hear how it’s working for you. Please join the forum and chime in.

 

[MikeinPA]

Z, sticker indicates ELE8A3 is an 811 chemistry square battery from CATL. From this video? It would be interesting to track down the production dates for this cell.
h t t p s://www.youtube.com/shorts/Fg7sBepHxm4 ?

Do the terminals on those cells look like they have been sawn off ? Like, salvaged from a pack? CATL 811 cells got off to a rocky start https://cnevpost.com/2020/09/08/cat...11-battery-is-shelved-due-to-safety-concerns/

 

[kmcmahan]

I assume you were sold the VIVNE assembled modules? Or were you sent the factory made modules from one of the other brands (CATL/TAFEL/CALB/etc)?

In either case, how do the modules look to you? Secure enough for long term road vibration?

My battery was made by a company called AUG, not Vivne. I have not opened it up yet. I will have to because the car throws codes and goes into turtle mode. Leaf Spy is showing a large and variable imbalance on cell # 76. Helen Mao was seemingly abandoned me. She was going to send me a BMS solution, but refunded the shipping money that I sent her. She did not respond to my last request for more shipping information that would be require to send my BMS to China. I am working with an Engineer from AUG to try to resolve my battery issues. The saga continues. Just wondering what kind of support I could get here in the US building batteries? For now I would recommend that no one buy battery solutions from any foreign country until they work with the handful of experienced installers here.

 

[MikeinPA]

I assume you were sold the VIVNE assembled modules? Or were you sent the factory made modules from one of the other brands (CATL/TAFEL/CALB/etc)?

In either case, how do the modules look to you? Secure enough for long term road vibration?

How do you know Vivne is assembling modules? I have guessed this is the case, based on their showing bare cells, but nowhere have they shown an assembly process, or line, or facility. No welders, no welded cells, nothing.

 

[noelho]

How do you know Vivne is assembling modules? I have guessed this is the case, based on their showing bare cells, but nowhere have they shown an assembly process, or line, or facility. No welders, no welded cells, nothing.

They posted a video on youtube, showing their process. It was removed shortly after, but not before we had a look and a little discussion.
https://mynissanleaf.com/threads/sh...gy-battery-packs-is-it-real.34756/post-648348

 

[MikeinPA]

I doubt that the folks assembling Leaf packs on pallets on the floor in a garage somewhere in asia also have sophisticated laser welding facilities.

 

[ZE0SV]

How do you know Vivne is assembling modules? I have guessed this is the case, based on their showing bare cells, but nowhere have they shown an assembly process, or line, or facility. No welders, no welded cells, nothing.

They have, they just quickly took it down.
In the video they showed underneath the black cover, how the cells are glued together with plates in between each cell, how they are glued together another metal plate underneath, showed bus bars, and their laser welder. All of it was shown in this video. I really wonder why they took it down, aside from the question that was raised in the event of a rollover, since they don’t appear to be secured on top.
Edit: their Facebook is a little hidden but I found some pictures.

 

[Ryan]

My battery was made by a company called AUG, not Vivne. I have not opened it up yet. I will have to because the car throws codes and goes into turtle mode. Leaf Spy is showing a large and variable imbalance on cell # 76. Helen Mao was seemingly abandoned me. She was going to send me a BMS solution, but refunded the shipping money that I sent her. She did not respond to my last request for more shipping information that would be require to send my BMS to China. I am working with an Engineer from AUG to try to resolve my battery issues. The saga continues. Just wondering what kind of support I could get here in the US building batteries? For now I would recommend that no one buy battery solutions from any foreign country until they work with the handful of experienced installers here.

My god! You still have not send your old BMS to Vivne? As I remember, it had been a very long time ago since Helen Mao offered you for free help. No wonder they don’t wanna do this again. Since your pack is from AUG, better to ask AUG to solve your problem, isn’t? Vivne is none of business with your pack. Your experience also doesn’t mean anything. My Leaf is 2011 and I love it. I want to swap the battery but with no good source. I did my homework,haha... That’s also why I know your this thing well. Based on my research, I could not find a better solution than vivne. I also talked to their Canadian guy.(I try really hard) He is happy with their quality and services. I may upgrade my pack with them this week.

 

[Henry C]

Riore, I sincerely hope you get 300,000 miles out of your new pack. Very sincerely.

I am looking at two things that don't add up for me--very low cost per kwh on a hand built battery pack and odd claims of BMS reprogramming. Odd--because why bother if a CAN bridge is all that is needed?

I would think a rock bottom price would be at least $200 / kwh for genuine CATL cells that have been custom assembled and tested.

As for what their BMSs are accomplishing--their examples are identical to what is doable now with a CAN bridge. To elaborate, it is very likely each version of stock Nissan BMS can handle about 20% more kwh than their nominal rating. So a 24 kwh BMS can work with up to 28 kwh of battery, and so on up to a 60 kwh BMS working with up to 72 kwh. And to adapt the new battery's size to the old VCM, all that is needed is a CAN bridge. The 2 port CAN bridge is tiny, and could easily be installed within the BMS case itself in a simple rework. In that the bridges are a few dollars, this is cheap and simple. Why go through a reprogramming at all?

Edit, the 4.2 volt charging was added to the CAN bridge programming a while back IIRC. I don't know about the turtle issues--but the turtle would very likely be something the BMS is sending and a CAN bridge could correct that as well.


If one installs too many kwh for a given stock BMS, the behavior is likely a turtle before the new batteries are fully discharged. So, a 24 kwh BMS with 35 kwh of replacement cells works fine until about 28 kwh of energy is used, then the BMS thinks either its current measurement is bad or its voltage measurement is bad and sends a turtle. The only solution is a larger BMS--or possibly reprogramming an existing BMS for larger capacity. The latter is not something I have seen any real evidence for.

I have used the can bridge you mentioned, but unfortunately, it does not solve the turtle issues. When I drive to about 30% of the remaining power, the dashboard will light up the turtle light. And I also experienced overcharging when using the can bridge, which caused the vehicle to be unable to start. So I think the can bridge is not a good solution, or it is not suitable for all versions of Leaf. I am more looking forward to the BMS reprogramming.