You can find them on Alibaba for yourself.Show me one please.
You can find them on Alibaba for yourself.Show me one please.
This is my take, and my upset some:You do want to have some skepticism when looking up “CATL” branded batteries. Mike made a good observation.
We’ll use Starmax as an example (a company even I’ve thought about purchasing from), has several listings, some say HY-CATL, some say CATL only, some say LiFePO4, but what they all have in common is that their battery manufacturer sheet say they are HY-TAFEL batteries, a competitor of CATL.
Take another one for example CALB another competitor of CATL who has recently lost a lawsuit for patent infringement. More flags are raised when you look more into it. They infringed on 5 patents, one of which is for “Explosion-Proof Device (CN205231128U)”
As stated in this article: https://www.wispro.com/en/catl-and-...nt-offenses-and-defense-war-tend-to-be-harsh/
I personally don’t know what a company like CALB could do to further cut corners on something like “Explosion-Proof Device” but I don’t want to be on the receiving end of that to find out.
Point is, a lot of the Chinese sales strategy is have lots of variety and see what sticks, just look at temu & shein. Alibaba is no saint in this strategy either. They primarily prey on people’s ignorance and that’s unethical no mater how ethical they want to convince you they are. Not speaking on every Chinese company. CATL clearly has done it right, proven multiple times. However, CATL is not a generic term for Chinese batteries but the uneducated public searches for them like they are. Then the sneaky distributors who receive random grade batteries from several manufacturers slap a CATL QR code and suddenly people believe they’re genuine CATL when they are not. That’s also to say that companies like Starmax (from my example earlier) who do in house spot welding, could be mixing manufacturers or worse, battery chemistries due to their lack of knowledge. EVE Batteries are 304Ah cells and CATL Batteries are 302Ah cells etc etc…
Too many variables to mess with.
Totally agree. I do not have the expertise, time or garage space to experiment, hence will not buy any of those cells or modules, or the kits.This is my take, and my upset some:
I'm more worried about the inexperienced playing around with that high voltage DC. Once the pack is sealed back up, it will take some doing before the car is burning to the point you can't exit quickly enough, and should be plenty of warning if someone is paying attention.IH guy, I agree with all of this. But on top of all your points is the safety issue. That is what is really bugging me at this point. Suppose there are kids in the Leaf when the pack goes up?
I'm more worried about the inexperienced playing around with that high voltage DC. Once the pack is sealed back up, it will take some doing before the car is burning to the point you can't exit quickly enough, and should be plenty of warning if someone is paying attention.
Gasoline and diesel vehicle burn with such regularity that it is not news worthy. In almost all cases, today that vehicle has a fire, the vehicle is a total loss, just to much wiring and electrical stuff to repair a fire effected vehicle.
Get out and get your loved ones out, if there is time a few belonging and stand back. Let fire crews handle it.
Just by sheer luck, this video popped up on youtube today, and it turns out to be a local NZ business that can do battery upgrades for Nissan Leaf. It isnt their main business and they did the upgrades for their friends and family, hence never advertised it!
Looks like I will be saving up money to get my pack upgraded with them. I reckon it will work out to be same if I ordered a pack from VIVNE, when all the additional costs are taken into account (shipping, customs, garage rental/hire to do the swap).
Very excited and happy to have found someone local who can sort it out! yay!
Just by sheer luck, this video popped up on youtube today,
I have seen these videos as I also have been tracking the battery 3rd party options. one that has peaked my interest and seems to be a more complete package, or atleast they portray it as a complete package.
www.vivnevs.com
the only thing im wondering and worried is this could be part of sanctions/ restrictions. those catl cells are what we want, but they are produced in china and right now the US and china are fighting. I feel like these could get stuck on that side of the pond for some.
( excuse me if this has been posted before, catching up in the threads )
Yes, go back a few pages on this thread. We are talking about VIVNE and general 3rd party battery swaps( excuse me if this has been posted before, catching up in the threads )
Just by sheer luck, this video popped up on youtube today, and it turns out to be a local NZ business that can do battery upgrades for Nissan Leaf. It isnt their main business and they did the upgrades for their friends and family, hence never advertised it!
Looks like I will be saving up money to get my pack upgraded with them. I reckon it will work out to be same if I ordered a pack from VIVNE, when all the additional costs are taken into account (shipping, customs, garage rental/hire to do the swap).
Very excited and happy to have found someone local who can sort it out! yay!
Interesting.
As you’ll be talking direct would you be able to find out exactly what modules they use and share the info here?
I could go direct but there’s a risk they could get inundated with people asking the same questions. I’m not in NZ so don’t want to waste their time.
I’m interested in the 60+kWh approach. It was strange, he said 68 several times but flipped to 62 at one point. He was also less confident about that capacity. The struggle to it all in is less of an issue to me, it’s really about how a smaller original BMS handles that larger capacity.
So are they modifying the BMS at all?
Do they use a CAN Bridge, if so which one? I’d guess since EVEnhanced is NZ based it would be theirs?
I’m happy you’re happy, and getting a local firm involved is always reassuring, but presumably Mike’s previous concerns on this forum all still apply here.
I’d really love to know which modules they are!
EDIT: there’s another video on their channel. There’s a very important nugget of info at 04:00, “you won’t access the full capacity”, meaning of the 40kWh pack with the 24kWh BMS. Implication to me is that it behaves like a 24.
He also very annoyingly constantly says kilowatt instead of kilowatt hour. There’s a very important distinction there!
You should write a very clear list of requirements to make sure you get what you want out if this. There could be mismatched assumptions here.
He, won't bite if you go direct.
But he will point out, hit up Oz Electric, they have agents worldwide and can do Leaf upgrades.
https://ozelectricvehicles.com.au/pages/licensed-installers
His company is their NZ agent.
68kw modules, 62kw lbc. It should see most of the 68kw pack, but not my favourite upgrade.
Yes can bridge, no not ev enhanced.
You can't pair a bigger then factory pack to a Leaf without a can bridge.
24kw lbc, reflashed into 30kw. 40kw of modules. Sure, you can throw $1200 at a 40kw lbc, a bit more to get the second current sensor, a bit more for wiring loom. But then if your that hungry for range, buy a bigger upgrade. That video was a affordable upgrade we completed, using quality modules we know won't fail, and since the lbc can't access whole pack capacity, it should last a very long time as it's not getting a hard life.
Maybe try to focus more on the fact that I'm showing what's easily possible, and less on what terms I use aye?
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