Battery Upgrades are very possible

[SageBrush]

And priced lower than a replacement pack from the dealership (if that is even possible except under warranty?)

NZ is a LEAF grey market. No warranty, and no dealership replacement pack option.

I thought it interesting that they use the 'blade' terminology for the modules. Bought from BYD ?

[mwalsh]

So I realize that I'm late to the party here, but I am in the planning process for upgrading my LEAF to 62kWh.

There is no real reason to do it other than I feel the need to have at least one EV and/or hybrid in our fleet that is capable of a 130 mile RT between here in northern Orange County and central Carlsbad (the destination we are most often visiting when traveling) without en-route or destination charging and/or gas.

That said, I would also consider a 40kWh intermediate upgrade as a stop-gap measure, being as those packs are moderately more readily available right now. If I were to do that, I would also invest in a Tesla to J1772 adapter and destination charge some - the current impediment to destination charging is that my source for 240v (directly from the homeowner's service panel) has purchased a Tesla, hard wired the EVSE for it, and also installed solar, using up all the space I would use for my dual pole breaker.

From my research, I would expect to need the following:

Converter cable for the diagnostic connector.
Can-Bridge device to intercept and defeat the battery ID can communications.
Heater connector delete cap.
Adapter and spacer bushings for a 62kWh pack.
Upgraded rear springs (from a newer model LEAF) for a 62kWh pack.
Possibly also tires with a different profile, to raise the car slightly and account for the 62kWh height differential.

From those items, the adapter and spacer bushings would seem to be the only things that would be harder to come by - they look simple enough, but I have no fabrication skills and they don't seem to be commercially available. Finding a 62kWh pack at the right price could be somewhat problematic anyway, at least until more of them start to wreck out too.

Converter cable - so far as I feel, the choices are between Dala's and EVs Enhancecd. I prefer the look of the ones from EVs Enhanced and have found a TX based supplier. The supplier appears to have a version that does not have the can-bridge connector built-in, and I'd go with that for the reasons below.

CAN-Bridge - Dala has done amazing work on this, so I see no reason to not go with his. Not only does it install inside the car, which feels like it would have a little bit more protection from the elements, he has also completely defeated the need for battery ID CAN messages. Again, the supplier in TX has stocks of these devices.

Heater connection delete cap - has to be EVs Enhanced's version really. What an elegant solution compared to some of the alternatives.

Springs - 2019 on LEAF, part number 55020-5SA2B. There also appears to be a 62kWh specific shock absorber. Does anyone know what the difference is over the 40kWh version?

Tires - haven't looked at the alternatives yet. Just recognize that raising the car slightly to accommodate a 62kWh pack that sits slightly lower to the ground when in the car might be necessary. Or not. Either way, I'm due tires again fairly soon anyway.

Am I missing anything?

[LeftieBiker]

Springs - 2019 on LEAF, part number 55020-5SA2B. There also appears to be a 62kWh specific shock absorber. Does anyone know what the difference is over the 40kWh version?

I'm speculating here, but with more weight on the suspension from the heavier pack, you'd want more aggressive damping - probably larger cylinder bores with different valves. OTOH, if you never carry more than one passenger, then the 200lbs or so of extra weight won't exceed what the car was designed to carry. That would effectively leave the car a two-seater, though, unless you and your wife are light and you carry light children.

[mwalsh]

I'm speculating here, but with more weight on the suspension from the heavier pack, you'd want more aggressive damping - probably larger cylinder bores with different valves. OTOH, if you never carry more than one passenger, then the 200lbs or so of extra weight won't exceed what the car was designed to carry. That would effectively leave the car a two-seater, though, unless you and your wife are light and you carry light children.

Good point. I'll most likely do shocks too. Passengers are a rarity, but never say never.

[alozzy]

Muxsan does shock upgrades for both their extender batteries and for >40 kWh pack swaps too. The co-founder, Emile Nijssen, is the guy who developed the popular CANBUS bridges that make battery swaps possible and luckily he made that an open standard so that anyone can do battery swaps.

So, doing exactly the same suspension upgrades they do is probably a good idea.

[mux]

(not quite an open software - the hardware is open source but firmware is shared between three people in the community - me, a colleague of mine in the Netherlands and Dala)

Also, to be absolutely clear: not the shocks but the rear springs are to be replaced. We have them custom made to be 15% longer and 10% stiffer, which almost exactly corresponds to a 150kg extra load in the rear. We're considering making another batch that is even stiffer for a slightly better ride/handling (once this batch is depleted). The shocks, while useful to replace every 200 000km or so, don't need to be unless they're leaky or otherwise worn out.

Ideally, when fitting 62kWh packs, you want to upgrade both front and rear suspension. However, because the front is McPherson, it's a lot trickier to do that. Combined with the relative rarity of those packs, we haven't made a solution for that yet.

[Stanton]

So I realize that I'm late to the party here, but I am in the planning process for upgrading my LEAF to 62kWh.

There is no real reason to do it other than I feel the need to have at least one EV and/or hybrid in our fleet that is capable of a 130 mile RT between here in northern Orange County and central Carlsbad (the destination we are most often visiting when traveling) without en-route or destination charging and/or gas.

That said, I would also consider a 40kWh intermediate upgrade as a stop-gap measure, being as those packs are moderately more readily available right now. If I were to do that, I would also invest in a Tesla to J1772 adapter and destination charge some - the current impediment to destination charging is that my source for 240v (directly from the homeowner's service panel) has purchased a Tesla, hard wired the EVSE for it, and also installed solar, using up all the space I would use for my dual pole breaker.

Here's a blog/article I did on my upgrade experience from 24 kWh->40 kWh (https://www.myeva.org/blog/keeping-your-nissan-leaf).
Obviously, the hard part is finding a donor battery pack...which is one of the reasons I went with 40 kWh. After doing the upgrade, I ended up being glad I didn't try and go the 62 kWh route. It's hard to believe what a perfect (mechanical) fit the 40 kWh is for our old Leafs...and that doesn't even get into the ground clearance issues, etc. YMMV.

[kmcmahan]

Hello Guys I just completed an upgrade to my 2013 Leaf SV. I put in a 62 kWh battery pack from a wrecked 2019 Leaf S Plus. I bought the whole car and am glad that I did. Having the whole car allowed me to see how Nissan dealt with installing the taller battery. it also allowed me to have all the extra parts needed for a good installation. I had all brackets, plastic covers, rear springs and front springs which were part of the strut assembly. I did not swap out the rear shocks and it seems to ride just fine....but maybe I will. I was rough cutting some heavy aluminum to machine into spacers and adapters. It was taking hours on my small band saw. I looked at one of the pieces that I cut off and said to myself "that looks the size of something I all ready have". I picked up a piece of 1 5/8 " uni-strut. It was close enough to the 40mm that I was looking for. I laid out the hole locations, mounted it to the side rails under the car and bolted the battery pack to it. I flashed the CAN bridge with one of Dala's files and installed it. Please don't ask me about the cost yet...it was a lot. I will not know the final cost until after I part out the donor car. Battery Pack upgrades are possible. I am very pleased with the upgrade and I want to thank all that provided/shared there information on the internet.

[estomax]

you should put the inverter from the 2019 s plus onto your 2013 as well, Dala did a video, double your power!

[coleafrado2]

good luck with the part-out kmcmahan!

i gave up after having to spend $2000 on front steering balljoints and realizing i could buy a used Bolt (64 kWh battery with active cooling) for $16k. but then again that was 2020.