Stanton said:goldbrick said:Oils4AsphaultOnly said:I wonder if someone will have made a 3rd party 18650-cell based (with active TMS) replacement pack by before the 8y 100k warranty elapses?
That is certainly possible. Who knows what the cost of an 18650 will be in 5 years? Since removing the battery pack on a Leaf is so simple, it should be easy for an enthusiast to build a replacement pack that fit in place of the original. I don't know what kind of capacity you would get or how to add the TMS though. And there could easily be issues with licensing and insurance.
You guys make it sound like designing/building a battery pack...or TMS...which would basically require a new BMS...is easy (not to mention "dropping" a 600 lb high-voltage mass)!
The reality is no one will be building a battery pack for the Leaf 1.0 except Nissan anytime soon: there's no profit in it! I'm on my second battery pack (see sig), and the take-away for me is: I will look at the Leaf 2.0 when the larger (non-Nissan) battery pack becomes available.
Why would you need a new bms? You could configure the batteries to mimic the 48 cell pairs in the original battery pack and reuse the existing bms. Use 2170 batteries instead of 18650. 2016 batteries in 42x48 array is 35 in by 40 in and less than 3 in thick. That's for a 30KWH battery (15 WH per cell). The real question is "Can you buy 2170 batteries in bulk at a low enough cost?". Tesla can make them cheap enough but will be using all their output for the foreseeable future.
As for the TMS, seal the batteries in a container with mineral oil around the batteries, add a small pump and a radiator to circulate the oil. You only need enough oil to to fill the void spaces in between the batteries and a small reservoir space above and below the batteries. The tms operates independently from the bms.
Dropping the battery pack is less difficult than yanking an engine or a tranny.