The 40KWH Battery Topic

[zarniwoop]

For anyone who has gotten a 40kWh battery replacement for the year 2018+, what was the part number of your battery? I have a 2017 and am waiting for a replacement, and Nissan HQ told me that they have different part numbers than what I will get.

[cwerdna]

See bottom of https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2020/ ... 0-0001.pdf for 40 kWh packs that should be ordered for 30 kWh Leafs in the US.

[Astral]

As far as I know there are no more replacements, only buy-back option from Nissan. Not sure if it is for all Leafs or only up until 2018 model.

[Astral]

If I go for a 580 kilometers trip, does it make sense to divide it into two parts? For example, I can start the trip at 7am and arrive at a destination approx 300km away at around 11am. This would require 2 fast charges to reach it (also I need the juice for later to continue the trip). Then I could leave the car on parking from 11am to 6pm, and then continue the trip for next 300km approx. I need another 2 fast charges to reach final destination.

So I would have a 7h downtime from driving, would it help cool down the battery? Presumably this is during the Summer so outside temperature would be 30c approx.

So the question is, with the outside temp being 30c, will the battery cool down in 7h of rest? Noticably.

[Stanton]

So the question is, with the outside temp being 30c, will the battery cool down in 7h of rest? Noticably.

This isn't the best trip to make in an EV (we would use my wife's ICE car), but I definitely wouldn't make that trip in a Leaf (with no TMS). Not saying the Leaf isn't a good car, but you will possibly do long-term damage (without any short-term issues) to the battery in under those conditions in those temps.

[Astral]

This was not the question

I am aware of all the issues. Just wondering if it would make any difference to have this 7h gap or no.

I have to make this trip once per year. I don't have any ICE cars available to me.

[Oostenrijker]

If I go for a 580 kilometers trip, does it make sense to divide it into two parts? For example, I can start the trip at 7am and arrive at a destination approx 300km away at around 11am. This would require 2 fast charges to reach it (also I need the juice for later to continue the trip). Then I could leave the car on parking from 11am to 6pm, and then continue the trip for next 300km approx. I need another 2 fast charges to reach final destination.

So I would have a 7h downtime from driving, would it help cool down the battery? Presumably this is during the Summer so outside temperature would be 30c approx.

So the question is, with the outside temp being 30c, will the battery cool down in 7h of rest? Noticably.

This is what I actually do: I'm going to Austria, and this time Tirol. A little bit further away than Vorarlberg, where I went in the summer. My strategy is as follows.

I would drive the first day approximately 500km, and the second day only 300km. Then the first day I will do 3 quick charges, and perhaps a fourth one if I really can't make it.

By lowering your speed: let's say you drive max 90km/h, and only faster while you have the advantage of going down hill? Then you could perhaps, drive maximum 230km or perhaps even a little more: before needing to quick charge.

But I plan my chargings stops, also according to the availability of quick chargers. So if there isn't a quick charger in 180km, then I prefer to do the first quick charger earlier.

If you don't drive to fast, do your quick charges strategic. For example, I plan the second quick charge at a free IKEA CHAdeMO charger. Being limited at 20kW, so it takes longer. But in the meantime we would eat in the IKEA restaurant, so it doesn't matter. And while it counts as a QC session: it doesn't heat the car up as much, when using a CHAdeMO charger that I have to pay for.

I wouldn't limit myself, going on roadtrips: just because of the limitations of the Nissan Leaf. But yeah on a hot summer day, the battery might overheat more quickly. Sadly this year summer was a lot of rain....

[Stanton]

I am aware of all the issues. Just wondering if it would make any difference to have this 7h gap or no.

Yes: the 7 hour gap will let the battery cool...but how much depends on ambient temps.

[Astral]

I guess I will know once I test it.

@Oostenrijker, thanks for your input. From what I understood it is not good to go too deep, let's say below 20% because it also creates more heat when pulling power from such a low battery %. SO it would be best to stop for a quick charge let's say at 30%. And then again it is not good to charge too far as it also creates a lot of heat if you go above 80%, so again maybe stop at 70%. Charging 30-70% and driving slower on motorway, let's say 100km/h, should result in less heat buildup.

So maybe more QC stops is better in this way then to do bigger QC stops like 20-80 or even more.

[Oostenrijker]

You should be able to drive an Nissan Leaf 40kWh, safely down to let's say 10% and it's a actually only 20% when you would open Leafspy. And even when drive it down to --% then you still have atleast 10% left.

I know you are a big advocate of staying between 30% and 80% SoC? But by doing this, you limiting yourself a lot. Your Leaf won't break, from going down to --% every once in a while.

Charge the car the first QC session up to 80% for example, but try doing only until 65% for the second or third QC. I found this worked better, as charging speed goes down a lot around 65% SoC.