Those who own a Nissan LEAF but wish that the range was a bit higher may want to listen up — a company by the name of Hybrid Industries is now offering third-party battery upgrades for the popular electric car.
The upgrades reportedly (I can’t verify this personally) increase the Nissan LEAF’s single-charge range to 160 miles per charge, rather than ~80 miles per charge — for just $6,500. The upgrade is to a 48 kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery, from the standard 24 kWh battery that comes with current Nissan LEAFs.
One would presume, though, that the heavier battery would decrease range below the 160 miles per charge mark, rather than simply doubling range. Seems as though that would be the case, doesn’t it?
The company offers a 2–4 year “no hassle” warranty for the upgrade, so one would guess that the workmanship is fairly good (or at least decent). The new, additional 24 kWh battery (accompanying the factory-installed one) is apparently installed in the trunk in a “custom enclosure” — potentially altering the handling of the vehicle one would think.
Other things worth noting: the upgrade is compatible with the 2011 through 2014 model years of the EV; no extra components or charger are needed; and the new battery charges via the factory-installed charger just as the factory-installed battery does.
What does everyone think? Maybe better just to do the upgrade yourself (not the most complicated process, if you have related experience)? More trouble than it’s worth? Great option?
More information (and contact information) can be found at the company’s website here.
Image Credit: Hybrid Industries
Wouldn’t this void Nissan factory warranty? Another would be risk of fire; we’re talking about lots of current. And DCFC would take over an hour for trips longer than about 130 miles (people don’t drive to 0% battery)
But for a cheap used Leaf that’s out of warranty and fire risk is “managed”, it could be cool little experiment; who knows? It might give used Leaf another lease on life to compete against Bolt as Bolt will also have about 1 hour DCFC time.
Well it’s always good to have options, BUT…I would be very concerned about losing my trunk space, affects on vehicle weight distribution / handling, heating up the cabin with a big arse battery in the trunk (not to mention fire risk), and of course reliability. It would be interesting to know if anyone has actually done this and what their experience has been so far.
i’d be worried about safety. what’s going to happen in a rear accident where the trunk crumples and the battery moves into the rear passenger space?
That could make your date’s eyes light up. Some EV’s have a “First Responder Emergency Cut Loop” attached to the car at an accessible place. It’s a thick loop of cable wrapped with a bright orange plastic ring. You’ll need something substantial to cut it. Don’t, unless you’re properly attired.
It isolates the power in the battery from the rest of the car.
might be some safety concerns, but did anyone else do the math and see that this is $125/KWH. I might buy it as a stationary battery pack.
The web site is very sketchy. It’s full of images lifted from elsewhere.
http://hybridindustries.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=188862608 is an image lifted from various places like http://www.inautonews.com/nissan-manufactures-lithium-ion-packs-for-the-leaf-at-tennessee-plant/nissan-leaf-battery-pack-images-01.
http://hybridindustries.webs.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=15363698 also has Prius stuff lifted from various places like https://web.archive.org/web/20110814104243/http://privatenrg.com/#Full_SOC.
http://hybridindustries.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=188856655 appears to be lifted from the near the bottom of http://hiwaay.net/~bzwilson/prius/pri_batt.html, specifically this graph: http://hiwaay.net/~bzwilson/prius/pri_batt_430.jpg. bwilson4web of Priuschat often makes graphs that looks like that. He likes to graph everything. 🙂
http://hybridindustries.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=188855405 was lifted from https://www.flickr.com/photos/amtraker/5105973771. It’s from a celebration mentioned at http://www.notcot.com/archives/2010/10/prius-10th-anniversary-in-mali.php that I wasn’t able to attend. 🙁 The pic at http://hybridindustries.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=188855403 came from http://www.autobeyours.com/gifs/inventory%20prius%20parts/Prius%20engine%20and%20transmission.jpg.
http://hybridindustries.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=188855399 was taken from http://lusciousgarage.com/blog/gen_1_prius_battery_failure/, a shop that specializes in Prius repair and maintenance in SF.
Unfortunately, due to the robots.txt file at http://hybridindustries.webs.com/robots.txt, I can’t force http://archive.org/web/ to archive the above pages. 🙁 🙄 👿
I haven’t dug around much on the above site, but I knew there were a lot of familiar looking images, mainly the Prius bar stuff lifted from https://web.archive.org/web/20110814104243/http://privatenrg.com/#Full_SOC since I used to visit that site a lot. Also, I’ve seen tons of graphs from bwilson4web so I know his style.
Nice work from you!
Also have tryied contact… I can imagine his style more clearly now!
I find a topic “EVLN: Suspicious Leaf owners> $6.5k 48kWh pack upgrade sounds too good” at
http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.recreation.cars.evdl/106112 … take a look.
Any ideas about this kind of upgrade service at trustworthiness suplyers?
MS