An aftermarket kit to improve charging to 6.6kW
- Thread starter jpokoraw1
- Start date
Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:
planet4ever
Well-known member
Aren't you overlooking some "minor details"? You can't just connect the battery from that unit to the LEAF battery. CHAdeMO charging requires that the outboard unit be able to provide a variable, and precisely controlled, DC voltage. The LEAF battery controller is constantly changing it's voltage demand to maintain the constant current supplied to the battery during the main part of the charging cycle.Randy said:
Ray
Ingineer
Well-known member
My car is indeed equipped with a prototype 6.7kW upgrade that works properly, and more than doubles the Leaf's charging speed (when used with a 32A capable EVSE). Unfortunately the problem is the cost of the components and installation makes this a very expensive upgrade. (in the $5k neighborhood)
With my present system there is no intrusion into the usable space of the Leaf, no holes drilled or wires cut, but of course it will likely be an excuse for Nissan to void your warranty. (Though it can be removed without any traces.)
It does not cause any notable increase of stress to the battery, and all original charging control and safety algorithms are left intact, so the battery cannot be overcharged.
It is optionally controllable via LEAFSCAN so that you have control over the charge rate.
I can charge to 80% in well under 3 hours.
-Phil
With my present system there is no intrusion into the usable space of the Leaf, no holes drilled or wires cut, but of course it will likely be an excuse for Nissan to void your warranty. (Though it can be removed without any traces.)
It does not cause any notable increase of stress to the battery, and all original charging control and safety algorithms are left intact, so the battery cannot be overcharged.
It is optionally controllable via LEAFSCAN so that you have control over the charge rate.
I can charge to 80% in well under 3 hours.
-Phil
Ingineer
Well-known member
nosuchthing
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2010
- Messages
- 740
Ingineer -- how about a rough, layman's description of the contraption?
Herm
Well-known member
Inginieer, I want royalties if this thing involves a windmill sticking out of the roof.. that was my idea!
JimSouCal
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2011
- Messages
- 860
Thanks for the details. I agree with what you say. Yes, I get that the QC port is a direct path to the batteries via high voltage DC that needs to be regulated during charging. I was a little ambiguous intentionally. My thinking is that sometimes I do a lot of running around in one day, and considered a semiportable QC charger version might make for a home unit that could travel to take full advantage of the L2 network if need be bypassing the onboard charger. I have done trips that require and charge stop (I.E, Santa Monica to Santa Barbara). A wound step up transformer would be heavy, and the conversion from AC to DC creating lots of heat.planet4ever said:
That said, perhaps it would be doable, and the unit could scale on wattage based on input limits? While I am not an engineer, the thermodynamics of the conversions would be a challenge but not insurmountable--but perhaps simply not worth it?
Herm
Well-known member
an external 6.6kW charger using the chademo port would not need installation, but I believe the cable is not cheap.
Tesla is selling a second 10 kW charger for their model S for $1.5K, which sounds like a heck of a good price. If 1/2 of their 10K present orders for the S include the optional charger, that is a total of 15K chargers, which is a substantial volume. This unit probably shares cooling facilities with the first 10 kW charger, and it does not have the CHAdeMO connector and interface that we would need.
Ingineer said:My car is indeed equipped with a prototype 6.6kW upgrade that works properly, and more than doubles the Leaf's charging speed (when used with a 32A capable EVSE). Unfortunately the problem is the cost of the components and installation makes this a very expensive upgrade. (in the $5k neighborhood)
With my present system there is no intrusion into the usable space of the Leaf, no holes drilled or wires cut, but of course it will likely be an excuse for Nissan to void your warranty. (Though it can be removed without any traces.)
It does not cause any notable increase of stress to the battery, and all original charging control and safety algorithms are left intact, so the battery cannot be overcharged.
It is optionally controllable via LEAFSCAN so that you have control over the charge rate.
I can charge to 80% in well under 3 hours.
-Phil
Can't wait! Cutting the recharge time to 3-4 hours would make this car more reasonable for road trips
TomT
Well-known member
Yes, but would you be willing to pay 5 Grand for that ability... The ROI would not be there for me.
jpokoraw1 said:
ztanos
Well-known member
TomT said:
How about for a 10k? What size charger would be? I'm sure the costs would come down over time, or at least I would hope they would. But by then who knows how fast the chargers would be. Instantaneous... :lol:
TomT
Well-known member
Nope, 10K would still not make enough difference to me for the way I use the car to pay that much for it... Besides, there are currently very few L2 EVSEs out there that support 10K charging rates anyway, and I suspect it will be some time before there are in commercial environments...
ztanos said:
ztanos
Well-known member
TomT said:
yet
KevinSharpe
Well-known member
yeh, we should never forget what we can achieve with low cost charging everywhere.... here's my 16kW portable EVSEEVDRIVER said:
davewill
Well-known member
I know at one point Ingineer was floating a concept that would put such a device under the hood, hooking it into both the J1772 and the CHAdeMO wiring. The idea was that you could plug into a 30a J1772 (which many of us already have) and that would power a 6.6kw "QC". This would have the advantage of not having to shell out for an expensive CHAdeMO plug. I seem to remember his concept would have the unit QC while the CHAdeMO was charging at max current, then switch to the LEAF's internal charger after that.ILETRIC said:
From his description of no wiring changes, I'd guess he came up with something a little more elegant.
Ingineer
Well-known member
Building an external CHAdeMO charger incurs even more costs than building it into the car, and then it's not with you when you might need it most.
The connectors are very expensive, and you'd have to supply the total charge power as you wouldn't be able make use of the additional power of the OBC while charging. Expect this to double the price for low quantities. I suspect the $10k Nissan unit dialed down would be a better option and be more valuable long-term. (if it's ever actually available)
My solution is built-in, and only requires a 32A EVSE to fully use the improved speed, which are relatively common in public. (Blinks are only rated to 30A IIRC, so would charge a little slower)
With a large quantity prices of my current design could easily get under $2k, but I just don't see that many people wanting this upgrade.
-Phil
The connectors are very expensive, and you'd have to supply the total charge power as you wouldn't be able make use of the additional power of the OBC while charging. Expect this to double the price for low quantities. I suspect the $10k Nissan unit dialed down would be a better option and be more valuable long-term. (if it's ever actually available)
My solution is built-in, and only requires a 32A EVSE to fully use the improved speed, which are relatively common in public. (Blinks are only rated to 30A IIRC, so would charge a little slower)
With a large quantity prices of my current design could easily get under $2k, but I just don't see that many people wanting this upgrade.
-Phil
