I was an early adopter and got one of the first Nissan Leafs in 2011. Car now has about 48K and I think it has about 8 bars. It's no longer sufficient for me and my wife drives it to work and winters are getting more difficult.
I am in the researching phase for an EV conversion I'd like to do. I have an 85 Nissan 720 pickup that I want to convert to a quick little street truck ev. My thoughts were originally toward getting a Leaf pack, or two Leaf packs, and installing them under the bed of the truck. For simplicity's sake I thought I'd just leave the batteries in the complete, sealed case. Through research it's appearing increasingly doubtful that will be the case (pun intended).
So I've been thinking, can I get a new pack for my Leaf, and reuse the old pack, plus add more batteries bought online, to make a pack for the truck?
And this leads down to many roads of possibilities. Is the battery chemistry/pack build the same across the gen 1 (24kWh), gen 2 (30 kWh) and gen 3 (40kWh) battery packs? I've seen so much discussion about Nissan saying they wouldn't replace aging gen 1 packs with higher range gen 2 packs, but has any backyard mechanic swapped in a 30 kWh unit into a 2011-2012 Leaf? Did the 30 kWh unit just add more packs, or did they change the battery chemistry to increase range? Meaning, will the 30kwh case fit into a 2011 Leaf?
I was considering one way to obtain a Leaf pack would be to buy a wrecked Leaf from an auto insurance auction. Should I be focusing on 2013-2015 Leafs, 2016-2017 Leafs, or 2018 and newer? My goal for the EV truck is 48 to 60 kWh, or 100-150 mile range. Should I forget trying to reuse my 2011 Leaf battery, upgrading that car at the same time? I mean, I probably won't bother if it isn't possible to add kWh to the Leaf to expand range.
I thought that if I got a totaled Leaf from an auto auction, I could possibly reuse the entire drivetrain and electronics (motor, controller, charger, dash display, wiring, etc) but then I realized doing the motor might not work because it's intended to drive the front wheels not the rear. I'm considering just going with a dual AC35 motor system of a warP9 motor or maybe something even more.
When did Nissan switch to the 6kWh charger? That alone might be the deciding factor as to which year Leaf I target.
In an ideal world I'd land a 2015 or 2016 Leaf with low miles (under 30k) at an auction for a couple thousand dollars, swap the pack into my 2011 Leaf, take out the old case and remove all the individual cases and build them into a new custom box for my truck. The old Leaf would stay on the road with a bit larger range, and the truck would be well on its way to having the battery side of the build addressed.
Thanks in advance for your ideas/opinions.
I am in the researching phase for an EV conversion I'd like to do. I have an 85 Nissan 720 pickup that I want to convert to a quick little street truck ev. My thoughts were originally toward getting a Leaf pack, or two Leaf packs, and installing them under the bed of the truck. For simplicity's sake I thought I'd just leave the batteries in the complete, sealed case. Through research it's appearing increasingly doubtful that will be the case (pun intended).
So I've been thinking, can I get a new pack for my Leaf, and reuse the old pack, plus add more batteries bought online, to make a pack for the truck?
And this leads down to many roads of possibilities. Is the battery chemistry/pack build the same across the gen 1 (24kWh), gen 2 (30 kWh) and gen 3 (40kWh) battery packs? I've seen so much discussion about Nissan saying they wouldn't replace aging gen 1 packs with higher range gen 2 packs, but has any backyard mechanic swapped in a 30 kWh unit into a 2011-2012 Leaf? Did the 30 kWh unit just add more packs, or did they change the battery chemistry to increase range? Meaning, will the 30kwh case fit into a 2011 Leaf?
I was considering one way to obtain a Leaf pack would be to buy a wrecked Leaf from an auto insurance auction. Should I be focusing on 2013-2015 Leafs, 2016-2017 Leafs, or 2018 and newer? My goal for the EV truck is 48 to 60 kWh, or 100-150 mile range. Should I forget trying to reuse my 2011 Leaf battery, upgrading that car at the same time? I mean, I probably won't bother if it isn't possible to add kWh to the Leaf to expand range.
I thought that if I got a totaled Leaf from an auto auction, I could possibly reuse the entire drivetrain and electronics (motor, controller, charger, dash display, wiring, etc) but then I realized doing the motor might not work because it's intended to drive the front wheels not the rear. I'm considering just going with a dual AC35 motor system of a warP9 motor or maybe something even more.
When did Nissan switch to the 6kWh charger? That alone might be the deciding factor as to which year Leaf I target.
In an ideal world I'd land a 2015 or 2016 Leaf with low miles (under 30k) at an auction for a couple thousand dollars, swap the pack into my 2011 Leaf, take out the old case and remove all the individual cases and build them into a new custom box for my truck. The old Leaf would stay on the road with a bit larger range, and the truck would be well on its way to having the battery side of the build addressed.
Thanks in advance for your ideas/opinions.