Tsunami reveals durability of Nissan's LEAF

[mwalsh]

Nissan inadvertently gained some valuable insight into the durability of its electric car, the Leaf, when about two dozen of them were destroyed in the tsunami that ravaged Japan in March.

None of the cars caught fire, and their batteries remained fully intact, shielded by an airtight steel exoskeleton and two other layers of protection that surround the 660-pound packs.

"Considering how they were tossed around and crushed, we think that is a very good indication of the safety performance of that vehicle," said Bob Yakushi, the director of product safety for Nissan North America.

Nissan's decision to encase the Leaf's battery in steel may help explain why federal safety regulators investigating post-crash fire risks in the Chevrolet Volt do not have the same concerns about the Leaf. General Motors packages the Volt's battery cells on a T-shaped steel tray with a plastic cover.

The durability and design of the Volt's battery have come into question since two of them caught fire after being damaged in testing.

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[EdmondLeaf]

I do not want to crash my Leaf, just drive. That was very good test, indeed.

 

[tps]

While I doubt if there's a risk of crashing the EVSE, this type of "what if" thinking is why I have a Leviton EVSE. Like the LEAF's traction pack, the Leviton Evr-Green 160 is built in a steel enclosure rather than a plastic case like many EVSE units are. The steel case of the battery (and Leviton EVSE) is for protection. Either probably has access to enough energy to rupture the steel case were the enegry released quickly enough, say an explosion. A while back I had the thought, how much energy (kWh) is dissipated in a crash which totals the car. The sobering fact: probably much less than 1 kWh. OTOH, how much energy is in the gas tank of a normal car, were it to be released in a fire or explosion? At 36.6 kWh/US gal, the typical gas tank probably contains more than 10X the energy of a LEAF traction pack.

Anyway, this is great that Nissan's forward thinking engineers place a high emphasis on protecting the traction pack from damage.