Input necessary to power LEAF motor

Well, here goes. I have a LEAf minus the HV battery. Everything else is present. What force, or power, is necessary to make the motor function?
Please forgive my ignorance on the subject. What generator power may I expect to need to drive the LEAF? The generator may be in the back of the LEAF. Or it may be in a small trailer.
Constructive education will be appreciated. I realize that this flies in the face of what the LEAF is intended to be.
However, the (bleeps) at Nissan continue to be engaged in price fixing for a replacement battery. And I, for one, will not bend (over) to their demands.
We early adopters are still being given the glove without the lube.
An advance "Thank You" to all that may be able to assist me. And to possibly help others too.
J

Can't help you but http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=21335 might help a bit.

The Manager of one of the local Advance Auto Parts stores here in Clearwater, FL told me he can and has ordered replacement batteries for the Leaf and that they are quite big and heavy to deal with however he never quoted a price. If my Leaf battery failed to the letter of State and Federal Law and Nissan doesn't make good for it I would call the local news stations consumer advocate first and give them a crack at getting my Nissan Dealer to see the light however if out of scope of the warranty and the law I would then call the special order desks or store managers of local parts stores about getting a replacement battery through them.

Be mindful that EV batteries can put out hundreds of volts of electricity and require special handling. We are not taking about a 12 volt battery putting out a few hundred watts but potentially a 360 to 400 volt battery storing 24,000 watts of power. One could also look for recently wrecked Leafs through the national used parts pipeline however it is my understanding that you have to beat Power and Cell Phone carriers to them as they are starting to buy them up for charging off peak and supplementing their grid during times of peak demand or during generator station failures.

On the generator you would need a pretty substantial unit and a buck boost transformer along with potentially a 360/400 volt DC converter none of which is cheap or very light weight if I understand correctly.

Locally we have a private dealer who refurbishes Prius Batteries and someone who is in that business may be able to help Leaf owners with the older style batteries as many of those Prius guys are very good at replacing just the failed cells and then doing what they call a grid charge to balance the pack and get it back to working specs. Many times they say that technically the packs haven't really lost capacity but rather simply got out of balance so that some cells have kept a higher charge than others so that they are topping off sooner than the rest preventing the discharged cells in the pack from getting charged. Note that grid charging requires removal of the battery and can take several days of charge/discharge cycles to find out if the pack can be brought back to usable capacity.

I have only had my Leaf for a few days now however I am in sponge mode and learning as we go. Thankfully the 2014 I picked up off lease has 12 bars and so far appears to be in great condition.

At full power, the Leaf motor will take 80kW for short times. That means you will need something like that:

https://www.absolutegenerators.com/aksa-silent-towable-diesel-generator-102-kva-82-kw-1-3-phase-trailer

40kW will take you up most hills and slowly to freeway speed. So a generator half that size would be minimum. Add a regulator from AC to DC, or look for a DC generator at around 400VDC and 100A (400*100=40000W)

If you still have some capacity in the battery you will need at least a 30kW generator and charger. This will allow you freeway speed, and you will use the battery for short bursts to 80kW.

Not really practical. Sorry.

The force required would basically be 400V DC at 40KW minimum with 80KW surge however you would not for safety reasons want to have an externally mounted device with an umbilical cord carrying 400V DC at 40 to 80KW to your car when driving it. The $40,000+ cost of generators in that class makes a $5,000 battery replacement look like a bargain plus the 4,000 lbs weight make them impractical to tow behind a Leaf with its MAX 2,000 lb towing capacity even if you could find a bargain on a used generator. A $500 generator from say the likes of Harbor Freight is not going to do it. 40KW generators capable of providing that output at 400 volts are big and extremely heavy weighing more than the Leaf does.

You would most likely be better off having a local used parts dealer on the lookout for a wrecked Leaf with a good battery or checking the phone book for a local rebuilder of Prius batteries that might be able help you source a replacement battery at a more reasonable cost. A battery rebuilder might be able to get your old battery back to 85/90% making the car driveable and I would not give up on it until I fully vetted that out first.

If you were here in Tampa Bay I would say call an outfit like Tampa Hybrids and see what they could do for you or who they could put you in touch with. Those Prius guys have been at this for a long time and may surprise you if you find one that is passionate about EV technology and not just in it to make a buc.

There is not free lunch here. - You got a Leaf, without a battery, which I am sure at a good price. Put in a Leaf battery. Quick. Easy. I have gotten some parts from crashed Leafs at a junk yard....

Well I don't know the full scope of your project... HOWEVER... It doesn't HAVE to be a leaf battery to get that motor to run. I have seen videos on youtube of people hacking the inverters to run the Traction motors. If there is interest I could find and link to the youtube video.

You could run that motor off any EV inverter (even one from Tesla). I will caution that this is all high voltage stuff and you could easily fry yourself if you don't truly know what you are doing. You could use a Volt pack to run the motor with a Tesla inverter.. Literally the skies the limit.



Additional Thoughts Edit:

If all you want to see is the motor turn (not driving the car) the voltage and current required isn't really anything. You DO NOT want to apply 40kW to a motor sitting on your bench (It WILL move)... BAD BAD things will happen... Again I don't know the scope of this project.