30kwh installed in a 2011 car?

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tkdbrusco

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 7, 2014
Messages
510
Someone posted this on Facebook indicated that their dealer in Texas had installed a 30kwh battery in their 2011 Leaf. Think there's any truth to this or is the guy just trolling? I son't see how he got the GOM to get to 143 even with a 24kwh pack? Maybe its set to km instead of miles?

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Also, what is the price on the 30Kwh pack..it seems, Nissan has not announced anything yet on 30Kwh battery pack replacement costs. I really hope that sense prevails among Nissan, and they offer the 30Kwh upgrade option to all the gen 1 Leafs..2011-2015. That would be the best way to give them all another 5-7 year lifespan..
 
I just messaged the guy and he said that the dealer told him that it was a 30kwh pack (under warranty replacement) they put in his 2011, but not everyone is telling him that there's no way that this is the case. Hopefully we can get him to confirm with Leaf Spy that he does indeed have a 30kwh pack in his 2011, which would clearly mean that there is no backwards compatibility issue and Nissan is "choosing" to keep the 30kwh pack out of the hands of current owners. If this is the case, it is a total shame because its driving our resale down, taking cars off the road that have longer lives, and overall contributing to more environmental waste as a result.
 
My guess is, they will announce compatibility and pricing of the 30Kwh pack soon at end of this year or early next year after launch of Gen 2 EV. I don't know how that helps as compared to announcing it now..but my guess is, it might be done to not hurt the resale of current lease returns....and/or to not hurt the sale of the 2016 30Kwh pack models.
 
i hope it's legit. i usually keep cars until they fall apart.. My 1967 hasn't yet (totally). if all we have to do is put in a new battery once the range is too short that would extend the life of these puppies.

I hope, in a few years, 3rd party battery assemblers will create a solution for all the Nissan Leafs out there like the way they did for Honda Insights and Prius.

The reason I wanted a EV was to put in my old VW's as they engines were always smelly and nasty running emission pumpers. I was hoping give them a new lease of life but then the Leaf prices came within my reach.
 
I really hope that they do so. If I knew that I could get a 30kwh pack for about $6K, I would seriously consider keeping my 2015 Leaf for a long while. I'm at about 5% capacity loss in my 2015 Leaf after 28K miles and 2 years. At this rate I should be able to get to 100K at least before my pack becomes degraded to the point where it impacts my life. If a 30kwh pack could last for 150K miles before reaching this same point, it would be well worth it for me to pony up the money for a replacement, but if I'm faced with spending $5500 for a 24kwh pack, not a chance!

I think that Nissan is hoping that they could keep the Leaf owners trading in for the Gen2, but I'd be willing to bet that most existing Leaf owners (like myself) already have money down on a model 3. Their best bet for keeping us is to make it worth our while to buy our Leafs at lease end and keep driving them.
 
tkdbrusco said:
Someone posted this on Facebook indicated that their dealer in Texas had installed a 30kwh battery in their 2011 Leaf.

Probably just another proof that everything's bigger in Texas, even 24kWh packs...
 
Valdemar said:
tkdbrusco said:
Someone posted this on Facebook indicated that their dealer in Texas had installed a 30kwh battery in their 2011 Leaf.

Probably just another proof that everything's bigger in Texas, even 24kWh packs...

They're bigger, until the summer temps kick in... then they're smaller.
 
I really hope that they do so. If I knew that I could get a 30kwh pack for about $6K, I would seriously consider keeping my 2015 Leaf for a long while.

You see the problem..by giving a roadmap now, they will hurt the sale of their 2016 30Kwh models. I had a 2013 model as well that I would have purchased with the $7500 discount they were offering on its residual, had a 30Kwh road map been announced for it, because I too believe in keeping my cars for a long time & to me a 100 mile range car is sufficient...I care less about a 200 mile range car.

I am pretty certain, no announcement of backward compatibility of the 30Kwh pack is more of a business decision rather than a technical one..and it will happen when the business environment is right for it.
 
When I had my 'Lizard Pack' installed in 08/2014, my Range Indicator (GOM) stated 139 miles.
 
With some effort 143 GOM miles is definitely possible. I had 112 showing when I picked mine with a new battery with no effort. My bet is on the clueless or lying dealer, but I hope I'm wrong.
 
I was told by a higher up at Nissan that it was possible but that they were first making sure that they produced enough batteries for the new production cars before it would be available for the older models. I am still surprised though that this car is purported to have one in it.
 
I suspect that 30-kWh batteries will be the ONLY option for MY2011 to MY2016 LEAF replacements in the not-so-distant future.
 
RegGuheert said:
I suspect that 30-kWh batteries will be the ONLY option for MY2011 to MY2016 LEAF replacements in the not-so-distant future.

I tend to agree, once Nissan no longer has to source 24kWh battery packs for current (2016) cars. That could be as early as end of this year (they still need to keep a few "on the shelf") or sometime next year. That could also mean wait times for the "older" packs could become very long during the transition.
 
RegGuheert said:
I suspect that 30-kWh batteries will be the ONLY option for MY2011 to MY2016 LEAF replacements in the not-so-distant future.

I really hope that this is the case. I was planning on selling my Leaf when my Model 3 is available (probably realistically early 2018). If Nissan has a 30kwh replacement by then, I may just keep the car long term.
 
Valdemar said:
With some effort 143 GOM miles is definitely possible. I had 112 showing when I picked mine with a new battery with no effort. My bet is on the clueless or lying dealer, but I hope I'm wrong.

143 is quite a lot on the GOM. When my 2015 was brand new I tried to drive it super efficiently before charging one day in an attempt to get the highest GOM reading I could at 100% and the best I could do was 119. I have a friend with a 2015 as well and he basically coasts down the Santa Cruz mountains before plugging in every night (ending his drive with maximum efficiency) and when new, he was getting a best of 123, so this may very well be a case of the guy accidentally getting a 30kwh pack.
 
I thought the 30k packs had a slight different chemistry and required a slight different charging logarithms? If so would they have to change the on-board charger as well or can it be adjusted via software?
 
BrockWI said:
I thought the 30k packs had a slight different chemistry and required a slight different charging logarithms? If so would they have to change the on-board charger as well or can it be adjusted via software?

They could go 2 ways

1. put the pack in and change nothing, suboptimal but it would work

2. put the pack in and update the firmware, would then know the pack better, charge better, estimate range better, and so on.

either way it doesn't require changing the hardware for the charger.
 
Given the BMS resides in the battery I'd imagine the BMS to charger protocol is battery-specifics agnostic? If it is not it's bad design imo.
 
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