Adding a heat pump into 2018 Leaf SV ?

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Tagar

Member
Joined
Nov 18, 2018
Messages
14
Is this possible to add a heat pump into 2018 Leaf SV ? I have a Technology Package.
No All-weather package which has the heat pump.

With winter weather in Colorado, we noticed significantly reduced Leaf range.
Surprised with LeafSpy showing that the heater can use up to 2.5kW ! That's a lot.

Our sales person hasn't mentioned anything about the Heat pump.
We purchased Leaf 2.5 months ago.
I just learned the hard way what we're missing.

I understand that heated seats/ heated steering wheel are "hardware" features.

But do you thing that the heat pump is just a software feature? :idea:
Reading online, it seems a heat pump is "just" an AC working in reverse, isn't it?
I think it would be a manufacturing nightmare to cook two separate AC units
with and without reverse functionality...
If that's true, heat pump I guess could be activated by Nissan (after paying a fee,
less than All-weather package as I still wouldn't have heated seats and all of rest of that package).

Thanks!
 
The hybrid heater '13 to '17 US Leafs (SV and SL trims) have a reversing valve. I doubt that's on the S trims which don't have the hybrid heater.
 
The heat pump isn't software - it's definitely hardware. Your car has a resistance heater plus an electric air conditioner. The cold weather package would have added a heat pump in addition to the resistance heater, replacing the A/C unit. As for whether you or a mechanic can make that replacement...that's a good question. I'd wager a small amount on "no."

Nissan should never have sold the Leaf S in cold climates. That they have made things worse by making the heat pump an option on the SV borders on criminal.
 
LeftieBiker said:
Nissan should never have sold the Leaf S in cold climates. That they have made things worse by making the heat pump an option on the SV borders on criminal.
Absolutely. The ‘18 Leaf I test drove was a stripped SV without the weather package. That was a miserable cold 20 minutes compared to the ‘14 SV I used to have. Took it back and politely told him no thanks. Fortunately I’m not in any hurry, can wait until their ‘19’s start showing up in a couple months.
 
someone with an '18 should not be complaining about range with any heater... They just need to not blast the heater... I always set the heat to 68 degrees and the fan to 1... no problem
 
someone with an '18 should not be complaining about range with any heater... They just need to not blast the heater... I always set the heat to 68 degrees and the fan to 1... no problem
I tried what you said and I went from 132 miles off to 116 on, a loss of 16 miles. So no it does not work.
 
I tried what you said and I went from 132 miles off to 116 on, a loss of 16 miles. So no it does not work.
Those are just dash estimates, if you monitor the real-time power usage, it does make quite a difference. You won't notice until you do a range test against both modes to record the real-world difference. Nissan knocks a big chunk off of the estimate to make sure someone doesn't plan a trip in freezing weather with the worse possible outcome.
 
Back
Top