jlv
Well-known member
Isn't it just a used battery that has been pulled from a wrecked LEAF? I'm not sure what was refurbished in the battery.
As I understand things, the refurbisher buys packs (I'd imagine from wrecks, but the trail is unknown), pulls them apart and tests modules. They then build a pack from similar capacity modules that meets some marketing spec, perform some balancing (if you are lucky) and then it is sold to a company like Fenix, or to installers, or perhaps to private customers.jlv said:Isn't it just a used battery that has been pulled from a wrecked LEAF? I'm not sure what was refurbished in the battery.
https://fenix.systems/blog has an update: https://fenix.systems/news/2020/07/31/storytime-our-motivation supposedly from July 31.cwerdna said:We're almost at the end of July.cwerdna said:https://fenix.systems/news/fenix-news/2020/06/21/last-chance-to-board-fenixs-first-flight talks about June 21st and
It lists 14 areas and if I counted correctly, we should start hearing about installation of "CPO" Leaf batteries beginning the week of July 19th.What’s a flight? And why is boarding ending?
In order to find a good balance between fast delivery and optimized shipping, we are adopting a deployment plan that steps right into a long-term installation cadence. To achieve this, instead of having just one launch, we have 16 launches each year, each launch starts a group of new customers away from battery worries. We’re calling these groups; Flights, and here’s how they will work:
Every flight will last up to 10 weeks, most will be closer to 8.
The first 3 weeks are open for “Boarding”, essentially the sign-up period.
Week 4 batteries begin to ship to installers.
Week 5 installation scheduling begins.
Weeks 6-9 Battery installations.
Weeks 10+ Enjoying that new car feeling all over again!
Since we’re starting in the middle of 2020, our first Flight didn’t start boarding until, the first week of June, week 23, which means we will only have 10 Flights this year. While we already have quite a few of you checked in for Flight 1, boarding for Flight 1 will be closing faster than you think! All of our weeks begin on Monday and end Sunday night, so boarding for our inaugural flight is scheduled to end today, Sunday, June 21st!
Will be interesting to see if anything materializes...
Has there been any word of successful installs of used Leaf batteries by this outfit?
it’s time for the updates I intended to share when I started this post. First, our installation partner contracts will be going out to installers this coming week, and we’ll get back to shipping batteries and scheduling installations very soon. I will be helping out with those installation scheduling calls and look forward to speaking with our CPO customers again.
Painful to watch.cwerdna said:Not surprisingly, it's another nothing burger.
SageBrush said:SageBrush2 said:As I understand things, the refurbisher buys packs (I'd imagine from wrecks, but the trail is unknown), pulls them apart and tests modules. They then build a pack from similar capacity modules that meets some marketing spec, perform some balancing (if you are lucky) and then it is sold to a company like Fenix, or to installers, or perhaps to private customers.
This approach to refurb'd batteries was tried many times in the Prius used battery market and is generally conceded to be a failure because the battery pack usually lasts 6 - 24 months before failure. That is saying something, since the Prius pack is a lot more forgiving of degradation than a LEAF pack. Compared to the LEAF refurb industry, the Prius refurbs had the distinct advantage of being a relatively simple installation that did not require a garage and lift -- and it still failed due to a combination of poor quality refurbs and overhead costs.
The Prius battery degrades slowly because Toyota restricts it to the ~ middle 60% SoC and it has air cooling. Real air cooling, through the pack.coleafrado said:Prius batteries (the kind that get 'rebuilt' and a 1-year warranty) are NiMH, not lithium-ion, and are about 1/20th the size of the Leaf pack. They wear out much faster than BEV packs, owing to the number of cycles they're put through (most old ones are around 40-60% health), and they're not "more forgiving" to degradation.
cwerdna said:Not surprisingly, it's another nothing burger.
Indeed. There seems to be a lot of talk but little in the way of results/follow through. Was hoping to actually see some results.RonSwanson said:cwerdna said:Not surprisingly, it's another nothing burger.
Their updates are so painful to read. I've never seen someone say so much but not actually say anything.
Yep -- bags of hyperbole and hot air.cwerdna said:At this pace, I wouldn't be surprised if their thermally-managed battery as a service w/more than 24 kWh of capacity blah blah never ships.
cwerdna said:A peek at some customer/potential customer posts at https://www.facebook.com/groups/FenixPowerCoForum/ isn't too promising either.
cwerdna said:At this pace, I wouldn't be surprised if their thermally-managed battery as a service w/more than 24 kWh of capacity blah blah never ships. It may become completely irreverent with an insufficient market if they ever complete development and testing.
If they ever ship anything of their own, it had better be a least 40 KWH or they won't have a market to sell to. Their market is limited to start with and limiting it to 2011-2015 leafs whose owners will be satisfied with a small battery size is still more limited. With a 60 KWH battery they would have a shot at the entire market. I'll believe it when they show me a production ready battery. Until then it"s just hot air.jlv said:cwerdna said:At this pace, I wouldn't be surprised if their thermally-managed battery as a service w/more than 24 kWh of capacity blah blah never ships. It may become completely irreverent with an insufficient market if they ever complete development and testing.
I'd be completely surprised if their "thermally-managed battery as a service w/more than 24 kWh of capacity blah blah" ever ships.
Problem is 100 mile range just isn't good enough anymore. A 150 mile range is going to be about the minimum. Putting $7000 into a $7000 car just to get back to even isn't likely to excite many people. If you could take a $3000 2011 with a clapped out battery and add a 40KWH battery at say $9000, that might be interesting. Particularly if you can lease the battery instead of an outright purchase.LeftieBiker said:I think that a bulletproof 30kwh pack would sell well enough to gen I Leaf owners with multiple bars gone. It would amount to finally having the solid 100 mile range Leaf they thought they were buying.
I agree. It does not even have to be bullet-proof. About original quality would be OK too ...LeftieBiker said:I think that a bulletproof 30kwh pack would sell well enough to gen I Leaf owners with multiple bars gone.
SageBrush said:A like new, 30 kWh battery with a believable 5+ year warranty for $4,000 installed would have a chance of commercial success.
Just my opinion of course.
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