Increasing Nissan Leaf Range with mini battery trailer

Does anyone know of a company that is producing a mini trailer with batteries that can hook to a Nissan Leaf to increase the range by seventy miles or more?

I was reading about electric cars that have a mini trailer to boost the range. See the below article:

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1091768_ebuggy-electric-car-trailer-boosts-range-by-300-miles-looks-a-bit-silly

this company was from Germany and they have (last I heard) installed a few transfer stations for testing and promo purposes but the lack of further news suggests that their idea, despite being a good one was simply too late getting off the ground.

newer better ways to extend range are less than 2 years away and have tested very well on prototypes. its only a matter of moving to production now. won't be long

What new ways are they going to extend the range of an electric vehicle? If I could reliably get 90 miles or more with an electric car I would be fine for most purposes.

I am looking at buying a used Nissan Leaf in the next few years. I am hoping to get a 2012 model for around $9,000. I am looking into the costs right now of a mini battery trailer to push my range further.

There's a few issues with that. A Leaf won't run with a charger hooked up. It's also pretty dangerous even if it was possible, as the heat would catastrophically eat away at your battery (charge + discharge = massive degradation), even assuming it would run at those temperatures. The equipment would have to hook up to the front of the car, massively (very massively) disrupting the Leaf's aerodynamic profile.

Look toward a Volt if you want an EV-type model that isn't as expensive as a Tesla, or just wait a couple years for next-gen models.

eloder said:

There's a few issues with that. A Leaf won't run with a charger hooked up. It's also pretty dangerous even if it was possible, as the heat would catastrophically eat away at your battery (charge + discharge = massive degradation), even assuming it would run at those temperatures. The equipment would have to hook up to the front of the car, massively (very massively) disrupting the Leaf's aerodynamic profile.

Look toward a Volt if you want an EV-type model that isn't as expensive as a Tesla, or just wait a couple years for next-gen models.

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prototypes are already on the road in Germany so the charging while driving issues have been addressed besides what is the difference between "charging while driving" and regen?

Either way, as mentioned, the window they had to get this option off the ground is about to close. They were simply too slow

I have another question.

If I were to get a used 2012 Nissan Leaf and get the batteries replaced for $5,500 plus labor costs what would my approximate range be on a hot summer day running the air conditioner on a level road going 70 miles per hour?

DaveinOlyWA said:

eloder said:

There's a few issues with that. A Leaf won't run with a charger hooked up. It's also pretty dangerous even if it was possible, as the heat would catastrophically eat away at your battery (charge + discharge = massive degradation), even assuming it would run at those temperatures. The equipment would have to hook up to the front of the car, massively (very massively) disrupting the Leaf's aerodynamic profile.

Look toward a Volt if you want an EV-type model that isn't as expensive as a Tesla, or just wait a couple years for next-gen models.

Click to expand...

prototypes are already on the road in Germany so the charging while driving issues have been addressed besides what is the difference between "charging while driving" and regen?

Either way, as mentioned, the window they had to get this option off the ground is about to close. They were simply too slow

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Yes, a LEAF can be run with a charge applied to the pack. The system can also be set up to follow the load in such a way degradation would not be an issue.

They just need to make and sell an add-on pack that goes in the back seat or trunk and double the range.

pc500 said:

They just need to make and sell an add-on pack that goes in the back seat or trunk and double the range.

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Doesn't even need to double it to be useful. Make it 25-50% more and small enough to be installed by 2 people, or 1 strong person. For certain applications, deliveres for example you could have multiple booster packs and swap them out when you're back at home/work.

Long time since this post was active but I'm sorry to see that improving and advancing this great idea is not going fast enough. BTW I know for sure that technically there should be NO reason not to be able to connect extra battery set while driving this is simple...

Let find what we should do to activate this concept.

1. It we create extra 10KW it can feet into the trunk without even towing... Just snap a connector to the extra set and go.
2. Towing can work too for double the distance. (in my case extra 15-20 KW is all I need for 99 % of my long distance travel.
3. Now days with social sharing like AirBnb we can run business model with simple application and just that request from EV car owner to buy and share a set of battery and keep it charged. Make money by renting units. You can set many business models such as company that sales extended battery sets and rent them. I can see advantage with gas station that can save time and cost by replacing / renting these units…
4. Let's not forget that price per KW is going down we should find the right partner to do it.

gadyamit said:

Long time since this post was active but I'm sorry to see that improving and advancing this great idea is not going fast enough. BTW I know for sure that technically there should be NO reason not to be able to connect extra battery set while driving this is simple...

Let find what we should do to activate this concept...

Click to expand...

The longer range cars coming in the near future may make the question of an extra battery pack on a trailer moot. The current short-range EVs will likely end up in the hands of those with short range needs while those with longer range needs will go for the coming longer range cars. That would make the market for a battery trailer so small that it would be difficult to keep the cost down.

I am building a trailer to extend leaf range(prototype)

electricmonkeygarage said:

I am building a trailer to extend leaf range(prototype)

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I would love to see what you have planned!
I have been thinking a lot about this concept.

My goal is to build a battery for my house. Owning a Leaf made it apparent that I didn't need a big battery for my house, but to also tow with my car. I want to build a 360v pack able to connect to the Leaf's battery with a system like this

The pack would live in a trailer that has a pure sine inverter, and possibly a "12v" 4s lithium pack to power 12v appliances while camping/emergencies. 12v pack would be trickle charged by the large pack and/or solar panels on the top of the trailer. During power outages I want to be able to plug the pack into my house and switch my breaker panel to draw from the inverter. Then when needing to travel longer distances with the leaf (Or whatever electric car I have in the future), tow the trailer behind and recharge it as needed. It could have a built in charger that accepts a J1772 input so it can charge practically anywhere.

Some quick "back of the napkin" calculations.

I would want to use LifePo batteries as they are "safest", could use 15ah headway cells, nominal voltage 3.2v.
360 / 3.2 = 112.5, so maybe go with 113 to be safe.
Assuming each cell has a bms, and are all chained in series (no parallel), the pack would store about 5kw. At 25$ per cell, the lithium alone would cost $2,825.
Let's say you add 1 more cell in parallel, 226 cells with the same 360/363 nominal voltage. It could store over 10kw for $5,650.

Then there's of course the cost of the system that charges the Leaf pack. At pluginsupply.com their parts to link to the prius battery are $1,600. That consists of two controllers that read the car's obd2 and a charge controller that monitors both packs (stock + aftermarket) and uses "high voltage contractors" to transfer current to the stock battery/to the drive train.

However this site claims their addon pack (looks like a leaf pack) is connected to the leaf with no additional controllers or charging connectors?

"high voltage contractors"

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Unless they mean weekend electricians drinking Jolt cola, that should be "high voltage contactors." ;-)

bmartin said:

Let's say you add 1 more cell in parallel, 226 cells with the same 360/363 nominal voltage. It could store over 10kw for $5,650.

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This seems like a whole lot of time/money for a very little gain. You are talking about a battery 1/3 the size of that built into the 2016 Leaf. So you have 33% increase in energy. With the drag of a trailer, you'll get maybe 25% increase in range. This is enough for me to simply call off the project as impractical.

But then again, don't let anyone discourage you if you really want to go for it. Let us know if you do build anything!

2048Megabytes said:

I have another question.

If I were to get a used 2012 Nissan Leaf and get the batteries replaced for $5,500 plus labor costs what would my approximate range be on a hot summer day running the air conditioner on a level road going 70 miles per hour?

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I have a 2011 that just had the battery replaced. I would say it gets 60-70 miles at that speed and with AC. It's going to depend how high you have your AC running. I have not done the range test with mine, and I estimate that because I often drive a route that's 38 miles each way and I get there with slightly less than 1/2 battery left I didn't check with leafspy, only using the dashboard battery bars as reference. I do get a little charge as I'm not sure if I have enough battery to get home. My route is mostly level. and I drive about 60-65.

You should check the battery replacement thread to see more results. If you need close to the max range a lot and don't have ability to charge along or at destination the leaf might not be the best car for you. I also drive a Fiat 500e for the same drive and all other conditions close I can easily do the round trip.

Tonyt said:

I also drive a Fiat 500e for the same drive and all other conditions close I can easily do the round trip.

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Hey, since you have a 3 different EVs, how do each compare on that 76 mi round trip at the same speed?

drees said:

Tonyt said:

I also drive a Fiat 500e for the same drive and all other conditions close I can easily do the round trip.

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Hey, since you have a 3 different EVs, how do each compare on that 76 mi round trip at the same speed?

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I've drove the leaf a few times, but never made it with enough confidence to try and come back without charging. May attempt again after I get a GID meter (coming soon) I've even tried at 55 and still did not feel like I had enough to come back. To be completely honest I try to maintain a good speed average, however due to traffic there may be some differences. A couple of times I had a bike hitch mounted to the leaf, and once even a bike on the rack.

Fiat, I never worry. I just completed the trip back from 82% and arrived home with 50%, some areas I traveled above 65 mph, and some traffic due to a couple of accidents. I've made it using as little as 35% of the battery each way.

The Spark, I don't really do the drive with that car, it's my GF's car, and she makes it with about 50%. But usually has AC running and 65+ average.... I'm pretty confident it can do the trip at 60-65.

Now you probably realize why I do this drive so much We usually don't worry too much about the charge level since we both can charge at each other's place, and will leave the partly discharged car to charge and drive one of the full ones if we go anywhere while visiting each other. I just occasionally do it as a test, or drive slower if I'm not in a rush. I'm more of a hyper-miler and will sometimes game the miles per charge if conditions allow.

The Fusion, can only make it charging 3 times total, middle, there, and back if I don't want to use gas. Think I only did this once.

Thanks for the feedback. With a 12-bar '11-12 LEAF you should be able to make 76 miles at 55 mph, but the GOM and SOC gauge is pretty pessimistic so it doesn't give you much confidence. My brother has a '14 Spark EV, it seems to have significantly better range than my LEAF ever did, but it's reported efficiency is also much higher.

5 kWh of extra battery makes a big difference for 70 mile trips - the 30 kWh LEAF makes these kinds of distances easy.

drees said:

Thanks for the feedback. With a 12-bar '11-12 LEAF you should be able to make 76 miles at 55 mph, but the GOM and SOC gauge is pretty pessimistic so it doesn't give you much confidence. My brother has a '14 Spark EV, it seems to have significantly better range than my LEAF ever did, but it's reported efficiency is also much higher.

5 kWh of extra battery makes a big difference for 70 mile trips - the 30 kWh LEAF makes these kinds of distances easy.

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Yes, the new battery should be able to make it, but it's currently too much trouble/risk to try right now. I'll test it out again when I have a GID meter. The Spark is avg 5 miles/kWh over 4000 miles reported on dash over mostly local roads. The Fiat shows 4.4 miles/kWh, I did have more that 5 for a while, but its been too hot lately, and I've been keeping up with traffic on the freeway. I believe the fiat uses a bit more of the 24 kwh battery than the spark allows which provides a little better range even though the Spark should be slightly more efficent,