How to charge while driving.

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Myfirstev2011leaf

New member
Joined
Oct 23, 2022
Messages
2
My Leaf is a 2011 and it's battery degradation is pretty bad. Currently my range is only 47 miles. Replace the battery is not an option at this time so thought of an ideal of installing a 16,384WH battery pack, (51.2v 320AH). My idea is to run run this with a pure sine wave inverter, 120v 3000 watt. Using the 120v AC to drive a modify microwave transfer to boost the 120v ac to 460v ac than convert 460v DC and connect drectly to the main battery. This should charge the main battery while driving and double my current range. Have anyone tried this idea before? If yes did, it work??
 
Welcome. While an interesting thought experiment, this would NOT work in practice. Existing expander packs are wired in parallel with the main pack, to extend the total capacity. They don't try to actively charge the main pack at all. There are undoubtedly at least a few safeguards against that happening.
 
Welcome to the forum.
As the logic goes, electricity doesn't work that way. If you feed 460 V DC into the battery pack, it won't charge while driving, it will just be used for driving. All other times, it will trickle charge the battery, but unless you plan on building an entire charger, you would end up over-charging the battery and causing more damage at that voltage. This is all assuming you can safely wire this new battery pack in parallel with your current battery pack and you have all the safety options in place to keep your own new battery pack from getting damaged, catching fire, etc. when the regen kicks in from stopping.

There are plenty of topics here about adding to the Leaf capacity with another battery pack by wiring a pack in parallel and that is what you would want to do. Trying to charge while driving just isn't a thing unless you are going to build a completely isolated system to feed directly into the Leaf battery pack that will basically bypass what Nissan has already put into place, which means you would have to build another system to interface with what Nissan has to avoid all the BMS errors it would generate if you go this route. :(
 
Thanks for your input LeftieBiker and knightmb.
I have looked and search but all over and all I found was range extender pack that you would have to stop and charge your vehicle from the range extender pack. That is basic and no different from a portable charger. That is so inconvenience or to tie it everything directly to the main battery which the cost is to steep and not feasible to many. My real goal ideal is not to charge the main battery pack but to use the range extender pack to assist the main battery pack to achieve a longer range on the fly without having to stop and charge. The ideal is identical home a solar system with a grid tie inverter which produce slightly higher voltage then the grid. If I can get the range extender voltage step up to be slightly higher than 403v, I would calculated that this would work. Sure, the range extender pack will have its own safety feature and large diode to prevent regen braking to flow back into the range extender pack. 1 of the automatic safety feature is that the range extender pack capacity is less than then the main battery pack so should never able to over charge the main battery pack. 2nd safety feature is that the range extender pack only turn on when the vehicle is in use. 3rd safety feature is that the range extender pack max current supply to assist the main battery pack is 1kw while average current consumption of my driving habit is 2.6kw. There are other safety feature I have not think of at this time if any, I'll include them. The overall advantage is the range extender battery pack voltage is only 48v dc and can be charge automatic by a 100-200 watt solar panel on the roof at all time where there is sun light. This can be accomplish by a active BMS and a solar MPPT charge controller.

Thanks for any input any way and more input is welcome. I am just to stubbborn to give up. I'll post result if it work. Thanks again.
 
What capacity are you thinking the extender pack will have? Because if you are using a 48 volt pack and an inverter, then the capacity will be reduced about 9 times.

Here's an alternative to consider: if your goal is to extend the range of a Leaf using a second, lower voltage battery pack, then how about using it to drive two hub motors on the rear wheels? This has been done with Chinese taxis, I believe (how successfully I can't say), with the second drive system extending the range of an ICE vehicle.
 
Myfirstev2011leaf said:
My real goal ideal is not to charge the main battery pack but to use the range extender pack to assist the main battery pack to achieve a longer range on the fly without having to stop and charge.

Some have done that already, this video would be a starting point to see what work it would take labor and component wise to tackle such a project.
https://www.youtube.com/c/LeafXpack18650
 
knightmb said:
Myfirstev2011leaf said:
My real goal ideal is not to charge the main battery pack but to use the range extender pack to assist the main battery pack to achieve a longer range on the fly without having to stop and charge.

Some have done that already, this video would be a starting point to see what work it would take labor and component wise to tackle such a project.
https://www.youtube.com/c/LeafXpack18650

Could anyone help me find/make a splice kit for the leaf to add a extender battery? I just need some 4guage wire and the male and female port right? Also a three way crimp kit for 4guage wire? Idk where to find that though? Anyone have any notes? Really trying to get my leaf going more than 40 miles, it's really a pain in the ass. Please help.
 
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