Hi Nissan Leaf fans and skeptics!
Has anyone else noticed the surge of online buzz surrounding the Leaf and the battery pack engineering and possibility of issues?
http://green.autoblog.com/2010/01/25/is-the-nissan-leaf-battery-pack-under-engineered/
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/01/nissan-leaf-2/
I love Nissan's answer to the accusations that they rushed to market and didn't properly engineer and plan properly when building the Leaf and most specifically the battery pack. Here's what Mark Perry, Nissan’s director of product planning for the United States says:
Has anyone else noticed the surge of online buzz surrounding the Leaf and the battery pack engineering and possibility of issues?
http://green.autoblog.com/2010/01/25/is-the-nissan-leaf-battery-pack-under-engineered/
It all comes down to the Leaf's power pack lacking an active thermal management system, relying instead on a passive cooling set-up which, essentially, relies on a single fan to distribute heat evenly throughout the interior of the pack. If heat is not effectively dispersed, it may lead to early degradation of overall energy capacity and a premature shortening of the vehicle's range.
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/01/nissan-leaf-2/
It also appears Nissan has cut corners on the most critical aspect of electric vehicle technology — the battery pack. The key engineering trade-off Nissan has made is opting not to include active thermal management, where the temperature of the pack is controlled by an HVAC system similar to what cools the passenger cabin on a hot day.
I love Nissan's answer to the accusations that they rushed to market and didn't properly engineer and plan properly when building the Leaf and most specifically the battery pack. Here's what Mark Perry, Nissan’s director of product planning for the United States says:
If it wasn’t our pack and it wasn’t our engineers and we weren’t working on it for 17 years … we wouldn’t make the statement if we weren’t confident in our ability to do so,