Raise or unlock Leaf top speed

I am researching my way towards a 160kW inverter swap for my 2013 Leaf, and I was hoping that it would bring along with it the Leaf Plus's increased 98mph top speed (I thought was somehow hard coded into the inverter) for track use. I brought this up on Leaf group on facebook, where Dala helpfully provided the scoop that the speed is limited by the ABS system, not the inverter.

Has anyone done any experimentation in this realm? My first thought was some sort of ABS signal interception hardware that could lower the frequency being reported by the wheel speed sensors. Hacky and brute force, but a first step on the road to discovery.

I have seen 100 MPH on my speedo, and it seemed to have some more room to go, so not sure about the limit of 98 MPH?

blooot said:

I am researching my way towards a 160kW inverter swap for my 2013 Leaf, and I was hoping that it would bring along with it the Leaf Plus's increased 98mph top speed (I thought was somehow hard coded into the inverter) for track use. I brought this up on Leaf group on facebook, where Dala helpfully provided the scoop that the speed is limited by the ABS system, not the inverter.

Has anyone done any experimentation in this realm? My first thought was some sort of ABS signal interception hardware that could lower the frequency being reported by the wheel speed sensors. Hacky and brute force, but a first step on the road to discovery.

Click to expand...

You'll have to search around on this forum, but the 160 kW inverter has a hard-coded "rpm" limit, so with stock Leaf Plus and 17" wheels, your top speed is right at 100 mph. There are some that hack the rpm limit, but found out the Leaf Motor itself will start to tear itself up if you continue to increase RPM too high, but I think in theory, the "safe" top speed was calculated to around 139 mph, but even that is unknown if you can sustain that for long periods without damaging the motor.

So you think with an 160kW inverter swap my top speed would be increased to ~100mph? Or would something else stop it from going so fast?

Following along. Keep us posted if you find any good results.

Of course you can always change final drive ratio with larger diameter tires (with compromise of torque reduction). My experience with the 2018 leaf, it will accommodate 27" diameter tire (oem 25.5") with stock suspension depending on tire width. With suspension/fender mods it could probably go larger.

Did you read about VitaminJ experience with removing fuse of ABS etc? I don't see any comments on top speed though.
https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=24738
http://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=24733

blooot said:

So you think with an 160kW inverter swap my top speed would be increased to ~100mph? Or would something else stop it from going so fast?

Click to expand...

Your first limit will be the RPM limit. Then depending how the gear ratio from the motor to the tires is setup, that would be your next limit on speed since that will depend in the RPM limit also. I don't recall if the motor for the Leaf Plus is different than the non-Plus Leaf, as that will affect top speed as well if the motors have different RPM limits. It's really all up in the air though, just guessing at this point.

I think the 2018 and later LEAFs have a slightly higher motor RPM limit than the earlier cars. I saw a slight increase in top speed after switching to larger tires on the 2015 and 2019 (as measured by GPS). Electric motors will self-destruct if RPM is increased beyond their safe threshold (there are photos of a failed LEAF motor in a thread on the forum).

To the best of my knowledge, they are still using the motor that was introduced in 2013, albeit with more and more powerful inverters feeding it.

Check out Dala's YouTube channel. If memory serves, after he did the inverter swap I think he figured out a way to increase the top speed too. Not 100% sure though...

https://www.youtube.com/c/DalasEVRepair

This video in particular:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR4CN2_rRh4

Lots of good content on his GitHub too:

https://github.com/dalathegreat?tab=repositories

Dala has also reverse engineered the "resolver" factor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0v269B0xqo

So, you just need LeafSpy Pro to reprogram the motor/inverter settings to the appropriate value (as explained in the video) after you've completed the inverter swap.

Dala seems to think the limit is coming from the ABS module, not the inverter. I would love to hear about anyone with a 160kW inverter swap pushing past the previous 90mph limit. I would be happy with the 100mph Leaf Plus top speed TBH.