Pictures of the Leaf's Charger and Capacitor

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BrianSanDiego

Active member
Joined
Jan 27, 2011
Messages
34
Location
San Diego, CA
In case you were interested in what is actually behind your back seat, here you go....

Looking from the rear



View from behind the drivers seat. Capacitor is on the right, the Charger on the left.



Close up of the Capacitor.



Close up of the Charger. I thought this took up the entire space back there, but it is actually not all that big.



Close up of the label on the Charger.

 
Thanks for posting the pics. Always wondered what it looked like under all that plastic.

I bet all of that stuff could EASILY have fit either:
A) FLAT in the rear, raising the cargo floor up a few inches but getting rid of the hump. Or,
B) Under the rear cargo area, where one of the LEAFers (sorry I forgot who) put a spare tire from underneath.
C) In the rear cargo crevices to the left/right of the hatch.

When you are trying to hide something that doesn't need to be seen or in need of constant maintenance, why not actually hide it instead of throwing a cover over it in the middle of the room and saying its "hidden." :lol:

P.S. I find it amusing that the giant black capacitor has a QR code. I thought those were just for adverts.
 
Thanks! Ingineer posted a few pics of that area before at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=3010" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. Glad to see a few others views.
 
Boomer23 said:
Cool. But what the HECK are you doing to the interior of your LEAF?

Yes, what are you doing to your Leaf? Replacing the charger with a 10 kwh charger?
Very interesting.

There would be so much cargo space if they put this stuff under the car like tesla did with the S.
 
This is great Info.
I would LOVE to upgrade to the larger charging system that will be installed in the new 2013 Leaf.
The physical swap seems to be pretty easy based on these pics.

I guess we will have to see.
 
KillaWhat said:
This is great Info.
I would LOVE to upgrade to the larger charging system that will be installed in the new 2013 Leaf.
The physical swap seems to be pretty easy based on these pics.

I guess we will have to see.

I see a couple of things happening here 3rd party for charging in the Leaf.

1. Someone reverse engineers the onboard charger so it can be modified to 6.6KW or at least higher than the 3.3KW. (And why not 7.2KW for that matter?). The charger should be physically large enough to accomodate the larger capacity components. Plus since it is water cooled the amount of power going though it could be much much larger. This might entail new wire harness that goes underneith from the J1772 inlet to the charger and to the battery. Not impossible for a DIY conversion but not simple either. A "trade" program, send in, upgrade, and return along with an updated harness for say $2499. This should also include some instructions that could be done by any automotive repair shop or the DIY. Maybe 8 hours of labor at $50/hour = $400 for the install.

2. A self contained, portable 10KW CHADEMO compliant charger, like a Manzinita Micro PFC40 with a CHADEMO interface module and connector. On the input side would be a 75A capable J1772 plug along with a more generic NEMA 14-50 type of connector (or something interchangable). Then if your planning on a longer trip where you need a faster charge inbetween, you just toss the charger in the back and take it with you. If at home, you just charge 3.3kW like 80% of the time, but if you need a faster charge you just whip out your ChadaManz and plug that in. PFC-40 - $3100, Chademo interface - $300, Chademo Cable - $500, J1772 75A and ability to have others - $400: Total about $4300.

All this is just a WAG, but I am sure others besides myself are more than willing to pay up for faster charging.
The latter is more expensive, but completely doable and no more complicated than just plugging things in. No modification to the car would be needed. Also a larger charger like a PFC75 could be used for 18KW charging. 0%-80% in ~1.5 Hours for less than $6K.
 
Generally, it is stated that a Chademo QC needs "isolated" (floating) outputs, and that a typical 0-to-500 volt grounded power supply will not be tolerared by the LEAF.

However, IF the LEAF's HV plus and minus are typically symmetrical around Ground, then a non-isolated symmetrical output (+V and -V around Ground) might be accepted by the LEAF at its QC port?
 
Assuming, of course, they they put the new charger in the same place with the same interconnects, that you can update the firmware somehow to reflect this change, and that you can even buy one of the new chargers at anything approaching a realistic price...

KillaWhat said:
I would LOVE to upgrade to the larger charging system that will be installed in the new 2013 Leaf.
The physical swap seems to be pretty easy based on these pics.
 
Here we go again. This charger swap project keeps getting hashed over and it seems people still disregard some very important facts. Let's start with the wire gauge to the charger and from the front of the car and the wire to the pack. Has anyone considered that replacing this wire is not going to be easy nor inexpensive. Then we move to firmware, cost of the charger, cooling, mounting, etc. This simply does not make sense economically and upgrading to the factory 6.6kw charger would be a big, expensive undertaking for very little gain. Unless you are going to 12kw or more then why bother with something that is so costly and time consuming. Just save the money for an upgraded EV because it is going to be a huge chunk of change.
 
Thats really interesting pics, thank you..I can not wait until our electrical engineers here become so board with the Leaf that they start upgrading to better parts ..
 
EricBayArea said:
Thanks for posting the pics. Always wondered what it looked like under all that plastic.

I bet all of that stuff could EASILY have fit either:
A) FLAT in the rear, raising the cargo floor up a few inches but getting rid of the hump. Or,
B) Under the rear cargo area, where one of the LEAFers (sorry I forgot who) put a spare tire from underneath.
C) In the rear cargo crevices to the left/right of the hatch.

When you are trying to hide something that doesn't need to be seen or in need of constant maintenance, why not actually hide it instead of throwing a cover over it in the middle of the room and saying its "hidden." :lol:
I see what looks like a shock tower bar. It wouldn't surprise me if the LEAF needs such a bar, given how big the body's cross section is in that area, from the low floor to the tall roof, and how the body probably needs to be strong to both carry the battery and protect it in a collision. So, if it's true that the LEAF needs such a bar and the bar is going to be an obstruction anyway, might as well put some junk in the otherwise useless space beneath it.
 
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