Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News! Global plugin vehicle registrations were up 45% in August 2023 compared to August 2022, rising to 1,238,00 units. In the end, plugins represented 18% share of the overall auto market (with a 13% BEV share alone). This means that […]
I have a 12 year old electric car with an old battery chemistry known for it’s fast degradation compared to current chemistries. It still has more than 50% of its original capacity, which is still more than we need.
I wouldn’t be surprised if I can keep driving it for another 5-10 years before selling the battery for grid storage.
As a guess do you have a Nissan Leaf? If so I think there is a cottage market for replacement and range booster packs. Still cheaper than a new EV. I miss my leaf but not the horrible highway range.
It is a Leaf.
When the battery does eventually die, I’ll be looking at EVs enhanced for an upgrade. The car is too nice to throw away.
I also have a 62kWh Leaf E+ for highway driving. It’s ok, but the older Leafs (from before the refresh) are much more fun to drive, have more storage space, a tighter turning circle, and are much better value for money. I would recommend almost any EV instead of buying a new Leaf. (Maybe not the Hummer EV).
Oh no, this isn’t good news! I’m looking into a newer Leaf, 2019 or newer and was expecting similar performance and such, just bigger battery.
The main problem with the new leaf is the lack of battery cooling. After 3 (sometimes 2) rapid charges in a day the battery is at max temperature and the charge rate drastically reduces.
Unless you already have a CHAdeMO V2G charger, I recommend choosing an EV with battery cooling (almost all of them). You can probably find one with more features and longer range for a lower price than a new Leaf.
If you aren’t planning on using the car enough to worry about battery overheating, and you enjoy the test drive, it’s not actually a bad car. Just a little overpriced.
Wait wait….I thought the new leafs had active cooling and heating? Now got to research this.
I loved the old leafs but lack of active heat and cooling killed the batteries in a few years.
They’ve always had a heating pad in them, unless it only came with some cold weather packages. The “active cooling” is just a fan that blows across the battery, and does basically nothing if you’re charging and it’s already warm outside.
I am dumbfounded. After the class action lawsuit from Arizona and the lizard battery chemistry from early Leafs why would Nissan not move to active cooling in a huge refresh.
You def saved my bacon, thanks for the info!
And what’s your current range?
About 60km from 80%, so I’m guessing 75km (45mi) from 100%.
We rarely drive it more than 10km in a day, and there are chargers every 20km around here.
That’s not bad for your use case!
I’ve got some 60+ mile days since I live so far from Seattle, and the occasional drive to Portland. I’d love to get a leaf, but I need to know that it can handle 200-300 miles on a charge.