I recently upgraded my 24kWh Battery for a 40kWh at ecofix warwick. I got my battery of a lady who just had a 55kWh pack fitted. Completly transformed the van.
@@IanSampsonRLO It is brilliant. the old battery was @80% the new is 95% SOH so that has doubled the range if not more. It's my wife's van (although it is a 5 seater) and she used to have to run with the heating off in the winter to ensure she made it home. Now it will last two days between charges.
I had not heard of Ecofix Warwick before. Considering the hours of labour needed, their fee for fitting and canbus work seems good value. Their website doesn't have much information, but the gallery shows a variety of BEVs.
Dala has released the software so people can do their battery upgrades DIY. He has also got a Leaf battery removed from the car and has a simple set up to to run his home off it. It would be worth contacting him. I'll try to find a link
I wanted to write same stuff. Also you can look for BYD battery emulator if you want to use for home storage. The name may be misleading. Everything started from a BYD battery but now includes lot's of battery's and inverter's.
Great to see you back, watching you since Polo to Leaf day! I know Muxan (SP?) do a range extender box for the ENV200. You keep the original battery and add a few KWH in a box under the boot floor. I am sure you've seen this. Hope you manage to source something! Thanks
EVs in general are a problem right now. They make sense for some people, but they aren't quite ready for the mass market IMO. Nissan EVs in particular can be a problem because many don't have active cooling on their battery packs, and that's really needed. As I understand it, the env200's at least have a fan for cooling, which isn't as good as most other EVs but it's far better than most Nissan EVs. As for the cost of battery replacement, that's exactly why I say they aren't ready for the mass market. It's just not cost effective to replace the battery on most EVs, which makes them disposable as you've mentioned. I have a car with almost 400,000 km on the clock. The engine is original, except for a few parts that need regular replacement. I don't think there's many EV battery packs that would not need replacement before doing that. And considering recent news where relatively minor scapes can cause the entire pack to be replaced (usually out of warranty), I suspect there will be quite a few packs that need to be replaced well before that time.
I also believed that by this point in time that having a battery refresh would be no different to say having a cam belt done on a conventional car. The pack in my Outlander last time I checked was down 59% capacity, which given the way its used is not surprising. Problem is that its got to the point now that I'm completely discharging and recharging twice a day for my commuting, this means that degradation will be accelerated.
If I were in your position I'd do my best to get a secondhand 40kwh battery yourself; look at online auctions for vans written off but the battery is fine, pester anyone selling them, post in EV groups etc. If you do get one, use Dala's free resources and either do the work yourself, or if you don't have the skills, rope in an electrician or mechanic mate to do it, or find an independent who'll do it for a reasonable amount; there are people out there. It's not straight forward but nothing good ever is, and lots of people have successfully managed it. Good luck!
Great to see you Ian Hope you AMy the kids and dogs are doing well. It would be cool if you made a video with Toby driving your old Zoe . Cle ley is great . I watched a lot of RU-vidr James coats who works there. He and his wife Kate started with a leaf .
Watched all your early Leaf videos. Just at the weekend there glad I didn't take the Leaf as a big diversion on the way back which when you are on unfamiliar roads with limited range completely stuffs you with the dire charging network. Cheers!
Actually I just had a thought. I charge my Leaf with the brick charger. I suppose there's nothing to stop me buying a few LiFePO4 cells and building another battery in the boot. A 15kWh 48V battery from Fogstar could be had for £2000. A 48V inverter / charger could be had for £600. With these, the granny charger could be used to charge the Leaf when out and about (no hunting around for a charging point) and when at home, the 15kWh battery could be charged through the inverter. All sorted for less than £3000. It would take up a bit of room in the boot as well as the increased weight, but might be a solution for an NV200?
8:58 Agreed, prices of low mileage cars have dropped a lot due to the higher volume of EVs coming off lease and the recession. Meanwhile, battery replacement is still expensive. Sadly, replacing the car instead of the battery might be the least worst option.
8:11 With the hours involved, DIY battery swap is the only affordable option. One snag is that there are few 40kWh battery packs available from vehicle dismantlers.
The feedstock for them is pretty much crashed 40kWh Leafs. If they ain’t being written off, they aren’t available. Short supply increases the prices. Especially when folks are falling over themselves to bag a cheap Leaf battery pack as a high capacity, budget home storage. 3x a powerwall storage for half the cost.
Get a Bluetooth odb dongle and check the battery you will be able to see if it is just a bad cell or if the whole pack needs doing, if the whole pack has dropped I would just live with reduced range it will taper off and it will still be a useful van even at lower range, I'm not sure I would invest any more money in to it as the parts are getting harder to get and they are expensive as you say, living with the reduced range is the cheapest option imo maybe car swap with your son for those longer journeys. Good to see you Ian, I've been a subscriber since the early days, I've had 3 Nissan Leafs since 2013 and the only problem I've ever had was a rear door lock that wouldn't unlock which I fixed with one from a breakers yard, literally had no trouble at all. Looking forward to an update on your solar PV system to see how it's fared over the summer.
Yes it's a bit depressing. Nissan are a heartbeat away from bankrupcy, their debt being at junk status. Having dropped the ball on EV's after Carlos Ghosn, left it seems they are reduced to making Hybrids in the UK ??. Manufacturers don't really want people, swapping battery packs which is why they make them so expensive. Until, they are forced to offer this by right to repair Legislation, it's doubtful it will be economically viable...
I guess the labour charge and VAT is a big chunk of that, its a pretty big job that needs doing in a good environment by people who know what they are doing (you'd hope), so your always going to have to pay for that. Its pretty similar to that old polo you had, pay for a new engine to fit into that, or just sell it and buy another with the engine you want. Difference here is that there is always a market for your old battery so the min "scrap" value should be higher for an old knackered EV.
7:56 Will Leafspy identify the weak modules in the battery pack? Taxi firms have noticed that in the Leaf certain modules get hottest and and lose capacity. ☮️
It's a tough decision, but if you were to scrap it.. what could you get with double the range for $10-$15 K? I guess if it was me, I would continue to use it as is. For longer trips, I guess I would rent a car. but it depends on how often those longer trips are. If they are often, I would put in the bigger battery and love all that double range. We have a Mini Cooper SE with 114 miles of range.. but it will get more than that. For around town, we never really have been below 50% state of charge.. we do the same, it comes home, we plug it in, it's full in less than an hour, then we may go out, come back, and plug it in. we also have a tesla Model Y for long trips. which makes that part easy. btw, it's nice to see you again. yes, i remember the zoe days and the brief honda days
Popularity of a vehicle certainly seems to make the parts cheaper. Someone drove into on a roundabout and scratched the wheel of my e-Niro. £146 new on ebay. Surprisingly cheap I thought, but I'd hate to know the cost if it was a low volume car.
Have you watched Glyn Hudson do a swap DIY on his camper ENV200? I think it’s a case of being lucky finding a pack for sale as so many end up in EV conversions.
The trouble is that there aren't many used batteries around, so prices are still very high. Just look on eBay. Of course they come from EVs that are written off, so not many yet. As for Nissan part prices, they are very expensive. Renault and Nissan have really put up their prices in recent years. This has to be the most extortionate part ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WvmWqTtkM88.htmlsi=4QuxszB14ujA1GTa
Not many 40kWh batteries around, I gather from Glyn Hudson's swap that (again) the env200 battery is different enough from the Leaf to not be an option. I suspect though that the economic option is to sell the env200 to someone who suits the range and buy another. Been watching prices on these for a while as I'd love to swap our family bus for an electric one but 40kwh passenger env200 seem to be holding their value well. Seems soon you'll be able to pick up a newer e-Berlingo or Combo-e with a bigger battery and CCS for the same money. Maybe that will push 40kwh env200 prices down a bit more and make swapping to one viable.
The ENV is a first generation EV, where the manufacturer was barely sure it would be kept long term. I’m afraid that the longer you keep it the more money you will be ploughing into it over the years.
Just a heads up that the differential gears can't cope with max throttle from standstill😮 The second hand cost of the reduction gearbox is circa £500! That BYD T3 van that someone mentioned should fit the bill should they decide to import it✅✅ Does it have a Barn door option? Did anyone notice its hard work getting any eNV200 insurance quotes that are remotely affordable nowadays🙁
Interesting to learn….but jeez… I swapped a ball joint on a Cortina in 90’s … ball joint was about £3 and the env will be £280 … I have considered the env as a diy camper type project, some have done this … but not so sure now… What about the RU-vid guy “electric classic cars” he has stock parts on his shelves, could he help..? 🤔
I wonder what the cost is for a used battery from a scrap yard and get Cleveleys to switch it. I imagine there would be no warranty of the battery swap, if it turned out to be junk that would be too bad I suppose. It would have to be cheap.
Hi TRY ELECTRIC CLASSIC CARS THEY CONVERT CLASSIC CARS, THEY MITE BE ABLE TO HELP YOU. ARE YOU ABLE TO BY A SECOUND HAND BATTERY THAT IS GOOD THEN YOU HAVE SPARE BATTERY CELLS, THAT WOULD BE BATTERY CELLS FOR BOTH VANS.
Ev's are becoming throw away vehicles, and for the most part always have been. I got rid of my leaf and got a zoe 40 and have not looked back. 40 is the minimum IMO.
No they don’t have to be throw away cars. In the usa we have redwood materials run by a former tesla Executive j b strobel. That recycles batteries and other things on a leaf can be used again.
You’d think Nissan would have wanted to save on design and manufacture. I mean both are vans and both expected to transport heavy weights. Why make everything different. Good luck.
I bought a Nissan Leaf in Feb this year. It's a Japanese import, 2011. Every time you turn it on you get this cute Japanese voice telling me something. It's got 6 bars left, charges to 70-80km (40miles) and it is a great car. I've only charged it from the grid once, the rest of the time from my panels or batteries. There was a 62kWh battery on Ebay for around £7500. I wondered whether a hack could be done with LiFePO4 prismatic cells? They've recently come down in price. Anybody know? I've seen guys retrofitting the motor into different cars and boats and using different motor controllers.
How is it that a battery swap for a 40kWh battery is 10-15k, but a 40kWh Leaf is 10k? That's for the whole car. I have a similar Zoe to the one your son now has. How is he doing with it? Mine's been great, but I'd like some more space and a bit more range (or proper rapid charging), I just can't make the sums add up for something I actually want.
6 months ago, I traded in my 2015 5-seater Evalia when we bought our secondhand Tesla model 3. Disturbingly often we regret doing that, despite being a bit crap and dinged up it was just a amazingly useful van / minibus. Yesterday my wife floated the idea of getting, or at least do a solid financial calculation for a VW Buzz. That would of course meaning getting rid of the Tesla and the trailer we had to buy for our transport needs. With that said, is the BYD T3 for sale in the UK? That´s a very similar car to the e-NV200 but with CCS rapid charging and about 50kWh battery. I think I would prefer it instead of the Buzz. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-LVAz7J5_EuA.html
Sorry not in the know enough to confidently advise. I dont think I will ever lease again…it seemed expensive. Apparently it makes sense with high end super cars.
WEF dont want you travelling. why do you think they want diesels off the road..nothing to do with emmisions.15 minute citys coming so ideal for your evs.
Maybe worth carrying a Honda Inverter Generator on board so you can put some mile in the battery when at snail pace. Here is a RU-vid Link for V2H using a LEAF Battery:- ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-XHZWGLzT7gg.html
