Yeah, this is what it's all about. Companies like this should be springing up all over the world soon. Good on them and good on you Robert for showing how it should be done.👍👏
You got it! I certainly hope we see more 3rd party shops opening in the US as well. The major stumbling blocks I see revolve around the proprietary software the would need modified, and potential liability issues if upgrades could be pointed to as a cause to a fire or accident. However, as the owner of a 2016 Chevy Spark EV, if it's range could be doubled I'd be extremely happy! If AC and DC charging could also be updated that would be the 🍒 on top! Great video that gives us old gen 1 EV owners hope.
I really hope something like this will come up in Germany. I don't really know, but it seems like there are regulatory and cost hurdles. Also seems like the country is firmly in the grip of our big OEMs.
I have a 2010 iMiEV with this upgraded battery pack, as supplied by Oz Electric Vehicles. It's a brilliant little runabout and I'm getting between 230 -250 km per charge. I kept the original 50Ah cells and used them to make an off-grid solar charging station on my shed, which charges up during the day and then trickle charges the car overnight, so it's always charged in the morning. I haven't bought petrol or used grid supplied electricity to charge it for nearly a year now. I look forward to seeing what others have re-used the old batteries for.
What was the cost? Coming from the uk, we have things like rust, and when you get past the 10 year mark switches and plastics start breaking, so unless it were cheap, im not sure it would be worth it to replace batteries.
That is awesome. However, let me give you an important tip. Keeping lithium batteries topped up reduces their life, can be rather significantly too. So it is MUCH better to run your car down to 20% before recharging it back to 80% than to keep it 60-80 or worse. I know most people think they can operate like lead acid batteries which last longer when kept full.
I bought a Peugeot-badged one of these at auction four years ago for £3,600 here in the UK. It's now over ten years old and still gets 67 miles of range in the summer and that's on very hilly terrain. Great car with lots of charisma and cheap as chips to run. The only money we've spent on it in four years is £70 on a new 12V battery and two new front tyres for £35 each plus fitting. It just sailed through the MoT. Cheapest motoring ever.
I love both of your accounts. EV's need to be small to make sense: Emissions are half that of a Tesla per mile, Battery replacement becomes economically viable and is also half or less of the resource hog a large EV is.
I suspect as things move forward in the electric vehicle space there's going to be a lot more of this happening. I can see a cottage industry arising to take care of this segment of the market, and I'm all for it!
What's quite annoying about that is Nissan still make an easily swappable battery for all of the older Leafs now but won't sell it to 3rd party companies, or, offer an upgrade service to existing customers. It's buy new or get lost. A really poor ethical business decision by them. The great PR they would get by being all in on extending the life of their products is just thrown away. They are more than a little disappointing.
Yep. We traded in a Leaf for a bolt euv for the same reason. If we could have gotten a bigger battery we'd have kept it. But, prices to replace batteries in the US are insane. . And all on the opposite coast from me
As a UK iMiev owner I've been following the work of Oz Electric Vehicles for years. Their hard work and what they've achieved is fantastic and deserves to be rewarded. The issue is cost. If I were to go through the process of landing an upgrade kit here and fitting it myself the cost would easily outstrip just buying a good used EV with more than double the range and a lot more creature comforts. It souldn't be like this but sadly that's the state of play. I wish them all the best and if the cost of getting a kit in the UK were to half then I'd be seriously considering it.
I bought a used 2012 i-MiEV 8 years ago here in the US. The North American trim ones are slightly wider than the European and Asian versions. It's a marvelous little car that, I think, was largely underappreciated at the time. The original battery in mine started to fade in capacity in 2020 and I was able to get a warranty replacement. I take care of this car and will surely be driving it for years to come. The work this crew in Australia is doing is marvelous.
What absolutely wonderful memories. I remember this video well and not long after this, I ended up with a Peugeot iOn clone of the iMiEV. I even put a kitchen in the back with a fridge and running water! Looking forward to seeing Rob and the team this weekend at Everything Electric in Sydney!
My first EV was a Peugeot-badged iMiev. On our third EV now but still miss the iMiev’s sheer ability as a run-around for shopping, quick trips, even weekends away. It was like owning a four wheeled Vespa and not much wider either!
Way back in the day when there was only two DCFCs in Brisbane, I used the AC charger out the front of that shop to help get my Nissan Leaf from Ipswich to the Gold Coast. Great to see they are still trading and innovating.
240km range is not a bad range , especially considering the size and where that type of car typically drives. This is a good thing these guys are doing.
I still have the Peugeot Ion and i am agree That this is a marvellous car , I love it . Why you need more to go from A to B. The only thing ist is limited and lacking in this day is , range ! I would like this upgrade here in Spain .
Thanks to Robert's iMiev videos way back, we bought a second hand Peugeot iOn several years ago. The car's heading for her teens, high mileage now, but still as good as new. Although we've added a second EV to the family, the iOn is still our daily runabout. Just adore our 'mini tardis', and will certainly treat her to an upgrade battery some day. She's a keeper!
Luckily we still get 80Km range from a full charge in our Imiev, last check a few months ago, from turtle to full, took 11Kwh from its original 16Kwh capacity. ours is a 2010 model.
Graeme has a been leader in Brisbane of adapting vehicles from ICE power to Electric for a number of years if you want to know about converting vehicles to electric he is the man to see, he also easy to talk to and so helpful with advice.
For me that's the beauty of EVs, the simplicity. They are basically 2 components, a battery and a Motor. ICE cars are so complex. A huge chain of potential weakest links. A simple Cam-belt snaps and it's a huge rebuild of smashed parts. What would be great in future is a sort of ISO standard for Battery modules, so you could plug more in as they developed, swap them in and out, slide them into racks for industrial use ..etc. Having said that EVs will have 300 mile ranges as standard within 5 years, and LFP will be the technology.
I was working on a highland estate as a renewable energy manager. My commute was 20 miles each way and the single track twisty roads were eating the tires off my BMW so I nabbed one of these in Edinburgh for 5K at the time. It was a pre-production ex Scottish power car. The drive back to Ardnamurchan was some laugh I stopped at just about every charger I could the last being in the Glencoe ski centre. I just made it to my house with 0 on the battery and a turtle on the dash. It was one of the most fun cars I ever had and i am a petrol head as well as a long time EV enthusiast. I loved this thing it was perfect for single track highland roads and with B mode on the regen was fantastic. One day it just stopped I knew the battery itself was fine because I carefully monitored it but Mitsubishi told me it needed a new one and that was it. As I was leaving the county soon I sold it off to a chap I thought could save it and I was delighted to hear he did. It was just a trivial component as I thought. The memory of passing an Audi in it full chat at 70, motor screaming still gives me a smile.
This stuff is what so many people are missing about electric vehicles. The batteries have an amazing potential life beyond the initial install and that has flow on effects to all areas of the renewable ecosystem.
The i-MIEV is so cute. Love seeing things getting repaired, upgraded, up cycled. Saving old ICE cars with blown motors from the wreckers and converting them to electric, and giving old EVs new life with upgraded batteries and features is so great to see. I do believe EVs (and maybe hydrogen cars) are our future. New battery tech under development will double (or more) the range and also eliminate the fire risks, and prices are coming down fast. BTW, OZ Electric Vehicles are just down the road from me. Going to stop in and say Hi and see what EVs they have for sale.
It's maximum 200klm's to gympie from bisvagas. Aside from that slip up. What a company! What a car! This really is the future of sustainability and the most affordable way to get new buyers into the used EV market!
Just hit 108,000 miles in my 2013 Ford Focus EV. Still get 70 mile range in the Winter. I’ll be driving it until the wheels fall off. Really looking forward to seeing more businesses like this!
Love how global this channel can be at times. One day watching a review of new sports ev in China, then a 3 wheeler in the UK and now you're down the road from me showing resto mods. Love the variety. Bring the Everything Electric show to the Brisbane Exhibition Centre next year!
I am also thinking the I3 is a good choise for giving a 2. life with all the carbon, alu and plast it is made of. There was a test of some new batteries with 600 km, but have not heard from that since.
OMG! The Mitsu Outlander PHEV battery management system (BMS) did that fake degradation trick as well - the BMS calculated max capacity based on the number of days since the battery was built. The car lost range quickly whether the batteries were used or not. So great to hear smart people finding a way to fix that and make this car useful again.
Agreed! Good call. I keep looking at all the lovely shiny brand new EV's, get envious & seriously consider buying one, but knowing that my Leaf is good for 99% of my journeys, I'm loathed to throw £40k at a car that simply takes me from A to B. Chademo charging fast becoming obsolete though, I can see the sense in making upgrades that could perhaps double the cars current range, just to future proof & make the occasional longer journey a bit easier. Finding a trustworthy local(ish) solution is of definite interest to me & many others.
@@Brian-qo1sdI keep hearing that CHAdeMO is going extinct but I've seen the charger in about 70% of places; BP Pulse, Shell Recharge, Osprey and PodPoint are (almost) collaboratively spread wide enough wherever there is rapid charging I still want garages like this to be every 80 miles or closer in the UK
Hey Rob, pop over to New Zealand and talk to the guys at Ev's Enhanced in Christchurch, they're upgrading Leafs with bugger batteries but have gone silent on updates. Maybe you could charm them? :)
frick EV enhanced for selling open source product and not giving any credit to the original creator. they are a leech on opensource community. charging 800dollaroos for leaf can bridge also breaking GPL v3.0 license
iMiEV is definitely a head-turner! People think it’s a new car for some reason and get surprised when they find out that it’s a decade old car with upgraded batteries !! Love this little and powerful car!
We had a Mitsubishi i-miev (Peugeot version) and absolutely loved it. We are in the UK and contacted this company (oz) in Australia. Sadly they never replied. The range became unacceptable so we traded it in for a Seat Mii. It's a nice car but nowhere near as well loved as the i-miev, bigger and heavier. We're so sad that we couldn't upgrade the i-miev here.
I got a 2012 I-MIEV here in Canada (Alberta) I have the original battery that gets about 80-100km in ideal conditions, I plan on keeping mine for the long term, even adding a 200 watt roof mounted solar panel to charge the 12 volt systems - therefor reducing the DC to DC charging from the drive batteries! great show for a classic EV!
It is only when looking back one can see the incredible progress that has been made. I still have the same car I had 15 years ago but the progress in EV:s has been amazing over those years.
OZ Electric Vehicles in Springwood Australia, do amazing work. My 2010 i-MiEV was upgraded in 2020 with their new battery and it has transformed the car and how I can now use it! Fabulous little EV's!!!
@@GurmeetSingh-dz8ff The battery pack on the ES trim of the i-MiEV features a fan-driven, forced-air induction system that automatically engages to protect the battery from overheating during charging. Drivers can upgrade to the Premium Package, which also gives drivers the ability to charge the i-MiEV using public quick-chargers. Because quick-chargers can tend to heat batteries and reduce their efficiency in the long term, we've added an air-cooling system that draws cold air from the air conditioning unit to keep the battery nice and cool, even in hot climates.
The sound of your voice and that recording quality takes me right back to 2009/2010 when I was cycle touring around Europe, watching your Carpool and Fully Charged shows in my tent at night. That, and listening to AIOTM. Happy days. Love how far you’ve come and it’s heartening to see how things have moved forward.
Oh wow, just a few months ago i was looking at available EVs in Brisbane, the i-MiEV caught my eye, and my research brought me to THESE SAME GUYS! They're just down in southside of Brisbane. 1:24 Is that an ARDUINO DUE 😂. Welp if it works IT WORKS! Heck yeah, getting it DONE! We're not here to f... uh... _flip spiders._
Brilliant idea. And for anyone who is thinking of switching from ICE, I would imagine it could still be cheaper to buy an old EV like this and pay for the upgrades than buy a shiny new one. Certainly a lot greener anyway. 💚
I own a Citroen Zero and we love the car. We live on a small island in the Netherlands and the Zero is ideal for it. I hope we can change the battery in Europe too for this kind of battery. I love youre programme on youtube
I had a Peugeot Ion for 5 years, absolutely loves it. If this upgrade was available within the UK i would have gone for it (instead I had to change cars to one with a larger battery). Interesting the battery upgrade for the outlander PHEVs, i see this been very attractive for owners as well.
Our 2014 Mitsi PHEV uses same Yussa LEV40 battery cells It's now done 270K fault free miles on original battery pack . We use a CHadeMo 5Kw plug in power take off to power our caravan off grid or our house in power cuts. ( It's always been great towing car ) Stationery in charge mode it's more efficient then our 10 hp Honda generator 🤠👍
I had one of these (the Peugeot version), and loved the car. 120/130km range, perfectly usable to comute. With a new, larger battery, I would buy it again .
What's not to like! I've got Le Miev (Peugeot Ion) and love it. I also have a recent i3. Honestly in many ways I prefer the little Ion, so the idea of the Ion having a thoroughly modern range to rival the i3 is fab.
Sorry, that's very intriguing but way too short a video! We need deeper dives to give people more confidence in this and similar ventures. What about the pack enclosure, safety, batteries they tried, new configuration of the old cells for solar, testing and selection of the same? The gentleman mentioned hot-rodding, can the power be increased (spoiler, it probably can, with CAN 😀)?
I had a 2010 iMiEV back in the day…my then wife had a 2012. I believe we had the only his and hers pair in the country at the time. I miss it dearly… I’ve driven the upgraded one Robert drives in the video, and chatted for hours to Francisco about the work they have done…it really is an upgrade on the original, and has made me want another one so badly! Never should have sold it…but the guy I sold it to still has it.
I drove one of the first iMiEVs at the Tokyo Auto Show when it debuted. Nice 4-door city car with legitimate seating for 4 adults (as opposed to the 2-door, 2+2 seating in my Fiat 500e). It just needed a better battery.
Just bought a Chevrolet Bolt because my Chevrolet Spark EV didn't quite have the range I wanted. I always thought, that the Spark would be great at 150-200 miles of range. If they could double the battery pack and not increase the weight. Would be a terrific all around car. Like it said in the piece, these battery packs could be use for backup solar arrays. Never know, when your power goes out or buy cheaper energy at night.
Ross Blade had the same issue with Getz canbus for the Blade Electron. Has been so good to meet i-meiv owners that have upgraded their batteries around Brisbane.
Great video. Interesting hearing the engineer saying it was difficult to decode the 'cambus'. We need the 'right to repair' ... manufacturers need to be made to make technical details including software available to third party's so that the life of EVs can be extended.
Our first ev was used 2012 imiev. Found it on a high end used car lot. Lambos Maserati etc.. It was like new, 5,000 miles. Car lot had no idea what to do with it. Purchased it for $6,800. Worked great. Grandson wanted to buy an EV, sold it to him on a good deal. He used it daily. A year after buying a storm knocked down a tree and crushed it!
Robert THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for covering this!!!!!! I so need this in the US. I too love my iMiev and need more range. What they're doing with the electronics sounds wonderful, but I'd be happy (ecstatic) with a 17 kwh battery -- just the original box (or something with some new brackets) with some empty space in it but modern batteries. 230km would be amazing, but in a pinch, I'd take 100km again at a reasonable price. Don't get me wrong -- I'd jump at their full menu, but if they could only export something simple and less capable, they'd have customers in the states for that as well.
Calmax Fine Cars. 1204 Via Roma Colton CA 92324 USA Has recently signed up as a Licesenced Installer of their battery upgrade. Try contacting them, or OZ Electric Vehicles for any info.
Great to see these older cars having modern battery upgrades. There have been CATL LFP modules available for the Nissan Leaf for a while now, is this company also going to perform that upgrade?
This is great! HOWEVER We need to put it too manufacturers to not prevent this on all items into the future, what am I getting at? Manufactures (tesla) will limit 3rd party modifications aggressively. This is not on, you buy it you own it, its yours, so don't allow the people you bought it from to determan how it might be used (or not) in the long future!
we need more companies doing this kind of work and we need more cars like this so many of the EVs especially in the USA are massive fast and expensive which is killing them here
The video said they were upgrading Leafs as well. Please can we have a video of that too. There was a company in NZ working on that but everything seems to have gone quiet as it is likely expensive for a small company to develop. Like others I would love more range on our existing Leaf. Good work on the i-MiEV though.
I am still driving my i-miev as my only vehicle (other than a once or twice yearly rental of a longer range ev) I have to run off to work and after the first 2.5 minutes of video realize I have to come back after work to hear the rest of this! Double the range!? I got a high of 90 miles hypermiling back roads (I know it was rated at 60 miles on a charge... what would I get with an upgrade? 180 miles per charge!? Looking forward to the whole video later...
I love this. Upgrading EVs should be part of the design requirement to allow the ability to keep them on the road for decades. Just as ICE cars have a massive after-market modding scene, EVs should be looking to nurture the same kind of passion. And just like many/most mobile phones these days, the battery should not be a limiting factor to the lifespan.
Just noticed how much the interior bits look like my 2009 Lancer, but I guess it makes sense to raid the parts bin when they built them. Really hope companies like this can keep cars like this on the road and who knows in 20 years what batter tech will be like to refresh them again and keep them on the roads.
I have a feeling this would be the car Kath & Kim would drive in a 2024 reboot of the show... Along with a teen-aged Epponnee-Rae! It's different! It's unusual! It's noyce!
i have a 2001 Peugeot Partner electric with a 16kWh Ni-Cd battery. Lovely thing for local running about, no bells and whistles, sadly most people don't even know they exist let alone have any spares for them or know how to repair them, and they do need repair, with their brushed motor and batteries that have to have water added.
In 2012 I came within 2 days of buying one of these. It was the garage run around, but it wasn't liked so they decided to sell it for less than half the forecourt price. £12K instead of £28k. I'd just had an insurance/pension mature and I had £11k to burn and I decided on a small Mitsubishi. They suggested I try the iMiev and I loved it's massive acceleration. My wife agreed to the sale, but asked what would it cost to replace the batteries? I tried to find out what the likely life span was going to be. I even rang Nissan to ask them what they expected of the Leaf? No-one knew as it was so early on in the life of EVs. The cost to replace the battery pack was £8500 and to honest, I didn't argue with my wife when she said that maybe it wasn't such a good idea and that it was maybe wiser to wait a while whilst things sort themselves out. It was 3 years before I got my first Zoe.
I have a 2016 leaf had it from new 66000 miles and just had two rear tyres and new front brakes and discs a few spring because of a pothole . It’s been brilliant and it still gives the range it did when it was new . If I could have changed the battery I would do it myself and I have a pretty good workshop and 2 post lift. But as the battery is still ok no point to spend the money . Plus no doubt I wouldn’t be able to connect it to the cars software . So I am leasing a new ev as to own one isn’t worth it atm because of the tech changing 11:35 so much
There needs to be a big project to create a computer system that can run everything in the car, and not just these cars but any electric car. There are going to be loads of old second hand electric cars where mechanics will be trying to figure out what the old computer system is doing. It would better to pull out the old computer out from the old cars and put in a new one. I hope someone starts an open source IT project for just any old electric car, with all the battery management and all the driving functionality, even functionality to control the electric windows and windscreen wipers...
These already exist in various separate forms such as OrionBMS for diy battery packs, and Thunderstruck motor controllers as a few examples. It's very tricky to create generalised car controllers as there are so many configs of battery voltage and motor design, this is without considering the various different uses of CAN messaging across EV hardware! Right now it's not too tricky (just time consuming) to build and run an entire DIY refurb EV off a couple of Arduinos that you can program for your specific project for cheap
Like that old ad campaign for death sticks, "You've Come Along Way, Baby!" This just goes to show you how much technology has improved in the last 15 years and how much it will probably change again in the next 15 which makes me super excited. Especially with announcements that commercially available sodium-ion packs will be shipping in cars this year and they are going to cost way less than most experts have even thought they would... Amongst a dozen new promising tech's all racing to become the next Lithium-Ion standard... AMAZING!
Really miss my Leaf now, but 8 years ago the recharging infra was too sparse. Still I had 4 fun years with it and would buy it back now I have the space and take it to a company like this for upgrading. Great to see the leap forward speeding up each year.
So awesome to see this video. We used to own a Peugeot iOn (sister model) between 2016-2020. Awesome little car 🤗❤️ once in a while i have thought of maybe get one If we need a car number 2! It's so nimble 😊, with a maybe upgrade to the battery pack like in this case, it could be very interesting! 😂. Btw. We named our car Ellie ❤❤
Currently it's about 16k with only a 1 year battery warranty, the ACCC would say that warranty is way lower than the expected life of those batteries but you would have to sue the company for redress is they died to early.
So almost 10k euros? You could buy a second hand Dacia Spring for not much more money, and definitely a longer warranty. As ever the cost is the killer for these projects@@metricstormtrooper
We don't have much choice in Australia. With buying the car and the battery upgrade it was the MUCH cheaper option for getting into an EV. $21 000 AUD for a fabulous, as new EV!!@@StartledPancake
I daily drive a 2012 Renault Fluence Z.E., basically Renault's first electric car and there's only 4 left on UK roads so I don't want to get rid of it. But recently it's been pretty frustrating. On a full charge after calibration it only goes 37 miles, and more like 20 miles on hilly terrains. The battery health is at 46% right now, and the service battery warning and reduced power is constantly on the dash. I need to clear the fault codes manually just to charge it. Mine was the original press car that Renault gave to reviewers and still has the original reg so I really don't want to get rid of it. Might be looking into getting a better and larger battery swapped into it. And maybe charge port upgrade with CHAdeMO.
Have we seen anything from the channel in Poland? I suspect not. YES! We need at least one story from Poland. Surely two people on the fully charged staff like country-hopping in Europe? (Needs two: Camera-person + presenter)
You are really making the most of your Australian staying! Good job! Interesting topik as well. I'm also intrigue by the solar trailer (0.34 and 11.54 ) any bit of this in the following?