Replacement Leaf Battery Cost

ei9go

Three and a half years after the first Nissan Leaf went on sale, Nissan has announced the cost of a replacement lithium-ion battery pack for its electric car.

It's a surprisingly low $5,499 in the USA (after a $1,000 credit for turning in the old pack, which is required), plus installation fees and tax. The installation is estimated at roughly 3 hours of labor.

Link:http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1092983_nissan-leaf-battery-cost-5500-for-replacement-with-heat-resistant-chemistry

Yeah I've been following that on mynissanleaf .

Basically Nissan want to steal your old battery.

Think about it, they want to give you 1000 usd about 700 euros for your old battery that has lost 30% capacity equal to about 16 kWh.

So they want you to pay 5,500 USD ex taxes for 24 KWh and give you 1000 for 16 KWh, does someone see something wrong with this ?

Sesshoumaru

Deleted User wrote: »

Yeah I've been following that on mynissanleaf .

Basically Nissan want to steal your old battery.

Think about it, they want to give you 1000 usd about 700 euros for your old battery that has lost 30% capacity equal to about 16 kWh.

So they want you to pay 5,500 USD ex taxes for 24 KWh and give you 1000 for 16 KWh, does someone see something wrong with this ?

Nissan want those old packs, they are valuable. They plan on using them in an energy storage business. Still though, at the end of the day you can get a completely new battery pack for $5500 or roughly €4000. It puts an end to silly stories like this one:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/8674273/Electric-car-owners-may-face-19000-battery-charge.html

Electric car owners may face £19,000 battery charge

Sesshoumaru

Sesshoumaru wrote: »

Nissan want those old packs, they are valuable. They plan on using them in an energy storage business. Still though, at the end of the day you can get a completely new battery pack for $5500 or roughly €4000. It puts an end to silly stories like this one:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/8674273/Electric-car-owners-may-face-19000-battery-charge.html

That's all well and good but the Leaf owner is being ripped off and Nissan is making a huge profit on spent batteries.

I don't think anyone expects to put 5-6K Euro's into a car with 100,000-130,000 miles ? Sure the car maybe almost perfect mechanically but still.

In that case you'd probably be better to lease the battery and fast charge it to be damned !

The other problem is that there has to be a 30% range loss before it's replaced meaning a worst case of about 49 miles and maybe less winter range. It could make the car useless before 70%.

That's why I keep making the point of taking care of the battery and fast charging as little as possible, only when you really need it. And not charging to 100% when you don;t need it and not going on holidays with the car plugged in all the time sitting at a high state of charge. If you're going away leave it at 40-60% charge.

The idea is to get the most out of the original battery so it won;t cost you more.

IF you can buy the Leaf with a battery that has lost 30% for say, 3,000 Euro's that's about 9K you have to spend, that would make it rather expensive.

Question is will many potential 2nd hand buyers even know, will Nissan tell them how many % the car has lost ? I doubt it.

Over 100,000 miles @ a real 55 mpg per tank or 55mpg over 100,000 miles you'd spend about 11,500 in a diesel.

The same in a Leaf at the EPA average of 28 Kwh/100 miles (for the MK 1.5) 34 Kwh/ 100 miles for the MK I. Would cost about 2,600 Euro's excluding any free charging, this is what it would cost you at home on night rate.

So if you look at it like this you'd save about 5,000 Euro's, that's if you get the battery installed for 6K.

So maybe it doesn't look so bad, but if it were me I'd rather put the 6K into a deposit on Leaf II with probably 130 miles real range.

I don;t think I'd allow Nissan rip me off for my old battery, however this could be calculated in a way that you get the battery a few €€€€ cheaper to begin with ? I never thought of this, so maybe it balances out.

derry

Realistically a li ion after 70% is dead as dodo . Yes it can be used fro many years as power back up for emergency use in computer rooms or similar but there wont be many cycles left .

is it true that ROI wont allow or wont do the battery replacement ???

Do you think the info from this site

http://hybridautocenter.com/HAC4/index.php?option=com_hikashop&ctrl=product&task=show&cid=3&Itemid=605

you could buy the battery's yourself and do the job yourself .

The 4 cell pack at $120 is the main component and you need 48 of these to make the total Nissan pack which is some $5500

The problem is to figure out the costs for getting all that stuff to ROI and pay import etc .
I suspect some €7000 euros which might be economic

That looks to be the way forward buy a clapped out battery Nissan leaf in few years for cheap enough and do the change the battery yourself . if Nissan take 3 hours amateur should be maybe 6 to 8 hours

Derry

derry

derry wrote: »

Realistically a li ion after 70% is dead as dodo . Yes it can be used fro many years as power back up for emergency use in computer rooms or similar but there wont be many cycles left .

is it true that ROI wont allow or wont do the battery replacement ???

Do you think the info from this site

http://hybridautocenter.com/HAC4/index.php?option=com_hikashop&ctrl=product&task=show&cid=3&Itemid=605

you could buy the battery's yourself and do the job yourself .

The 4 cell pack at $120 is the main component and you need 48 of these to make the total Nissan pack which is some $5500

The problem is to figure out the costs for getting all that stuff to ROI and pay import etc .
I suspect some €7000 euros which might be economic

That looks to be the way forward buy a clapped out battery Nissan leaf in few years for cheap enough and do the change the battery yourself . if Nissan take 3 hours amateur should be maybe 6 to 8 hours

Derry

If you buy from the above link you risk loosing thousands if the company goes belly up, I've seen this before with people on priuschat.com who were converting their prius to ev or adding a larger battery. They also had major headaches with dodgy cells and it's something I clearly would not do unless it came direct from Nissan with a warranty. If something goes wrong then you could have to pay several hundred euro's sending cells back to god knows where and having to pay more import duty.

I had the debate with Nissan Ireland directly and they simply will not entertain the idea of battery lease or battery swap, they may "repair" the battery if it falls below 70% back to around 70%. But this is unclear at this time.

70% is deemed end of life by the battery industry, yes, but my point is that the Leaf could have over 80% at 70K miles.

End of life is when it becomes unsuitable for your needs, that could be 90% or 50% capacity depending on your usage.

As it stands now a Leaf with 60% capacity would meet my daily needs for 10-15 years, it's only a long trip where it would become a pain.

However, currently I'm doing half the 20 K miles I was doing in my last job, I contract so an EV is something I can't really commit to at this time, but if I were, I would most likely choose the Kia soul and I would not do this If I did not think it was the better EV, after all it has 4 years advantage over the leaf. I would need the extra range and the battery heater if I were to commute back to Dublin in 2015.

The Soul EV has more range, and hopefully a better battery, I'm (guessing) it is because of the ability to take a 100 Kw fast charge, even if it's only for 10 mins, a Leaf simply can't do this. My guess is that it won't heat up nearly as much and it's air cooled. There won't be any 100 KW ChaDeMo capable chargers any time soon, I just mean the fact it's capable of a 100 Kw charge for 10 mins to me means that @50Kw it won't heat up much at all. And it has a battery heater to add more miles for cold weather.