This should be headed Nissan Leaf modules practical experience data
On Oct 3 I competed in the Wye River Challenge, a 24 mile electric boat race out of St Michaels MD. I used a Torqeedo Cruise 4 electric outboard, and 24 Leaf modules. The motor took between 100 amps to 90 amps all the way, 2.6 hours more or less. Starting voltage on the modules a veraged 4.00, ending voltage 3.58. Average speed was 9.5 mph in a beamy 15' of my own design.
I assembled 3 modules into one battery of 25 lbs, and had eight of them aboard. Each battery was paired in series to crank out 48 volts. The four pairs were wired in parallel to handle the amps.
Each battery was an sandwich of 3/16ply, three modules with ply spacers replacing the steel spacers that Nissan uses, and another ply end cover. I charged these modules with a Hyperion 1420 RC charger, about 8 amps output. Long and tedious, but it's all I had. Never did I encounter any warmth in the modules.
During the race, none of the wires (6 and 8 gauge) got warm. None of the modules got warm to the touch--very unscientific, but not much reason to do differently with no sign of any stress.
The parameters and requirements of an international auto mfg plant have to be extremly rigorous. Selling Leafs to the public, who will then flog the cars along roads everywhere, means absolutes that I don't have to deal with when I tie my batteries down in a boat. Yes, we have to be prudent, safe--within our individual expectations. The breathing space for Leaf modules is an interesting subject. What considerations, what extremes the engineers were accounting for, will probably be something few of us ever learn of.