Nissan Leaf Gallery - Nice Battery Pack Pictures

[MitchJi]

Hi,

Pictures below are cropped. The full pictures and the complete gallery are here:
http://green.autoblog.com/photos/nissan-leaf-battery-plant-groundbreaking/#3019888

Check the cables and connectors:

 

[liveforphysics]

I can't wait until Leafs start turning up in wrecking yards. That whole battery pack in perfect shape is going to go for under 2 grand I bet. And perhaps under $500 if it has a little crunched place or two. That's going to be a lot of Whr/$.

 

[spinningmagnets]

Here's a good thread on them, good for them both to be linked...

http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11892

 

[beast775]

very tidy,just put a few trailer wheels on it and use it for a pusher.push your bicycle 3,500 kms.ha then charge in 6 hrs.iron saddle marathon.

 

[MitchJi]

Hi Luke,

I can't wait until Leafs start turning up in wrecking yards. That whole battery pack in perfect shape is going to go for under 2 grand I bet. And perhaps under $500 if it has a little crunched place or two. That's going to be a lot of Whr/$.

Maybe you should power your Insight with 2 leaf motors (dual AC Motors for probably under $3k) and controllers (AWD?) and two battery packs (Tesla capacity pack for $4k).

 

[liveforphysics]

Hi Luke,

I can't wait until Leafs start turning up in wrecking yards. That whole battery pack in perfect shape is going to go for under 2 grand I bet. And perhaps under $500 if it has a little crunched place or two. That's going to be a lot of Whr/$.

Maybe you should power your Insight with 2 leaf motors (dual AC Motors for probably under $3k) and controllers (AWD?) and two battery packs (Tesla capacity pack for $4k).

Well, I hate AWD with a passion, but perhaps just doing a FWD swap wouldn't be too bad.
I would pick a standard Civic chassis over my Insight though. Insight has an Aluminum body that would make it hell to re-work, regular Civic is a dime-a-dozen and has a body that I know like the back of my hand, and an engine bay about 2x bigger than the Insight for finding space to fit batts and parts and things. But the Insight does have a pretty large Aero advantage (over everything but an EV1). With battery technology where it is, I still think the best use of resources is to focus on very light EVs, like ebikes.

 

[MitchJi]

Hi Luke,

Well, I hate AWD with a passion, but perhaps just doing a FWD swap wouldn't be too bad.

I wasn't entirely serious with the AWD idea even if you could get 4 Leaf motors for ~$500 apiece AWD would be pretty difficult to do?

How about this AWD Audi E-tron:
[youtube]0-SXV-eGEdg[/youtube]

I would pick a standard Civic chassis over my Insight though. Insight has an Aluminum body that would make it hell to re-work, regular Civic is a dime-a-dozen and has a body that I know like the back of my hand, and an engine bay about 2x bigger than the Insight for finding space to fit batts and parts and things.

Any particular year? Any models with either electric power steering or manual steering? Any options for manual brakes that don't require superman to use?

With battery technology where it is, I still think the best use of resources is to focus on very light EVs, like ebikes.

Even if you can get one or two Leaf 24kWh packs for about 2k each (plus good prices on their AC Motors and controllers)?

 

[liveforphysics]

Hi Luke,

Well, I hate AWD with a passion, but perhaps just doing a FWD swap wouldn't be too bad.

I wasn't entirely serious with the AWD idea even if you could get 4 Leaf motors for ~$500 apiece AWD would be pretty difficult to do?

How about this AWD Audi E-tron:

Ehh, to me, it's a boat. No interest in driving a rolling PR gimick like that. We worked the numbers on it's 3,xxx ft-lbs of torque at the wheels all ready once on here, works out being about half my civic's torque at the wheels when just NA on pump gas, and the civic is half the weight...

I would pick a standard Civic chassis over my Insight though. Insight has an Aluminum body that would make it hell to re-work, regular Civic is a dime-a-dozen and has a body that I know like the back of my hand, and an engine bay about 2x bigger than the Insight for finding space to fit batts and parts and things.

Any particular year? Any models with either electric power steering or manual steering? Any options for manual brakes that don't require superman to use?

1992-1995 Civic CX or VX. Both only came with manual racks, and both feel fantastic when you pull the vaccum line off the brake booster and run manual brakes (the way every civic road racer runs, because power brakes are almost as awful as bad of an idea as power steering in super light cars.) However, I like a faster steering ratio, so I swapped in an Integra GSR manual steering rack into my Civic. All the Civic/Integra (of the same generation) steering racks are freely swapable, and freely convertable from power to manual simply by unbolting the power steering lines and throwing a little foam filter over the holes. The power steering fluid on a honda rack is not used to lubricate the rack itself in anyway (that is a seperate greased area where the gears mesh). For folks who feel they can't possibily be inconvienced with mild steering effort needed while at parking speeds , the Honda S2000 lends itself as an electronic high-ratio steering rack option that is simple to retro-fit, and becomming more popular with various kitcar builders etc.

Hondas are kinda like legos. You can put the engine from a 2001 "Acura"(a make-believe brand) Integra GSR into a 1988 Honda CRX, or visa versa. You can swap brakes between almost all generations and models of Honda/Acura (some require minor adaptor brackets). As one of the countless examples, can put the cylinder head from a 1989 Japan only CRX SiR onto a 2001 Honda CR-V (and they don't even have the same bore size! 81mm vs 84! lol). You can put the guts from all sorts of transmissions from all sorts of differnt models of Honda together (as long as you stay in the same engine family, aka, K-series, B-series, D-series etc) from all different types of models to make the gear ratios you want. My 1992 Honda Civic VX uses the block from a 2005 Honda accord base model, with the cylinder head and transmission (with custom gear set) from a 2007 JDM Integra type-R (yes, they still make the Integra in Japan). Etc etc. Swapping around Honda engines/trannys/suspension is like playing with legos, whatever you want to fit together generally just fits together with minimal effort, maybe have to drill an extra hole once in a while. Makes them extremely easy platforms to tweak to suit the needs of any application for minimal cost/effort.

With battery technology where it is, I still think the best use of resources is to focus on very light EVs, like ebikes.

Even if you can get one or two Leaf 24kWh packs for about 2k each (plus good prices on their AC Motors and controllers)?

[/quote]

Well, I supose you got me there Mitch. If a couple 24kw-hr packs fell into my lap for the right price, I don't think I could avoid doing a Civic conversion, or kitcar build with them.

 

[MitchJi]

I would pick a standard Civic chassis over my Insight though. Insight has an Aluminum body that would make it hell to re-work, regular Civic is a dime-a-dozen and has a body that I know like the back of my hand, and an engine bay about 2x bigger than the Insight for finding space to fit batts and parts and things.

Any particular year? Any models with either electric power steering or manual steering? Any options for manual brakes that don't require superman to use?

1992-1995 Civic CX or VX. Both only came with manual racks, and both feel fantastic when you pull the vaccum line off the brake booster and run manual brakes (the way every civic road racer runs, because power brakes are almost as awful as bad of an idea as power steering in super light cars.) However, I like a faster steering ratio, so I swapped in an Integra GSR manual steering rack into my Civic. All the Civic/Integra (of the same generation) steering racks are freely swapable, and freely convertable from power to manual simply by unbolting the power steering lines and throwing a little foam filter over the holes. The power steering fluid on a honda rack is not used to lubricate the rack itself in anyway (that is a seperate greased area where the gears mesh). For folks who feel they can't possibily be inconvienced with mild steering effort needed while at parking speeds , the Honda S2000 lends itself as an electronic high-ratio steering rack option that is simple to retro-fit, and becoming more popular with various kitcar builders etc.

Hondas are kinda like legos. You can put the engine from a 2001 "Acura"(a make-believe brand) Integra GSR into a 1988 Honda CRX, or visa versa. You can swap brakes between almost all generations and models of Honda/Acura (some require minor adaptor brackets). As one of the countless examples, can put the cylinder head from a 1989 Japan only CRX SiR onto a 2001 Honda CR-V (and they don't even have the same bore size! 81mm vs 84! lol). You can put the guts from all sorts of transmissions from all sorts of differnt models of Honda together (as long as you stay in the same engine family, aka, K-series, B-series, D-series etc) from all different types of models to make the gear ratios you want. My 1992 Honda Civic VX uses the block from a 2005 Honda accord base model, with the cylinder head and transmission (with custom gear set) from a 2007 JDM Integra type-R (yes, they still make the Integra in Japan). Etc etc. Swapping around Honda engines/trannys/suspension is like playing with legos, whatever you want to fit together generally just fits together with minimal effort, maybe have to drill an extra hole once in a while. Makes them extremely easy platforms to tweak to suit the needs of any application for minimal cost/effort.

Thanks for the information!

With battery technology where it is, I still think the best use of resources is to focus on very light EVs, like ebikes.

Even if you can get one or two Leaf 24kWh packs for about 2k each (plus good prices on their AC Motors and controllers)?

Well, I suppose you got me there Mitch. If a couple 24kw-hr packs fell into my lap for the right price, I don't think I could avoid doing a Civic conversion, or kitcar build with them.

Actually its we got you . It was your estimate of the a used Leaf Packs selling for $2k at a wrecking yard that gave me the idea.

 

[deronmoped]

I can't wait until Leafs start turning up in wrecking yards. That whole battery pack in perfect shape is going to go for under 2 grand I bet. And perhaps under $500 if it has a little crunched place or two. That's going to be a lot of Whr/$.

Are not the battery packs leased? So if the car is totaled by the insurance company the pack will go back to the lease holder and then they will do what they do with it.

Deron.

 

[liveforphysics]

I can't wait until Leafs start turning up in wrecking yards. That whole battery pack in perfect shape is going to go for under 2 grand I bet. And perhaps under $500 if it has a little crunched place or two. That's going to be a lot of Whr/$.

Are not the battery packs leased? So if the car is totaled by the insurance company the pack will go back to the lease holder and then they will do what they do with it.

Deron.

If I'm not mistaken, they dropped the whole battery lease concept.

 

[Evoforce]

Where did you here that the batteries won't be leased. The last I read they were going to lease them. That lease was the only reason I didn't want to buy it. Please tell me they aren't going to lease the batteries! Please....

 

[liveforphysics]

Where did you here that the batteries won't be leased. The last I read they were going to lease them. That lease was the only reason I didn't want to buy it. Please tell me they aren't going to lease the batteries! Please....

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/03/nissan-announces-leaf-ev-purchase-and-lease-pricing.php

 

[nwhm20]

I know what you mean about Honda and lego, it's exactly the same with their motorbikes. Love it!

 

[torker]

My neighbor has an 83 Accord 2door for 1200 and it is unmolested by teenagers. Maybe I should grab it. Only 188k on it

 

[liveforphysics]

My neighbor has an 83 Accord 2door for 1200 and it is unmolested by teenagers. Maybe I should grab it. Only 188k on it

Gotta be forward of 1988 before the lego magic really took effect. Also mainly applies between the civic/integra/crx/del-sol/CRV families of cars. The Accord/CL/Prelude (and others) are a different family, they lego well between each other (engines, trannies, suspension etc), but they don't lego well between the civic/integra etc family. If you're looking for light weight performance, the civic/integra etc family is of course dominate in all respects.