Yeah, they never intended the chemistry for the extreme southwestern US environment. The production design included an aging process that was supposed to minimize initial degradation but it wasn't enough without active cooling, even in a pouch design.

Around mid 2014 a chemistry change was made that was intended to alleviate some of the issues, and a fair number of US packs were replaced under warranty.

Through design changes for the 64kWh packs for the newer models, they were insisting active cooling still wasn't needed, so out they went, still sealed up without any cooling system, but I haven't looked them up to see how well they've been faring since they dumped the production to a Chinese company.

Uh, I may or may not have been involved..

[–] wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I was on track to get a pack replacement, as it was at 30k and like 75% SoH. I had a stroke and had to return the car, but just a few days before that I was investigating dealers that did the pack replacement and verifying that it would be no cost to me, a new formula pack (snake-something was the name, don't remember), and it'd be done locally with minimal wait.

If Nissan would just have went with active cooling, it'd be a peak vehicle imo. I racked up a touch over 10k miles in 4 months, used '11 SV with all the options ticked (not accessories). Driving 70 miles, hooking up a CHAdEMO (capitalization?), filling it to 100%, another 70 miles, full, and the pack temp would be right up or close to the overheating level. But that thing was a trooper.

I want to get back on the road, in one of those 1st gens, but with an aftermarket battery that is higher capacity (27kW good lord not again) and with proper cooling. Swap out the L3 for whatever is the new standard, and enjoy that car. It was a gem.

[–] RojoSanIchiban@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Oof, sorry to hear that. And yeah I think folks in the Leaf subreddit were calling them "crocodile" cells/packs, and I'm completely blanking on the internal name, only vaguely remembering one translation as 'high heat' which was incorporated into the warranty packs and the cell upgrades in 2015 for the 40kWh "HC1" version.

And yeah, originals were 24kWh and there's no getting around that being just for short commutes. I'm assuming at this point on the newest models, that they're beyond the 63kWh, but those did have a different pack design. The 40s would absolutely physically fit on an older leaf, but the battery controller wouldn't be compatible with the computer without 3rd party changes, though I'm sure people have done that and probably more by now.