Batteries not included- Buyers of Nissan's Leaf Electric Vehicle Will Lease Power Pack

Hi Hill

I accept your point, but after living with EVs for almost four years, I have a stronger realization about batteries than I did. People close to me have ruined their packs and I haven't. I worry about those who will venture into EV ownership and have expensive learning curves.

But this thread is about leasing batteries. My point is that leased batteries will be less reliable than owned batteries simply because the leaser will not have the same incentive to take care of the batteries and batteries (at least so far) are much more fragile than the typical owner/leaser expects them to be.

I do wonder what the used EV market is going to look like. The combination of high cost of batteries and the (obviously unknowable) history of them is going to make the used EV a harder sell. I would note that I have sold one used EV and even I discounted the price by the cost of a new battery pack because I could not know how healthy the pack was (it is still working).

I am an advocate for MUCH more robust battery management systems which go as far as humanly possible to make battery destruction impossible. I am afraid that these will reduce range to the point that marketability will be a problem. (The combination of NiMH batteries and the management system in the Prius is OUTSTANDING.)

This, I fear, will present a difficult hurdle for EVs. We need a better means to store electricity. Either that or EVs need to concentrate marketing on short range like Toyota is starting to do. The Volvo C-30 EV seems to be going this way, also.

 

new announcement for funding on the Nissen plant in TN. capacity for 150K cars, 200K batteries... looking good

 

I suspect that the battery management systems in these vehicles would never allow the batteries to be drained to the point that would cause damage. Just like current hybrid vehicles show a battery meter to the driver, and when that battery shows to be empty, most drivers would assume the battery is really empty. But you and I know that in reality there is probably a good bit of charge left in there, but the computer has been designed that a certain level is going to be considered dead.