Search Struggles

April 14, 2024

The next step in the process is to replace the battery of the 2012 Nissan LEAF. Unfortunately, several problems are still unresolved at the moment.

The goal of replacing the battery is not just to make the car itself run longer—it's to make a point about reusability. If all humans on Earth magically switched to their favorite electric vehicle and we all stopped polluting CO₂ into the atmosphere, there is still the question of waste. It's clear that we shouldn't have to just dump the battery simply because it doesn't work for a car—it could very much work for us in other ways. A stationary power source conserves many more resources and is better in the long run than just returning it to the factory or buying another car.

Now, how do we give this 24 kWh battery a second life? We first have to get the new battery here. This has been quite the hurdle so far.

Here's a brief table explaining the different battery capacities that the Nissan LEAF has had over the years. Hover on anything underlined to learn more. (Note that S, SV, and SL stand for Series, Series Value, and Series Luxury, supposedly.)

The best car batteries out in the market so far have only been around since 2019, and very few of them would likely need to be replaced at this moment. To check, I called 6 junkyards all around my region, but not one of them had a single Nissan LEAF that was even wrecked, much less one that had a spare 62 kWh traction battery lying around. After I looked on Reddit to see if others have walked down my path in the past before, it made more sense—there were cross-country deals going on, simply because there was so little supply.

At this point, I must thank Jack, who worked at one of the junkyards nearby and directed me to Nationwide Auto Recycling and recommended that I check on auto parts online (something that I had never really known was a thing). Checking every so often led me to a $7000 battery, still intact from a totalled 2019 model. Since the ones on QCCharge asked for $500 more, this seemed like a great deal. I was about to make the call when I checked the VIN number and realized it was not a Plus model. Defeated again.

Even despite numerous attempts to find other parts online, there didn't seem to be anything coming in. And so I thought for a few days about how I would proceed.

While scrolling through YouTube Shorts a few days later, I found a few videos from a few companies specializing in lithium-ion battery manufacture, all based around Shenzhen, with corresponding WhatsApp numbers. These companies would prepare separate units and then combine them into packages so that the total output would reach 63 kWh, and the entire box could be shipped anywhere worldwide. As of right now, I'm currently analyzing prices and seeing whether or not I can get something out of this. We'll have to see how this turns out. But in either case, if you happen to find a 62 kWh Nissan LEAF battery lying around, I could use it.