I was pondering the same question earlier this year when I decided to dip my
toe in the water on lithium by purchasing a pack for my motorcycle. I wanted
to get some hands on experience before buying a suitable pack for my Datsun
Truck. I emailed a local EV enthusiast, Don Blazer, who has a fleet of
electric vehicles for his business and buys and uses many Calb cells. He also
offers them to other EV enthusiasts at the best price you are likely to find.
He sent me this response which swayed my decision to by the Calb cells. So far
I could not be happier with them, and at this point I am planning to put Calb
cells in my truck as well when I have the funds available. I am very impressed
with them and see no reason to experiment with used cells with an unknown
history.
Hello Damon I too was tempted by the Volt and Leaf batteries. However after
looking at theircycle life new to new their actually more expensive. Used,
unless very inexpensive,would also not be a good deal. The OEMs only care about
80,000 miles and a highloss of capacity during use is not an issue. The Leaf
for example loses one barby 20,000 and a second by 40,000. Each bar is about 6
miles of range. If your onthe OEVA list some just posted they lost a second bar
with 30 something thousand. The Volt does not really have to depend on the
pack. Under high loads or high speedsthe generator kicks in. As well as in a
lower SOC to keep the pack from failing earlyand being covered on warranty.
Most people don't understand the OEMs only care about paying the least
amountpossible and it just has to not be their expense to fix. A few years ago
I was fairly excited that the OEMs were going to make EVs.Being in the
collision business I knew there would be lots of batteries for the taking.
So I was expecting this to be a good deal for all us who could use them. Its
justdisappointing the prices of the used packs are way higher then they should
be.They appear to be a good deal until you start doing the math. Of course it
all depends on how much you plan to use them. If your only going todrive very
little, then cycle life is less a factor.
> Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2015 13:56:01 +0200
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [EVDL] leaf 60ah vs calb 60ah cells
> From: [email protected]
>
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>
>
> On 06/29/2015 09:08 AM, Matt Lacey via EV wrote:
>
> >> For the case of like a 60 volts to 125 volts for a traction pack
> >> for like a scooter.. why do some choose leaf cells ? seems like
> >> you have to get a more specialised/ costly BMS like orion. I've
> >> seen youtube about Vectrix conversions using both. leaf cells are
> >> american made ? do they have more cycles or power density ?
>
> I decided to use Nissan Leaf modules for my 120 volt S-10 truck for
> the following reasons:
>
> -Low cost availability of used cells - I can purchase a totaled
> Nissan Leaf and (with some elbow grease) remove a pack of used cells
> that are in very good condition for significantly less than I can
> purchase new prismatic cells.
>
> *This was the biggest deciding factor...I simply couldn't afford to
> spend enough to buy a 24 kWh pack without buying it used.*
>
> -Possibly higher quality - Because I know that Nissan has handled the
> quality control and bulk purchasing for me, I am guaranteed a certain
> (automobile engineering) level of quality and regularity between modules.
>
> -Possibly longer life (for similar reasons to above...) By getting
> modules from a 2013 battery I think I am getting the benefits of
> Nissan's early experimentation.
>
> -Nice format - I like the general format and packaging of the modules.
>
> -Continued availability - If I need to replace a module, or even the
> whole pack, I expect that there will continue to be easy availability
> of replacement modules in the same form factor, and possibly with even
> better capacity in the future due to the large number of Nissan Leaf's
> on the road today.
>
> For my high amperage/relatively lower voltage (small pickup truck)
> application the 60 AH capacity is the only real downside. I'd prefer
> 180-200 Ah modules, so I am having to put them in parallel sets of 3.
> But for a scooter or car with a high voltage controller/motor, you can
> just put them in series like Nissan does.
>
> I'm using MiniBMS, which is about as cheap as you can get, so the BMS
> wasn't a big issue for me.
>
> Jay
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