Big brother sacrifices life for the younger. Near dead Leaf battery revives the Shifeng!

A near spent Leaf battery may have a SOH around 50%, It's range may have gone down below 100km, writings may be on the wall, yet it is still a powerful battery. It may not enough for the power hungry 80kw LEAF motor, but there are plenty other applications out there for those, it is still a very useful and powerful Li battery. 

This reminds us a selfless organ donor, end of one could be a new beginning for another!

In last post, (Here) we have heard about an old warrior who still got fight in him. Even earlier, we
 have posted about Chinese EV Shifeng (Here), which is lead acid battery. Now, today's post is
 about the final sacrifice by the old warrior.  

Used Leaf batteries are still a game changer for the 10kw little motor of Shifeng. This car had 12 lead acid battereis each weigh about 35 kg, a whopping 420kg in total which is about half of the total weight of the car itself! By changing these batteries for Lithium by a used Leaf, little one get several hundred kg of weight removed, a more powerful battery pack, ability to regenerative braking and also the faster L2 charging time. If that's not all, one day it may even enable fast charging!




This type of a converted Shifeng could even reach 200km of a range! not too bad for a small 
country like ours. So, if you are considering of removing your used LEAF battery, may be 
worthwhile talking to folks at Shifeng Owners group on FB, there might be a win-win 
arrangement!

When we visited Shifeng Facttory in Shangdong China, they were actually surprised to hear 
that not only we do lithium conversion in here, but on to Regenerative breaking as well! 

Therefore, this article will not be  complete without mentioning few names of individuals without their contribution, This progress in our country would not be there right now. 

Mr Bulathsinhala who is no stranger to EV owners has done me the conversion for just 
Rs 40 000/=  My friend, professor NK Gunewardena as always helped and encouraged this
transfer so much so that it finally happened even before the time frames I was planning myself. 


Mr Saman Malagama deserves a big praise for figuring out the regenerative breaking in Shifeng. 

Mr Priyantha Geeganage is another pioneer in providing battery services for both LEAF and Shifeng.

Our dear friends Thiwanka and Pratharshan also deserve some mentioning for all encouragements, help and knowledge sharing. 

Mr Nalaka Kumarapeli is another name which we might hear more in a future post!
Just to show that we have no shortage of expertise, technical know-how and human resources with us, here locally. There is no need to look abroad for solutions!

Next will be about a new battery solution for the LEAF. The Old warrior needs to be 
revived. 

That may be for another post...