In Japan, Nissan is Replacing Used EV Leaf Batteries for $2,830 dollars. Its An Attempt to Show the Value of Keeping Older Leafs on the Road. The Program May Eventually Spread to Other Countries.

Nissan Leaf refurbished batteries offered for older electric cars, in Japan

With more than 300,000 Nissan Leaf electric cars on the road, some more than six years old, battery degradation is becoming more and more of an issue. The different rates of capacity loss are a topic of much discussion among Leaf owners, but it now seems likely that Nissan's choice of passive air cooling rather than active liquid cooling has contributed to...

From article, (Nissan has announced a new option for Leaf owners, one that's considerably less expensive than buying a new battery pack off the shelf for an aging Leaf.

Last Monday, Nissan Japan announced that owners of the Leaf electric car in that country could trade in their old, reduced-capacity battery packs for refurbished replacement batteries.

The program isn't free: exchange costs will start at 300,000 yen ($2,830) for remanufactured 24-kilowatt-hour batteries used in 2011-2015 Leafs, and some 2016 models as well.

Nissan says it hopes to expand its lineup of refurbished packs, presumably meaning to the larger 30-kilowatt-hour packs used in 2016 and 2017 Leafs.

That's substantially lower than the costs of new replacement batteries: 650,000 yen ($6,130) for 24-kilowatt-hour packs; 800,000 yen ($7,540) for 30-kwh packs; and 820,000 yen ($7,730) for the latest 40-kwh packs used in the 2018 Nissan Leaf.

The trade-in program will start in May, and thus far it's limited to Leaf owners within Japan.

The old Leaf battery packs will be inspected and refurbished as required to replace defective cells and modules by 4R Energy Corp, a joint venture between the carmaker and giant Japanese trading company Sumitomo.

While used electric-car batteries are expected to hold value on the secondary market for energy storage and other uses, Nissan has a different goal in mind.

In a statement, the company said that by reclaiming and refurbishing used battery packs, it can not only lower the cost of battery replacements but also "heighten the used-car value of electric vehicles."

That will, the company said, make owning electric cars more appealing and lead to greater sales for the zero-emission vehicles that will reduce carbon-dioxide emissions associated with personal transportation.)

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Me, "Its, like I have been saying. You can pick up a used Leaf for 5,000- 6,000 dollars on the used car market and then replace the battery for an around town car. As electric cars continue to be sold there will be newer used cars added to the EV market, allowing more people to own, cheaper, used electric cars."  

We Owe a Lot to Marc Isambard Brunel and Thomas Cochrane. Why? They Conceived a Very Ingenious Way of Digging Modern Tunnels.

175 Years Ago The First Modern Tunnel Was Built, Inspired By A Burrowing Animal

Share to email Share to facebook Share to twitter Share to linkedin Share to google I deal with the rocky road to our modern understanding of earth Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. March 25, 1843, the first tunnel constructed under a river was opened to the (paying) public.

 From article, (March 25, 1843, the first tunnel constructed under a river was opened to the (paying) public. After eighteen years of work, the 1,300 feet long Thames Tunnel was finally finished.

At the time it was considered impossible to build under a river. In fact, in 1828 a water leakage into the tunnel caused the drowning of six workers. Work at the tunnel was stopped until two engineers came up with an ingenious solution. Marc Isambard Brunel and Thomas Cochrane got inspiration from a mollusk, revolutionizing tunneling thereafter. Teredo navalis, the naval shipworm, is a species of saltwater clam, a marine bivalve mollusk, with a strongly reduced shell. At the front end of the reddish, wormlike body of the animal there are two triangular, calcareous plates, used by the animal to rasp burrows into wood.

 Supposedly one day Brunel and Cochrane observed one of the burrows in a plank of a wooden ship, anchored in the harbor of London. The animal uses a secretion to cover the inner walls of its burrow with a thin layer of limestone, leaving only the front free, where it continues to dig, using the hard plates. Brunel and Cochrane used a similar method to finish the Thames Tunnel.  Miners would dig at the front of the tunnel, protected by a movable wooden framework. Immediately behind the miners, workers would secure the tunnel, covering the walls with bricks and concrete.

The tunneling shield method is still in use today. The front of the tunnel is excavated, be it with explosives or a modern tunnel boring machine. Immediately after, just some feet away from the unstable rock, the walls of the tunnel are secured with steel arches or concrete, strong enough to support the weight of the mountain.)

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