- A first-generation Nissan Leaf was turned into a stretch limo.
- After doing the rounds in Las Vegas for God knows how many years, someone bought it and put a secondary high-voltage battery in it.
- Now, the question is: how far can a dual-battery Nissan Leaf limo drive with zero miles showing on the gauge cluster?
Here’s some very important consumer information that’s sure to fit like a glove during a lazy weekend. Have you ever wondered how many miles a dual-battery Nissan Leaf limo can drive after its instrument cluster shows zero? A first-generation Leaf, no less, which came with a tiny 24-kilowatt-hour battery from the factory.
Kyle Conner from Out of Spec Testing wanted to find out, and lo and behold, he just happens to own an ex-Las Vegas Nissan Leaf limo that was retrofitted with a second 24 kWh battery. The original pack sits inside the car on a custom-built rack, while a used 24 kWh battery was installed in the original cradle under the floor. They’re wired in parallel, and in theory, it should drastically improve the car’s range.
But the purpose of the test in the video above is to see how far it can go on “Empty” with the climate control on and a speed between 30 and 50 miles per hour.
Seven miles after the low battery warning popped up, the car officially went into turtle mode, meaning it severely limited the acceleration, although it was still blowing cold air through the A/C vents. Still, it was maintaining 30 mph with the accelerator pedal pushed to the floor. 12 miles past zero, so five miles after going into turtle mode, the car was still going.
The test ended 18.9 miles after the car said it couldn’t go any further. The transmission went into neutral and refused to go into drive. Restarting the car also didn’t convince it to move another inch. The short drive ended with an energy efficiency of 4.1 miles/kilowatt-hour, but the average speed was pretty low–just over 30 mph.
With such old batteries that don’t have a thermal management system, will they DC fast charge after being deeply discharged? The expectations are low for such a contraption, but it immediately started charging from a mobile power station with a CCS to CHAdeMO adapter, which just goes to show how resilient the old Leaf can be.
While this particular test is not exactly relevant for most EV owners (how many people have a dual-battery first-generation Nissan Leaf on their driveway?) but it does show that even an old electric car without a battery thermal management system still has a little life left in it after the gauge says zero miles. This means one could safely get to a charger when the battery level unexpectedly goes to zero.
