Date: Mar 28, 2019
While the 2019 Nissan Leaf is part of the second-generation model of the best-selling electric vehicle, the battery pack inside the new Leaf Plus is actually more like a fifth-generation unit.
As the technology has developed in the years since the first Leaf was sold back in 2010, Nissan has kept updating the pack’s innards. As it turns out, the changes between the pack used in the last of the first-gen Leafs to the 40-kWh packs used in the first second-gen Leafs are almost as big of a deal as the jump from the 40-kWh pack to the new 62-kWh pack in the upcoming Leaf Plus, which goes on sale in March.
In other words, even though you can’t see it, a lot has been happening under the EV’s skin.
“Both [battery generation updates] are a pretty significant leap, both in capacity and the technology that’s maturing,” said Nathan Herbrandson, Nissan’s vehicle program development manager for EV marketability, during a recent press event for the 2019 Leaf Plus in San Diego, California.
One reason the new 62-kWh Leaf Plus battery was so difficult to design was because Nissan needed the extra energy capacity to be available in a pack that was the same physical size as the 40-kWh one.
