Portable EV Charging Station - Without Solar

A discussion of what a portable EV charging station looks like, without the solar panels.

This video was inspired by another Youtube channel I watch called "Transport Evolved". The creator's wife Kate mentioned she would love to keep her old Leaf if she could find a replacement battery for it for $4k. But Nissan charges around 8,500 right now, so she sold her Leaf. This video looks at some alternative options she had, and how much more economical they may have been.

Pardon my dyslexia. At several points in this video I accidentally call the Bolt the Volt. The Volt is a plug-in hybrid and is not the car they wound up going with. They purchased the Chevy Bolt, which is a fully electric EV, and I believe their vehicle had a maximum real-world range of closer to 180 miles, not 130 as I also erroneously mention in the video.

$5,000 Leaf with new battery

[InnovativeSustainableSolutions]

Pardon my dyslexia. At several points in this video I accidentally call the Bolt the Volt. The Chevy Volt is a plug-in hybrid and is not the car they wound up going with. They purchased the Chevy Bolt, which is a fully electric EV, and I believe their vehicle had a maximum real-world range of closer to 180 miles, not 130 as I also erroneously mention in the video. Sorry if my mistakes caused any confusion.

[mjk]

As long as we see people like you bringing the real value to the world, we can still have hope in humanity!

[rhmagalhaes]

As usual, a great job.
Not only you had the idea to solve Kate's problem, the first thought that crossed my mind was to ask them to contact you. I left a comment about your channel but I believe my idea was different, I told them to make the leaf a project like yours instead of solving their problem. It was unfortunate that they didn't try a bit more, but they probably needed another long distance drivable car...
But in my case I'm following you like your shadow because I believe I'll need a commuter car very soon.
Thank you. Keep going. Post more.

[SiriusSolar]

Awesome. Thanks for doing the math and giving us real numbers about actual cost. So many videos about what makes you feel the coolest it's hard to find the practical ones like yours...

[fraserbrown]

Thanks Sam for a quick and helpful reply to my email. You are a great help to those exploring this topic and getting lost in the swamp of people trying to sell things!. I hope in time I can contribute to the knowledge base here.

[GEOsustainable]

The chances of those panels sheering off are about 99%. Still, a noble effort.

[gotoplanet]

What you are doing is perfect . I would install and made a folding solar rack . Excellent idea 👍

[Sailorman]

I just had another look at the video from uber car. All the air witch at speed is forced up your hood and windshield is going in under first load crossbar. As the roof much tighter to the panel above your head you get a high pressure witch lifts the panels to for a gap above the crossbar - witch leads to even more air is pushed in under the panels.

I'm not sure if you still run with this configuration, or even if you are keeping the Leaf still. A deflector attached to front crossbar could lead some of the air over panels and reduce the pressure under them. Just a thought.

[housingcontact]

Did you end up adding those custom panels?
What about something like the solar encapsulant + a clear "car wrap" material on of that?

[tiborkiss]

HEllo, at the calculation the chevy 15.000 includes the old leaf sale price? If not, it needs to be deducted from the 15th.

[jamesmartinek]

Do you have a general list of things that are required to build what you have so far sir? Wanting to do something very similar to my 2012 leaf.

[RockTreeStar]

It would be far more efficient to avoid the DC to AC to DC conversion using the inverter and just hardwire the solar panels to the car batteries, avoiding a supplemental battery system entirely and allowing you. to charge while on the go.

[BSAElectronics]

Great vid! Which vehicle did she go with? you wrote down Bolt but said Volt each time, then said she could go 130 miles on a charge BUT a gen 2 Volt only goes approx 55 miles in EV only mode and the GM Bolt goes over 230 miles on a charge...so I'm really confused.

[OP-fdlh]

Sir, I want to grow up to be like you🌎. 👍 Great work, great attitude and thank you for sharing your experiences with us. 🌎

[terrancel]

Geothermal electricity is probably the best non-polluting electricity generating application for environments the farther one goes from the equator.

[shinos]

Interesting! I'm not an experted but wouldn't be more efficient connecting the solar directly to the Leaf batteries rather than adding weight with extra batteries? Do you think it's actually feasible?

[Sailorman]

It seems Kate did compare keeping the Leaf and upgrade its battery vs buy a used Bolt.

In your case you can compare Kate first scenario with Leaf upgraded battery vs Leaf with your portable charger or range extender. Be ware that many people are not ok with experimenting like you are. Most of your luggage space is taken by your portable charger. That said I think it's interesting job you did. If I had an old electric car I might try experiment as well. Great find both on battery and old Leaf for sale. I hope old EV was as cheap in Sweden too where I'm from.

I have an e-max 110s electric scooter. It was expensive and nice, but it had no BMS. I think unbalance is what killed my silicone gel batteries. I bought a charger with multiple channels so now each battery got one channel and is in balance after each charge. But it was too late. I need new batteries, and they are around $1000. I played with the idea of a trailer for the scooter and put solar on trailer, and possibly batteries on it. My solar would be connected straight into the scooters batteries. With charge controller if I ever left it in the sun too long.

[abouwer]

Keep your videos going add some gardening videos as well. Love your work. Im a new sub.

[cryenomina]

Try the lk4600d it have a solar panel option

[MrLightPanda]

Do you need to coat those small solar panels? You can’t just leave them naked on the car? Thanks in advance