Keeping older EVs on the road and away from the crusher is really important to fulfill their sustainability and affordability promise. We need more people to do this. Many thanks!
The i-MiEV's are fun little cars. The LEV50 or LEV50N cells are fairly easy to find, but if you get a cell that has a different internal resistance, it will effect DC rapid charging (if your i-MiEVs have it). Cell upgrades are possible, but the VCU only supports up to around 63 Ah per cell and won't see anything above that if you use larger cells, but people have gotten around that by adding a CAN bridge and scaling the available capacity. 93 Ah CATL cells (if you can find them) are a drop in replacement with some clearancing in the plastic cell frames, providing around 200 Km/124 Miles. If you're replacing cells, make sure you balance them before installing, otherwise you may toast the balance boards. The BMS will throw a battery error if any cell is out by more than 0.1V. The onboard chargers can charge up to 3.6 kW, but can have issues with internal components failing, but they are repairable.
OZ DIY Electric Vehicles in Brisbane Australia are doing pack upgrades with the 93 Ah CATL cells and have developed a board that handles the scaling, and has options like adding cruise control.
@@JamieLovick Straya, mate....still an EV 3rd world country. The amount of times I charge at Show grounds on 3 phase because the only 50kW Tritium in town has shit itself (again) is not funny. It's 2025 btw 😂
@@moestrei AEVA, who I volunteer for, has been talking to a group of regional councils about what they can do, as there are destination charging grants available from the NSW Government which I believe also cover lower power DC chargers, and we discussed the concept of a charger in every town, well, a DC one and an AC one. Even a 20 or 25 kW DC charger with an AC backup in the middle of nowhere is better than nothing. The NSW Government also has funding for rapid chargers, but they take a lot longer to implement.
Have repaired a peugeot ion(same car) battery modules. By replacing the LTC6802G-2 BMS chip. If you look at live cell data, you will see 1 or more cells fall to zero briefly.
Cool little car, updates when you can. I saw a video once of an Australian repair shop reconditioning this cars and even upgrading them. Is there any chance of pulling out the old tech batteries and upgrading them to modern chemistry? Thanks for posting.
Yes, OZ Electric vehicles offers an upgrade kit for these, however the cost is pretty steep ($16k AUD or ~$10k USD), and importing them may be a challenge... There was supposed to be a company that was going to offer them here in the U.S., but that never seemed to materialize. There have been numerous efforts in the owner community to do upgrades as well, and there are some folks that have been successful in doing so with a CAN bridge (which is open sourced) and the use of new cells that are a close match dimensionally. There are a few "caveats" to these swaps, mainly being that it hinders the cold weather usability of the car.
I remember testing driving one of these back in 2012 (or 2013) in Dallas with a group of early EV enthusiasts. I thought it was pretty bad. So after only watching half way, my first guess after clearing codes is you need to re-flash the BMU, or swap BMU with other car for diagnostics. Im curious once you drop the pack, knowing if that one cell is actually low voltage or the BMU is measuring voltage/energy in that cell incorrectly. Chances are the cell is actually bad (internally shorted or open circuit). Do you have test equipment that can perform AC impedance measurements of individual cells? I understand this is an accurate way to measure the SOH (state of health) of a cell. It sends a small AC signal through the cell and measures the impedance (AC resistance) of the cell to determine its internal resistance. Hi resistance/impedance indicates low SOH
Hey Alex , there’s a guy in Australia I think named Graeme Manietta at oz electric vehicles that has a line on some cells that he replaces the old ones with and does an update to the software to recognize the larger capacity cells… he has a small shop like yours and might be helpful. Fully charged did a video on him about a year ago. I think he might have his own TH-cam channel too. th-cam.com/video/oDuEr-cPl38/w-d-xo.html
Virtually all cars are forkliftable with my attachment! I did move an electric van the other day though that was at the limit of capability (was starting to lift the rear wheels of the forklift off the ground, haha). I think a full size electric truck (Silverado EV, Cybertruck, etc.) would probably be too heavy for me to move effectively with this method.
Hi and thanks for also taking care of these daily-driven EVs. Upgrade them to 250km of range !😂 : th-cam.com/video/GN_E35dalBA/w-d-xo.htmlsi=kTjI3FlM9LUqmgJ9
Keeping older EVs on the road and away from the crusher is really important to fulfill their sustainability and affordability promise. We need more people to do this. Many thanks!
The i-MiEV's are fun little cars. The LEV50 or LEV50N cells are fairly easy to find, but if you get a cell that has a different internal resistance, it will effect DC rapid charging (if your i-MiEVs have it). Cell upgrades are possible, but the VCU only supports up to around 63 Ah per cell and won't see anything above that if you use larger cells, but people have gotten around that by adding a CAN bridge and scaling the available capacity. 93 Ah CATL cells (if you can find them) are a drop in replacement with some clearancing in the plastic cell frames, providing around 200 Km/124 Miles. If you're replacing cells, make sure you balance them before installing, otherwise you may toast the balance boards. The BMS will throw a battery error if any cell is out by more than 0.1V. The onboard chargers can charge up to 3.6 kW, but can have issues with internal components failing, but they are repairable.
OZ DIY Electric Vehicles in Brisbane Australia are doing pack upgrades with the 93 Ah CATL cells and have developed a board that handles the scaling, and has options like adding cruise control.
@@JamieLovick Straya, mate....still an EV 3rd world country. The amount of times I charge at Show grounds on 3 phase because the only 50kW Tritium in town has shit itself (again) is not funny. It's 2025 btw 😂
@@moestrei the infrastructure is always improving, but it could always be better.
@@JamieLovick Not much happening inland NSW...we are going backwards as the NRMA refuses to repair vandalized chargers.
@@moestrei AEVA, who I volunteer for, has been talking to a group of regional councils about what they can do, as there are destination charging grants available from the NSW Government which I believe also cover lower power DC chargers, and we discussed the concept of a charger in every town, well, a DC one and an AC one. Even a 20 or 25 kW DC charger with an AC backup in the middle of nowhere is better than nothing. The NSW Government also has funding for rapid chargers, but they take a lot longer to implement.
Thanks!
Have repaired a peugeot ion(same car) battery modules. By replacing the LTC6802G-2 BMS chip. If you look at live cell data, you will see 1 or more cells fall to zero briefly.
Auto Auction Rebuild did a series about this model car and how to get them working like new after they go immobile
I like the plug and cord graphics on the side of the white one.
Very interesting, looking forward to more on these two vehicles.
i-MiEV Lada... ?
Your channel is seriously enjoyable, thank you. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Looks like an interesting project and series. Thanks
Thanks Alex,, 👍🌟👍
I always thought these were neat, at $1500 plus parts and labor I think this would be an interesting alternative to a golf cart.
Cool little car, updates when you can. I saw a video once of an Australian repair shop reconditioning this cars and even upgrading them. Is there any chance of pulling out the old tech batteries and upgrading them to modern chemistry? Thanks for posting.
Yes, OZ Electric vehicles offers an upgrade kit for these, however the cost is pretty steep ($16k AUD or ~$10k USD), and importing them may be a challenge... There was supposed to be a company that was going to offer them here in the U.S., but that never seemed to materialize.
There have been numerous efforts in the owner community to do upgrades as well, and there are some folks that have been successful in doing so with a CAN bridge (which is open sourced) and the use of new cells that are a close match dimensionally. There are a few "caveats" to these swaps, mainly being that it hinders the cold weather usability of the car.
No car should have a useful lifespan of 50k miles.
I wonder if its possible to swap in a standard JDM "I" drivetrain since they're basically the same as one but slightly enlarged for the U.S.
Awesome work!!
Hurray!!!
I remember testing driving one of these back in 2012 (or 2013) in Dallas with a group of early EV enthusiasts. I thought it was pretty bad. So after only watching half way, my first guess after clearing codes is you need to re-flash the BMU, or swap BMU with other car for diagnostics. Im curious once you drop the pack, knowing if that one cell is actually low voltage or the BMU is measuring voltage/energy in that cell incorrectly. Chances are the cell is actually bad (internally shorted or open circuit). Do you have test equipment that can perform AC impedance measurements of individual cells? I understand this is an accurate way to measure the SOH (state of health) of a cell. It sends a small AC signal through the cell and measures the impedance (AC resistance) of the cell to determine its internal resistance. Hi resistance/impedance indicates low SOH
Take the part out of the black cars battery pack and get the white one running why you wait on the parts for the black car
The iMiev beeping is like exactly from Philadelphia Freedom by Elton John.
I'm wondering if you can use the plentiful lev60 cells then distribute out the 50's to people that need them.
LEV60 are LiFePO4, totally different chemistry and voltage range from the LEV50s used in these cars (LMO).
Make both work of course. US$1700 for both funny funny looking from Australia. Love the On the road where they belong 👍
Safety 1st 🤠
Hey Alex , there’s a guy in Australia I think named Graeme Manietta at oz electric vehicles that has a line on some cells that he replaces the old ones with and does an update to the software to recognize the larger capacity cells… he has a small shop like yours and might be helpful. Fully charged did a video on him about a year ago. I think he might have his own TH-cam channel too. th-cam.com/video/oDuEr-cPl38/w-d-xo.html
A highway legal car that's forkliftable is so hilarious to me
Virtually all cars are forkliftable with my attachment! I did move an electric van the other day though that was at the limit of capability (was starting to lift the rear wheels of the forklift off the ground, haha). I think a full size electric truck (Silverado EV, Cybertruck, etc.) would probably be too heavy for me to move effectively with this method.
$1700! You got a smoking deal.
Would be looking at getting 3 BMW X5(24kw) battery packs to upgrade them...
Hi and thanks for also taking care of these daily-driven EVs. Upgrade them to 250km of range !😂 : th-cam.com/video/GN_E35dalBA/w-d-xo.htmlsi=kTjI3FlM9LUqmgJ9