Yeah, this is what it's all about. Companies like this should be springing up all over the world soon. Good on them and good on you Robert for showing how it should be done.👍👏
You got it! I certainly hope we see more 3rd party shops opening in the US as well. The major stumbling blocks I see revolve around the proprietary software the would need modified, and potential liability issues if upgrades could be pointed to as a cause to a fire or accident. However, as the owner of a 2016 Chevy Spark EV, if it's range could be doubled I'd be extremely happy! If AC and DC charging could also be updated that would be the 🍒 on top! Great video that gives us old gen 1 EV owners hope.
I really hope something like this will come up in Germany. I don't really know, but it seems like there are regulatory and cost hurdles. Also seems like the country is firmly in the grip of our big OEMs.
I bought a Peugeot-badged one of these at auction four years ago for £3,600 here in the UK. It's now over ten years old and still gets 67 miles of range in the summer and that's on very hilly terrain. Great car with lots of charisma and cheap as chips to run. The only money we've spent on it in four years is £70 on a new 12V battery and two new front tyres for £35 each plus fitting. It just sailed through the MoT. Cheapest motoring ever.
I love both of your accounts. EV's need to be small to make sense: Emissions are half that of a Tesla per mile, Battery replacement becomes economically viable and is also half or less of the resource hog a large EV is.
I have a 2010 iMiEV with this upgraded battery pack, as supplied by Oz Electric Vehicles. It's a brilliant little runabout and I'm getting between 230 -250 km per charge. I kept the original 50Ah cells and used them to make an off-grid solar charging station on my shed, which charges up during the day and then trickle charges the car overnight, so it's always charged in the morning. I haven't bought petrol or used grid supplied electricity to charge it for nearly a year now. I look forward to seeing what others have re-used the old batteries for.
What was the cost? Coming from the uk, we have things like rust, and when you get past the 10 year mark switches and plastics start breaking, so unless it were cheap, im not sure it would be worth it to replace batteries.
That is awesome. However, let me give you an important tip. Keeping lithium batteries topped up reduces their life, can be rather significantly too. So it is MUCH better to run your car down to 20% before recharging it back to 80% than to keep it 60-80 or worse. I know most people think they can operate like lead acid batteries which last longer when kept full.
I suspect as things move forward in the electric vehicle space there's going to be a lot more of this happening. I can see a cottage industry arising to take care of this segment of the market, and I'm all for it!
What's quite annoying about that is Nissan still make an easily swappable battery for all of the older Leafs now but won't sell it to 3rd party companies, or, offer an upgrade service to existing customers. It's buy new or get lost. A really poor ethical business decision by them. The great PR they would get by being all in on extending the life of their products is just thrown away. They are more than a little disappointing.
Yep. We traded in a Leaf for a bolt euv for the same reason. If we could have gotten a bigger battery we'd have kept it. But, prices to replace batteries in the US are insane. . And all on the opposite coast from me
As a UK iMiev owner I've been following the work of Oz Electric Vehicles for years. Their hard work and what they've achieved is fantastic and deserves to be rewarded. The issue is cost. If I were to go through the process of landing an upgrade kit here and fitting it myself the cost would easily outstrip just buying a good used EV with more than double the range and a lot more creature comforts. It souldn't be like this but sadly that's the state of play. I wish them all the best and if the cost of getting a kit in the UK were to half then I'd be seriously considering it.
I bought a used 2012 i-MiEV 8 years ago here in the US. The North American trim ones are slightly wider than the European and Asian versions. It's a marvelous little car that, I think, was largely underappreciated at the time. The original battery in mine started to fade in capacity in 2020 and I was able to get a warranty replacement. I take care of this car and will surely be driving it for years to come. The work this crew in Australia is doing is marvelous.
Way back in the day when there was only two DCFCs in Brisbane, I used the AC charger out the front of that shop to help get my Nissan Leaf from Ipswich to the Gold Coast. Great to see they are still trading and innovating.
What absolutely wonderful memories. I remember this video well and not long after this, I ended up with a Peugeot iOn clone of the iMiEV. I even put a kitchen in the back with a fridge and running water! Looking forward to seeing Rob and the team this weekend at Everything Electric in Sydney!
My first EV was a Peugeot-badged iMiev. On our third EV now but still miss the iMiev’s sheer ability as a run-around for shopping, quick trips, even weekends away. It was like owning a four wheeled Vespa and not much wider either!
240km range is not a bad range , especially considering the size and where that type of car typically drives. This is a good thing these guys are doing.
This stuff is what so many people are missing about electric vehicles. The batteries have an amazing potential life beyond the initial install and that has flow on effects to all areas of the renewable ecosystem.
I was working on a highland estate as a renewable energy manager. My commute was 20 miles each way and the single track twisty roads were eating the tires off my BMW so I nabbed one of these in Edinburgh for 5K at the time. It was a pre-production ex Scottish power car. The drive back to Ardnamurchan was some laugh I stopped at just about every charger I could the last being in the Glencoe ski centre. I just made it to my house with 0 on the battery and a turtle on the dash. It was one of the most fun cars I ever had and i am a petrol head as well as a long time EV enthusiast. I loved this thing it was perfect for single track highland roads and with B mode on the regen was fantastic. One day it just stopped I knew the battery itself was fine because I carefully monitored it but Mitsubishi told me it needed a new one and that was it. As I was leaving the county soon I sold it off to a chap I thought could save it and I was delighted to hear he did. It was just a trivial component as I thought. The memory of passing an Audi in it full chat at 70, motor screaming still gives me a smile.
Agreed! Good call. I keep looking at all the lovely shiny brand new EV's, get envious & seriously consider buying one, but knowing that my Leaf is good for 99% of my journeys, I'm loathed to throw £40k at a car that simply takes me from A to B. Chademo charging fast becoming obsolete though, I can see the sense in making upgrades that could perhaps double the cars current range, just to future proof & make the occasional longer journey a bit easier. Finding a trustworthy local(ish) solution is of definite interest to me & many others.
@@Brian-qo1sdI keep hearing that CHAdeMO is going extinct but I've seen the charger in about 70% of places; BP Pulse, Shell Recharge, Osprey and PodPoint are (almost) collaboratively spread wide enough wherever there is rapid charging I still want garages like this to be every 80 miles or closer in the UK
Luckily we still get 80Km range from a full charge in our Imiev, last check a few months ago, from turtle to full, took 11Kwh from its original 16Kwh capacity. ours is a 2010 model.
Hey Rob, pop over to New Zealand and talk to the guys at Ev's Enhanced in Christchurch, they're upgrading Leafs with bugger batteries but have gone silent on updates. Maybe you could charm them? :)
frick EV enhanced for selling open source product and not giving any credit to the original creator. they are a leech on opensource community. charging 800dollaroos for leaf can bridge also breaking GPL v3.0 license
Graeme has a been leader in Brisbane of adapting vehicles from ICE power to Electric for a number of years if you want to know about converting vehicles to electric he is the man to see, he also easy to talk to and so helpful with advice.
Thanks to Robert's iMiev videos way back, we bought a second hand Peugeot iOn several years ago. The car's heading for her teens, high mileage now, but still as good as new. Although we've added a second EV to the family, the iOn is still our daily runabout. Just adore our 'mini tardis', and will certainly treat her to an upgrade battery some day. She's a keeper!
I still have the Peugeot Ion and i am agree That this is a marvellous car , I love it . Why you need more to go from A to B. The only thing ist is limited and lacking in this day is , range ! I would like this upgrade here in Spain .
Just hit 108,000 miles in my 2013 Ford Focus EV. Still get 70 mile range in the Winter. I’ll be driving it until the wheels fall off. Really looking forward to seeing more businesses like this!
It's maximum 200klm's to gympie from bisvagas. Aside from that slip up. What a company! What a car! This really is the future of sustainability and the most affordable way to get new buyers into the used EV market!
For me that's the beauty of EVs, the simplicity. They are basically 2 components, a battery and a Motor. ICE cars are so complex. A huge chain of potential weakest links. A simple Cam-belt snaps and it's a huge rebuild of smashed parts. What would be great in future is a sort of ISO standard for Battery modules, so you could plug more in as they developed, swap them in and out, slide them into racks for industrial use ..etc. Having said that EVs will have 300 mile ranges as standard within 5 years, and LFP will be the technology.
Love how global this channel can be at times. One day watching a review of new sports ev in China, then a 3 wheeler in the UK and now you're down the road from me showing resto mods. Love the variety. Bring the Everything Electric show to the Brisbane Exhibition Centre next year!
The i-MIEV is so cute. Love seeing things getting repaired, upgraded, up cycled. Saving old ICE cars with blown motors from the wreckers and converting them to electric, and giving old EVs new life with upgraded batteries and features is so great to see. I do believe EVs (and maybe hydrogen cars) are our future. New battery tech under development will double (or more) the range and also eliminate the fire risks, and prices are coming down fast. BTW, OZ Electric Vehicles are just down the road from me. Going to stop in and say Hi and see what EVs they have for sale.
OMG! The Mitsu Outlander PHEV battery management system (BMS) did that fake degradation trick as well - the BMS calculated max capacity based on the number of days since the battery was built. The car lost range quickly whether the batteries were used or not. So great to hear smart people finding a way to fix that and make this car useful again.
It is only when looking back one can see the incredible progress that has been made. I still have the same car I had 15 years ago but the progress in EV:s has been amazing over those years.
iMiEV is definitely a head-turner! People think it’s a new car for some reason and get surprised when they find out that it’s a decade old car with upgraded batteries !! Love this little and powerful car!
I am also thinking the I3 is a good choise for giving a 2. life with all the carbon, alu and plast it is made of. There was a test of some new batteries with 600 km, but have not heard from that since.
Brilliant idea. And for anyone who is thinking of switching from ICE, I would imagine it could still be cheaper to buy an old EV like this and pay for the upgrades than buy a shiny new one. Certainly a lot greener anyway. 💚
We had a Mitsubishi i-miev (Peugeot version) and absolutely loved it. We are in the UK and contacted this company (oz) in Australia. Sadly they never replied. The range became unacceptable so we traded it in for a Seat Mii. It's a nice car but nowhere near as well loved as the i-miev, bigger and heavier. We're so sad that we couldn't upgrade the i-miev here.
OZ Electric Vehicles in Springwood Australia, do amazing work. My 2010 i-MiEV was upgraded in 2020 with their new battery and it has transformed the car and how I can now use it! Fabulous little EV's!!!
@@GurmeetSingh-dz8ff The battery pack on the ES trim of the i-MiEV features a fan-driven, forced-air induction system that automatically engages to protect the battery from overheating during charging. Drivers can upgrade to the Premium Package, which also gives drivers the ability to charge the i-MiEV using public quick-chargers. Because quick-chargers can tend to heat batteries and reduce their efficiency in the long term, we've added an air-cooling system that draws cold air from the air conditioning unit to keep the battery nice and cool, even in hot climates.
Oh wow, just a few months ago i was looking at available EVs in Brisbane, the i-MiEV caught my eye, and my research brought me to THESE SAME GUYS! They're just down in southside of Brisbane. 1:24 Is that an ARDUINO DUE 😂. Welp if it works IT WORKS! Heck yeah, getting it DONE! We're not here to f... uh... _flip spiders._
I got a 2012 I-MIEV here in Canada (Alberta) I have the original battery that gets about 80-100km in ideal conditions, I plan on keeping mine for the long term, even adding a 200 watt roof mounted solar panel to charge the 12 volt systems - therefor reducing the DC to DC charging from the drive batteries! great show for a classic EV!
The sound of your voice and that recording quality takes me right back to 2009/2010 when I was cycle touring around Europe, watching your Carpool and Fully Charged shows in my tent at night. That, and listening to AIOTM. Happy days. Love how far you’ve come and it’s heartening to see how things have moved forward.
This brings a tear to my eye. Back in 2012 I was working for a large electricity distribution company here in Sydney that began an EV trial with a small fleet of iMievs. I was lucky enough to have one assigned to my team and we made good use of it visiting work sites, carrying a full load of equipment in the back with the seats folded flat. It was almost a little van with the hatch and seats down. The only chademo DC charger near us was at a depot on Carter Street in Homebush. Used it only once. A little network of Better Place AC chargers was built around the service area in random places like USyd so the team could charge near sites or homes. I used to really enjoy the driving experience. In B mode I remember the iMiev had pretty good regen. In Sydney traffic you could pace the stop start traffic very smoothly. Parking it was incredibly easy, even for me. Acceleration below 40km/h was superb. I do remember one very wet and cold winter night shift experimenting with the heater and AC to de-mist the windshield and finding the range estimate dropped to 50km. Over the years I’ve often thought about buying one, but it’s never been practical for me. It’s nice to know these charismatic little vehicles have lasted and are now benefitting from updated batteries. Love to see it.
Ross Blade had the same issue with Getz canbus for the Blade Electron. Has been so good to meet i-meiv owners that have upgraded their batteries around Brisbane.
Our 2014 Mitsi PHEV uses same Yussa LEV40 battery cells It's now done 270K fault free miles on original battery pack . We use a CHadeMo 5Kw plug in power take off to power our caravan off grid or our house in power cuts. ( It's always been great towing car ) Stationery in charge mode it's more efficient then our 10 hp Honda generator 🤠👍
I had one of these (the Peugeot version), and loved the car. 120/130km range, perfectly usable to comute. With a new, larger battery, I would buy it again .
What's not to like! I've got Le Miev (Peugeot Ion) and love it. I also have a recent i3. Honestly in many ways I prefer the little Ion, so the idea of the Ion having a thoroughly modern range to rival the i3 is fab.
Currently it's about 16k with only a 1 year battery warranty, the ACCC would say that warranty is way lower than the expected life of those batteries but you would have to sue the company for redress is they died to early.
So almost 10k euros? You could buy a second hand Dacia Spring for not much more money, and definitely a longer warranty. As ever the cost is the killer for these projects@@metricstormtrooper
We don't have much choice in Australia. With buying the car and the battery upgrade it was the MUCH cheaper option for getting into an EV. $21 000 AUD for a fabulous, as new EV!!@@StartledPancake
I drove one of the first iMiEVs at the Tokyo Auto Show when it debuted. Nice 4-door city car with legitimate seating for 4 adults (as opposed to the 2-door, 2+2 seating in my Fiat 500e). It just needed a better battery.
I had a Peugeot Ion for 5 years, absolutely loves it. If this upgrade was available within the UK i would have gone for it (instead I had to change cars to one with a larger battery). Interesting the battery upgrade for the outlander PHEVs, i see this been very attractive for owners as well.
we need more companies doing this kind of work and we need more cars like this so many of the EVs especially in the USA are massive fast and expensive which is killing them here
There needs to be a big project to create a computer system that can run everything in the car, and not just these cars but any electric car. There are going to be loads of old second hand electric cars where mechanics will be trying to figure out what the old computer system is doing. It would better to pull out the old computer out from the old cars and put in a new one. I hope someone starts an open source IT project for just any old electric car, with all the battery management and all the driving functionality, even functionality to control the electric windows and windscreen wipers...
These already exist in various separate forms such as OrionBMS for diy battery packs, and Thunderstruck motor controllers as a few examples. It's very tricky to create generalised car controllers as there are so many configs of battery voltage and motor design, this is without considering the various different uses of CAN messaging across EV hardware! Right now it's not too tricky (just time consuming) to build and run an entire DIY refurb EV off a couple of Arduinos that you can program for your specific project for cheap
Have we seen anything from the channel in Poland? I suspect not. YES! We need at least one story from Poland. Surely two people on the fully charged staff like country-hopping in Europe? (Needs two: Camera-person + presenter)
I had a 2010 iMiEV back in the day…my then wife had a 2012. I believe we had the only his and hers pair in the country at the time. I miss it dearly… I’ve driven the upgraded one Robert drives in the video, and chatted for hours to Francisco about the work they have done…it really is an upgrade on the original, and has made me want another one so badly! Never should have sold it…but the guy I sold it to still has it.
In 2012 I came within 2 days of buying one of these. It was the garage run around, but it wasn't liked so they decided to sell it for less than half the forecourt price. £12K instead of £28k. I'd just had an insurance/pension mature and I had £11k to burn and I decided on a small Mitsubishi. They suggested I try the iMiev and I loved it's massive acceleration. My wife agreed to the sale, but asked what would it cost to replace the batteries? I tried to find out what the likely life span was going to be. I even rang Nissan to ask them what they expected of the Leaf? No-one knew as it was so early on in the life of EVs. The cost to replace the battery pack was £8500 and to honest, I didn't argue with my wife when she said that maybe it wasn't such a good idea and that it was maybe wiser to wait a while whilst things sort themselves out. It was 3 years before I got my first Zoe.
Sorry, that's very intriguing but way too short a video! We need deeper dives to give people more confidence in this and similar ventures. What about the pack enclosure, safety, batteries they tried, new configuration of the old cells for solar, testing and selection of the same? The gentleman mentioned hot-rodding, can the power be increased (spoiler, it probably can, with CAN 😀)?
Our first ev was used 2012 imiev. Found it on a high end used car lot. Lambos Maserati etc.. It was like new, 5,000 miles. Car lot had no idea what to do with it. Purchased it for $6,800. Worked great. Grandson wanted to buy an EV, sold it to him on a good deal. He used it daily. A year after buying a storm knocked down a tree and crushed it!
Great to see these older cars having modern battery upgrades. There have been CATL LFP modules available for the Nissan Leaf for a while now, is this company also going to perform that upgrade?
Just bought a Chevrolet Bolt because my Chevrolet Spark EV didn't quite have the range I wanted. I always thought, that the Spark would be great at 150-200 miles of range. If they could double the battery pack and not increase the weight. Would be a terrific all around car. Like it said in the piece, these battery packs could be use for backup solar arrays. Never know, when your power goes out or buy cheaper energy at night.
Great video. Interesting hearing the engineer saying it was difficult to decode the 'cambus'. We need the 'right to repair' ... manufacturers need to be made to make technical details including software available to third party's so that the life of EVs can be extended.
This is great! HOWEVER We need to put it too manufacturers to not prevent this on all items into the future, what am I getting at? Manufactures (tesla) will limit 3rd party modifications aggressively. This is not on, you buy it you own it, its yours, so don't allow the people you bought it from to determan how it might be used (or not) in the long future!
I own a Citroen Zero and we love the car. We live on a small island in the Netherlands and the Zero is ideal for it. I hope we can change the battery in Europe too for this kind of battery. I love youre programme on youtube
I have a feeling this would be the car Kath & Kim would drive in a 2024 reboot of the show... Along with a teen-aged Epponnee-Rae! It's different! It's unusual! It's noyce!
They have mentioned in other videos that they intend to distribute internationally through approved EV maintenance companies, due to the high voltage involved. ☮️
Robert THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for covering this!!!!!! I so need this in the US. I too love my iMiev and need more range. What they're doing with the electronics sounds wonderful, but I'd be happy (ecstatic) with a 17 kwh battery -- just the original box (or something with some new brackets) with some empty space in it but modern batteries. 230km would be amazing, but in a pinch, I'd take 100km again at a reasonable price. Don't get me wrong -- I'd jump at their full menu, but if they could only export something simple and less capable, they'd have customers in the states for that as well.
Calmax Fine Cars. 1204 Via Roma Colton CA 92324 USA Has recently signed up as a Licesenced Installer of their battery upgrade. Try contacting them, or OZ Electric Vehicles for any info.
So cool. we have a company in France that tries to replace the batteries with more modern ones but it is illegal. I really hope they win their legal fight.
Car manufacturers should be made to facilitate this with their design to the point where your car can be viewed as a separate investment to your battery.
I had one of these years ago, and got good use from it. My biggest problem was Mitsubishi itself. The battery itself started dying, with a range down to 40 miles. The dealer / Mitsubishi wouldn't honor the warranty, and kept blaming my driving habits (I was 68 years old then). After many conflicted contacts with the dealer, one of thier mechanics took me aside and said that they were stonewalling the warranty because Mitsubishi was about to go bankrupt. I finally prevailed, and got a new battery. But I was so sour on the company that I got rid of it and replaced it with Chevy Bolts. Will never deal with Mitsubishi again ! (Love the Bolts)
i have a 2001 Peugeot Partner electric with a 16kWh Ni-Cd battery. Lovely thing for local running about, no bells and whistles, sadly most people don't even know they exist let alone have any spares for them or know how to repair them, and they do need repair, with their brushed motor and batteries that have to have water added.
Robert, please get Harry Metcalf from Harry’s Garage/Farm on your show. He is obviously mates with some big oil execs and is fighting the move to EV. Please get him on with a passionate scientist and ‘put im riaaaaght’. Please.
I am still driving my i-miev as my only vehicle (other than a once or twice yearly rental of a longer range ev) I have to run off to work and after the first 2.5 minutes of video realize I have to come back after work to hear the rest of this! Double the range!? I got a high of 90 miles hypermiling back roads (I know it was rated at 60 miles on a charge... what would I get with an upgrade? 180 miles per charge!? Looking forward to the whole video later...
Good idea. There is no point having lots of different workshops having to spends months/years reverse engineering the old cars when these guys have already done it!
Like that old ad campaign for death sticks, "You've Come Along Way, Baby!" This just goes to show you how much technology has improved in the last 15 years and how much it will probably change again in the next 15 which makes me super excited. Especially with announcements that commercially available sodium-ion packs will be shipping in cars this year and they are going to cost way less than most experts have even thought they would... Amongst a dozen new promising tech's all racing to become the next Lithium-Ion standard... AMAZING!
![fellow fellow - PROUD feat. INK WARUNTORN [STRING QUARTET]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/BQrVkMPTdHE/mqdefault.jpg)
Yeah, this is what it's all about. Companies like this should be springing up all over the world soon. Good on them and good on you Robert for showing how it should be done.👍👏
Absolutely 💯
You got it! I certainly hope we see more 3rd party shops opening in the US as well. The major stumbling blocks I see revolve around the proprietary software the would need modified, and potential liability issues if upgrades could be pointed to as a cause to a fire or accident. However, as the owner of a 2016 Chevy Spark EV, if it's range could be doubled I'd be extremely happy! If AC and DC charging could also be updated that would be the 🍒 on top! Great video that gives us old gen 1 EV owners hope.
I really hope something like this will come up in Germany. I don't really know, but it seems like there are regulatory and cost hurdles. Also seems like the country is firmly in the grip of our big OEMs.
Not quite Germany, but Robert had his leaf redone in the Netherlands.
sadly not open source so they can frick off with their prices
I bought a Peugeot-badged one of these at auction four years ago for £3,600 here in the UK. It's now over ten years old and still gets 67 miles of range in the summer and that's on very hilly terrain. Great car with lots of charisma and cheap as chips to run. The only money we've spent on it in four years is £70 on a new 12V battery and two new front tyres for £35 each plus fitting. It just sailed through the MoT.
Cheapest motoring ever.
Yup, my 2011 iMiEV has saved me so much money! Purcased for a similar price and so cheap and easy to service and repair DIY, it's ridiculous
I love both of your accounts. EV's need to be small to make sense: Emissions are half that of a Tesla per mile, Battery replacement becomes economically viable and is also half or less of the resource hog a large EV is.
I have a 2010 iMiEV with this upgraded battery pack, as supplied by Oz Electric Vehicles. It's a brilliant little runabout and I'm getting between 230 -250 km per charge. I kept the original 50Ah cells and used them to make an off-grid solar charging station on my shed, which charges up during the day and then trickle charges the car overnight, so it's always charged in the morning. I haven't bought petrol or used grid supplied electricity to charge it for nearly a year now. I look forward to seeing what others have re-used the old batteries for.
What was the cost?
Coming from the uk, we have things like rust, and when you get past the 10 year mark switches and plastics start breaking, so unless it were cheap, im not sure it would be worth it to replace batteries.
That is awesome. However, let me give you an important tip. Keeping lithium batteries topped up reduces their life, can be rather significantly too. So it is MUCH better to run your car down to 20% before recharging it back to 80% than to keep it 60-80 or worse. I know most people think they can operate like lead acid batteries which last longer when kept full.
Just traded in our Leaf for a Kona. There was literally nothing wrong with it other than the range, we need more companies like this!
I suspect as things move forward in the electric vehicle space there's going to be a lot more of this happening. I can see a cottage industry arising to take care of this segment of the market, and I'm all for it!
What's quite annoying about that is Nissan still make an easily swappable battery for all of the older Leafs now but won't sell it to 3rd party companies, or, offer an upgrade service to existing customers. It's buy new or get lost. A really poor ethical business decision by them. The great PR they would get by being all in on extending the life of their products is just thrown away.
They are more than a little disappointing.
and the price ?
Range is pretty important. So it was useless!
Yep. We traded in a Leaf for a bolt euv for the same reason. If we could have gotten a bigger battery we'd have kept it. But, prices to replace batteries in the US are insane. . And all on the opposite coast from me
This is perfect, recycling, keeping sensible, usable cars on the road. We need shops like this everywhere on the planet!
As a UK iMiev owner I've been following the work of Oz Electric Vehicles for years. Their hard work and what they've achieved is fantastic and deserves to be rewarded.
The issue is cost. If I were to go through the process of landing an upgrade kit here and fitting it myself the cost would easily outstrip just buying a good used EV with more than double the range and a lot more creature comforts.
It souldn't be like this but sadly that's the state of play. I wish them all the best and if the cost of getting a kit in the UK were to half then I'd be seriously considering it.
I bought a used 2012 i-MiEV 8 years ago here in the US. The North American trim ones are slightly wider than the European and Asian versions. It's a marvelous little car that, I think, was largely underappreciated at the time. The original battery in mine started to fade in capacity in 2020 and I was able to get a warranty replacement. I take care of this car and will surely be driving it for years to come. The work this crew in Australia is doing is marvelous.
Way back in the day when there was only two DCFCs in Brisbane, I used the AC charger out the front of that shop to help get my Nissan Leaf from Ipswich to the Gold Coast. Great to see they are still trading and innovating.
They mentioned the Leaf. Are also refurbishing its battery pack?
@@iangardner2311yes they are.
And the Outlander PHEV.
@@iangardner2311 Yes, and BMW I3, Outlander PHEV
What absolutely wonderful memories. I remember this video well and not long after this, I ended up with a Peugeot iOn clone of the iMiEV. I even put a kitchen in the back with a fridge and running water! Looking forward to seeing Rob and the team this weekend at Everything Electric in Sydney!
Gavin, you have got to review one of these surely.
I remember following those adventures! Nostalgic!
My first EV was a Peugeot-badged iMiev. On our third EV now but still miss the iMiev’s sheer ability as a run-around for shopping, quick trips, even weekends away. It was like owning a four wheeled Vespa and not much wider either!
Where i live, there's also a small workshop that has specialized in older used EVs. They keep em running, install bms, bigger batteries, etc
240km range is not a bad range , especially considering the size and where that type of car typically drives. This is a good thing these guys are doing.
Further than a new Honda E ... !
This stuff is what so many people are missing about electric vehicles. The batteries have an amazing potential life beyond the initial install and that has flow on effects to all areas of the renewable ecosystem.
I was working on a highland estate as a renewable energy manager. My commute was 20 miles each way and the single track twisty roads were eating the tires off my BMW so I nabbed one of these in Edinburgh for 5K at the time. It was a pre-production ex Scottish power car. The drive back to Ardnamurchan was some laugh I stopped at just about every charger I could the last being in the Glencoe ski centre. I just made it to my house with 0 on the battery and a turtle on the dash. It was one of the most fun cars I ever had and i am a petrol head as well as a long time EV enthusiast. I loved this thing it was perfect for single track highland roads and with B mode on the regen was fantastic. One day it just stopped I knew the battery itself was fine because I carefully monitored it but Mitsubishi told me it needed a new one and that was it. As I was leaving the county soon I sold it off to a chap I thought could save it and I was delighted to hear he did. It was just a trivial component as I thought. The memory of passing an Audi in it full chat at 70, motor screaming still gives me a smile.
How many companies like these do we have in the UK? When you get back Robert you should showcase the guys in the UK as well.
Agreed! Good call.
I keep looking at all the lovely shiny brand new EV's, get envious & seriously consider buying one, but knowing that my Leaf is good for 99% of my journeys, I'm loathed to throw £40k at a car that simply takes me from A to B.
Chademo charging fast becoming obsolete though, I can see the sense in making upgrades that could perhaps double the cars current range, just to future proof & make the occasional longer journey a bit easier.
Finding a trustworthy local(ish) solution is of definite interest to me & many others.
I think there's a company in Europe that upgrade Nissan leafs, might be in France.
@@flukeylukey7559Yeah, there's certainly one in Holland 'Muxsan'.
@@Brian-qo1sdI keep hearing that CHAdeMO is going extinct but I've seen the charger in about 70% of places; BP Pulse, Shell Recharge, Osprey and PodPoint are (almost) collaboratively spread wide enough wherever there is rapid charging
I still want garages like this to be every 80 miles or closer in the UK
Luckily we still get 80Km range from a full charge in our Imiev, last check a few months ago, from turtle to full, took 11Kwh from its original 16Kwh capacity. ours is a 2010 model.
Hey Rob, pop over to New Zealand and talk to the guys at Ev's Enhanced in Christchurch, they're upgrading Leafs with bugger batteries but have gone silent on updates. Maybe you could charm them? :)
frick EV enhanced for selling open source product and not giving any credit to the original creator. they are a leech on opensource community. charging 800dollaroos for leaf can bridge also breaking GPL v3.0 license
@@hillppariPerhaps we should have Richard Stallman pay them a visit.
Bugger batteries - how appropriate for NZ!
I think these little cars just the right size for city driving!!
I would love to have one of these.
I just had my iMiev arrive this week and I am lucky enough to live in Brisbane. Next stop, that workshop 🙂
What year? I have a 2010 with Graeme's battery upgrade :)
Feel the envy. I'm in the US and no such battery work is available.
Graeme has a been leader in Brisbane of adapting vehicles from ICE power to Electric for a number of years if you want to know about converting vehicles to electric he is the man to see, he also easy to talk to and so helpful with advice.
Thanks to Robert's iMiev videos way back, we bought a second hand Peugeot iOn several years ago. The car's heading for her teens, high mileage now, but still as good as new. Although we've added a second EV to the family, the iOn is still our daily runabout. Just adore our 'mini tardis', and will certainly treat her to an upgrade battery some day. She's a keeper!
I still have the Peugeot Ion and i am agree That this is a marvellous car , I love it . Why you need more to go from A to B. The only thing ist is limited and lacking in this day is , range ! I would like this upgrade here in Spain .
Just hit 108,000 miles in my 2013 Ford Focus EV. Still get 70 mile range in the Winter. I’ll be driving it until the wheels fall off. Really looking forward to seeing more businesses like this!
By sheer coincidence I saw an iMiEV in SW London yesterday - so nice to see a genuinely small car on the roads in amongst all the SUVs.
It's maximum 200klm's to gympie from bisvagas.
Aside from that slip up. What a company! What a car! This really is the future of sustainability and the most affordable way to get new buyers into the used EV market!
For me that's the beauty of EVs, the simplicity. They are basically 2 components, a battery and a Motor. ICE cars are so complex. A huge chain of potential weakest links. A simple Cam-belt snaps and it's a huge rebuild of smashed parts.
What would be great in future is a sort of ISO standard for Battery modules, so you could plug more in as they developed, swap them in and out, slide them into racks for industrial use ..etc.
Having said that EVs will have 300 mile ranges as standard within 5 years, and LFP will be the technology.
Love how global this channel can be at times. One day watching a review of new sports ev in China, then a 3 wheeler in the UK and now you're down the road from me showing resto mods. Love the variety. Bring the Everything Electric show to the Brisbane Exhibition Centre next year!
Yeah, and save me the hassle of charging - it's worse than pulling teeth.
The i-MIEV is so cute. Love seeing things getting repaired, upgraded, up cycled. Saving old ICE cars with blown motors from the wreckers and converting them to electric, and giving old EVs new life with upgraded batteries and features is so great to see. I do believe EVs (and maybe hydrogen cars) are our future. New battery tech under development will double (or more) the range and also eliminate the fire risks, and prices are coming down fast. BTW, OZ Electric Vehicles are just down the road from me. Going to stop in and say Hi and see what EVs they have for sale.
OMG! The Mitsu Outlander PHEV battery management system (BMS) did that fake degradation trick as well - the BMS calculated max capacity based on the number of days since the battery was built. The car lost range quickly whether the batteries were used or not. So great to hear smart people finding a way to fix that and make this car useful again.
Graeme is also rebuilding PHEV Outlander packs…either with original capacity or for a bit more money he nearly doubles the EV range.
It is only when looking back one can see the incredible progress that has been made. I still have the same car I had 15 years ago but the progress in EV:s has been amazing over those years.
iMiEV is definitely a head-turner!
People think it’s a new car for some reason and get surprised when they find out that it’s a decade old car with upgraded batteries !!
Love this little and powerful car!
Love to see a company do the same to the BMW i3. Cool little car, stunning interior.
I am also thinking the I3 is a good choise for giving a 2. life with all the carbon, alu and plast it is made of. There was a test of some new batteries with 600 km, but have not heard from that since.
I like this car a lot. A workmate still drives the critroen c-zero(twin car of this) and it's great. There should be more cars this size
I remember those - where are they now?
What a great video, so cool to see the iMiev upgraded into a really capable EV. Those guys show some great ingenuity.
At 10:05 employee's involuntary single eye brow raise at boss's weird choice of words is great.
Brilliant idea. And for anyone who is thinking of switching from ICE, I would imagine it could still be cheaper to buy an old EV like this and pay for the upgrades than buy a shiny new one. Certainly a lot greener anyway. 💚
We had a Mitsubishi i-miev (Peugeot version) and absolutely loved it. We are in the UK and contacted this company (oz) in Australia. Sadly they never replied. The range became unacceptable so we traded it in for a Seat Mii. It's a nice car but nowhere near as well loved as the i-miev, bigger and heavier. We're so sad that we couldn't upgrade the i-miev here.
OZ Electric Vehicles in Springwood Australia, do amazing work. My 2010 i-MiEV was upgraded in 2020 with their new battery and it has transformed the car and how I can now use it! Fabulous little EV's!!!
Was the original battery air cooled liquid cooled?
@@GurmeetSingh-dz8ff The battery pack on the ES trim of the i-MiEV features a fan-driven, forced-air induction system that automatically engages to protect the battery from overheating during charging. Drivers can upgrade to the Premium Package, which also gives drivers the ability to charge the i-MiEV using public quick-chargers. Because quick-chargers can tend to heat batteries and reduce their efficiency in the long term, we've added an air-cooling system that draws cold air from the air conditioning unit to keep the battery nice and cool, even in hot climates.
Oh wow, just a few months ago i was looking at available EVs in Brisbane, the i-MiEV caught my eye, and my research brought me to THESE SAME GUYS! They're just down in southside of Brisbane.
1:24 Is that an ARDUINO DUE 😂. Welp if it works IT WORKS! Heck yeah, getting it DONE! We're not here to f... uh... _flip spiders._
We have a 2013 model. A very reliable and honest car. It does exactly what it was designed to do.
I got a 2012 I-MIEV here in Canada (Alberta) I have the original battery that gets about 80-100km in ideal conditions, I plan on keeping mine for the long term, even adding a 200 watt roof mounted solar panel to charge the 12 volt systems - therefor reducing the DC to DC charging from the drive batteries! great show for a classic EV!
The sound of your voice and that recording quality takes me right back to 2009/2010 when I was cycle touring around Europe, watching your Carpool and Fully Charged shows in my tent at night. That, and listening to AIOTM. Happy days. Love how far you’ve come and it’s heartening to see how things have moved forward.
This brings a tear to my eye. Back in 2012 I was working for a large electricity distribution company here in Sydney that began an EV trial with a small fleet of iMievs. I was lucky enough to have one assigned to my team and we made good use of it visiting work sites, carrying a full load of equipment in the back with the seats folded flat. It was almost a little van with the hatch and seats down. The only chademo DC charger near us was at a depot on Carter Street in Homebush. Used it only once. A little network of Better Place AC chargers was built around the service area in random places like USyd so the team could charge near sites or homes. I used to really enjoy the driving experience. In B mode I remember the iMiev had pretty good regen. In Sydney traffic you could pace the stop start traffic very smoothly. Parking it was incredibly easy, even for me. Acceleration below 40km/h was superb. I do remember one very wet and cold winter night shift experimenting with the heater and AC to de-mist the windshield and finding the range estimate dropped to 50km. Over the years I’ve often thought about buying one, but it’s never been practical for me. It’s nice to know these charismatic little vehicles have lasted and are now benefitting from updated batteries. Love to see it.
My favorite futuristic egg on wheels, it still looks funky today. This makes more sense than 2-ton EVs that goes 0-60 3sec or sth.
Ross Blade had the same issue with Getz canbus for the Blade Electron.
Has been so good to meet i-meiv owners that have upgraded their batteries around Brisbane.
Our 2014 Mitsi PHEV uses same Yussa LEV40 battery cells
It's now done 270K fault free miles on original battery pack .
We use a CHadeMo 5Kw plug in power take off to power our caravan off grid or our house in power cuts.
( It's always been great towing car ) Stationery in charge mode it's more efficient then our 10 hp Honda generator 🤠👍
Got my van done here. Great stuff.
I had one of these (the Peugeot version), and loved the car. 120/130km range, perfectly usable to comute. With a new, larger battery, I would buy it again .
What's not to like! I've got Le Miev (Peugeot Ion) and love it. I also have a recent i3. Honestly in many ways I prefer the little Ion, so the idea of the Ion having a thoroughly modern range to rival the i3 is fab.
Sorry, did I miss it? How much did it cost to upgrade?
Currently it's about 16k with only a 1 year battery warranty, the ACCC would say that warranty is way lower than the expected life of those batteries but you would have to sue the company for redress is they died to early.
So almost 10k euros? You could buy a second hand Dacia Spring for not much more money, and definitely a longer warranty. As ever the cost is the killer for these projects@@metricstormtrooper
We don't have much choice in Australia. With buying the car and the battery upgrade it was the MUCH cheaper option for getting into an EV. $21 000 AUD for a fabulous, as new EV!!@@StartledPancake
I drove one of the first iMiEVs at the Tokyo Auto Show when it debuted. Nice 4-door city car with legitimate seating for 4 adults (as opposed to the 2-door, 2+2 seating in my Fiat 500e). It just needed a better battery.
I had a Peugeot Ion for 5 years, absolutely loves it. If this upgrade was available within the UK i would have gone for it (instead I had to change cars to one with a larger battery). Interesting the battery upgrade for the outlander PHEVs, i see this been very attractive for owners as well.
we need more companies doing this kind of work and we need more cars like this so many of the EVs especially in the USA are massive fast and expensive which is killing them here
Mitsubishi should,ve kept the model going , considering battery technology now, if it was cheap enough it would sell like hot cakes.
Cleanest I've ever seen Graeme's Shop, sorry I couldn't bring my dirty minicab for the vid.
There needs to be a big project to create a computer system that can run everything in the car, and not just these cars but any electric car.
There are going to be loads of old second hand electric cars where mechanics will be trying to figure out what the old computer system is doing. It would better to pull out the old computer out from the old cars and put in a new one.
I hope someone starts an open source IT project for just any old electric car, with all the battery management and all the driving functionality, even functionality to control the electric windows and windscreen wipers...
Maybe Haltek could do it.
@@metricstormtrooper I would probably need to be a team effort from a large team.
These already exist in various separate forms such as OrionBMS for diy battery packs, and Thunderstruck motor controllers as a few examples.
It's very tricky to create generalised car controllers as there are so many configs of battery voltage and motor design, this is without considering the various different uses of CAN messaging across EV hardware! Right now it's not too tricky (just time consuming) to build and run an entire DIY refurb EV off a couple of Arduinos that you can program for your specific project for cheap
@@matthewbaynham6286look at what Haltek have done with not only engine management systems but systems which run the complete car from top to bottom.
Those two engineers are brilliant! Kudos to them, keep up the good work!
hej! Mr, Robert, You do not need to go to australia, in Poland fee companies doing same, 2x range, not only in imiev but alos phev outlander. ;)
Have we seen anything from the channel in Poland? I suspect not. YES! We need at least one story from Poland. Surely two people on the fully charged staff like country-hopping in Europe? (Needs two: Camera-person + presenter)
Never thought I'd see Bob driving down Compton Road lol
I had a 2010 iMiEV back in the day…my then wife had a 2012.
I believe we had the only his and hers pair in the country at the time.
I miss it dearly…
I’ve driven the upgraded one Robert drives in the video, and chatted for hours to Francisco about the work they have done…it really is an upgrade on the original, and has made me want another one so badly!
Never should have sold it…but the guy I sold it to still has it.
Always liked the I-Miev - good to see they are getting well deserved up-grades. 👌
Super interesting and thought provoking video… We do not need something bigger - at least many of us don’t. Thanks for bringing us along 👍
In 2012 I came within 2 days of buying one of these. It was the garage run around, but it wasn't liked so they decided to sell it for less than half the forecourt price. £12K instead of £28k. I'd just had an insurance/pension mature and I had £11k to burn and I decided on a small Mitsubishi. They suggested I try the iMiev and I loved it's massive acceleration. My wife agreed to the sale, but asked what would it cost to replace the batteries? I tried to find out what the likely life span was going to be. I even rang Nissan to ask them what they expected of the Leaf? No-one knew as it was so early on in the life of EVs. The cost to replace the battery pack was £8500 and to honest, I didn't argue with my wife when she said that maybe it wasn't such a good idea and that it was maybe wiser to wait a while whilst things sort themselves out. It was 3 years before I got my first Zoe.
Sorry, that's very intriguing but way too short a video! We need deeper dives to give people more confidence in this and similar ventures. What about the pack enclosure, safety, batteries they tried, new configuration of the old cells for solar, testing and selection of the same? The gentleman mentioned hot-rodding, can the power be increased (spoiler, it probably can, with CAN 😀)?
Inspiring episode. Thank you guys. Keep on going!
Our first ev was used 2012 imiev. Found it on a high end used car lot. Lambos Maserati etc.. It was like new, 5,000 miles. Car lot had no idea what to do with it. Purchased it for $6,800. Worked great. Grandson wanted to buy an EV, sold it to him on a good deal. He used it daily. A year after buying a storm knocked down a tree and crushed it!
Great to see these older cars having modern battery upgrades. There have been CATL LFP modules available for the Nissan Leaf for a while now, is this company also going to perform that upgrade?
Just bought a Chevrolet Bolt because my Chevrolet Spark EV didn't quite have the range I wanted. I always thought, that the Spark would be great at 150-200 miles of range. If they could double the battery pack and not increase the weight. Would be a terrific all around car.
Like it said in the piece, these battery packs could be use for backup solar arrays. Never know, when your power goes out or buy cheaper energy at night.
Great video. Interesting hearing the engineer saying it was difficult to decode the 'cambus'. We need the 'right to repair' ... manufacturers need to be made to make technical details including software available to third party's so that the life of EVs can be extended.
This is great! HOWEVER
We need to put it too manufacturers to not prevent this on all items into the future, what am I getting at? Manufactures (tesla) will limit 3rd party modifications aggressively. This is not on, you buy it you own it, its yours, so don't allow the people you bought it from to determan how it might be used (or not) in the long future!
Thank you Kryten for everything!
thought he was preaching to us to stop burning stuff?
did he swim to australia?
I own a Citroen Zero and we love the car. We live on a small island in the Netherlands and the Zero is ideal for it. I hope we can change the battery in Europe too for this kind of battery. I love youre programme on youtube
Thank you Robert for all your hard work.
First gen PSA ev's would also deserve the same attention to detail.
I enjoyed my short time with my i-MiEV. Got it on a lease for $0 down and $69/month. I couldn't say no to that!
Hey! Fantastic! Always LOVED the iMiev! Well done!
I have a feeling this would be the car Kath & Kim would drive in a 2024 reboot of the show... Along with a teen-aged Epponnee-Rae! It's different! It's unusual! It's noyce!
I want one! How do I get my hands on one while living in Montreal Quebec? I'll pay the shipping too!
Please tell me how to go about it?
They have mentioned in other videos that they intend to distribute internationally through approved EV maintenance companies, due to the high voltage involved. ☮️
Robert THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for covering this!!!!!! I so need this in the US. I too love my iMiev and need more range. What they're doing with the electronics sounds wonderful, but I'd be happy (ecstatic) with a 17 kwh battery -- just the original box (or something with some new brackets) with some empty space in it but modern batteries. 230km would be amazing, but in a pinch, I'd take 100km again at a reasonable price. Don't get me wrong -- I'd jump at their full menu, but if they could only export something simple and less capable, they'd have customers in the states for that as well.
Calmax Fine Cars. 1204 Via Roma Colton CA 92324 USA Has recently signed up as a Licesenced Installer of their battery upgrade. Try contacting them, or OZ Electric Vehicles for any info.
So cool.
we have a company in France that tries to replace the batteries with more modern ones but it is illegal.
I really hope they win their legal fight.
Car manufacturers should be made to facilitate this with their design to the point where your car can be viewed as a separate investment to your battery.
brilliant! we have a crummy old '12 leaf and would love a similar upgrade 😊
I had one of these years ago, and got good use from it. My biggest problem was Mitsubishi itself. The battery itself started dying, with a range down to 40 miles. The dealer / Mitsubishi wouldn't honor the warranty, and kept blaming my driving habits (I was 68 years old then). After many conflicted contacts with the dealer, one of thier mechanics took me aside and said that they were stonewalling the warranty because Mitsubishi was about to go bankrupt. I finally prevailed, and got a new battery. But I was so sour on the company that I got rid of it and replaced it with Chevy Bolts. Will never deal with Mitsubishi again ! (Love the Bolts)
I wish I hadn't watched this video. Now I desperately want one of those Mitsubishis
so the batteries live on too? of course! brilliant stuff.
I-Miev was a phantastic car, i drove one for a while, i absolutely loved it!!!
i have a 2001 Peugeot Partner electric with a 16kWh Ni-Cd battery. Lovely thing for local running about, no bells and whistles, sadly most people don't even know they exist let alone have any spares for them or know how to repair them, and they do need repair, with their brushed motor and batteries that have to have water added.
Great episodes, and I love how you made the old footage all wobbly. I hope more companies start doing this, refurbishing older EVs
i-MiEV hotrod - bonzer!
Oh man I can't wait to see an upgraded i-Miev with Solid State batteries in the future! That would be my dream car
Really very inspiring. Thank you, Robert.
Robert, please get Harry Metcalf from Harry’s Garage/Farm on your show. He is obviously mates with some big oil execs and is fighting the move to EV. Please get him on with a passionate scientist and ‘put im riaaaaght’. Please.
Awesome, wish we had folks that did this in the U.S.
What a great idea of upgrading old EV hope someone would do the same for VW eUP here in EUROPE ❤😊
Yup, rad car.
The indicative cost for this upgrade would have helped a lot.
I am still driving my i-miev as my only vehicle (other than a once or twice yearly rental of a longer range ev) I have to run off to work and after the first 2.5 minutes of video realize I have to come back after work to hear the rest of this! Double the range!? I got a high of 90 miles hypermiling back roads (I know it was rated at 60 miles on a charge... what would I get with an upgrade? 180 miles per charge!? Looking forward to the whole video later...
They are developing installers world wide. Contact OZ Electric Vehicles :)
This is absolutely brilliant and has to be the future. Great video Robert.
These small EV companies should franchise what they do. They could replicate what they've developed across the globe.
Good idea. There is no point having lots of different workshops having to spends months/years reverse engineering the old cars when these guys have already done it!
They are developing installers world wide. Contact OZ Electric Vehicles :)
Like that old ad campaign for death sticks, "You've Come Along Way, Baby!" This just goes to show you how much technology has improved in the last 15 years and how much it will probably change again in the next 15 which makes me super excited. Especially with announcements that commercially available sodium-ion packs will be shipping in cars this year and they are going to cost way less than most experts have even thought they would... Amongst a dozen new promising tech's all racing to become the next Lithium-Ion standard... AMAZING!