America | Fat Wallet Refugee

An Irish start-up firm in Co Kildare (Range Therapy) has begun offering battery swaps for the Nissan LEAF Mk1 model.

This service is currently priced at 7k Euros (7,212.10 USD), with discounts available if you decide to trade in your old battery.

Daly brought her old 24kWh Mk1 Leaf to Range Therapy, and shortly afterwards drove back out again with a new 70kWh battery, giving the Leaf a potential range of up to 475km on one charge – something that the 160km ranged original could never have even thought about.

Once removed, the older batteries can be repurposed as an energy storage vessel similar to the power walls found in commercial and residential structures.

Cited article by The Irish Times/Neil Briscoe

https://www.irishtimes.com/motors/2025/01/15/dont-scrap-an-older-electric-vehicle-just-upgrade-it/

For US-based consumers, there are options available for replacing older batteries in LEAF vehicles. Models from the 2010s through to 2018s can be upgraded to the extended range 62kw Plus size batteries.

Leo & Sons Auto Repair of Massachusetts is an auto shop that can perform the battery replacement service. The LEAF Facebook group provides a list of shops that can perform the replacement service.

Your options for LEAF battery replacements typically come down to going to a Nissan dealership or working with a battery replacement specialist.

Typically, the 62kw battery packs run for $8k-16k depending on availability.

If you are having difficulty finding an available battery pack, try auto scrap shops. Often when a car is involved in an accident the insurer will write off the vehicle as a total loss when the damage is often only cosmetic.

Cited article by Recurrent/Jon Whitt

https://www.recurrentauto.com/research/nissan-leaf-battery-replacement

Dogs or cats?

I did have a dog for a while but he didn’t get trained properly and grew up to be something of an idiot.

You don’t have to train a cat. They work properly right out of the box. No assembly is required.

They have the decency to bury their poo and don’t leave it all over the lawn. Nor do cats treat a litter box as a smorgasbord.

Yes, my idiot dog had a s***-eating grin.

That’s not to say that cats are not without their own set of issues.

I recall being awoken one morning by a kitten going pee in my hair. I’ve cleaned and disposed of many household objects that got sprayed on. I have painful memories of scratches and bites come bath day.

But overall I still prefer a cat to a dog.

I believe a dog topic that has received little attention has been their historical uses regarding race-based violence and chattel slavery in the Americas.

Particular breeds were used to track and hunt down those escaping enslavement. Punishment, while often depicted in media as whipping, often did involve abuses by the master’s dogs.

Law enforcement’s use of police dogs to capture and subdue a fleeing individual is another example of canine violence.

Some of the more popular breeds today have a violent history which I feel deserves more attention.

That’s it for today. Thanks for taking the time to read this and have a great day.