EV Charging | 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

This past week, I have been applying to many delivery apps to see who will hire me. Since I will not be attending any classes for the summer semester I am now hoping to get employed for the season and start making payments on my auto insurance policy.

I found some initial success with an approved application for the Tonquin app.

I have not had any success yet with doing any orders for them. I had seen a single order on my dashboard just after approval and another today as I was driving home. Unfortunately, the app did not make any sounds, so I missed the notification of a new job.

I am still waiting on the background check for DoorDash and Uber Eats. I received a pre-adverse action notice from Walmart’s Spark Driver program. That will likely be a failure. The nice thing about Tonquin is that it is a business-to-business service, so you don’t need to go to residential areas.

I stopped at the Collonade Market to charge but all I could see were CCS chargers. After walking around a little I realized that the Chademo’s were all occupied. I then drove to a building called Enact+ where the car had said there was a ChargePoint station, but the parking area had no chargers.

Finally, I went to the Courtyard Marriot Hotel in Raleigh (pictured above) where I found a dual station with an unused Chademo charger. I stayed there for maybe 30 minutes while I waited for an order to show up on the Tonquin app.

The station said it would charge $0.99 for the session and then $0.37 per kWh, but I got a charge on my card for $30. I don’t know if that was a hold, like at gas stations, or if the price was incorrect. The charge is still pending on my card.

After charging I went to the American Tire Distributor location marked on my app map. I stayed in the parking lot for 5-10 minutes before giving up. The traffic for the drive home was really bad, I was stuck at an intersection for 15 minutes!

On the drive home, I missed the order in the Tonquin app. It did not make any sounds, so I missed the notification. I am happy that I know the app is working. It is unfortunate that there are so few jobs available though. I’ll try going out again tomorrow.

That’ll be it for today. Thank you for reading and have a nice day.