For those of you who’ve been waiting, here it is—a hybrid with over 500,000 km on the odometer, arriving on a trailer. Among a sea of errors, from the initial diagnosis of a faulty inverter to a detailed inspection, we finally traced the issue to the traction battery located in the trunk. The owner spent months pleading with us to take the car in.
After a lot of disassembly and detaching, the over 120 kg battery was removed. Upon opening it, the issue was immediately apparent: extreme swelling of the cells. This phenomenon typically occurs in heavily worn battery systems, where increased internal resistance leads to overheating and cell swelling. The swelling damaged the module cage, insulation between cells, and even caused a short to the chassis—resulting in 400V on the door handle.
Despite this shocking condition, the system was designed with LG Chem cells and active cooling (something the Nissan Leaf hasn’t had in 14 years). LG Chem cells deserve a trophy—wherever we’ve encountered them, they’ve proven to be reliable and durable. If someone forced us under threat to use pouch cells (notorious for being the worst choice for any application) in a project, we’d still opt for these. The system strongly resembles the Chevrolet/Opel Ampera battery pack.
The cells now have a resistance exceeding 3MΩ, well beyond acceptable limits, making this an extremely hazardous situation. Finding used cells is quite challenging. Used batteries in unknown conditions cost between €4,000 and €10,000, while a new battery system is priced at a staggering €44,000 plus installation. With this hybrid, Volvo breaks two records: the mileage and the cost of the battery system.
We couldn’t shake the suspicion that the battery might have been replaced before, so we dug deep, verifying the original serial number (313101011) on the battery and through Volvo Cloud. It was confirmed to be the original. However, the cost of a new battery is utterly disappointing. Dividing that cost over 514,000 km, even if you drove exclusively on electric power without ever starting the diesel engine, you’d still need to spend an additional €10 per 100 km just to pay for the battery—plus electricity costs. Once again, the PHEV lifecycle proves unsustainable.
The only viable solution would be a complete rebuild of the battery system with new cells, but the problem is the lack of new cells with the same form factor and dimensions. We are currently searching for a used battery system to bring this vehicle, which has been sitting idle for seven months, back to life.
Evo vi koji ste čekali, dočekali ste. Trenutno jedini hybrid koji je ušao u dvorište na prikolici a da ima preko 500,000km na satu. U moru grešaka od prve dijagnoze da je inverter neispravan do detaljnog ispitivanja dolazimo do traga i kvara pogonske baterije smještene u prtljažniku. Vlasnik je mjesecima molio da primimo vozilo. Hrpa raskopavanja i otpajanja da se izvadi vani, mase preko 120kg. Nakon otvaranja problem je već vidljiv da je došlo do ekstremnog napuhavanja ćelija što je inače pojava kod jako istrošenog baterijskog sustava gdje se povecanjem unutarnjeg otpora povećava i pregrijavanje sustava pa i samo napuhavanje ćelija. Napuhavanje je podrobio kavez modula, oštetilo izolator izmedju celija i probilo izolaciju na šasiju tj imate na kvaki od vrata 400V. Iako nevjerovatno sustav je dizajniran sa LG Chem celijama i aktivnim hladjenjem (ono što Nissan Leaf nema 14 godina). LG Chem ćelije zaslužuju trofej jer gdje god smo ih dosad našli pokazale su se jako kvalitetnim i izdržljivim. Mi osobno da nas neko pod prijetnjom natjera da koristimo POUCH CELIJE (koje su najgore za bilo što) u nekom projektu, izabrali bi upravo ove. Sustav jako podsjeća na Chevrolet tj Opel Ampera battery pack. Celije imaju otpor preko 3Mohm što je izvan dozvoljenih kontura i jako opasno stanje. Rabljene ćelije je malo teže naći. Rabljene baterije u nepoznatom stanju su od 4000-10000€ a dok je nov baterijski sustav 44000€ + ugradnja. Tako da Volvo sa ovim hybridom ruši 2 rekorda, broj kilometara i cijenu baterijskog sustava. Nismo se mogli oduzeti sumnji da je baterija ipak mozda mjenjana, pa smo kroz najdublje kanale provjerili čak i koji je originalni serijski broj baterije (313101011) na samoj bateriji i u Volvo Cloud sustavu gdje je potvrdjeno da je original. Medjutim cijena nove baterije je čisto razočarenje jer kad cijenu podjeliš na 514,000km to znači da kad bi iskljucivo vozio na struju da nikad u 10 godina ne upalis Dizel motor, morao bi trošiti dodatno 10€ na svakih 100km da platiš bateriju + potrošnja struje, gdje se PHEV lifecycle opet pokazuje neodrživim. Jedina opcija bi bila da se baterijski sustav kompletno reparira novim celijama, ali problem je nepostojanje novih istih celija sa istim formfactor dimenzijama. Trenutno tražimo rabljen baterijski sustav da bi riješili vozilo koje stoji nepokretno vec 7 mjeseci.
Fault: Isolation
OEM : 46,000€
EVC: unknown
Part number: 31407014T, 31394702, 3319286, 31453487, 36010491, MMHV1502A312A-L0,
Hi. Great article.
Just to clarify. You got a part number for new HV battery
However you have also option to order refurbished battery pack with 4 years and 80 000 km warranty. And that part number is 36050812. And it should cost around 4000 eur.
For the new one it seems that the one who is selling you it has put up very nice profit for them. It should not cost 43000 eur. But it is still very expensive agree.
Non profit price from EPC Volvo Dealer LCD Sony screen loadeed directly from supplier price catalog 🙂 no man in the midle. Friend works in Official Volvo for 15 years. So price is correct. Yes there is worn out used pack possible to buy for some 6000-8000€, but i am not comparing used packs, only new. BTW today I had call from customer that pack died on different car on 170,000km. I am wondering what is average failure mileage. 500,000 is unicorn case in my opinion.
For me price for the new one still lookd too high. It could be depending on the market setup and retailer markup. However. We can leave the new one. I agree it is still expensive even if it is 20 000 eur for a PHEV battery. However I would suggest to use Volvo refurbished pack. It is not a worn one and it is not the one from scrapyard. Anuhow. thank you for your effort on keeping those cars on the road.