[apassemard]

Hello,

I love my fiat 500e, but the range I get is closer to 70/75 miles than anything else advertised. It's fine but I always feels that I'm missing the extra 30 or 40 miles that would allow me move around more. Seeing many other EV going 120 or even 250 miles makes me really wish I could have the same kind of range. Looking around I saw that the 63Ah cells could be swapped with up to 120Ah cells (from Samsung apparently) as the volume is similar. I'm sure this is not as simple as it looks but was wondering if people had looked into this and found ways to increase the overall range of the car.

thanks

 

[rkw]

Your range should increase to near 100 miles in warm weather.
It's possible to replace with larger capacity cells, but the conversion will cost as much as a brand new 500e (or more!).
https://pushevs.com/2018/01/10/fiat-500e-improved-scuderia-e/

 

[Ironhydroxide]

if you're really wanting the increased range, you could buy a "used" i3 pack with the 90Ah cells, strip it of the packs, and swap them into the 500e's pack.

Car-Part has a few packs from the IIHS test cars (brand new, but crashed) listed for $8000 each.

 

[apassemard]

I saw the scuderia one yes. Very expensive. I was thinking more of a DIY methodology where I can buy the cells and swap them out..

 

[apassemard]

That's more like I thought yes.. I'll check that option. Anyone in the forum has done something like that?

 

[Ironhydroxide]

Far as my reading has taken me, Nobody here has done it yet. I've only seen a few pictures of the 500e batteries disassembled, but it looks fairly easy to me. Note: you'll need to pull the rear suspension completely to get the battery out, thus a lift is probably the best way to go about it.

 

[Electric Tire Shredder]

I love my fiat 500e, but the range I get is closer to 70/75 miles than anything else advertised. It's fine but I always feels that I'm missing the extra 30 or 40 miles that would allow me move around more.

A) You know about range-maximizing tips, right? (#1 by a GIGANTIC margin is "drive a bit slower")

B) Consider battery upgrade cost vs $3k for the upcoming DC rapid charge kit which would add the 30 miles you asked for in about 9 minutes IF you have local DC chargers.

 

[Jake Yemtsov]

A) You know about range-maximizing tips, right? (#1 by a GIGANTIC margin is "drive a bit slower")

B) Consider battery upgrade cost vs $3k for the upcoming DC rapid charge kit which would add the 30 miles you asked for in about 9 minutes IF you have local DC chargers.

Hey man Could you please share a bit more info on your B statement? keywords/links to the DC charge kit are hugely appreciated. Thank you!

 

[Jake Yemtsov]

A) You know about range-maximizing tips, right? (#1 by a GIGANTIC margin is "drive a bit slower")

B) Consider battery upgrade cost vs $3k for the upcoming DC rapid charge kit which would add the 30 miles you asked for in about 9 minutes IF you have local DC chargers.

sorry, found it, please ignore.

(just in case someone is reading and has the same question - https://www.fiat500owners.com/threads/dc-rapid-charge-avail-late-2019.147709/)

 

[sariaa]

Your range should increase to near 100 miles in warm weather.
It's possible to replace with larger capacity cells, but the conversion will cost as much as a brand new 500e (or more!).
https://pushevs.com/2018/01/10/fiat-500e-improved-scuderia-e/

Wow. I never heard of this. (sorry if this is a silly question. I am not a car guy.) Can this be done by a mechanic here in the states?

 

[RostHaus]

Wow. I never heard of this. (sorry if this is a silly question. I am not a car guy.) Can this be done by a mechanic here in the states?

That is not an easy upgrade. Its completely different cells and bms units. The removed pack I saw from them is very custom and probably has atleast couple 100 hours of labor in it. They rebuilt the entire battery pack.

Best bet it to get a battery pack from recent i3(17' up) and take the 94ah or 120ah SDI cells. which are the same type of prismatics in the 500e.
The 120ah cells should give our Fiats a 160mi range or more

Right now its still fairly unheard of swap for most EVs outside of leafs (or leaves?).

I would trust one of the EV conversion shops like EVwest as they actually break down alot of wrecked EVs to salvage cells for builds and they typically have pallets of wholesale cells.
I have a feeling they could do the SDI cell swap.

Another one which is more inline with swapping cells within factory builds is Véhicules électriques Simon André in Quebec. They have working upgrades using factory parts for the first gens of leaf and volt at the moment. And I believe they are expanding to other models.