Advanced Leaf upgrades, without the trip to Christchurch
GVI is the Auckland partner for EVs Enhanced, the New Zealand company behind the Leaf's best-known battery upgrades, diagnostic tools and firmware fixes. Their tech, fitted and configured here in Penrose.
EVs Enhanced spent years reverse-engineering the Nissan Leaf so that an ageing one can be made to go further, charge better and last longer. GVI works alongside them, so an Auckland owner can get the same work without shipping a car, a battery or an instrument cluster to the South Island. Some jobs we do on the spot; for the rest we're your local drop-off, fitment and configuration point.
A note on honesty: a few of these are only worth doing on the right car. We'll always run a battery health check and talk through whether an upgrade, a repair or simply leaving it alone makes the most sense for you.
More range, more life
The pack is the whole car. These are the ways to give a tired Leaf a second act.
Battery capacity upgrades
Fit a bigger pack from a newer Leaf, commonly 24 kWh up to 30 or 40 kWh. EVs Enhanced's HV Battery Translator lets the older car accept and correctly manage the newer battery, and neither pack has to be opened. A clean, reversible way to roughly double the range of an early car.
Pack repair & re-balancing
Leaf cells usually age evenly, so swapping a couple of modules rarely helps. Where it does, an isolation fault (P0AA6 / P31E7), a high self-discharge cell, or one module that's degraded on its own, we replace it with cells matched to or better than the rest, then re-balance so the range gauge reads true and the car stays out of turtle mode.
Lithium Battery Controller firmware
The battery's brain. The best-known update fixes the 30 kWh capacity-reporting bug that made those cars look far more degraded than they were. There's also custom firmware for owners who regularly do long trips on back-to-back rapid charges. We can check and update your LBC here.
Fix the things a code reader can't
Module-level repairs and firmware that need EVs Enhanced's tools and know-how.
On-board charger repair & firmware
Classic early-Leaf fault: it rapid-charges fine on CHAdeMO but a good home charger throws a failed "diode check" and won't start, often with no fault code. EVs Enhanced worked out a component-level fix (about a dollar in parts) instead of a whole new charger. We remove the unit, repair it and bring the firmware up to the latest revision.
Brake control module firmware
The Leaf uses an electrically-assisted brake unit, not a vacuum booster, and it decides moment to moment how much braking comes from regen versus the hydraulics. Nissan issued several firmware revisions across 2011–2017 for feel and safety; we can bring yours up to the current version.
VCM remapping & recoding
The Vehicle Control Module runs the whole drivetrain. Recoding can sharpen up regen in B / Eco so you barely touch the friction brakes, and is also what makes drivetrain swaps and conversions practical. This one is assessed car by car, talk to us about what you're after.
Diagnostics & reporting
We use the same EVs Enhanced Leaf service and reporting tools they developed for the trade, cell-level battery data, charger and module firmware versions, and a proper written report. The starting point for any of the work on this page.
Make it feel like a local car
EVs Enhanced pioneered the English dash conversion. We do it in Auckland.
English instrument cluster conversion
Switches the dash, menus and warnings from Japanese to English, and the trip computer to km. For 2011–2017 Leafs we do it through the OBD2 port on the spot, usually while you wait, no dash removal. For the 2018-on ZE1 the cluster is removed and sent to EVs Enhanced for conversion, then refitted.
English audio & navigation
Depends on the car's spec. On base S / VX grades the tidy answer is a good aftermarket head unit with Apple CarPlay & Android Auto. On X / G grades with the factory Carwings or NissanConnect screen, it's an English conversion of the original unit so you don't lose the reversing camera, energy screens and controls.
Charge cables & labels
While it's in: a new NZ 8 amp 3-pin trickle cable, a Type 2-to-Type 1 cable for public AC chargers, and full English warning labels, stickers and a translated owner's manual.
A proper wallbox, sized for a Leaf
Nearly every Leaf owner charges at home overnight. We help you pick the right unit and cable; our partners at EV Power supply it; a registered electrician installs it.
A Japanese-import Leaf takes AC power through a Type 1 (J1772) inlet, and its on-board charger is capped at 3.3 kW on early cars or 6.6 kW on later ones. That means a single-phase 7 kW wallbox is the most a Leaf can ever use, three-phase 22 kW units cost more and do nothing extra for it. Even at 6.6 kW a 24–40 kWh car goes from low to full in roughly four to six hours, so it's ready long before morning.
EV Power, a New Zealand EV-charging specialist, stocks the options that actually suit a Leaf:
- Tethered Type 1 wallbox, the cable is built in and plugs straight into the Leaf, nothing to carry or store
- Type 2 socket wallbox + a Type 2-to-Type 1 cable, a little more future-proof if you might change to a Type 2 car later
- Smart charging, off-peak scheduling, app control, solar self-consumption, and dynamic load management that eases off when the house draws hard
- Portable 8 / 10 amp EVSE for an ordinary 3-pin socket, a fine backup or second-location option
Tell us where the car parks and roughly what your switchboard looks like, and we'll spec it with you. The wiring itself is done by a registered electrician, EV Power has an installer network, or use your own sparky.
Not sure what your Leaf needs?
Start with a battery health check and a diagnostic report. We'll tell you honestly which of these, if any, is worth doing on your car, and what it costs.
Booking request
We reply within the hour, Mon–Fri 7:30am–5pm.
Urgent? Call 09 579 6083 or text 021 184 7876.