£5k Nissan Leaf… am I mad?

[carreauchompeur]

Folks,

I am starting to seriously fall out of love with constantly repairing my E350Cdi… went into limp mode again today which is probably only a DPF sensor but is yet another problem a month after a £900 bill and thousands over the last couple of years.

I currently really only use my car for commuting, we have a newer Golf for long distances. Work is a 52 mile round trip on an awful A road. This is an hour each way, hence Ive had the E class for a bit of comfort and the oomph to take advantage of the few overtaking spots.

I am looking at the bottom end of the Leaf market and can see lots of half decent ones for around £5-6k. Realistically only need about 100 miles range.

Drove a slightly newer one at a garage a few weeks ago and liked the instant power. Wouldn’t obviously be as comfortable as the E but most have a recent range of gadgets. I’d want heated seats!

I do have a driveway so charging wouldnt be an issue.

Sensible, or not?

[SimpleSimonSays]

I suspect you’ll struggle to do the round trip in a Leaf of that age / price point, the battery will be somewhat degraded, and if you ever need to make a diversion, it gets marginal very quickly!

I know this because I’ve got one - mine’s a 17 plate model and I get about 60 miles max in the dead of winter, a mixture of motorway and A road, doing no more than 50 mph.

It’s great at this time of year, though!l, the exact same journey uses about 65% battery at sensible motorway speeds.

Can you charge at work, that would make it do-able easily?

[ABMA]

I am in a similar position: will be starting a new job with 60 miles round trip. I have been looking at the Nissan Leaf in the same price range £5k-6k. This will buy a Mk1 Leaf with the battery realistically delivering a 100 miles (less in winter)
The issue with these I believe will be the range as the battery will have lost some of its capacity; most of these batteries are almost 8 years old.
I am considering a hybrid (an Auris or even a Prius).

[andrebar]

My mum was keen on the idea of an entry level used Leaf a few years back. After chatting to a few private sellers I got the impression that 50 miles was a probably an optimistic estimate of range.

[Phunk]

If you realistically only need 100 miles range then a £5k leaf isn’t for you.

You’ll need the 40kwh version for that and it’ll still be touch and go in winter at motorway speeds.

[Gad-Westy]

We struggled to get 100 miles of range out of our brand new 30kwh one when we had it even in the height of summer. They have lots going for them but I'd be very wary on the range side. The cheap ones make sense for short distance running around but I wouldn't be buying one if I needed a reliable 100 miles of range and frankly on an older 24kwh with a bit of battery degradation, even a 50 mile winter commute could be touch and go. You won't welcome that stress in your life when you're just trying to get home from work.

[Mr E]

I did 40k in a mk1 leaf

Phunk said:

If you realistically only need 100 miles range then a £5k leaf isn’t for you.

You’ll need the 40kwh version for that and it’ll still be touch and go in winter at motorway speeds.

Listen to the advice here.
A mk1 24kwh leaf will not do 100 miles on the motorway.

[carreauchompeur]

Interesting! I only need 52 miles range but sounds like they might struggle.

There are some BP chargers at work but not quite sure what the deal is with them cost wise.

[Alickadoo]

These on AutoTrader are 150 mile range and up to £6k. (That isn't my address)

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-search?advertisin...

Certainly worth serious consideration, I would have thought.

[Phunk]

Alickadoo said:

These on AutoTrader are 150 mile range and up to £6k. (That isn't my address)

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-search?advertisin...

Certainly worth serious consideration, I would have thought.

We have a 30kwh Leaf that I've driven for 35k miles, the range is 80 miles max at motorway speeds on a good day. That at an indicated 70mph (which is actually 63mph GPS) and on a nice day from 100% to 5%

Need to do longer journeys and rapid charge on the way? You'll be stopping every 50 miles.

[autumnsum]

The Zoe goes further and can be had for similar prices.

[Oilchange]

Phunk said:

We have a 30kwh Leaf that I've driven for 35k miles, the range is 80 miles max at motorway speeds on a good day. That at an indicated 70mph (which is actually 63mph GPS) and on a nice day from 100% to 5%

Need to do longer journeys and rapid charge on the way? You'll be stopping every 50 miles.

80 miles range? Thats really not a lot is it?
How much to charge it to get that?

[samoht]

carreauchompeur said:

Interesting! I only need 52 miles range but sounds like they might struggle.

There are some BP chargers at work but not quite sure what the deal is with them cost wise.

Saying '52 miles' and '100 miles' requirement has muddled this thread I think.

If work is 26 miles away and it takes an hour, you're probably spending a lot of time going fairly slowly (which increases range).

It sounds like a 30 kWh Leaf would do the round trip all or nearly all of the time. In the case where range was looking marginal say in winter, you could always put in another say 10% or so at work, which worst case of £1/kWh would only be £3, likely less.

The Zoe seems a bit more efficient so the early 22kWh model should do about the same range as a 30 kWh Leaf (?). They have battery temperature management so they don't seem to suffer the degradation of the Leaf. However many early Zoes are on a battery lease (monthly payment), so watch for that.

[ChocolateFrog]

That's what I was thinking.

Surely 26 miles at an average of 26mph will be doable by all but the most degraded of Leaf batteries?

[Belle427]

I've considered one of these as I do the same 11 miles each way journey 5 days a week and then park the car up at weekends.
At what age do the batteries tail off?
I suppose they are scrap when they do eventually fail?

[samoht]

Belle427 said:

I've considered one of these as I do the same 11 miles each way journey 5 days a week and then park the car up at weekends.
At what age do the batteries tail off?
I suppose they are scrap when they do eventually fail?

The Leaf (unlike every other EV I know of) has no active cooling system for its batteries. A heavy right foot, rapid charging and hot weather see them heat up.

At high temps the batteries degrade, I think chemically. This results in them losing a certain % of their total capacity.

The loss seems to be fairly linear with age and use, although at different rates depending on climate, usage pattern and battery generation, with the later battery packs being significantly more resistant.

If buying a Leaf you can check the dash display (unless it's been reset!) which shows capacity with 12 bars. So a used Leaf with nine bars showing might have 3/4 of its original battery capacity useable, and thus 75% of the range.

There's a good YT series where Rory Reid bought the cheapest possible Leaf and did some range tests, this is a decent indication of the 'worst case' I think.

I would expect any Leaf you could buy would do a 22 mile round trip happily for several years to come, year round.

[Downward]

I have a 2015 Leaf with nearly 59k miles. GOM states 74 miles now in Summer which I have achieved as my commute is 74 miles.. In fact I had about 13% left. Average speed of 37mph with fastest roads of 60mph which is maybe 1/4 of the journey hence why I can do it..
In winter however no chance I will do this even though I can charge locally.
Once the heater, lights etc are on it’s over 1kw.

Plus it’s far less stressful in the petrol car and i don’t have to worry about the heater.

The cars great though for journeys and without work i’ll charge once a week to do school runs, after school clubs, shopping etc.

In winter though the short journeys are just as bad as summer high speed journeys as you put the heater on and it’s 3kw straight away.

But for ease of driving and reliability it’s great. 6 years and 40k miles and it’s had just new front discs and pads and a trailing arm.

[Phunk]

Oilchange said:

Phunk said:

We have a 30kwh Leaf that I've driven for 35k miles, the range is 80 miles max at motorway speeds on a good day. That at an indicated 70mph (which is actually 63mph GPS) and on a nice day from 100% to 5%

Need to do longer journeys and rapid charge on the way? You'll be stopping every 50 miles.

80 miles range? Thats really not a lot is it?
How much to charge it to get that?

Depends where you charge, but it’s about 23kwish

My local chargers are free to use, but you can never got on them

I can charge at home for 7.5p/KWH which would be around £1.70

Or motorway rapids are around 79p/KWH which is £17 (more expensive than petrol)