Nissan Leaf

[kambites]

Generally speaking, the smaller the battery pack, the faster it degrades in percentage terms (perhaps because it gets discharged further, more often?). On a two year old 24kwh Leaf of average mileage, you're looking at something of the order of 90% of the usable charge remaining.

ETA: Or maybe it's correlation rather than causation and it's just that more modern cars with newer battery technology tend to have bigger batteries.

Edited by kambites on Sunday 21st January 19:04

[RobDickinson]

Couple of things.

Smaller batteries are more likely to be fully discharged and charged more often.

There's fewer cells to spread the milage done and wear around.

Leafs have relatively poor battery management with no cooling system etc

[M4cruiser]

greenarrow said:

...
...so, a question to people like me, who run ICE family hatches, would you consider something like a Leaf, as your next car?

To answer the original question, yes I'm seriously considering a used Leaf. I drive an automatic at present, and I like the idea of an even quieter car. For me it's nothing to do with being "green".

The pricing (of used models) is confusing, mainly because of the "flex" option, which takes about 3 to 4 grand off the initial price.

I do less than 50 miles most days, but sometimes I'm unexpectedly called upon to go to another depot/building, and my total for the day can be 110 miles. Too much for a Leaf. Even if half of that is paid for by my employer on a per-mile basis, I can't easily plug it in at work. That's a problem.

Another problem is not directly Leaf-related, but I do hate the centralising gear selectors. You lose the tactile information. Not a huge problem for a Leaf, where you don't tend to use the lever on the move, but other ICE models are far worse in this respect. Yes, call me picky if you like, but the lever itself wouldn't stop me buying a Leaf, I'd just like it so much more if it had a P-R-N-D set up like a proper car.

[Paulm4]

Thanks for the advice and to Mr E as well, I'll go and have a look at the local Nissan garage tomorrow and see what they have.
I need a contingency plan for when the Mini finally explodes as when it does she'll start taking my cars to work!

Paulm4 said:

That's exactly the sort of thing I was after. What sort of range do you get and what size battery is it?
I didn't know you could get PCP on a 2nd hand car but then again I'm not really sure what PCP is! Off to google...

DELETED: Comment made by a member who's account has been deleted.