Nissan Leaf At £6k - Running Costs ?
Discussion
Considering an EV for my wife she covers 10k a year and a 50 mile range would be fine most days
A quick look on AT shows a couple of Leafs at circa £6k with 80k and owning the battery
Doing some very basic calcs it costs £1500 in petrol and £200 tax to run her current car (presumably tyres, mot etc will be comparable to the Leaf)
So how much will I save running a Leaf ?
What are the risks of an older EV as a quick google suggests battery life is fairly stable
A quick look on AT shows a couple of Leafs at circa £6k with 80k and owning the battery
Doing some very basic calcs it costs £1500 in petrol and £200 tax to run her current car (presumably tyres, mot etc will be comparable to the Leaf)
So how much will I save running a Leaf ?
What are the risks of an older EV as a quick google suggests battery life is fairly stable
If you get on a good tariff you can get it as low as 4p-5p per kwh over night, so the 24 Leaf would cost about £1 to charge for the 50-60miles it will get.
Batteries seem sold, check it comes with the 8 year guarantee.
As for servicing, tyres (mine lasted 38k) and break pads about every 100k, MOT, you don't need to service them (but might have to to keep the warranty), the service is just an inspection like an MOT.
Make sure the electric hand break is working if it has one, as they are expensive to fix. Most should have the manual foot parking break, they are fine.
Batteries seem sold, check it comes with the 8 year guarantee.
As for servicing, tyres (mine lasted 38k) and break pads about every 100k, MOT, you don't need to service them (but might have to to keep the warranty), the service is just an inspection like an MOT.
Make sure the electric hand break is working if it has one, as they are expensive to fix. Most should have the manual foot parking break, they are fine.
Edited by jjwilde on Wednesday 7th August 17:19
Check the battery SOH, make sure all bars are present. Only real stingers are Heater PTC failing (make sure heater/air con work well) and main charging unit failure. PTC failure is quite common on old ones (worse case ~£2k bill), main charger you would have to be very unlucky. Apart from that check brake disc condition.
Savings could be quite considerable. Bear in mind in coldest winter you might be looking at 65 mile range (or maybe less). Electric cost works out £3 for 100 miles for my calculations. No RFL. Nissan have fixed price servicing, but you might be better going to a specialist. At that age might need 12v battery at some point, brake fluid every 2 years, every year is laptop plug in + expensive screen wash
. Needs coolant swap at some point.
Savings could be quite considerable. Bear in mind in coldest winter you might be looking at 65 mile range (or maybe less). Electric cost works out £3 for 100 miles for my calculations. No RFL. Nissan have fixed price servicing, but you might be better going to a specialist. At that age might need 12v battery at some point, brake fluid every 2 years, every year is laptop plug in + expensive screen wash
. Needs coolant swap at some point.Looking at similar for day to day running the kids about.
They seem very reliable. Not much to service ("major" service is just a brake fluid and pollen filter change plus checks), very light on brakes. Lots more independents, most of these should be able to do everything routine on a Leaf at less than Nissan rates - https://www.hevra.org.uk/members/index.html
There's several good buyers guide videos on Youtube, you get a basic idea of battery health from the bars shown by the fuel gauge but you can get more from an OBD2 dongle and an app on your phone. Lots you read about battery degradation is from Americans in very hot places, the UK climate doesn't seem to be as much of a problem for them.
They got a minor refresh (dark interior, heat pump, mechanical parking brake, no big hump in the boot) in 2013 when they started making them in the UK, they're probably worth the small amount extra. Tekna models don't seem to be that much more either, and you get heated leather, heated steering wheel, bose stereo, around view cameras, etc.
Tax is £0.
Only charging at home - let's be pessimistic and say 3.5 miles per kwh (inc charging losses, etc) so 2857 kwh or "units", with Bulb I pay 12.4p a unit = £354 in electric to do 10k miles. You may do better, and there are some EV tariffs now with a lower cost in the small hours so you just set a timer on the car or chargepoint to draw when it's cheaper.
If you don't have a chargepoint already then the government (OLEV) cover the first £500 worth, you pay £150 or so depending on what you go for.
They seem very reliable. Not much to service ("major" service is just a brake fluid and pollen filter change plus checks), very light on brakes. Lots more independents, most of these should be able to do everything routine on a Leaf at less than Nissan rates - https://www.hevra.org.uk/members/index.html
There's several good buyers guide videos on Youtube, you get a basic idea of battery health from the bars shown by the fuel gauge but you can get more from an OBD2 dongle and an app on your phone. Lots you read about battery degradation is from Americans in very hot places, the UK climate doesn't seem to be as much of a problem for them.
They got a minor refresh (dark interior, heat pump, mechanical parking brake, no big hump in the boot) in 2013 when they started making them in the UK, they're probably worth the small amount extra. Tekna models don't seem to be that much more either, and you get heated leather, heated steering wheel, bose stereo, around view cameras, etc.
Tax is £0.
Only charging at home - let's be pessimistic and say 3.5 miles per kwh (inc charging losses, etc) so 2857 kwh or "units", with Bulb I pay 12.4p a unit = £354 in electric to do 10k miles. You may do better, and there are some EV tariffs now with a lower cost in the small hours so you just set a timer on the car or chargepoint to draw when it's cheaper.
If you don't have a chargepoint already then the government (OLEV) cover the first £500 worth, you pay £150 or so depending on what you go for.
Edited by sjg on Wednesday 7th August 17:34
ash73 said:
... apart from tyres, brakes, suspension bushes, alignment, brake fluid, coolant, lights, battery, cabin air filters, greased latches, electrical connections, software updates, etc.
Right well that's general maintenance isn't it. It's not taking it in for an oil/plugs/filter (etc) change. I spent close to zero maintaining my leaf over 87k (tyres was the only thing I paid for).
ash73 said:
... apart from tyres, brakes, suspension bushes, alignment, brake fluid, coolant, lights, battery, cabin air filters, greased latches, electrical connections, software updates, etc.
Is anyone dumb enough not to shop around for tyres themselves and just pay a dealer to source them some over priced ones?Suspension bushes, alignment, greased latches, electrical connections - are these items actually 'service' items even on a combustion car?
Brake and brake fluids needs checking, but EVs don't wear brakes much due to regen, brake fluid anyone can do.
Coolant on the Leaf I think its 125K first change.
Cabin filter - Not checked on the Leaf but on most cars is a 5 minute job.
Our EV is now coming up to 27K, and am actually now feeling guilty about not having spent £0 on 'servicing', tyres yes, but taking it to a dealer for them to charge me £££ for a tick list of stuff no. I think I will get the air-con regassed maybe next year?
sjg said:
They got a minor refresh (dark interior, heat pump, mechanical parking brake, no big hump in the boot) in 2013 when they started making them in the UK, they're probably worth the small amount extra.
The refresh was a bit more than 'minor'. The newer version is the one to have. My Leaf is on 47k, still 12 bars on the battery, service costs me £60.00 from my local indy.
Bloody brilliant things if the range isn't an issue and going back to a ICE car for day to day just seems like a huge step backwards.
lost in espace said:
The 24kwh is less prone to degradation than a 30. There is a gen 1 on the Leaf facebook page for £8k asking price 2013, but prices are definitely dropping at the moment.
Yes it seems a decent 2011 £6k+, 2013 £8k+So depreciation is circa £1k / yr which may be on a par with other modern cars but I'm used to older, effectively non depreciating cars - she'll have to go and try one.
kuro68k said:
I've had a few Nissan services and they aren't worth it. The battery report they give you is worthless, you can get much more useful info yourself with Leafspy. 3rd party servicing is the way to go.
Yeah if the car is out of the 8 year warranty then don't bother, it is just them looking at the car for 5mins. In one case it was them turning the car around in the car park and parking it back up seen via a dash cam.I bought a 2 year old Leaf 24 on a PCP with service package 2 years ago. The monthly payment plus running costs is about 50% of the fuel costs alone for my previous ICE car, which was old and owned outright. Add the reliability of the Leaf in to the equation and there is simply no downside, when using one for local runs/commuting etc only. I have saved about £3600 in that time I reckon.
Do it.
Do it.
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