Nissan Leaf
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Discussion

Rogerout

Original Poster:

113 posts

94 months

Yesterday (13:27)
quotequote all
So can anyone advise me too..I have an Astra diesel , for commuting. An old work horse, doing a round trip to work daily of 58 miles. So lets say its 60 miles a day.

I probably spend £200 per month on diesel. Now I have been looking at Nissan Leaf's on PCP to compare that with fuel costs. You can get a Leaf , including 22 reg plates, for around £180 per month for 4 years with a small deposit.

No I don't want to get a car for the sake of it on PCP but it might mean I get a nice newish car along with cheap running costs, for little over what I currently spend.

Would battery size play a big part in what I would need?

If I am doing 60 miles per day, say on average five days per week, what will my electric costs likely be a month? Will I likely break even or be spending more money?

I would need to invest in a charger too.

Also Octupus now do cars on CPC with packages including road tax, servicing and MOT's.

I know nothing about electric cars!


motco

16,898 posts

263 months

Yesterday (13:43)
quotequote all
In very broad terms dependent on local fuel costs and your electricity tariff, running on petrol (personal experience) costs about twice what running on variable tariff electricity. Petrol at £1.35 vs. electricity at 26p/kWh. Winter efficiency of an EV is poor compared with summer and the nature of the journey and style of driving also have significant effects. Allow a 30% deterioration in winter but it's still cheaper per mile.

My experience is based on a 2014 Leaf 24kWh battery size, a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV 2.4 litre petrol, and a Jaguar X-Type diesel estate manual. Consumption figures for the Leaf were average about 3.6 miles/kWh and diesel for the Jaguar 40mpg

Factor in insurance as EVs cost more to insure like for like.

Rogerout

Original Poster:

113 posts

94 months

Yesterday (14:15)
quotequote all
So would you say there is a saving? What would you think it would cost on average in electricity bills? Is getting a bigger mileage range car better? Octopus energy offer tariffs for car charging for example.

motco

16,898 posts

263 months

Yesterday (14:46)
quotequote all
As I said above, the level of benefit depends on your tariff and some other factors. I hesitate to recommend but I can only tell of my personal experience. I didn't buy the Leaf for economy but for local very short journeys and for ease of driving for my wife. As it happens she hated it, but she hated driving anyway and ever since our son wrote off her diesel Escort Ghia she hated driving all the more!

Our family transport was the diesel Jaguar but I didn't like using that for short journeys because it took so long to warm up and no internal combustion engine likes a succession of short runs with only infrequent long runs. That's why I bought a plug-in hybrid. Short journeys suit it perfectly and there's the petrol engine for runs long enough to justify it.

Rich Boy Spanner

1,710 posts

147 months

Yesterday (16:10)
quotequote all
I've had a 72 plate Leaf for 2.5 years / 27,500 miles. The economics of purchase / PCP is a bit different as it is a company car. The running costs are peanuts once you have a home charger.
My average efficiency from day 1 to now is 4.0 miles per KWH. Drops to 3.8 in winter, goes up in summer. Sat at 4.0 right now. It has the 39KWH battery* and it costs about £2.50 to charge it to 100%** from about 20%. and from that charge point it will do 160 miles in summer/reasonable weather, but about 120 miles in winter. The lowest ever was 100 when it was -6. The heater and air con make almost no difference to range. It's all cold effect on the battery.

  • There is a Leaf with the 60 KWH battery but they stopped making them a few years back.
  • Despite all the excitement about not charging to 100% I have done it every single time for 27.500 miles and it has made no difference whatsoever to the battery. Still has exactly the same range as when it was new. If I had a bigger battery I would probably keep it to 80% normally but when you only have 39KWH to start with you would be charging all the time.
If the range fits your life they are a easy to live with car. Suspension is soft, good cruiser but can get out of shape over bumps on corners. Seats are very comfortable. The emergency auto braking is known to be neurotic and I always turn it off (every time I switch the car on). They are roomy enough (though the rear floor isn't flat and it is a bit high due to the battery) and can be optioned with a spare (space saver) wheel. There are some nice spec ones about, I have the N Techna with Pro Pilot, so it has heated front/rear seats and steering wheel. Adaptive cruise, lane keeping (which was great until a windscreen replacement and never been right since).

Rogerout

Original Poster:

113 posts

94 months

Yesterday (17:33)
quotequote all
So for a 60 mile round trip daily, would the Leaf's 39kw battery be sufficient?

Again the car is roughly £200 per month in diesel. So getting a car on CPC for under £200 a month means potentially driving a nicer , cleaner, newer car with nice mod cons. But it does mean carry on paying for the car or hand it back after the term has finished.

Current running costs for my 2012 astra is £30 a year road tax, MOT and a service. Both combined around £300 per year, more if work needs doing.

Obviously any car would need maintenance charges regardless. The other initial outlays are the home charger and the initial deposit.

I suppose doing 60 odd miles a day means charging every other day?


Baldchap

9,199 posts

109 months

Yesterday (17:56)
quotequote all
I have a 30kw Leaf that is good for about 60ish motorway miles or 90ish town miles.

Rogerout

Original Poster:

113 posts

94 months

Yesterday (18:39)
quotequote all
Baldchap said:
I have a 30kw Leaf that is good for about 60ish motorway miles or 90ish town miles.
The cost to charge it up?

Catnip64

174 posts

116 months

Yesterday (18:51)
quotequote all
Rogerout said:
The cost to charge it up?
Depends on your tariff. Using Intelligent Octopus Go, it would be about £2.00 if almost empty.

plfrench

3,768 posts

285 months

Yesterday (18:56)
quotequote all
EV data base reckon the 39kWh Leaf should do 120miles combined driving style in cold weather (-10c), so should be more than enough for what you re doing. You might as well just get into the habit of plugging in every day though so you ve always got a buffer.

So taking the above as worst case, that s 3 m/kWh. Allow a cautious charging loss of 20% for charging on a granny charger, then you re looking at 2.4m/kWh.

At my standard electricity rate of 22.8p/kWh, then your 60 mile round trip would cost you £5.99 inc VAT, or £119.70 per month.

If you use something like Ovo Anytime I ve got, then that s 7p/kWh hour for EV charging and your 60 mile round trip would be £1.84 inc VAT or £36.75 per month.

https://ev-database.org/uk/car/1656/Nissan-Leaf

Bonefish Blues

32,681 posts

240 months

Yesterday (19:01)
quotequote all
... but when you do the maths on an EV tariff remember that the other part of the tariff is significantly more expensive, so it may be better to stay on a lower 24-7 tariff in terms of your total cost (we do this)

plfrench

3,768 posts

285 months

Yesterday (19:02)
quotequote all
Bonefish Blues said:
... but when you do the maths on an EV tariff remember that the other part of the tariff is significantly more expensive, so it may be better to stay on a lower 24-7 tariff in terms of your total cost (we do this)
I didn’t think 22.8 p/kwh was particularly bad for the household electricity these days though?

Bonefish Blues

32,681 posts

240 months

Yesterday (19:06)
quotequote all
plfrench said:
Bonefish Blues said:
... but when you do the maths on an EV tariff remember that the other part of the tariff is significantly more expensive, so it may be better to stay on a lower 24-7 tariff in terms of your total cost (we do this)
I didn t think 22.8 p/kwh was particularly bad for the household electricity these days though?
Agree, it's where we are too.

DSLiverpool

15,671 posts

219 months

Yesterday (19:08)
quotequote all
Rogerout said:
Baldchap said:
I have a 30kw Leaf that is good for about 60ish motorway miles or 90ish town miles.
The cost to charge it up?
Hmm I’m not sure you’ve a grasp on this, a 30kw will pull 30kw what those kw’s cost is up to you. It’s not like a petrol car where someone can tell you what’s tank costs.
Also I’d get the cheapest 30kw tekna you can. It’ll be a couple of £ thou

ZX10R NIN

29,453 posts

142 months

Yesterday (19:11)
quotequote all
Rogerout said:
So can anyone advise me too..I have an Astra diesel , for commuting. An old work horse, doing a round trip to work daily of 58 miles. So lets say its 60 miles a day.

I probably spend £200 per month on diesel. Now I have been looking at Nissan Leaf's on PCP to compare that with fuel costs. You can get a Leaf , including 22 reg plates, for around £180 per month for 4 years with a small deposit.

No I don't want to get a car for the sake of it on PCP but it might mean I get a nice newish car along with cheap running costs, for little over what I currently spend.

Would battery size play a big part in what I would need?

If I am doing 60 miles per day, say on average five days per week, what will my electric costs likely be a month? Will I likely break even or be spending more money?

I would need to invest in a charger too.

Also Octupus now do cars on CPC with packages including road tax, servicing and MOT's.

I know nothing about electric cars!
What is the GFV on the Leaf at the end of the four years? That's something you'll need to factor into your costs.

Also remember the range drops in autumn/winter.

There's a thread on the e Puma that's £139 a month lease.




Big Nanas

2,690 posts

101 months

Yesterday (19:13)
quotequote all
Bonefish Blues said:
... but when you do the maths on an EV tariff remember that the other part of the tariff is significantly more expensive, so it may be better to stay on a lower 24-7 tariff in terms of your total cost (we do this)
With OVO Anytime, the EV charging add on is separate, so doesn't increase your usual electricity rate.

Bonefish Blues

32,681 posts

240 months

Yesterday (19:34)
quotequote all
Big Nanas said:
Bonefish Blues said:
... but when you do the maths on an EV tariff remember that the other part of the tariff is significantly more expensive, so it may be better to stay on a lower 24-7 tariff in terms of your total cost (we do this)
With OVO Anytime, the EV charging add on is separate, so doesn't increase your usual electricity rate.
I looked when we got the i3. It's 15p lower than my current EV charge rate, but 5p higher for the rest, but we use significantly more of the latter than the former, so it's not right for us.