Nissan Leaf | Shed of the Week
End of days? Or just a very cheap electric car from 2013...
As Dante said 700 years ago in his Inferno, abandon hope all ye who enter here because yes, it’s the long-awaited, or possibly long-feared, debut of the Nissan Leaf in Shed of the Week.
This 89,000-mile example was first registered in June 2013, which means it has a 24kWh battery, a spec which in today’s world of 100+kWh battery capacities might seem hopelessly impractical. But is it a problem in reality? If you ask Bob the Binman, who uses a gen-one Leaf just like this to visit various housewives in and around the village, the answer to that is no. 107hp might not sound like a lot, mainly because it isn’t, but 188lb ft of torque is more than enough to breeze Bob and his giggling passengers smartly around his favoured back roads.
The underfloor positioning of the batteries gives the Leaf copious cabin space, a big boot, and handling that is a long way short of terrible. Bob doesn’t mind the odd nautical lurch around corners as it reminds him of his great days in the merchant navy. Some mods were made to the suspension and steering in 2013, which made the Leaf’s ride less plush in town. Bob’s not sure if his car is one of those, but he will concede that refinement does drop on faster or broken bits of road. Even so he finds the Leaf very nice 95 per cent of the time, and for reasons you will probably appreciate, he very much enjoys the silence of its arrival and the nippiness of its departure. This sub-1,500kg car does feel much quicker than its brochure time of 11.1 seconds for the 0-60 suggests.
Talking of percentages, the state of health of Bob’s battery is currently showing at 75. What does that mean for range? When new, it was officially 109 miles, although the industry was playing fast and loose with estimates back then. Modifications in 2013 extended the new-car range from 109 to 124. Used Leafs, or Leaves, like our shed should be capable of between 55 and 115 miles depending on use, weather, and wind direction, but in Bob’s experience the real-world figure is likely to be at the lower end of that spread.
He’s getting around 70 miles from a full squirt, or slightly more if he switches to B mode with Eco. That’s more than enough to allow him to carry out his demanding and selfless programme of relief work, each day finishing off with the satisfying plugging-in of his granny charger. Once he’s done that, he plugs the car in. Longer trips obviously involve much more frequent recharge stops, but Bob sees these as opportunities to give free help and advice to other EV users, many of whom are apparently attractive ladies.
Shed doesn’t understand EV pricing. Knowing how simple they are, Shed reckons manufacturers would still be making healthy profits on them even if they chopped their showroom prices in half. As an ‘insight’ into that you only have to look at brand-new 86kWh cars like the Skywell BE11, which, as we speak, is being advertised in the UK at £14,995, an RRP cut of more than 50 per cent. OK, Skywell BE11s are allegedly horrible to drive. Yes, there are some concerns about safety. And yes, it does appear that the brand has been pulled from the UK market, but even with those objections clouding your purchasing decision it does make you wonder.
Whatever, there’s no need to spend £15k on a Sizewell B or getting on for £33k after discounts for a new gen-three crossover Leaf when you can get our Leaf for £1,995. This is an Acenta, which is the base model, but even that was well-equipped with sat nav, cruise, rear view camera, Bluetooth, voice control, TPMS, climate control, heat pump and auto wipe/lights all standard. Build quality on these was high and there’s little to go wrong, mainly suspension consumables and brakes that can die prematurely through underuse. The annual VED is only £20 on EVs registered before April 2017 so your running costs will be low even with the 3p a mile the Govt is planning to charge EV drivers from 2028. It’s the EV version of that thing a few years back when the Govt encouraged us all to switch to diesel and then changed its mind a few minutes later.
Taking advantage of the non-existence of police round his way, Shed reckons he could knock up an unregistered home-brewed EV for under a grand. He would gut the mechanicals from the Mk 3 Escort that’s been rotting behind his workshop for years and reimagine it with motors from the domestic appliances that Mrs Shed has effortlessly tossed there over the same period of time. He’d put one motor on each wheel, being as careful as possible to balance up the outputs across each axle in order to avoid exciting not to say potentially lethal torque steer. Shed has never been very good at changing his ways but this is one Leaf he wouldn’t mind turning over.
Not sure what's happened to progress though, I'm currently waiting for the latest/most expensive car Hyundai has ever made to be delivered, everything I read about it says getting more than 3 miles per kWh would be good. The Leaf could hit 5 miler per kWh a decade ago, though admittedly that was achieved from drafting a lorry at 55mph in the middle of summer.
It was also surprisingly practical as a family car, you could fit a 58cm road bike and still carry someone in the back. It did not like Mways though, took nearly 4 hours to do 150 miles due to needing to stop and charge 3 times. By the time the lease was up I was glad to see it gone.....I wouldn't want to own a 2013 Leaf now though, real life range on any dual carriageway in winter will be barely 30 miles!!!
Anyway, they bought one and had chargers installed at both sites. Needless to say after a couple of marooned drivers midway between the sites the plan was quietly shelved.
Leave it on charge, use as required for local tasks at minimal cost, keep the short trips off anything decent, don’t care if it gets knocked about in car parks.
As for it vs warts ? I have never tried a Leaf but it’s not a choice I would make with that as the alternative. Unless you have had a doctor attack your heavily anaesthetised chap with what looks like a soldering iron and smelt the smoke off it, you wouldn’t be saying that
I have an EV since 2024 and they're great to drive. This one would be hopeless as an only car though due to the pitiful range, but to go alongside something sporty and petrol, excellent for short trips to the shops etc, especially in winter. I have a Honda eNy1 and a TVR Griffith on the drive at the moment.
Chademo is an issue for some, but it's likely charged at home anyway. I've done 14k miles in my EV, 95% of it on overnight charging using an outside 3 pin plug.
The PCP monthly was less than I was paying in fuel for the commute.
It was quiet and reliable. It was also dull and very challenging to look at.
I did something like 40k miles in it at a cost of ~1p per mile in power.
It did 4 tyres and a set of discs and pads (they rotted because I just didn’t use them in B mode)
I sold it for 8000 quid. That makes it easily the cheapest transport I’ve ever owned (and that includes pushbikes).
For all the comedy EV hate; this car meant I could also keep the quad cam V8 estate and the British lightweight sports car. But, if we were just running around locally, you tended to pick up the EV keys.
The mk1 is very much a second car, the range in winter is pretty rubbish. The Mk2 (also not expensive) can be your only car with a bit of planning.
The government would rather me walk or use a pushbike, so I'd rather do that than drive around in this to be honest. Electric cars aren't for me at the best of times(even the "posh" ones), so this definitely won't cut it for me I reckon.
All the hate on a cheap EV when the average journey is 6 miles and the average car does <7000 miles per year. For a household's 2nd car, getting the kids to school, commuting to work, and going to the shop cheap EVs are perfect.
The government would rather me walk or use a pushbike, so I'd rather do that than drive around in this to be honest. Electric cars aren't for me at the best of times(even the "posh" ones), so this definitely won't cut it for me I reckon.
It would be better if everyone used alternatives now and again, its just common sense but you have a situation where there is one person in a 2.5 ton SUV moaning because there is a cyclist using their road, that they pay for etc.
Its not a conspiracy, there are too many cars using the roads most of the time, sometimes its good to walk, cycle or god forbid even use public transport.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff