Soldato
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Its only Renault who offer it anyway.
Electric Car
- Thread starter Psycho Sonny
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Its only Renault who offer it anyway.
The battery in the Leaf has an 8 year 100,000 mile warranty.
There are taxi firms and driving schools out there running around with well over 100K and no issues.
The batteries have been very robust so far, a completely overblown point by scaremongers.
Soldato
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Some of the 2 year leased LEAFs returned to dealers were insanely cheap to pick up on a used car lease. £99 down and £99 pcm.
Nissan aren’t doing the Flex battery rental on the Leaf any more because they were finding it caused a big issue with resale value; nobody wants to buy a 2nd hand car and then have to pay extra out to rent the batteries, so residuals dropped like a lead balloon.
RCI are apparently also offering dealers the ability to buy out the battery rental agreements for a reduced amount to convert a Flex car to a non-Flex.
RCI are apparently also offering dealers the ability to buy out the battery rental agreements for a reduced amount to convert a Flex car to a non-Flex.
It can't be total warranty cover otherwise why are they still selling "battery" hire with limited mileage?
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Soldato
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That's usage in terms of depreciation and using up its life. Much like other lease products cost more the use they get.
I've just switched to a Kia Optima plug in hybrid.
31 mile range on the electric motor, then a 2l petrol engine that runs in hybrid mode. I've had it a week now and although it isn't an engaging drive in the slightest, the range seems to be real world rather than theoretical and it works for my mileage.
I do ~10 miles daily for the work commute, and much of my driving is well within the electric range. I also do a couple of 200 mile trips a month to the hybrid option works well there too.
I don't think a pure electric car would work for me as the range would be an issue. Hybrid seems to be a good choice at present.
31 mile range on the electric motor, then a 2l petrol engine that runs in hybrid mode. I've had it a week now and although it isn't an engaging drive in the slightest, the range seems to be real world rather than theoretical and it works for my mileage.
I do ~10 miles daily for the work commute, and much of my driving is well within the electric range. I also do a couple of 200 mile trips a month to the hybrid option works well there too.
I don't think a pure electric car would work for me as the range would be an issue. Hybrid seems to be a good choice at present.
How goes it?
Soldato
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There is the tesla model 3 as a 'budget' option. Not sure how much it is in this country tho (its $35,000). Actually you'd have to wait til 2019 for a right hand drive one so depends on how patient you are
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.The new leaf? I quite like it, which i can't believe..
I've had a Renault Zoe EV for the past 2 years and have really liked it. I do 52 miles a day which it handles fine, and costs hardly anything to charge it up (using the free wall charger that was installed with it). It's nice and quick from a standstill and i've found it a decent all round drive. I got it when there were cheap deals on, so even though it had battery rental on it, it still worked out quite a bit cheaper than a petrol equivalent. I need more something with more space now though, so very reluctantly moving back to a petrol for a couple of years (Skoda Yeti). I'm hoping there will be a bit more choice in decent family sized EVs by then.
What does your effective MPG work out as?
Thing is you can get a larger car, petrol and decent support for less than the £16K + rental that the Leaf costs. New tech pricing to fund R&D vs optimised for the petrol. It's priced so Nissan helps itself to the saving you get from road tax over the life time of the vehicle on purchase.
The pricing of electric leaves me both annoyed and frustrated. Seems that 3 years down the line that should change.
I must admit, i quite like the look of the new Leaf and in 2019 they are bringing out a more powerful (standard is 150bhp so hppefully ~200bhp ish), 60kwh, 325 mile range version. Real world you probably wont get 325 but the 60kwh version should be good for at least 200-250 miles in the real world which would be enough to be honest.
That could be the first electric car that would tempt me if priced right.
That could be the first electric car that would tempt me if priced right.
It's crazy how quickly they depreciate as well. After 3 years it will be worse less than a base spec Focus.
On the up side you can buy a 3 year old, low milage one for less than a base spec Focus! lol
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It depends how you measure depreciation. The MSRP on EVs is often crazy. As a result, depreciation versus MSRP is huge. Depreciation against the best available prices isn't too bad. And EVs do seem to have something of a price floor. The depreciation really tapers off after a few years. The prospect of cheap motoring means it's difficult to find an EV with an owned battery for less than £5k, regardless of age or mileage.
Well, an almost 30k Leaf will be worth under 10k after 3 years. A 20k Focus is around the same.
If your buying a used EV, prices are great (assuming no battery rental, which destroys any saving in running costs).
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But the Leaf 30kWh isn't a £30k car.
For some odd reason, overpricing EVs and then offering huge discounts seems to be the norm. I can only assume there's a reason. Maybe something related to government incentives in one or more markets, influencing global pricing strategy? Discounts of £10k-£15k on MSRP are fairly typical.
There's nothing particularly unusual about a £17k car depreciating to ~£10k over three years. If you bought a Focus Zetec for ~£15k, you'd lose about the same.
Used 2-4 year old Leafs are a particularly good buy though. There's a 30kWh on Autotrader now at a very good price (assuming you have an old banger to trade in). I'd be amazed if it lost more than £1k/year in depreciation.
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