Nissan leaf correct decision?
- Thread starter peter
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As a second car it is perfect. Our other car does the big mileage, the Leaf being used for journeys into town where we can park & charge for free.
It's the parking costs too though. We pay more for parking than petrol at £10 per day, whereas electric cars are free in all council run car parks in Leeds.
Maybe not fuel cost worries, but environmental worries?
I think you would be very surprised how much this matters to 'normal' people. Remember how many spent extra money leasing small capacity diesel super mini's over the cheaper petrol versions because of the £30 road tax and mpg's and then do 6-8k a year. So many people lease because its 'cheaper' per month where as we all know its normally the most expensive way to own a car.
Associate
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But if people switch for example from a 50mpg car doing 6k mpa that would cost about £630 whereas the electricity for the same mileage, charged on eco 7 at 5p/kwh and used at say 3 miles/kwh (which would be driving quick with heating and toys all on max) would be £100 meaning a saving of £530 per year or £45 per month. And thats being generous on the MPG of a car that only does 6000mpa and being over cautious on the electricity (i'm averaging 3.5 miles per kwh in the coldest weather).
I'd be interested to know of other ways to be able to drive a new/nearly new, focus sized, automatic car with leather, heated seats, nav, cameras cruise, bluetooth and cabin pre-conditioning for £150-160 per month.
Don't worry, I know the savings. I have one, and it's working out great.
The Leaf is a family car. Families have to drop kids off at school, do shopping, get to work. Basically - use it. 6000 miles is not enough. The leasing companies are just throwing unrealistic figures around to get peoples attention, so people can get their hands on a brand new, well equipped car - ignoring the fact that they can either barely ever use it, or have a big payment coming when they have to give it up.
However, as I said, this is great for the 2nd hand car market - so I have no complaints.
Well the leaf goes back in 10 days, we will miss it for the free parking and almost no fuel bills. Sadly the new one is nearly 4 times the price £300 a month and £7000 deposit. It has not put a foot wrong but paying a £200 bill for a service a week before it goes is a bit of a annoyance.
Working at the open university means nothing is certain for the next few years. So not decided on what to do next.
Working at the open university means nothing is certain for the next few years. So not decided on what to do next.
Is there an option to buy the leaf?
If you are interested in getting a new leaf I would make sure you are not going to be effected by 'rapidgate' first. The short of it is that the new Leaf doesn't have any active thermal management which is causing issues when it comes to repeat rapid charging. The first rapid charge will work fine but at the end of the 2nd charge you could see thermal throttling and the the third charge will be limited to 22kw.
You are still talking traveling over 300 miles before you would get reduced charging so it is an edge case for most people that use EV's these days but do some research before buying to make sure you wouldn't be effected.
Nissan says its to protect the battery, I agree thats a good reason but they could have protected it better with active thermal management like every other EV...
Soldato
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Is that charges in succession over a journey?
Service? You mean they changed/checked the brake fluid, and swapped the pollen filter, then took a read out from the battery, and gave you a sheet of paper telling you it's OK. Nissan need to realise these aren't ICE cars and start charging fairly for the services that they do not need at all, in total the whole service with parts should have been about £75-90 depending on the hourly labour rate. However being on a PCP means you need to have a dealer service sadly, so it's one of those things, unless they stated otherwise in the agreement.
Good luck with your search for a new vehicle, sadly the popularity of the new Leaf (and the last one) has actually forced the price upwards for the time being. I am sure once the back orders are filled, and they have spare capacity then you might see another good promotion.
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The Service thing is the only way they can make money though!
Yes that's correct, so it only really takes effect once you get up to journeys of 300miles+ in one go, but it could be a right pain for that once a year trip you might need to take in it.
It is wholly down to the lack of thermal management in the battery pack and only really effects the new Leaf. Strangely enough the old ENV-200 van does have thermal management and the new one is expected too also. The old Leaf isn't effected but those batteries degrade very quickly with repeat rapid charging. The assumption is that Nissan put this limitation in to stop that happening in the new Leaf.
It is a decision Nissan made somewhere along the line but pretty much ever other EV out there went the other way.
In theory if you do a couple of hundred miles somewhere, do what you need to do. The car will cool down and you would not have any problems on the way back. But if you needed to do a 3rd rapid charge in a row the charge rate will be limited.
There is a video on Youtube on how people actually discovered this, they video'd the trip for the Youtube channel not intending to start rapidgate but that is what happened. They were taking some EV's up to Orkney from near Leicester and an old 30Kw Leaf and a 28Kw Ionic beat the new 40kw leaf by quite a few hours. The journey was 450 miles to Aberdeen docks. My concern is that when they did the trip it was in the dead of winter during negative temperatures, it could in theory be worse when its summer and 20C out.
Doesn't make it right though, once people realise the market will self correct.
Some service centres could be in for a rude awakening soon as EV's legitimately do not need anywhere near as much maintenance. There will certainly be a shrinking of the market.
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I'm constantly weighing up switching my private hire Prius for a 30kwh Leaf, or maybe even the new 40kwh version.
The savings across the year with around 30k miles covered would be fairly big, but then there's depreciation to factor in.
In any event, I suspect the newer Leafs with the higher range would make the perfect private hire vehicle.
The savings across the year with around 30k miles covered would be fairly big, but then there's depreciation to factor in.
In any event, I suspect the newer Leafs with the higher range would make the perfect private hire vehicle.
Depends on what kind of charging infrastructure you have nearby.
If there's a free rapid charger at a supermarkert nearby where you could legitimately take regular stops for lunch / breaks then it would be a good idea. But if you're limited to a mains/3/6kw charger or paying high prices for rapids then it might not be such a good idea.
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Service? You mean they changed/checked the brake fluid, and swapped the pollen filter, then took a read out from the battery, and gave you a sheet of paper telling you it's OK. Nissan need to realise these aren't ICE cars and start charging fairly for the services that they do not need at all, in total the whole service with parts should have been about £75-90 depending on the hourly labour rate. However being on a PCP means you need to have a dealer service sadly, so it's one of those things, unless they stated otherwise in the agreement.
Good luck with your search for a new vehicle, sadly the popularity of the new Leaf (and the last one) has actually forced the price upwards for the time being. I am sure once the back orders are filled, and they have spare capacity then you might see another good promotion.
You don't have to go for a dealer service normally. You just need to make sure its (by memory) VAT registered and using official Nissan parts, and obviously follow the service guide.
I think this was some EU directive or something that enabled that?