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I bought the cheapest EV, a used Nissan Leaf

jeffgeerling.com

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Re: I bought the cheapest EV, a used Nissan Leaf

#361

Post by ivanche »

MandieD wrote: post #306
asdff wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And this is with marginal EV adoption. Imagine if it was full scale the headaches that would come. I mean think of the current amount of gas stations around, that would be insufficient to cover EV demand due to the fact EVs need to linger for so much longer. So good bye to whatever in your town needs to be destroyed in order to park more cars and charge them. So much for walkable cities.

The big difference between public EV chargers and gas stations: you can put an EV charger anywhere you have electricity, and with far lower space requirements. My city is slowly converting a few street parking spots in busy areas to EV charging, and it takes very little room - I have no complaints as someone who mostly uses sidewalks and bike lanes. Where did you think people were parking their cars in cities before?…

You forgot just one teeny tiny thingy - it's illegal to park ICE car on EV charging spot on the streets, in garages etc. So if the number of EVs grow the number of EV spots would grow which would take more space, not less.

Re: I bought the cheapest EV, a used Nissan Leaf

#362

Post by pkulak »

BizarroLand wrote: post #354
pkulak wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, that's certainly not the cheapest. You can find old Leafs for 5k. People love Bolts, for good reason, and bit them up.

I've seen Leafs for $3k or less. The problem is their battery life is ~10 years max, and replacing the battery costs $5k-$15k. That old leaf may have a 30-50 mile max range. Don't get me wrong, that would still cover 80% of my daily driving needs, but when I need to drive to the big town for work on a moments notice I may not have time to drive home and swap out for my ICE vehicle. I have a pre-order in for the Slate…

> The problem is their battery life is ~10 years max

Depends on how you define "life". I think for the Leaf, it's 70% capacity. But even if it gets down to 50%, it'll sill keep driving.

Also, what's really annoying, is that every seller factors in tax credits to their price. So that 3k may really be 5k. I'm actually looking forward to that no longer being possible.

Re: I bought the cheapest EV, a used Nissan Leaf

#363

Post by magicalhippo »

NewJazz wrote: post #225
magicalhippo wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And that the rental company (AVIS) does not provide an AC adapter Here in Norway, new EVs are no longer allowed to be sold with AC adapters, due to the potential fire hazard. At least that's the reason I got when I purchased my current EV. Perhaps a EU thing, wouldn't surprise me.

Norway is not in the EU.

As a Norwegian I am well aware of that. However, we're part of the European Economic Area[1], and as such import a lot of EU regulation and standards. Mostly because we're required per the EEA terms, but also because some of those make sense.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Economic_Area

Re: I bought the cheapest EV, a used Nissan Leaf

#364

Post by cogman10 »

mikepavone wrote: post #294
Workaccount2 wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was so close to pulling the trigger on one of these except for 3 factors: It's driving assist platform is now deprecated and no longer receiving area expansions (I know many could not care less), it's charging speed is pretty slow by today's norms, and it will likely retain almost no value as time goes on.

I have a 2017 Bolt as my only car and the slow L3 charging is definitely a downside, but I haven't found it to be a huge issue in practice. On a trip long enough to worry about fast-charging you're going to need to stop to eat periodically anyway so if you plan your charging around meals you don't end up waiting too long. Obviously gets a bit more annoying on trips that are long enough to require more than one fast-c…

This I think is the key that most non-EV drivers don't recognize. Especially if you own a home, then an EV is really fantastic. You simply plug it in whenever you are home and 99% of the time you spend 0 time waiting for a charge. The slow trickle charge is both cheaper and more convenient because you aren't making trips to a gas station on a weekly/biweekly basis.

Re: I bought the cheapest EV, a used Nissan Leaf

#365

Post by rsolva »

boredpudding wrote: post #341
rsolva wrote: post #312

Small, cheap electric cars are the best! Fun to drive, easy to maintain. I own an VW eUP 2015 model which costed me €4000 used. I do not know if they where for sale outside of Norway (I only see them here!), but it is the perfect car for 95% of our mobility needs. I drive it to work every day (where I can charge it for free). I drive it to Oslo and can park/charge almost anywhere around town for really cheap, about €…

What range are you getting in winter at 85km/h? Currently trying to get rid of our petrol car but knowing realistic range up front is rough. I'm fine with driving slower.

It really depends on just how cold it is outside and how much (or little) heat you are comfortable with inside. For mild winter weather (+5 to -5°C) and 18°C in the cabin, the range drops to around 80km or so. On a sunny summer day, I can easily get about 130km on Norwegian country roads, probably more.

When driving to the Netherlands in the months between March and October, the consumption has been around 8.3kW/100km. The car is light and has little tech that consumes power.

Since the car has no heat pump, heating the cabin has a noticable impact on range during cold winter days.

That said, it is a really good car to drive in the winter as the cabin gets warm in no-time and the windows in the front and back are heated and melts away thick ice in about a minute, even in really cold weahter! When doing normal commutes, the shorter range does not matter at all. But I would probably not drive to the Netherlands in -10°C during the winter!

Re: I bought the cheapest EV, a used Nissan Leaf

#367

Post by Rebelgecko »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #172
magicalhippo wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And that the rental company (AVIS) does not provide an AC adapter Here in Norway, new EVs are no longer allowed to be sold with AC adapters, due to the potential fire hazard. At least that's the reason I got when I purchased my current EV. Perhaps a EU thing, wouldn't surprise me.

This surprises me, given that almost every country has safer electric plugs than the US. Heat is a function of current and car chargers limit themselves to less than the current the plug is rated for. "Less than" equals 80% in the US.

Dunno if it's the case here, but the charger doesn't know if it's plugged into an extension cord that isn't rated for 3kW or whatever EU plugs put out

Re: I bought the cheapest EV, a used Nissan Leaf

#368

Post by magicalhippo »

kingstnap wrote: post #231
magicalhippo wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And that the rental company (AVIS) does not provide an AC adapter Here in Norway, new EVs are no longer allowed to be sold with AC adapters, due to the potential fire hazard. At least that's the reason I got when I purchased my current EV. Perhaps a EU thing, wouldn't surprise me.

This seems like the kind of regulation that causes more harm than it saves in anyone's house actually burning down. I did a cursory search and didn't find any EU reports of a house fire caused by a L1 charger. Sure you might burn a house down if you find one that has a plug which isn't correctly installed with loose connectors but the fire risk here wasn't the EV. Its the incorrectly installed wiring. You don't tell…

I haven't been able to find concrete stories either, though these[1] statistics might be an indication. It shows there's a few EVs per year that lead to a building fire, though sadly nothing further about source. So could be something else like battery.

That said there's been a campaign for several years trying to get rid of sockets for high current or permanent installations. I recently replaced both an electric water heater and mini split AC, and in both cases the previous appliance had used a socket and that was not allowed anymore.

Could well be they're just being proactive.

[1]: https://brannstatistikk.no/search?searchId=6EB5433C-AC28-4F6...

Re: I bought the cheapest EV, a used Nissan Leaf

#369

Post by magicalhippo »

Rebelgecko wrote: post #367
dreamcompiler wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This surprises me, given that almost every country has safer electric plugs than the US. Heat is a function of current and car chargers limit themselves to less than the current the plug is rated for. "Less than" equals 80% in the US.

Dunno if it's the case here, but the charger doesn't know if it's plugged into an extension cord that isn't rated for 3kW or whatever EU plugs put out

Concern over people using extension cords or splitters is a frequently cited reason, like in this news article[1].

[1]: https://www.ba.no/lader-du-elbilen-din-i-stikkontakt-det-bor...

Re: I bought the cheapest EV, a used Nissan Leaf

#370

Post by ta12653421 »

ddalex wrote: post #297
chelmzy wrote: post #251

Crazy he wouldn't go for a Bolt. I just bought a 2019 Chevy Bolt w/ 11k miles for $14.5k (so a bit over 10k after federal rebate). It has a brand new battery because all the Bolts were recalled for battery issues. Has around 250m range. Feel like I won the lottery. Still plenty of them available https://www.donohooauto.com/searchused.aspx?Make=Chevrolet&M...

> Has around 250m range 250 meters ? but I want to drive off my street....

--1
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