Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I bought the cheapest EV, a used Nissan Leaf

jeffgeerling.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

401–410 of 683 posts

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

#401

Post by Symbiote »

bluGill wrote: post #163
mschuster91 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Renting a car for vacations / road trips is expensive. sure you can but expect to pay $100 per day. Indeed... but now, think of the price difference between a small-ish commute EV and a chungus EV or ICE. Easily tens of thousands of dollars, that's a lot of days worth of rent. > Also expect to arrive and be told they can't fill your reservation as they are out of cars. That's extremely fucking rare to happen. In th…

Over the life of a car tens of thousands of dollars isn't that hard to build up though if the car cannot do anything. And there is value in having the vehicle that does what you need when the inspiration strikes. Not having any rental cars is very common in my experience. I'm often renting in smaller cities though (like the rental car place just a couple miles from my house), I've never heard of problems in big touri…

There's also the convenience of having the car more appropriate for day-to-day use.

E.g. a family with two cars, where the smaller car is preferred because it's easier to park in the limited space available in a European city.

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

#402

Post by taftster »

supportengineer wrote: post #395
mtlynch wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The sale qualifies only if: > You buy the vehicle from a dealer. This is such an annoying part of the tax incentive. It's a huge, pointless gift to car dealers (who need no help) because it means they don't have to compete for price with private sellers or buyers. If I have a used EV to sell, I basically have to sell to the dealer because no buyer wants to bother buying from me when they can get the same thing from…

Not to mention there are severe income limits on the rebate

Right, set too low (imho). And not a graduated phase out either. And the market for these cars are going to be people typically past the income limit. My instinct tells me that people below the income limit ($75K/$150K) probably aren't really in the market for an EV. They are probably just trying to keep their regular gas vehicle running. An EV is almost a second/third car for a lot of people, commuters trying to offset their gasoline costs.

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

#403

Post by uyzstvqs »

NegativeLatency wrote: post #388

Not possible everywhere because of bad (car oriented) infrastructure, but an e-bike would be more optimal for this person's commute since they're "only driving a few miles a day". No insurance, fun, repair it yourself, etc

> bad (car oriented) infrastructure

It's not an either-or. You can have streets which are car-friendly, bike-friendly, and pedestrian-friendly at the same time. Just look at the Dutch, they've been doing it for years. That is until recently in some big cities, though, where some less knowledgeable politicians have also adopted this false populist either-car-or-bike concept. Though the traditional principle still applies to about 99% of the country's roadworks, and it works really well.

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

#404

Post by matthewaveryusa »

plopz wrote: post #326
matthewaveryusa wrote: post #159

I literally bought the cheapest EV: 400 dollars for a 2012 nissan leaf with 80% battery life and 80k miles (saved from being junked.) MA taxes and delivery made it about 1k when it was all said and done. Insurance is 400/year. We fit 3 kid seats in the back and have replaced all our metropolitan rides with the nissan. Ostensibly we are all Our range is 60 miles in the summer, 50 in the winter. Because of how we use i…

is your excise tax really 375? my 2014 honda civic is only $50

Ah you're right, it's 50, I was looking at my 2020 bill

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

#405

Post by throwawaylaptop »

brightball wrote: post #219
geerlingguy wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$17k minus an extra $2k added to my Camry's trade-in value, and it's eligible for the $4k used vehicle EV tax rebate at the end of the year. So out the door $15k with 36k miles and 94% doh battery, I was satisfied with the deal. At the end of the tax year I'll have paid $11k for the car, effectively. I tacked on the price of the CHAdeMO adapter mentally to the price I offered, since I knew I'd want it for the one or…

The deals on used electric vehicles are pretty shocking. Used Chevy Volts are actually more expensive now than they were a few years back, at least on the CarMax website. Maybe a higher price because they were discontinued but I used to love my Volt. Averaged 150mpg over 3 years.

During COVID lockdowns I got on a plane to San Diego and bought a 2013 Volt with 100k miles for $5500. It had warranty until 2023 and 150k miles (I didn't use it though). I have spent Zero dollars on repairs and I'm up to 207k miles. Favorite car ever.

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

#406

Post by jmcphers »

loeg wrote: post #349
hellisothers wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would add one thing my family has complained about wrt road trip charging is it’s not just the time you wait to charge, it’s the time and games/anger dealing with all the people in line waiting to charge.

Admittedly I don't use public chargers often, but I have yet to experience any kind of line.

I had to use public chargers for a while when my house was being worked on and it was pretty miserable. They were frequently broken, and lines were common.

The real problem with public charger lines is that there is no social protocol for them yet. At a gas station, it is fine to pull up behind a car currently fueling to indicate that you would like to fuel at the pump next. Charging stations, however, are not built with pull-through spots. There's no place to form a queue at all, so people park nearby, circle, and sometimes snipe a spot when it isn't their turn (because who can tell whose turn it is?).

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

#407

Post by danielheath »

nemo44x wrote: post #398
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 €…

Why is it so cheap to park your car and not others?

When you use a charging station, you pay for the power you consume, but not for "parking".

This usually means you can't stay for a particularly long time.

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

#408

Post by tzs »

floxy wrote: post #330
fifilura wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but I don't know what car uses those It is exactly this kind of Nissan Leaf. Japanese older generation cars. Enough around to still be available, but I think it is slowly disappearing. After that only 6kW (32A/single phase) charging will be available for these cars.

There are fast charging adapters from CCS2 (and CCS1) to CHAdeMO: https://www.electway-charger.com/CCS2_to_CHAdeMO_adapter.htm...

Quite pricey though. That one is $1000 on Alibaba.

The problem is the CCS and CHAdeMO is different protocols so an adapter has to be an active adapter.

With CCS to CHAdeMO you need something to power the active electronics in the adapter. I've heard of some that do this by having a cable and plug on the adapter that plug into the car's 12 V port. I've heard of others that have a battery in the adapter.

Compare to adapters between NACS and CCS. NACS and CCS do use the same protocol. They just have a different pinout. The adapters are passive and so can be a lot cheaper.

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

#409

Post by danielheath »

magicalhippo wrote: post #368
kingstnap wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 wat…

I really like the AU tri-prong system for this - high-current plugs/sockets have a physically larger ground connector.

This means you can put a low-current plug (small ground pin) into a high-current socket (large ground slot), but not the other way around.

Only downside I've found so far is that you can't use a high-current-rated extension cord to plug a low-current appliance into a low-current socket.

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

#410

Post by alchemist1e9 »

alchemist1e9 wrote: post #359
vannevar wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could also have bought a used Chevy Bolt in this price range, with CCS, ~250mi range, and CarPlay.

For some reason when I charge at public chargers a very common vehicle next to me are those Chevy Bolts. If you’ve never compared them side by side you will be surprised, the Leaf is a MUCH nicer car, the Bolts just look way cheaper and lower quality vehicles. I also don’t get this CCS drama, I have yet to come across an actual fast charger station that doesn’t have CHAdeMO in addition to the CCS connection. Maybe in…

I’m wrong about CCS, can’t edit this long after so replying here to myself to clarify.

I’m dumb, of course I always see CHAdeMO because my charger app is set to that for DC fast. Duh … a friend said unset filters and yeah there are more CCS DC fast.

Post reply on HN