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I bought the cheapest EV, a used Nissan Leaf

jeffgeerling.com

501–510 of 683 posts

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

#501

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…

How'd you find that? If it was being junked, then did you need to make repairs?

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

#502

> Lack of standards: For 'L3' DC Fast Charging, the Leaf has a CHAdeMO port. Teslas and many newer EVs have NACS. Then there's CCS1 and CCS2. And charging stations are run by multiple vendors with multiple apps and payment methods. It's not like gas stations, like with Shell, BP, Buckee's, etc. where you just drive up, stick the gas nozzle in your tank, and squeeze. Afaik in Europe, CCS2 is the standard (and mandator…

> 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.

Might be - also, in the UK at least where most houses are on a TN-C-S electric supply (earth and neutral are the same conductor) if there's a break on the neutral and you don't have an earthing rod (PEN fault) the car can be at high voltage compared to true earth, and you can get a lethal shock if you touch it. There are roughly 500 of these faults a year across the UK.

Level 2 chargers here either need PEN fault protection built in, or you need a correctly sized earthing rod installed.

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

#503

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In NZ you can get a Leaf for $1-2k, about 50km range remaining.

I'm guessing distances in NZ are shorter, or you're only planning to use that vehicle in the urban city core. Here in the US, 50km range barely gets me to the ferry terminal to get into Seattle, and that's assuming 50km is at 55mph rural highway speeds and isn't assuming I'm driving 25mph in the city. Put otherwise: if the battery is so degraded you only get 30mi/50km range out of it, I see why it's selling for $2000…

Fwiw, electric cars are more efficient the slower you're going because inefficiency mostly comes from air resistance.

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

#504
post #499

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is called the tax haven premium. Just like Luxemburg or caymen island also works well as nations. I don't think it is something to be proud of though, as the riches are not earned.

If you can offer companies a lower tax than other jurisdictions with the same level of service, why isn't it earned?

Exactly my thought. It is not based on 'ability to hide money from taxation' or anything like that. Just in lower corporate tax rate (even then, it's lower still in Bulgaria and Hungary and yet those countries don't have much to show for that). Also we have tax exemption on dividend income for individuals, but again, plenty of countries have that, it's more of a norm than an exception (no country could hope to attract any high middle class or rich immigrants unless it provides that, it's a baseline expectation).

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

#505
post #46

> And charging stations are run by multiple vendors with multiple apps and payment methods. It's not like gas stations, like with Shell, BP, Buckee's, etc. where you just drive up, stick the gas nozzle in your tank, and squeeze. The "how to juice your car" question is pretty much solved on the electrical and communications side... but the "how do you pay for the juice" question is indeed absurd. I understand that pro…

Fixing the payments thing has been addressed by the EU as far as I know: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_...

I was too optimistic about card payments when I went on vacation with my electric car in EU this summer. In some countries it worked perfectly but in other countries I had to scan a QR code, which usually ended up in an "sorry, there was an error" page. When I eventually started using a charging network the rest of the vacation was great.

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

#506
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.

We get 190 miles of range in winter at highway speeds if we are careful. 2019 Chevy Bolt EV with a factory-new battery from 2021.

It was $20k used.

We also have a 2014 BMW i3 with a worn-out battery. This was designed for ~50 miles between charging, or you could get the one with a little petrol engine as a "range extender". Mine can only do about 40 miles in winter. Later models doubled that, and most i3 cars on the road do 1.5x what I'm getting. But I got it used for $5000...

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

#507

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…

There has been plenty of local news about minor fires caused by EV charging in recent years. Usually neither the house nor the car burn to the ground, so won't make national news.

Typical cause seems to be old, worn-out installations or improperly done installations.

Perhaps 999/1000 outlets being able to function safely at rated longterm maximum draw (when there is no obviously visible damage) used to be an acceptable ratio. Doing anything close to maximum draw for long periods and unsupervised was less common.

With EV-charging becoming more common the old standard is no longer good enough. There is too little margin for error and too high likelihood of a situation where error leads to damage.

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

#508

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and they're an absolute -nightmare- to maintain.... even with that being the case i still want one because russ hannaman had a point- everyone loves a car with doors that open like this \[]/ not like this =[]=

The i3 has suicide doors, the i8 is the one with three comma doors.

Sho you right

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

#509
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 €…

> is usually ~€16/h Holy HELL that is crazy. I thought £5/hr in London was crazy.

£5/hr sounds pretty cheap for London. You can pay an awful lot more than that for parking in some areas!

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

#510
post #499

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can offer companies a lower tax than other jurisdictions with the same level of service, why isn't it earned?

Exactly my thought. It is not based on 'ability to hide money from taxation' or anything like that. Just in lower corporate tax rate (even then, it's lower still in Bulgaria and Hungary and yet those countries don't have much to show for that). Also we have tax exemption on dividend income for individuals, but again, plenty of countries have that, it's more of a norm than an exception (no country could hope to attrac…

And selling golden passports to Russian oligarchs until 2020.
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