End of Life EV's / EV Bangernomics - Still worth buying?
Discussion
Turtle Shed said:
I've said it before and I'll say it again. The first-gen Leaf (Sunderland built, not the very early Japanese cars) is an absolute no-brainer as a second car.
For £4k you'll get a 64 reg, possibly newer, which will still manage a 60 mile round trip. Whack that on Octopus Go, and you'll save £100 every thousand miles you drive. Free car after a few years, and if my '64 Leaf is anything to go by, there's no reason to think it won't go on way longer than that.
Only non-consumable/MOT/service etc... cost over a decade has been one wheel bearing.
Still lovely to drive after 75k miles, battery on 80% health or thereabouts.
yeah, I've a 2013 Nissan Leaf and the Leaf is a great low price car. 100k on it and still 10 out of 12 bars. I drive it a fair bit, just to keep the miles off the other cars and its a fairly good drive for comfort and feeling solid overall. Its as bland to drive as it looks but it goes where you point it and no noisy rattles or shaking of bones over bumps so it achieves what a car like that is supposed to achieve.For £4k you'll get a 64 reg, possibly newer, which will still manage a 60 mile round trip. Whack that on Octopus Go, and you'll save £100 every thousand miles you drive. Free car after a few years, and if my '64 Leaf is anything to go by, there's no reason to think it won't go on way longer than that.
Only non-consumable/MOT/service etc... cost over a decade has been one wheel bearing.
Still lovely to drive after 75k miles, battery on 80% health or thereabouts.
Easy to buy, just look out for grabby brakes or rusted struts (pop the bonnet, look at where the strut joins the chassis) but very little else goes wrong as far as I know.
740EVTORQUES said:
The sweet spot is in skipping the very early ones such as Leafs which didn’t have thermal management and so degraded and going for a leggy Tesla when they fall into your price range.
These are proving to have the resilience of cockroaches
The Leaf never needed thermal management, certainly in the UK. Right not to have the complexity in an early car. Driving/charging makes almost no difference to the temperature. 4 bars in winter 5 in summer. Occasional heat wave might see 6 for a few days... And the scale is 0 to 12...These are proving to have the resilience of cockroaches
Edited by 740EVTORQUES on Friday 14th June 12:30
granada203028 said:
740EVTORQUES said:
The sweet spot is in skipping the very early ones such as Leafs which didn’t have thermal management and so degraded and going for a leggy Tesla when they fall into your price range.
These are proving to have the resilience of cockroaches
The Leaf never needed thermal management, certainly in the UK. Right not to have the complexity in an early car. Driving/charging makes almost no difference to the temperature. 4 bars in winter 5 in summer. Occasional heat wave might see 6 for a few days... And the scale is 0 to 12...These are proving to have the resilience of cockroaches
Edited by 740EVTORQUES on Friday 14th June 12:30
I’ve personally had both the 24kwh and 30kwh leaf in the in the red after 3+ rapid charges even in -5 Scottish weather.
It charged notably slower
For a local runaround (usually about 90% of journeys for most of us if we are honest) then a dirt cheap older EV is a great idea. I'd second the idea of an older Leaf, for the reasons mentioned. Simple, well built and they appear to be able to do mega mileages without the batteries dying completely.
There is no market for older, second hand EV's (not much market for any second hand EV's at all really) and so that means they fall slap bang into the Bangernomics sweet spot.
As long as you aren't trying to drive from Southampton to Aberdeen towing a horsebox full of anvils (which is the usual argument against EV's) then they fit the bill.
There is no market for older, second hand EV's (not much market for any second hand EV's at all really) and so that means they fall slap bang into the Bangernomics sweet spot.
As long as you aren't trying to drive from Southampton to Aberdeen towing a horsebox full of anvils (which is the usual argument against EV's) then they fit the bill.
granada203028 said:
The Leaf never needed thermal management, certainly in the UK. Right not to have the complexity in an early car. Driving/charging makes almost no difference to the temperature. 4 bars in winter 5 in summer. Occasional heat wave might see 6 for a few days... And the scale is 0 to 12...
It depends - if you're just overnight charging it on the driveway, then yes, the ambient temperatures here are never a problem.However, as observed, if you need to do a journey with more than a couple of rapid charges in a day, you'll quickly find yourself bumping up against the lack of thermal management
SWoll said:
Early BMW i3's are getting toward the £5k mark now and have better BMS than the Leaf.
A cracking little city car for that money and with plastic panels and a a CRP tub a lot less susceptible to rust. Should easily get another 5+ years out of one I'd have thought?
A sub 5k i3 is very attractive. We only have one daily driver and my wife has started working part time again (after retiring) so we're looking for a cheap car for local use only.A cracking little city car for that money and with plastic panels and a a CRP tub a lot less susceptible to rust. Should easily get another 5+ years out of one I'd have thought?
Biggles Flies Undone said:
For a local runaround (usually about 90% of journeys for most of us if we are honest) then a dirt cheap older EV is a great idea. I'd second the idea of an older Leaf, for the reasons mentioned. Simple, well built and they appear to be able to do mega mileages without the batteries dying completely.
There is no market for older, second hand EV's (not much market for any second hand EV's at all really) and so that means they fall slap bang into the Bangernomics sweet spot.
As long as you aren't trying to drive from Southampton to Aberdeen towing a horsebox full of anvils (which is the usual argument against EV's) then they fit the bill.
This is pretty much how I see it. 99% of the intended journeys will be local. If I need to fast charge it then something will have gone very wrong! These are cheapish runarounds and the cost of fast chargers negates the benefit, so will be home charged as much as possible. There is no market for older, second hand EV's (not much market for any second hand EV's at all really) and so that means they fall slap bang into the Bangernomics sweet spot.
As long as you aren't trying to drive from Southampton to Aberdeen towing a horsebox full of anvils (which is the usual argument against EV's) then they fit the bill.
Going to look at a Leaf tomorrow...
blueacid said:
granada203028 said:
The Leaf never needed thermal management, certainly in the UK. Right not to have the complexity in an early car. Driving/charging makes almost no difference to the temperature. 4 bars in winter 5 in summer. Occasional heat wave might see 6 for a few days... And the scale is 0 to 12...
It depends - if you're just overnight charging it on the driveway, then yes, the ambient temperatures here are never a problem.However, as observed, if you need to do a journey with more than a couple of rapid charges in a day, you'll quickly find yourself bumping up against the lack of thermal management
98elise said:
SWoll said:
Early BMW i3's are getting toward the £5k mark now and have better BMS than the Leaf.
A cracking little city car for that money and with plastic panels and a a CRP tub a lot less susceptible to rust. Should easily get another 5+ years out of one I'd have thought?
A sub 5k i3 is very attractive. We only have one daily driver and my wife has started working part time again (after retiring) so we're looking for a cheap car for local use only.A cracking little city car for that money and with plastic panels and a a CRP tub a lot less susceptible to rust. Should easily get another 5+ years out of one I'd have thought?
Makes me pleased I didn't pay £10k for it 18 months ago though!
Insurance quotes were twice a 330D Touring though...
I would be in the EV bangernomics/used EV buyer statistic but for the fact that, like a lot of folks:
Terrace house on a very narrow street with no parking front or back
20K a year miles
Caravan or trailer tow at least once/ sometimes twice a month for longish (300+ mile each way) distances (Gig/Festival gear)
No point in two cars, my partner does not drive
I run a 2007 Mondeo TDCI Estate that does everything, cost peanuts to run ( 60MPG+ long run, 45MPG locally), parts are cheap and its easy to fix. I think there are many many folks in my situation who will never buy an EV. It is not the buying cost that impacts us, it is the why do I need it? issues that may not be resolved for a long long time. Is not this end of the market quite small?
Terrace house on a very narrow street with no parking front or back
20K a year miles
Caravan or trailer tow at least once/ sometimes twice a month for longish (300+ mile each way) distances (Gig/Festival gear)
No point in two cars, my partner does not drive
I run a 2007 Mondeo TDCI Estate that does everything, cost peanuts to run ( 60MPG+ long run, 45MPG locally), parts are cheap and its easy to fix. I think there are many many folks in my situation who will never buy an EV. It is not the buying cost that impacts us, it is the why do I need it? issues that may not be resolved for a long long time. Is not this end of the market quite small?
We've had our 64 plate Leaf for 7 years and 60k miles. It's on 76k now. In the past three years it's had two rear wheel bearings, front suspension arms, second set of discs and pads due to rust, and this MOT it needed both sets of handbrake cables. Nissan only, came in at about £400 fitted. A right ball ache stripping out a lot of interior. Suspension knocks and rattles, but all those miles were round the villages on s
te roads and speedbumps that the wife seems to avoid slowing down for. It's washed twice a year, and hoovered out about the same. Range is down in the winter to 50 miles max, but that's heating from cold twice a day for the school run. We get about 18 months from a set of tyres. It's been a great car, although it's starting to need money spent for the MOT each year now.
te roads and speedbumps that the wife seems to avoid slowing down for. It's washed twice a year, and hoovered out about the same. Range is down in the winter to 50 miles max, but that's heating from cold twice a day for the school run. We get about 18 months from a set of tyres. It's been a great car, although it's starting to need money spent for the MOT each year now.Gassing Station | EV and Alternative Fuels | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff