Nissan Leaf advice

[WPA]

So after shed Civic failed its mot and I had little choice but to sell for spares / repairs, I am looking for a replacement.

I have a budget of around £4500 and am wondering if a Leaf would make sense, I only do around 3000 miles a year.

Would it make sense to switch to electric, is the 30kwh a better choice than the 24kwh.

I am guessing having a home charging station installed makes sense against charging from a plug?

Am I mad to consider the switch should I stick with a small petrol.

[motco]

I joined this Speak EV forum. The link goes specifically to the 1st gen Leaf 24 and 30kWh models. Mine was a 24 14 plate Tekna and we had it for three years with no major problems. Sticky parking brake of reversing and water ingress to the top of the struts at the front were the only things.

[CivicDuties]

I've had 2, a 24 and then a 30. Still got the 30 after 4 years. 6k miles a year, mostly local. I'd recommend getting a charger installed, but be mindful not to overspec it as they can get expensive. Mine is 3kw and it's been fine for getting me the miles I need into the car overnight. No worries at all. You might well get away with charging it from a 3-pin, but as that's so slow you would miss out on some of the benefits of some overnight electricity tariffs with, say, 4 hour windows on cheap rate. It can also be dodgy from a safety aspect, you have to be confident your socket and the rest is really good quality and really good nick.

As the guy above says, no reliability issues to worry about, but yes I've got the sticking parking brake thing. I bought some 3D printed caps to go over the top struts to prevent the water ingress/rusting issue. Servicing is a pollen filter every year and brake fluid every 2.

Brilliant cars for low mileage local driving, and absolute bargains second hand.

[samoht]

Well worth considering a Leaf I think.

It's not so much the annual mileage per se that counts, but the length of the individual journeys you're doing (vs the range of the car). But yes for trips within an EV's range they're better, cheaper to run, smooth quiet and responsive, and no need to go and fill up with petrol, just charge overnight on the drive.

I wouldn't personally recommend spending £1000 out of a £4500 budget on a hardwired home charger install for limited mileage unless your wiring is a problem. I use a three-pin and it's fine, and use a timer plug to charge in cheap hours. I may upgrade in time, in order to get more charge within the cheap overnight window, but that's for the occasions when I do two longer trips on consecutive days. A three-pin charger is about 2.4 kW (240V x 10A) so if going fitted I'd think only worth it if getting a 7kW one.

It's worth understanding the battery health display on the dash when buying, although a cheaper Leaf with some degradation would still be a very useful local runaround.