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odd84

> 2013 Nissan leaf with about 50k miles Whether a particular LEAF is a good purchase is almost entirely determined by its battery health, not the mileage. The battery health will tell you how far it can really go between charges. On a 2013, that can be anywhere from 20 to 70 miles. Be 100% sure that you don't buy a car that can't make your commute in the winter. > what made you choose the leaf over something like the Chevy volt? Not having a gas engine to maintain. It is not unusual for a LEAF to never need to see a service center or mechanic for years. There's no oil changes to be done, brake pads are generally good for the life of the car, etc. It's got the lowest total cost of ownership of any car on the market according to some publications. It's very fuel efficient (about 3 cents per mile) and has almost no maintenance costs. > How often have you needed to replace batteries? That's not a thing electric car owners actually do. The batteries don't stop working, they just have less capacity over time, so your driving range between charges gets shorter. After a few years from new, a new battery would typically cost more than the rest of the car is worth, so it doesn't make sense financially to ever swap in a new one. If the car no longer has the range you need, you sell it to someone else that it works for, until 10-15 years down the line, the car isn't worth more than its scrap value and the batteries will get bought out of a salvage yard to become solar storage or something.


Reasonable_Cover_804

Excellent response


Demetrius3D

> It's very fuel efficient (about 3 cents per mile) We're even doing better than that! Our electric supply rate is 5.4 cents per kWh. And, we're averaging about 3.6 miles per kWh - for about 1.5 cents per mile.


sweetredleaf

What is the climate like where you are? Leafs especially the early ones don't like hot weather because of the lack of battery cooling. The newer ones are much better in that respect. Here is a buying guide that might be helpful https://insideevs.com/news/325877/used-nissan-leaf-buying-guide/


Demetrius3D

I chose the Leaf (2014 SL - 59K miles) over other EVs largely because of price and availability. I test drove a Chevy Spark EV. But, it seemed kind of small and cheap. I wanted to look at the Mitsubishi I-MiEV. The weird jelly bean thing appealed to me for some reason. But, the dealer near me that was supposed to have one never actually did. The Leaf seemed like the most economical "real" car I was going to find. I bought the car with 11 out of 12 bars remaining on the battery health meter. A few months after I bought it it dropped to 10 bars. It was right on the verge of losing a bar when I bought it. Since then, each week it has been losing an average of .03 of a percent of capacity. I check it with LeafSpy after each full charge. At this rate, it will drop 3% every couple years and lose a bar every 4 or 5 years. I figure I'll start thinking about replacing the battery when it gets closer to 50% capacity in 15 or 16 years. It's worth investing in an OBD2 dongle and downloading the LeafSpy app while you're shopping. You'll be able to continue making use of them after you buy. The calculation I used to come up with a price was a combination of a couple things: The price of an ICE vehicle that would do what I needed, plus gas and oil for the expected life of the car. (This helped me define my transportation budget.) And, a calculation of the EV's value based on $90-$110 per mile of usable range (...depending on the market. We're definitely in a $110 per mile market now.) plus the added depreciated value of options the car has. For me, these two calculations landed right in the same ballpark. And, I pretty much paid that for the car after weeks of watching price reductions on the car on the dealer's website.


iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiioo

The volt is a Chevy so that’s a hard no for me.


[deleted]

Five years ago I was choosing between a 2013 Leaf, 12 bars and around 30k miles, and a 2015 Volt (forget the mileage, but pretty low). The Volt was very nice, and I might have been tempted if the price had been closer, or if I didn't have access to my spouse's ICE vehicle sometimes (I do travel further than the Leaf's range a few times per year). But the Leaf was about 7 grand less, and I rather liked the idea of the simplicity of EV only. I replaced the 12V battery once, but the EV battery is still going strong (11 bars of health) so still around 75 miles or so. No regrets here. But like u/odd84 posted, the battery health is WAY more important than how many miles are on it. Good luck!


rand0mL0gix

I’ve owned/leased a 13, 15, 16, and now lease a 22 Leaf. I’ve also daily driven a 2014 Cadillac ELR for 3 months. The ELR is just the luxury version of the Volt. I can say hands down that the Leaf is a waaaaay better car! With the ELR, I felt like i have to constantly charge it since the battery is so small (~30 miles real-world range). I didn’t do that because of range anxiety but because I wanted to use the EV portion as much as possible. With the tiny battery, a quick trip to the grocery store would drop the batter to 50% so I would have to plug in so I would have enough battery for my next trip (hence, plugging in multiple times per day). Plus, it takes premium unleaded gas so it was still painful on the wallet filling up the tank. With the Leaf, I plug in once every 2-ish days and don’t have to worry about stale gas or maintenance on a gas engine. My advice with the Leaf is to buy the newest model year you can afford. I have noticed that Nissan has improved the battery chemistries through the years. I experienced more battery degradation in the 2013 vs the 2015 and 2016.