Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf, or? (no haters needed)

OK, so some folks don't see the value of an EV. Acknowledged, and moving on.

My electricity is about $.08 / kwh. My commute is 60 miles, round trip, mostly highway. No recharging at work.

My spending limit is about $10k. There are several locally available EVs in that price point, with less than 50k miles, and around 5 years old.

If you were shopping an EV within those parameters, what would you be seriously considering?

Would a Leaf reliably do that commute in the cold North? I am doubting. So I like the idea of a Volt. Other ideas?

 

I don’t know much about EV’s. But I would be very cautious with an EV with a 5 year old battery. I would say the battery will be close to end of life. Just my 2¢.

 

Thanks for the input. They are apparently lasting much longer than that on average.

 

That's the "all in" price...taxes, surcharges, etc? Very cheap if it is...our power is $0.118 from a non profit community owned plant.
I'm no help on your main question(s) though...

 

Is this a 100% commute vehicle?

How does either of these fit your non-commuting use?

What year leaf, what is the published range?

Don't forget to consider how the vehicle heats the cabin. Electric heat is "expensive" in terms of vehicle range.

 

I think the best way to find out about reliability is to ask people in your area.. wouldn’t want to get an all electric only to find that you need to leave the heater off on the coldest days in order to preserve battery life for the commute.. I think for your distance, a plug in hybrid might be best. plug it in as much as possible but have the ICE to fall back on If you have another car you can use for coldest days, the all electric might work. . The 2016 leaf says the warranty is 96 months or 100k miles with a replacement if you lose 4 of 12 bars. Does that mean that the battery has lost 1/3 of it’s range? With the 30kwh battery, that would put the range at about 71 miles. For me, that would be too close for comfort on the 60 mile RT.. of course, you could just carry a small generator with you in case of emergency. Let us know what you decide and how it works out..

 

Yup, likewise from a co-op, 99% plus hydro-electric.

 

It would be for the commute, and local runs. We would still have a backup vehicle.

 

I personally will never buy another Nissan again. That is from buying a brand new 2004 Xtera that didn't last to 110k without needing 6k of work in 2009 (not counting the 4WD that went out). I kept that thing maintained as it should have been, and their maintenance items were much more expensive than other vehicles.

But that is my personal bias and isn't helpful for you. When I was looking for a used truck and car, I used carcomplaints.com to whittle down my choices of what was available in my area. Their model year comparison was helpful too - and there was at least one model year for Explorers that I wouldn't even consider. If you go there, don't just look at the graph, but read the verbiage for the "judged as worst year", as they take into consideration not only amount of complaints, but cost to fix and weight in the safety issues.

I would also read reports from USnews that rank car categories by years (like for 2015, the Leaf is #3 on the list and the volt is #14). Sometimes they will also tell you the better years, especially if you are looking at when they made upgrades.

And naturally, I got all geeky and made up spreadsheets for the cars I was considering or that I should consider if they came on the market so I didn't have to keep looking things up

 

The leaf is probably the best electric car on the market and has been for a pretty long time.

 

The 2 choices you listed; leaf
Is it a gas mileage question or a life choice decision?

Reason I ask; buddy had a 2008? Honda Accord hybrid. Bought it used $5,000 drove from border to Carolinas 4 times a year that thing averaged 60 MPG.

 

I don’t see many if any leafs or volts on the road anymore. Didn’t both manufacturers abandon those models?
My wife has an 08 Prius with 270k miles She loves the car. I don’t care for driving it, but it’s been dependable with no battery issues.

 

There's no volt any more, but the leaf is going strong.
2021 Nissan LEAF EV | Nissan USA

 

If those were my two choices I'd go with the Volt over the Leaf because of potential range concerns with the Leaf, but at $.08 per kWh I'd seriously consider spending more and buying an EV that had enough range. EVs generally get around 3.5-4 miles per kWh without accounting for heating the cabin, so at $.08 per kWh you are around $.02/mile for "fuel".

I just bought a used 2019 Ioniq PHEV. The battery is 8.9kWh. The car will not let you deplete the battery below 16%, at 16% the ICE will run. The published all electric range is 29 miles, my commute is 27.5 and I can charge for free at work. I have been making the commute on all electric no problem...in the right conditions...lots of things can affect the range, rain, wind, very cold weather, although that doesn't really affect my because the Ioniq must run the ICE for heat.

 

I'm sure your "fuel" costs have gone down dramatically. How long does a recharge take at home, vs at work? And can you get a full charge at work in the regular work day?

I'd need a 70 mile + range to make commuting with an EV work for me. There's no charging receptacles at work, and I have a 24 mile drive. In winter, i'd ike a higher range than 70 miles, depending on how much is actually lost winter/summer.

 

The speed of charging is limited by the size of the charger in the vehicle and the voltage of the charging station. The phev ioniq has a 3.3kw charger. Work has level 2 240V charging stations it takes about 2-2.5 hours. At home I'm using regular house voltage, Hyundai supplies a box for 120v charging which you can set for low (7amp) med (9 amp) and high (12 amp) based on the capacity of the circuit you plug into. I use 12 amp which will charge the car in 6-7 hours.

Residential electric is $0.185/kWh. We are having PV solar installed this spring, which will bring our rate down to $0.075/kWh if you extrapolate it out to 20 years.

 

I would be buying used. $10k is my desired price point.

I doubt he averaged 60 mpg.

To answer your question, it is in part a gas mileage question, but also interested in exploring the technology. In the big picture, a Prius is the lower risk choice, but I like the idea of exploring electric locomotion.

 

There's all electric Prius as well. My brother has one of the tweener prius models. It's got a bigger battery and more range than the regular prius, but still has the gas engine in it.

In 08 I rented a regular prius for our wedding week in northern California. Thing got 50+ mpg even flogging it on hwy 1. I was pretty impressed. Just be aware that the batteries last like 200k typically, and when they do it's a couple grand too replace them. My buddy's daughter bought herself her own car, a prius C. It has around 100k on it. The battery is about 1500 in battery cost, but it looks easy to replace them.

 

He did on 2 trips I was with him; 58.6 and 59.2. So a little less. But the other option was 2500 towing camper or fishing boat. I drove Honda

 

If you really want some input with true knowledge and are familiar with American Solartechnics Tom Gocze who spent many years developing hot water storage first for solar and worked into wood boiler use, his biggest business platform is electric cars. I like my diesel trucks so not my cup of tea or even beer for that fact. I know Tom well and have for several years, I see him every couple weeks as he lives a half hour from me and I have to do business with him. He can point you in a direction like nobody else. This is his everyday life and what he wants to be involved in, he’s trying to sell he heat storage business and deal with just cars. He has cars from just about ever manufacturer on his lot and knows the ins and outs of them all. He’s a good guy and easy to talk to and wants to help people like you make wise decisions, not ones you’ll regret later on. Just look him up and send him an email, you can mention that I said to contact him if so chosen.