Parts007 said:
1. If I drive 15 miles a day, is it better for the battery life and longevity if I: A. Charge the car every night and top the battery off even though I've only driven 15 miles. Or B. Wait the 4 or 5 days until the battery is depleted, and then charge it full?
There are lots of threads about maintaining your battery on the forum and others in this thread have given good advice. The general consensus seems to be that the worst thing you can do for the battery is to keep it sitting at a high SOC in the heat for extended periods of time. If you are driving 15 miles a day I see no reason to charge it every night to full SOC but if you are going to drive it regularly I also don't see any reason to not charge to 100% when you do charge every few days as it won't sit that long at full charge. You should be able to figure out what works for you.
Parts007 said:
3. Regeneration: I test drove a Model S and the regen was so strong the brake lights automatically came on and under normal driving conditions, the brakes weren't necessary until you wanted to stop completely. The Nissan Leaf I drove, compared to the Model S I drove, had poor regeneration. Question is: is this adjustable? It is in the Tesla.
There are 3 modes on my 2015 S. D, Eco, and B and each have different characteristics. D has peppy acceleration and minimal regen. Eco has sluggish acceleration and fairly aggressive regen. B has peppy acceleration and fairly aggressive regen and is engaged by shifting into D again once you are already in D.
What I end up doing is using D most of the time on the highway and surface streets. It is the most efficient way to drive so that I conserve as much energy as possible as regen is never 100% efficient. So I coast a lot when I can. However, when I'm in traffic, approaching and off-ramp, or in areas with lots of stop lights I tend to use B mode to slow the car down. It is easy to toggle between D and B on the fly. Eco is probably good if you have a lead foot because it'll keep you from accelerating too quickly, but for me the joy of driving an EV is the quick throttle response at any speed and Eco kinda ruins that.
Parts007 said:
4. If I buy from a dealer far away, can I use my local dealer to charge my car. (Local dealer never had any new units in stock)
Depends entirely on the dealer. The place I bought my leaf from has a policy to charge anyone who did not buy their car there for charging. I would suggest talking with dealerships near you or consulting apps like plugshare where this info will typically be discussed in the user "Check in comments". That said, it seems to be rare that any dealerships turn people away or "charge to charge" even if you drive a different brand. My dealership seems to be an anomaly in that regard.
As a general comment, there are lots of options right now both new and used that can be had for a good price.
- I see 2012 off-lease used leafs with less than 40k miles selling for under $10k with 85 - 90% SOH on the battery. Those will still get you 70 - 75 miles on a charge and should get you 50 or more miles for at least the next 5 years up in the Northeast. Depending on your needs those could be great deals. My buddy is an independent dealer so he can get on the Manheim auction sites and stuff. He sees 2011's going as low as $4000 + fees at auction if you really wanted to go cheap contact a small dealer and see what you can work out. With my buddy you tell him what you are looking for and he'll find it at auction the charge a small fee for his services meaning I could get a 2011 right now for $5k - 6k depending on whether it needed to be shipped or not. With a 15 miles commute you don't really need a lot of range so this may be a good option. Just decide what you want in terms of options and charging (for me a QC port is a must, everything else doesn't really matter).
- If you can still find a 2015 on the lot they are offering tremendous incentives both for purchase including large $$ cash back and 0% financing. I got a 2015 S for about $15k after the tax rebate. Just keep in mind you only get the full rebate if you owe enough in taxes to claim it. Just make sure you check the battery with leafspy, any 2015 still on the lot has probably been sitting over a year at this point.
- A guy near me, also on this forum, just got a 2015 SV lease for $199 a month, no money down, for 3 years. That is $7200 for 3 years of use and no risk for you at the end if the bottom falls out of the values when 200 miles range EV's start coming out. You'll have to to a bit of haggling but there are great deals to be had. If you love the car you can lowball them at the end of the lease, if you hate it you aren't stuck being underwater with an outdated vehicle in 3 years.
- I don't know much about what the 2016's are going for but the only real advantage on the 30kwh pack I can see is if you need the extra range for a long commute, which is doesn't look like you do. That and the fact that the capacity warranty on the battery (9 bars) is 8 years instead of 5 on the 30kWh packs. So at least with a 2016 SV or SL you can be sure it'll take you 80+ miles for the next 8 years. Otherwise the cars are identical so no reason to pay a large premium for the "brand new" one.