As far as the Tesla thing, you can't back up your point with positive claims from the maker of the car you're talking about. Especially when the term "simulated" is part of the statement. You'd really need to see everything that they factored in to that simulation, and see if the simulation was even reasonable. For all you know, they didn't even factor in time or heat cycles. And even if they did, it's only as good as the simulation itself. And the tricky part about something like this is that, depending on what other historical technical data they have accumulated, the simulation quality can be very limited. As well as "tweeked" to get more favorable results. And for that matter, you could take half the price difference between the Leaf and the Tesla, and do battery upgrades for years (maybe decades) to come.
EM does a lot of talking, and a lot of it is marketing. Not holding it against him, but also not taking it as the written gospel either. As soon as you get above the first level managers in a company, you start to get marketing spin on everything they say. And if the statements are going external to the company, it can become complete BS. Some times it's true, but many times it's far from it.
The Volt is also difficult to compare. It does a lot of background operations that happen even if you aren't aware, like running the ICE occasionally to keep it operating. Which doesn't necessarily disprove your claims about it being a superior design, but makes it a little tricky to do a direct comparison with a full electric car. But when i was shopping for a car recently, about a month ago, I determined that the price difference between the 2015 Volt ($17,000) and the 2015 Leaf ($12000) would pretty much cover an eventual battery replacement in the Leaf, so I went with a leaf because I wanted full electric
only and no exposure to gasoline for the new (used) vehicle. I want gasoline out of my house, out of my garage, and as much out of my life as I can get it.
And remember, you are projecting the impact of a progressive loss of range that is still a few years out. So the camel's back hasn't been broken yet, as far as your case is concerned. By the time it actually happens, we'll need to take a look at what we've ended up with, as far as newer battery technology and pricing. It's not so much about the Leaf being a good or bad car, it will be more about how Nissan follows through on newer technology and backwards compatibility. That being said, I've heard that they 30kwh pack is not compatible with any of the earlier cars, so that's a bad start. At least the newer 24kwh lizzard packs can be adapted to the older cars.
Also, since you purchased your used vehicle so recently, why didn't you do the research and see that this could be an enevitable issue for you? I just purchased a 2015 leaf about 3 weeks ago and I scanned it with Leaf Pro to see where it was. But I only have a 12 mile round trip to work each day. I figure I'll be using it as a work car for another 7-10 years. Well I could be anyway. I'm 56 years old so it really only has to get me to work and back for another 4-6 years. Maybe less if I get fed up with working for a living. And my retirement location is only 5 miles from town, so there's that. I'll be living on the farm and only needing to go to town once or twice a week. Heck, by that time, maybe I'll upgrade the battery pack and it will be enough to get me to my non-driving years.
In conclusion, I'd like to do a reality check here. Let's get real here, we can go out and buy a freakin (virtually) brand new electric car for $12,000. I just did. Only 5-6 years ago, people on this board would have laughed you out of a thread for claiming that. Well many would. A few would have said, "Wow, I can only dream of that." I bought a Vectrix VX-1 back in 2008 for $8,000, and thought it was one of the coolest things ever. And it was just a maxi scooter. The company has gone out of business and the typical value on that bike is about $500-$1,000. But I'm ok with it. I took a gamble and it sort of paid off, not great though. Now, having a full car with all the ammentities is just insane.
