First EV purchase - would you buy this leaf 69.8% SoH battery

Hi,



First time EV buyer here, looking for a second hand leaf for my wife who has a 40-45mile commute each day. We've found a car locally to us in the UK, for £7,000, 2014 Acenta model, 63k miles 24kWh battery with a 6KW charger. I've been doing some reading up on what to look for avoid in the leaf, and have used Leaf Spy to interrogate the battery/DTC codes. I can see it has a a 69.8% healthy battery, but having only had leaf spy for an hour I'm still trying to make sense of it all. The battery had a 92% SoC, and Leaf Spy reported a 53 mile range, and it was quite a cold evening so I reckon it would do her commute, but maybe not very comfortably.



Basically if anyone with a bit more 'leaf spy' knowledge can tell me if this is a good buy or not it would be really appreciated. I have first refusal on the car until noon tomorrow, and I'm in two minds about it.





Flikr album with all the screenshots:

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmKGV4fD

Never buy an EV- especially a Leaf - with just enough range for your needs. The battery will continue to degrade, and in a year or two you'll/she'll be struggling to make the commute. Also, don't use the range estimator to determine the range of a prospective car - it will likely be too optimistic. If I were you I'd either look for a good 30kwh Leaf that has NOT had the BMS update offered by Nissan, and that still has all 12 capacity bars. Either that or look to lease (and then possibly buy) a 40kwh Leaf.

This topic will help. Keep in mind both that this is written for North American shoppers, and that I've already suggested that you not get a 24kwh Leaf.

https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=26662

McGreggor said:

First time EV buyer here, looking for a second hand leaf for my wife who has a 40-45mile commute each day. We've found a car locally to us in the UK, for £7,000, 2014 Acenta model, 63k miles 24kWh battery with a 6KW charger.

Click to expand...

I wouldn't recommend a 24kWh LEAF for a 40-45 mile commute. Not even looking at LeafSpy pages here.

NoWorriesRange is about 34 miles. Unless your wife has reliable charging at both work and home.

https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=27677

It looks like this LEAF has 9 capacity bars showing. The only reason to buy a LEAF in this condition is if you had a high degree of confidence that it would qualify for a free battery replacement. Unfortunately, it's already been 5 years since the in service date and it also has more than 60K miles on the odometer. So, not going to happen...

Unless, you only have a 10-20 mile per day use, I would NOT recommend a FIRST TIME BUYER to get a used Leaf....

You don't know what you are getting into. first, you don't know that the model is capable of when new. Second, you don't know what YOUR USED car is capable of...

At 69% SOH, you will not get too far, and the range will only get worse.

I would say... DO NOT BUY that car. Or any other used Leaf unless you drive short distances per day (under 25 miles).

Also, please do some research on Leafspy - there are volumes written on this. You cannot ask people to teach you everything you want to know on a post...

Please ask specific questions when you have done your research..