From truck to leaf?

[DustanT]

So I have been watching electric cars for years and just waiting for prices to come down and see how reliable they are. I have a Toyota Tacoma and currently i'm driving 65 miles a day for work. I get 17~18 MPG and a big payment. I'd like to buy a used leaf and sell my truck. I know I should get the battery tested by a Nissan dealer. I have found a 2013 Nissan Leaf SL with 34k mi. and asking $10,987 for it. It looks fully loaded. Would it be better to find one with less miles but with a lower trim to keep the price down?

[LeftieBiker]

Nissan dealers can tell you nothing about the capacity. Two things: look at the build date on the door sticker, and avoid any Leaf built before 4/2013. Also check the car with LeafSpy if you can. If you can't, then assume one less capacity bar than is showing is the actual capacity.

[jjeff]

Also 65 miles/day is kind of pushing it without 1/2 way charging of some sort. I can do it in the summer with my '13S missing no bars but not in the winter or with my '12SL(which is missing 2 bars) any time of the year.
In your case I'd really look for a 30kwh Leaf, of course they won't be nearly as cheap as a 24kwh Leaf.

[Firetruck41]

65 mile commute is too far, unless you are able to reliably charge while at work. The "miles" displayed on the dash are not realistic and don't take all the variations into account. Range at freeway speeds drops pretty fast, range is much better around town at 25-40 mph.

[LeftieBiker]

Agree on the range. Unless you drive secondary roads at 40-45MPH, that's too far for a non-new 24kwh Leaf. Also, looking at the photo, I don't think it has premium package (no front camera visible) so make sure it has at least a backup camera, which was optional in 2013. But really, you might want to look at used Volts.

[DustanT]

I can recharge at work that's no problem. Only 120v at work tho. I can install the 240v in my garage. I have found a 15' SV with 11k miles for $11,995. I didn't find KWH in the sale description, is that somewhere else or by the year?

Also I have owned few Prius so I have the hypermiling down and used to sipping gas and using electric mode in town.

[cwerdna]

I can recharge at work that's no problem. Only 120v at work tho. I can install the 240v in my garage. I have found a 15' SV with 11k miles for $11,995. I didn't find KWH in the sale description, is that somewhere else or by the year?

Also I have owned few Prius so I have the hypermiling down and used to sipping gas and using electric mode in town.

All '11 to '15 Leafs have 24 kWh batteries.

'16 S was 24 kWh until a "S 30" 30 kwh version was quietly introduced: http://www.greencarreports.com/news/110 ... gher-price. '16+ SV and SL are all 30 kWh. All '17 Leafs are 30 kWh.

You really need to see how many capacity bars remain (http://www.electricvehiclewiki.com/File ... bars_s.jpg is a 3 bar loser), see where the vehicle resided before (hot climates == more degradation) via Carfax and/or Autocheck and best to run Leaf Spy on it to look at AHr, SOH and Hx. Please report back on where it resided, # of capacity bars remaining, and build month (on driver's side door sticker) so we can get some idea if the # of capacity bars showing makes sense.

You probably wouldn't want a vehicle that's been a victim of a BMS reset like http://daveinolywa.blogspot.com/2014/11 ... -read.html.

Can you update your location info via your user name in the upper right > User Control Panel > Profile tab? That way, we don't need to ask in future posts/threads or do sleuthing to deduce it.

You said 65 miles/day. How much city vs. highway?

[DustanT]

Here is the 2015 SV carfax

https://www.carfax.com/VehicleHistory/p ... tner=COO_0

This is the add on cars.com. It looks like it has 12 bars in the picture, its' a pretty crappy pic tho. I have not looked at this car in person as it's out of state.

https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/deta ... /overview/

Right now i'm researching and want to make the best informed decision I can. If the leaf can't do what I ask then I understand that completely. Your not going to hurt my feelings to flat out tell me no this won't work for you.

If a 2016 s with the 30kwh is the only leaf that can do what I need then that is the answer I need.

Driving conditions here

12 miles on 2 lane at 55mph rolling hills to freeway
10 miles on freeway at 70mph
10 miles on side roads from up to 55mph

[LeftieBiker]

If you can recharge at work all or most of the day, then a Leaf could work - just realize that if you can't charge one day, you might have to drive home at 30MPH. I'd also try to cut the 70MPH stretch down to 65MPH. The nice thing about a Volt is that you could run that as a full EV any day you can recharge at work, and then if you can't, drive it home at 70 anyway.

[silverone]

]
Right now i'm researching and want to make the best informed decision I can. If the leaf can't do what I ask then I understand that completely. Your not going to hurt my feelings to flat out tell me no this won't work for you.

If a 2016 s with the 30kwh is the only leaf that can do what I need then that is the answer I need.

Driving conditions here

12 miles on 2 lane at 55mph rolling hills to freeway
10 miles on freeway at 70mph
10 miles on side roads from up to 55mph

My commute is very similar to yours with the exception that my return trip has a 750 ft elevation gain.

Being unsure about work charging availability was what initially drove me to chose the Volt. As time went on, I found that I could charge on 120V and later led an effort to get some L2 240V installed at work. You should be able to fully recover your loss during an 8 hour day at 120V, I found it usually took about 6 hours.

You'll find the Leaf (or any EV) has very predictable usage depending on temperature and weather (slushy snow and rain reduce range). You might find you need a backup plan when temps get too low. I haven't had my 2013 Leaf long, but have found that I have plenty of range to make it both ways when temps are over 50 and dry, and one way down to at least zero (we don't get much lower here). I recognize that it may not be possible to make the commute when the car loses a few bars at lower temps, and will then make it a kids car.

One thing I didn't think about when buying was with 110/120V charging I was unable to make a 25 mile midday offsite lunch trip because I might not recharge quick enough.

If you have another option you can use sporadically in very low temps, I wouldn't have any concern at all with recommending the Leaf.