What is your real world range with 40 and 62 KWH?

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Jerryr

Well-known member
Joined
May 14, 2018
Messages
77
Location
Bradenton, Florida
I’ve owned a 2018 Leaf SV for about 10 months. I traded in our 2015 Leaf SL for it. It’s been a perfect car for us locally. I’ve never had range anxiety like I did occasionally with the 2015.

BUT, I purchased a cabin in the woods about 120 miles from home. The drive across Florida from home to the cabin doesn’t have any charging stations and I’m reluctant to take the drive. It’s pretty much a trip with only 2 red lights in 100 miles of remote, rural, 2 lane 60 MPH roads. My dilemma is that I’m not comfortable making the 120 mile trip without ability to charge on the way. At 60 mph for 2 hours would be a stretch for a 40 KWH Leaf.

Seeing the new 62 KWH Leaf Plus has me excited except for prices being quoted. My 2018 SV is paid off and they are offering $21,000 trade value and $42,000 for the 2019 SL plus. With fees, taxes and other BS costs it comes out to my car plus $24,000 out of my pocket. My tax situation qualifies to take full advantage of the $7,500 IRS credit but no other credits in Florida. So the bottom line is it will cost me a net $16,500 to make the swap.

I currently own another car (2018 Focus Titanium) that we use to make the trip and drive around there locally at the cabin area. It’s worth $15,000. I’m a big buy yet I can get in and out of the Leaf comfortably. The focus isn’t as comfortable to get in and out of.

What do you think? Should I trade the Leaf in on a SL PLUS? Perhaps trade both cars in on the SLPlus?

We also own a 2015 Lexus RX450h Hybrid and a F350 Diesel Truck to haul our RV so trading in the 18 Leaf and other small car on another Leaf wouldn’t leave us without an ICE car.

Here’s the 1st offering of the deal.

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Why not a Tesla? It'd be a little more, and they're not as good build quality or reliability, but the batteries last longer and they have better tech.

If you sell it yourself, you could probably get another 2-3k instead of the trade in. I think you can also do slightly better on the price if that's a SV plus. If it's an SL Plus, that seems like a good price.

I don't know your situation, but 2 cars plus the Lexus and the truck seems overkill. I'd sell the focus regardless, but I suspect my financial situation is tighter than yours...

Cars plummet in value. I try to have as little money tied up in them as possible.

Kudos to owning your Leaf outright.
 
Lothsahn said:
Why not a Tesla?

If you sell it yourself, you could probably get another 2-3k instead of the trade in.

I don't know your situation, but 2 cars plus the Lexus and the truck seems overkill. I'd sell the focus regardless, but I suspect my financial situation is tighter than yours...

Cars plummet in value. I try to have as little money tied up in them as possible.

Kudos to owning your Leaf outright.

Selling myself I loose $1,250 in sales tax advantage.

We test drove a Tesla Model 3. I have the same issue getting in and out of the Tesla. I hit my head on the door opening and have to bend my neck uncomfortably. I’m in my early 70’s and 6’ 250 lbs.

I’ll probably take another look at Tesla.
 
As long as you can recharge at the cabin, 120 miles at 60MPH in a 40kwh Leaf should be quite possible. A/C only costs a few (3?) miles of range, and heat at mild temps (if you have the all weather package) should only cost maybe 10 miles. If you don't have the heat pump, just set the heat to 68 or so, the fan to Low (or 2 if damp), and the ventilation to floor-only with partial/auto recirculation. Use Eco mode, make sure the tires are at 40psi or a bit higher, set the Cruise to 60MPH, and enjoy the trip. The Guess O Meter in the 2018 is much better than earlier versions, and should warn you if you need to slow to 50MPH. Remember: the fastest way to get there in an EV with marginal range is to slow down, not to recharge (QC excepted).
 
Jerryr said:
We test drove a Tesla Model 3. I have the same issue getting in and out of the Tesla. I hit my head on the door opening and have to bend my neck uncomfortably. I’m in my early 70’s and 6’ 250 lbs.

I’ll probably take another look at Tesla.

If you're not comfortable in the car, definitely don't buy it. :). The model 3 is a small car.

See my edit above on the price. 42k seems high unless it's the SL.

Agree with Leftie that on rural roads you can safely slow down and will have plenty of range. You can get a 50%+ range increase at 35mph compared to 70. Leftie said the most efficient speed is something like 17 mph. So if you go 50 mph you'll probably have plenty of range even in the 2018 Leaf.
 
LeftieBiker said:
Remember: the fastest way to get there in an EV with marginal range is to slow down, not to recharge (QC excepted).

Yes, it's that simple! At 50-55 there's no problem.
 
I made the switch and love it. Range anxiety went from let's say a 3 out 10 to Zero. Unfortunate you don't have other state (or Utility?) credits. I think you can you can get the down more though either on the sticker or the trade.

Also, answering your post question, I'd regularly get 160 on the 40 and I'm getting ~225 on the 602Wh (only 1,000 miles so far though). Generally am efficient driver (4.2 kW/mile, 3.7 winter).
 
I have a 2018 SL & have not seen less than 138 miles of range driving in 28F weather & as much as 183 miles in summer weather doing 62mph indicated when on the highway when at 100% SOC.

Granted it will be interesting to see how much range drops over time but with you being in Florida I would think the warmer weather would enable you to have 150-170 range most of the year even as battery degradation occurs.

Also consider buying LeafSpy & the appropiate OBD-II dongle to see that there's more range in the car than indicated so you have more buffer than perhaps you're aware of. I personally see 5-6% more actual range but others have reported as much as 10% more range on the low end of the indicated SOC.

That's a lot cheaper than any of your presented options!
 
Jerryr said:
We test drove a Tesla Model 3. I have the same issue getting in and out of the Tesla. I hit my head on the door opening and have to bend my neck uncomfortably. I’m in my early 70’s and 6’ 250 lbs.

I’ll probably take another look at Tesla.
I would. If I had size problems I would focus on used Model S and dump the LEAF and Focus
Or perhaps dump the Focus and Lexus and keep a Model S and LEAF
 
I did it. Traded in both the 2018 SV and 2018 Focus for a 2019 SL PLUS White/Black 2 tone.

Made the deal in the phone negotiating between 2 dealerships. Negotiated $3100 off the $44,920 Leaf SV Plus MSRP and negotiated a few thousand more for trades.

I once again I get to apply the $7500 tax credit next April. That’s the only credits available in Florida.

I’ve had Leaf Spy but didn’t use it on the new Leaf.

Drove the 38 miles home from the dealership and used 37 miles of range per the GOM, at 70 MPH. At 70 MPH the GOM was showing average 3.6 miles per kW. Arrived home with 162 miles range remaining after starting with 199 miles of range after a 25 mile test ride.

Good news is I own it outright with no lien and one less car insurance and tag renewal bills.

It has light gray almost white leather. WIFE LIKES IT! I can get in and out with no problems just like our 18 SV.
 
SageBrush said:
Jerryr said:
We test drove a Tesla Model 3. I have the same issue getting in and out of the Tesla. I hit my head on the door opening and have to bend my neck uncomfortably. I’m in my early 70’s and 6’ 250 lbs.

I’ll probably take another look at Tesla.
I would. If I had size problems I would focus on used Model S and dump the LEAF and Focus
Or perhaps dump the Focus and Lexus and keep a Model S and LEAF

I looked at used and new Tesla Model S’s they start at $39k and early model year used ones were $60k+. Tesla is sneaky. When you go to price it they deduct the $3,750 tax credit and the estimated gas savings. So when you go to check out is shows cost and what you pay around $10,000 more. They want $6,000 for autopilot, $1,000-$1,500 extra for most paint choices other than black. Black doesn’t work fir me especially in sunny Florida.

I’ve owned 2 Leafs. The only problem I’ve had is one tire with a soft spot causing a vibration at 65 mph which was replaced under warranty.

Now I have to install a 50 amp 14-50R receptacle at the cabin. I have an unused L14-30R twist lock receptacle at the house. I wonder if I can set the OEM ESEV to Max 24 amps?

I can’t get into a Model 3 without contorting my neck to duck under the roof line. Then there’s question about reliability and limited service locations.
 
Jerryr said:
I did it... negotiating between 2 dealerships. Negotiated $3100 off the $44,920 Leaf SV Plus MSRP and negotiated a few thousand more for trades.

Fantastic, good on you for getting them down further :D
 
Enjoy the new car.

I also have range anxiety on my 2018 SL.
I lease, nothing I can do about it for another 2 1/2 years.
 
Jerryr said:
SageBrush said:
Jerryr said:
Now I have to install a 50 amp 14-50R receptacle at the cabin. I have an unused L14-30R twist lock receptacle at the house. I wonder if I can set the OEM ESEV to Max 24 amps?
You can set a Tesla car to charge at whatever Amp you want (up to the maximum.) I'm not sure if currently or in the future, but a talked about feature is for different Amp settings by location.
 
Congratulations! Although, you might have been fine with your previous car.

I'm surprised by the prices of the Leaf+. The Leaf's have a pretty clear trend of starting the new model year pretty high, and then drastically discounting by the end of the year. I hope that continues. You can get a 2018 SV for ~$27K. So $42K for a new one seems pretty crazy.
 
webb14leafs said:
Congratulations! Although, you might have been fine with your previous car.

Very true for most of us.

webb14leafs said:
So $42K for a new one seems pretty crazy.

Given the 2019 battery unknowns at that price, surprised anyone would consider buying one.
 
Jerryr said:
Good news is I own it outright with no lien.

WIFE LIKES IT! I can get in and out with no problems just like our 18 SV.

This is the most important part of the entire post. :)
 
webb14leafs said:
Congratulations! Although, you might have been fine with your previous car.

I'm surprised by the prices of the Leaf+. The Leaf's have a pretty clear trend of starting the new model year pretty high, and then drastically discounting by the end of the year. I hope that continues. You can get a 2018 SV for ~$27K. So $42K for a new one seems pretty crazy.

I was not comfortable taking a 120 mile trip at 65 mph and no charging stations along the way with the 40 kWh battery Leaf. Slowing down on a 2 lane road to increase range would create difficulties for traffic trying to pass me. Plus eventual battery degradation would make this trip more challenging in future years.

There are only 5 SL Plus Leafs listed in the State of Florida so negotiating price was a challenge. I’m used to cars being a commodity where I can negotiate between multiple dealership for the same exact vehicle. With limited stock it’s more difficult. In fact the original dealership in Orlando sold the other White SL 30 minutes after they rejected my offer of $5000 less that the original quote.

I negotiated a $3,192 discount off the MSRP on the one I bought. Did this all on the phone. They gave me $22,000 for our 2018 Leaf SV that we paid $31,887 for (5/15/18) almost exactly a year ago. If you figure the $7,500 tax credit in, that Leaf cost us $24,387. So I drove it for a year with only $2,387 in depreciation or about $200/mo. Not bad. Of course what’s not in there is the ~$1,000 interest lost by not banking the $24,387 for a year.

I traded 2 for 1 so I reduced my insurance bill by $1000 this year. I increased my monthly cash flow another $1,000/month this year by changing my Fed Tax withdrawal on my Annuity and Social security deposits to take advantage of the $7,500 tax credit again this year.

I’m 72 years old so as I tell my wife my clock is running out. ;) I want to enjoy the fruits of my 38 years working while I’m still healthy.
 
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