Leaf as short tripper

[solartim]

I found my last log file from before the battery fault. It is about 6 - 8 weeks before. The values I see are
GIDs 131
SOC 95
SOH 46.6
Hx 25.04
Odo (km) 114633 (71,230 miles)

[Voltaire]

Hello.
I'm back to considering a LEAF purchase for the short-trip use that I originally described at the start of this thread.
We have one here in the area for sale with 167k miles for $2,250 which is said to have 25 to 30 miles per charge.
That seems a decent price, but I'm leery about picking one up with so many miles.
I guess the seller was using it for the exact same purpose that I intend to use it for: A short-trip school-and-back ride.
Looking at the last post in this thread from Solartim, I guess I could use a port scanner of some sort to look at the values he posted:
I found my last log file from before the battery fault. It is about 6 - 8 weeks before. The values I see are
GIDs 131
SOC 95
SOH 46.6
Hx 25.04
Odo (km) 114633 (71,230 miles)

But I have no idea how I would know whether or not one of those values indicates imminent battery failure.
I also see that there has been a recent advent of DIY battery replacements, so maybe that would be a possibility if we did have a failure.
Really what I'm most interested in is not putting my kids in something that's going to up and shut down half way to school, possibly causing a traffic accident.
Is there a mileage range that you all would feel comfortable buying, and am I right in assuming that something with 167k miles on the original battery is too much of a risk?

[LeftieBiker]

Odometer mileage is generally secondary - or tertiary - on an EV, but once you pass 150k miles I think it does matter, because of wear and tear on the drive components over that many miles. I'd look for one that has passed 100K miles, because that dampens the price, but with less than, say, 130k miles. Again though, the condition of the battery and drivetrain are what matter most.

[goldbrick]

71k miles shouldn't be an issue unless the car is in a rust-prone area. I'd be most concerned about the cell balance when the SOC is low. A single low cell will trigger Turtle mode and if that happens while driving you're stuck.

Another thought is that if this is a 2011-2012 there are many differences from 2013+ Leafs. I don't know if or how that would affect a battery replacement in the future. Also, the cabin heating element in the 2011-2012 is different and more problematic (IMO) than the later version.

[knightmb]

What year Model is the Leaf?
The only indication I've seen in this forum all these years of imminent battery failure is individual cells failing in voltage faster than the others or rapidly declining SoH in the battery (of all the cells). That means you would need to take daily readings of this Leaf battery to get a sense of that before you could make any decisions. Going by the information you posted, it must be an older generation Leaf with the older battery chemistry. As a long SoH, if it is a stable decline, you won't need to worry about a sudden loss of driving power unless the battery was below the 6% state of charge range where the weaker cells really start to take down the capacity to cause turtle mode or emergency shutdown to protect the battery.

Hello.
I'm back to considering a LEAF purchase for the short-trip use that I originally described at the start of this thread.
We have one here in the area for sale with 167k miles for $2,250 which is said to have 25 to 30 miles per charge.
That seems a decent price, but I'm leery about picking one up with so many miles.
I guess the seller was using it for the exact same purpose that I intend to use it for: A short-trip school-and-back ride.
Looking at the last post in this thread from Solartim, I guess I could use a port scanner of some sort to look at the values he posted:
I found my last log file from before the battery fault. It is about 6 - 8 weeks before. The values I see are
GIDs 131
SOC 95
SOH 46.6
Hx 25.04
Odo (km) 114633 (71,230 miles)

But I have no idea how I would know whether or not one of those values indicates imminent battery failure.
I also see that there has been a recent advent of DIY battery replacements, so maybe that would be a possibility if we did have a failure.
Really what I'm most interested in is not putting my kids in something that's going to up and shut down half way to school, possibly causing a traffic accident.
Is there a mileage range that you all would feel comfortable buying, and am I right in assuming that something with 167k miles on the original battery is too much of a risk?

[Voltaire]

Thank you everyone for your help.
We ended up buying a 2014 S model with 49k miles for $5k. Dash display lists 82 miles at nearly full charge.
I had planned to charge it using the 120v charger from 12 a.m. to 6 a.m. when our area has the cheapest rates.
As previously stated, we will only use about 2 kwh per weekday, so trickle charging overnight should be more than enough to get the job done.
But I've hit a strange quirk in that this car's built-in charge timer only allows you to set a charge stop time but not a charge start time.
This is a strange omission, though I understand that it has something to do with how Level 2 chargers work.

I've got a few Wyze wifi smart plugs around that I thought I could use to turn the charger on at midnight then off at 6 a.m.

But the 120v charger has a quite-thick heavy duty cable, which draws 12 amps.

Though the smart plug is rated for 15 Amps, I'm a bit nervous running this much power through for hours at a time.

Anyone try this or have another recommended method for starting charging in a 2014 Leaf?

[GerryAZ]

If you want to only charge off peak, I suggest that you set the charge timer for 6:00 AM so that the car will stop charging at that time. You could use your "smart" receptacle by setting its start time to midnight and its stop time to 7:00 or 8:00 AM so that it does not interrupt charging current. The 15-ampere smart receptacle should be able to handle the 12-ampere continuous charging current, but check during the first few charges to make sure it does not get hot. Since charging current will ramp up after power is switched to the EVSE (charging unit--electric vehicle supply equipment), the smart receptacle should handle switching the power on without issue. There is a good chance that the smart receptacle will fail if it interrupts the full 12-ampere charging current so you need to have the LEAF's charge timer stop charging before the smart receptacle switches power to the EVSE off.

[Voltaire]

Thank you for your advice. I'll give it a try.

[goldbrick]

The 120V EVSE that came with the Leaf puts roughly 1.2kW into the battery. If you only use 2kWh per day and you want to keep the SOC in the mid-range (as usually recommended for battery longevity) you could adjust the start or stop time as GerryAZ mentioned so it only replaces as much energy as you need on any given day. I wouldn't obsess over it but if it's easy to do it's a good practice to run the car near the middle of SOC instead of always at 80-100%.

[Voltaire]

Thank you for the excellent advice.
We will try to stay in the mid range. Battery longevity seems a worthy quest.