Nissan Leaf

insular1

There are so many "is electric right for me?" threads so I thought I'd post here instead. If ye think I should start my own thread mods can split out or I'll start a new one no problems.

Have been stalking these threads for a good while now and have gained loads of great info so thanks to all the regulars here, I'd say there are loads like me who were on the fence and from reading here will be more likely to make the swap.
I'm 99% sure electric will be my next car and with my 08 astra starting to give all sorts or trouble it'll most likely be sooner rather than later. Looking for the cheapest entry into the electric car world that meets my needs and that seems like a second hand 30kWh leaf. I am between multiple sites with work (none with destination charging) and most of the journeys are well within the distance. The only one I am worried about is a 120km (60km there 60km back) round trip with about 65km motorway total and the rest urban driving between 30-50km/hr. Any 30kWh leaf owners know if it will make this trip on a bad winter's day driving the motorway portion at 120km/hr indicated?

Thanks again for all the help.

KCross

insular1 wrote: »

There are so many "is electric right for me?" threads so I thought I'd post here instead. If ye think I should start my own thread mods can split out or I'll start a new one no problems.

Have been stalking these threads for a good while now and have gained loads of great info so thanks to all the regulars here, I'd say there are loads like me who were on the fence and from reading here will be more likely to make the swap.
I'm 99% sure electric will be my next car and with my 08 astra starting to give all sorts or trouble it'll most likely be sooner rather than later. Looking for the cheapest entry into the electric car world that meets my needs and that seems like a second hand 30kWh leaf. I am between multiple sites with work (none with destination charging) and most of the journeys are well within the distance. The only one I am worried about is a 120km (60km there 60km back) round trip with about 65km motorway total and the rest urban driving between 30-50km/hr. Any 30kWh leaf owners know if it will make this trip on a bad winter's day driving the motorway portion at 120km/hr indicated?

Thanks again for all the help.

I dont have a 30kWh Leaf so I'll let others confirm but it should be no issue.

Other questions....

Do you have a driveway and hence the ability for home charging?
Whats your budget?

FYI... The 30kWh is hard enough to find as it only came out in 161.

insular1

Yes I have home charging. Given what I've read here I wouldn't consider electric if I was dependant on public charging.

Money wise I was hoping to get one less than 15k, with or without scrapping my astra. But I'm surprised by the prices here in Ireland. Most second hand ones are coming in at 19-20k before negotiation but having chatted briefly with local dealer I got the impression he'd sell me a new one for that if I scrapped my astra. Plan on waiting for prices to drop or else heading to the UK. To be honest I thought they'd drop quicker given the price of a new 30kWh and the 40kWh release.

KCross

insular1 wrote: »

Yes I have home charging. Given what I've read here I wouldn't consider electric if I was dependant on public charging.

Money wise I was hoping to get one less than 15k, with or without scrapping my astra. But I'm surprised by the prices here in Ireland. Most second hand ones are coming in at 19-20k before negotiation but having chatted briefly with local dealer I got the impression he'd sell me a new one for that if I scrapped my astra. Plan on waiting for prices to drop or else heading to the UK. To be honest I thought they'd drop quicker given the price of a new 30kWh and the 40kWh release.

Can you still buy a new 30kWh? I didnt think you could. They stopped making them like 4 months ago or something so there cant be too many of those left in dealer lots.

Your best bet is go to the UK. Just keep an eye on the ads and have your money ready to go at short notice. The prices wont drop that much in the next 6 months. The 40kWh isnt actually here yet and they wont be on the 2nd hand market for a while so the 2nd hand value of 30kWh's will stay strong in the short term.


<£13k should be achievable for a 30kWh in the UK so just around your budget. You will struggle to get a 30kWh in Ireland for €15k in the next 6 months.

insular1

😭 6 months! Not sure my astra will hold out that long (it currently refuses to start if the temperature is too low!) and I definitely can't afford to stretch the budget at present. I was hoping to not have to invest too much money in repairing my crapbox of a deisel before going electric. Cost me 1100eur last year in repairs alone and I have a mate whose a mechanic so that was basically just parts! Might have to consider reinvesting in the deisel short term, unless there's any chance at all a 24kWh could do 120km??

KCross

insular1 wrote: »

�� 6 months! Not sure my astra will hold out that long (it currently refuses to start if the temperature is too low!) and I definitely can't afford to stretch the budget at present. I was hoping to not have to invest too much money in repairing my crapbox of a deisel before going electric. Cost me 1100eur last year in repairs alone and I have a mate whose a mechanic so that was basically just parts! Might have to consider reinvesting in the deisel short term, unless there's any chance at all a 24kWh could do 120km??

Just buy a 2nd hand 30kWh from the UK now. You should be able to get it around your budget. You just need to check the ads everyday until you get a suitable one.

THe 24kWh definitely wont do 120km at motorway speed.

insular1

Yeah seems like the best option. Had hoped to get it in Ireland for convienience but to save 4k UK is a no brainier. There was a good post a while ago about the different specs for the leaf but I can't seem to find it. Wondering which spec to look out for or avoid. I know 6.6kW charging is a must but anything else spec wise I should be looking for?

KCross

insular1 wrote: »

Yeah seems like the best option. Had hoped to get it in Ireland for convienience but to save 4k UK is a no brainier. There was a good post a while ago about the different specs for the leaf but I can't seem to find it. Wondering which spec to look out for or avoid. I know 6.6kW charging is a must but anything else spec wise I should be looking for?

Just stay away from the Visia and stay away from any battery lease (aka Flex) cars.

After that its a personal preference as to whether you want 360deg camera and leather etc in the Tekna (top of the range). If not, then the Acenta is also perfectly good.

insular1

Thanks for all the help KCross! Let the search begin.

Also if anyone can weigh in on whether the 30kWh can do that 120km journey I'd be grateful.

unkel

Now is probably a good time to be on the lookout for 30kWh Leafs in the UK as the reg plates have just changed to the new higher number (they do that over there in March and in September) and also there will be plenty of owners upgrading to the new Leaf, just out now.

insular1

insular1 wrote: »

There are so many "is electric right for me?" threads so I thought I'd post here instead. If ye think I should start my own thread mods can split out or I'll start a new one no problems.

Have been stalking these threads for a good while now and have gained loads of great info so thanks to all the regulars here, I'd say there are loads like me who were on the fence and from reading here will be more likely to make the swap.
I'm 99% sure electric will be my next car and with my 08 astra starting to give all sorts or trouble it'll most likely be sooner rather than later. Looking for the cheapest entry into the electric car world that meets my needs and that seems like a second hand 30kWh leaf. I am between multiple sites with work (none with destination charging) and most of the journeys are well within the distance. The only one I am worried about is a 120km (60km there 60km back) round trip with about 65km motorway total and the rest urban driving between 30-50km/hr. Any 30kWh leaf owners know if it will make this trip on a bad winter's day driving the motorway portion at 120km/hr indicated?

Thanks again for all the help.

I don't think the 30 kwh Leaf could do that comfortably at motorway speeds of 120 km/h with cold, wet and wind. But finer weather possibly.

At 120 Km/h you could get anywhere between 20-22 Kwh/100 Kms so say 22 Kwh/100 Kms and 28 Kwh usable battery energy would give you 127 Kms so that's a bit tight at 120 Km/h and that's a new healthy battery and depending on conditions can get worse economy than 22 Kwh/100 Km. The result of that is you'll have to slow down.

I would suggest taking one on a test drive especially this time of the year, drive on your commute and see how it goes. Alway test drive on your commute before you make any purchase that you might end up regretting.

insular1

What sort of depreciation would an average 2016 30kWh battery have suffered by now?

insular1

insular1 wrote: »

What sort of depreciation would an average 2016 30kWh battery have suffered by now?

I'm actually not sure, and there's not many for sale considering it became available around March 2016 so I would say there's be more after people sell them after 3 years of ownership.

They might hold their value more because there aren't that many available + EV 2nd hand values are increasing and this trend is likely to continue.

insular1

Sorry I actually meant how much would one of those batteries have degraded? Do they hold up as well as the newer 24kWh?

I don't actually know.

BoatMad has a 30 Kwh Leaf and promised us Leaf spy stats ages ago, hint hint BoatMad !

There's not many people who have provided their 30 Kwh leaf spy results here which shows the condition of the battery. There's probably not many 30 kwh leaf owners here anyway.

Soarer

Maybe have a look at the Kia Soul in the UK.

The soul is quiet small but at least the battery has a fan to aid cooling something the Leaf does not, not even the new 40 Kwh.

You might not find a dealer here to service it either as Kia Ireland refused to import it. Having said that servicing should be minimal, the likes of brake fluid is probably the most important service until coolant maybe required which is usually around 160,000 Kms in most electrics/hybrids.

NIMAN

Deleted User wrote: »

The soul is quiet small but at least the battery has a fan to aid cooling something the Leaf does not, not even the new 40 Kwh.

You might not find a dealer here to service it either as Kia Ireland refused to import it. Having said that servicing should be minimal, the likes of brake fluid is probably the most important service until coolant maybe required which is usually around 160,000 Kms in most electrics/hybrids.

Find it hard to believe a dealer in Ireland would refuse work and money.

They believed at the time there wouldn't be the interest and in order to keep costs down they have to have quiet a substantial order and I guess they saw what happened renault which were left with a load of worthless new Fluences because no one wanted them and didn't want the risk of that happening to them.

But, there was a good reason for this, to keep a long story short , Renault decided not to include fast charging which was the ultimate reason for it to fail and it would only charge at 3 Kw. Useless !

jprboy

NIMAN wrote: »

Find it hard to believe a dealer in Ireland would refuse work and money.

Not on sale down here so none of the dealers have staff trained in their servicing.

Spoke to a Soul owner a few months ago and he goes up North for his service.

DM1983

Hi guys new to the Leaf and haven't got much feel for range yet. I have a 152 24 kw with 96% soh on leafspy. Looking at doing a 110km round trip tomorrow. I can charge for about 1.5 to 2 hours on granny charger at the midpoint. Mostly motorway but I'm willing to drive at 100km/h but no slower than that. Doable or no?

gally74

jprboy wrote: »

Not on sale down here so none of the dealers have staff trained in their servicing.

Spoke to a Soul owner a few months ago and he goes up North for his service.

There's no real service till 90000 km

unkel

Dmangan wrote: »

Hi guys new to the Leaf and haven't got much feel for range yet. I have a 152 24 kw with 96% soh on leafspy. Looking at doing a 110km round trip tomorrow. I can charge for about 1.5 to 2 hours on granny charger at the midpoint. Mostly motorway but I'm willing to drive at 100km/h but no slower than that. Doable or no?

1.5 hours on granny cable will give you a bit over 3kWh, so your car would effectively be in between a 24kWh Leaf and a 30kWh Leaf

Are you going to drive at 100km/h indicated? Or 100km/h real speed? If the former, I'd say you should make it. The latter, not so sure.

ELM327

You will make that no problem.
Probably without the midpoint charging. I had a 120km mostly motorway commute in a 24kWh leaf and did 60k km in one.
If you charge for 2 hours on a granny cable you'll get 4 kWh (2.2kW * 2 hours - charging loss)
4kWh is 19% of the battery replenished (4kWh/21kWh usable).
For 19% you should get 20-22km motorway at 100km/h.

NIMAN

jprboy wrote: »

Not on sale down here so none of the dealers have staff trained in their servicing.

Spoke to a Soul owner a few months ago and he goes up North for his service.

But there's not really anything to service engine wise, so any KIA dealer should be able to check it over mechanically.

The real issue is warranty and repairs. You could find it a real challenge to get any of the EV parts replaced. In fact I bet you'd have to go to the North.

NIMAN

Deleted User wrote: »

The real issue is warranty and repairs. You could find it a real challenge to get any of the EV parts replaced. In fact I bet you'd have to go to the North.

Probably true, but chances of needing any EV-only parts are very slim surely?

What parts did you have in mind that you couldn't get in a RoI KIA dealer?

DM1983

ELM327 wrote: »

You will make that no problem.
Probably without the midpoint charging. I had a 120km mostly motorway commute in a 24kWh leaf and did 60k km in one.
If you charge for 2 hours on a granny cable you'll get 4 kWh (2.2kW * 2 hours - charging loss)
4kWh is 19% of the battery replenished (4kWh/21kWh usable).
For 19% you should get 20-22km motorway at 100km/h.

Brilliant. Thanks a million.

NIMAN

NIMAN wrote: »

Probably true, but chances of needing any EV-only parts are very slim surely?

Is that a chance you'd be willing to take ?

NIMAN

Deleted User wrote: »

Is that a chance you'd be willing to take ?

Maybe. Maybe not.

But what parts exactly could go wrong? Battery cell?

If so, surely KIA would cover you if you took the car North?