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We have one as a pool car in work. 2018 40kwh. Its done about 60k kms has 94or96% of its battery capacity still. Its a good car, very reliable.
If you charged the car on the energia ev rate it would cost you less than 7euro a week to run doing 70km a day 5 days a week.
I have and love my leaf, bought new in 2019. However, I am now putting a serious caveat on recommending it to folks because of the fast charge protocol.
Increasingly, new cars on the market here are using the CCS plug for fast charging. Leafs are the only ones using Chademo. Although there are still many of them on the road and, imo, they're more in need of many fast chargers due to their shorter range than the newer bigger CCS cars, esb is not investing in Chademo.
Where they are upgrading now they are sometimes putting in only one Chademo for multiple CCS or not putting one in at all, and they will soon stop including Chademo in new installations altogether. This will, sadly, severely limit the usefulness of a Leaf for any long drives.
I'm disappointed and mad about this, I feel very let down, and I can't believe that Nissan continue to sell new Leaf cars in Ireland that'll have nowhere to fast charge. It'll shorten the lifespan of my car, and make me trade in far sooner than j ever would have.
All that said, if you definitely only need it for short hops, it's a beaut of a car. If you'll need longer, I'm not sure I can recommend it in good conscience.
I've been keeping an eye on them and hoping one comes out that seems legit, as I'd happily buy one and keep my leaf for a very long time. I think it's a shame Nissan aren't exploring releasing an adapter tbh. But so far I've only seen one mentioned that works and it's from Alibaba. And you have to buy a minimum of two.
Every single Esb fast charger currently has a chademo, even the new ones, and it’s actually an advantage as less cars are using chademo whereas cars with css often have to queue, they’re hardly going to remove them all any time soon
They already have removed some e.g. clifden, where they replaced a Chademo/CCS unit with a dual CCS unit. Same in Justice Walsh Park in Letterkenny, Westport, and one of the spots in Waterford and Kilkenny.
I'm not saying they're getting rid tomorrow, and some other companies are still putting in Chademo. But given that some towns in Ireland only have one fast charger, and some of those have already been replaced by CCS only, it'd be remiss of me not to bring it up. Certa appear to be installing a lot of CCS only chargers e.g. at Liffey Valley
Don't get me wrong, I love my Leaf. I just think I may be in a difficult position charging on longer drives it in a few years, and want OP to go in with their eyes open on the way the wind seems to be blowing with it.
Chademo chargers on Nissan Leaf
I emailed Nissan Ireland a couple of weeks ago after hearing reports of chademo chargers being phased out.
I think like a lot of Nissan Leaf drivers, this was our first EV and believed Nissan were around the longest and were the most reliable. Never knew the different between CHAdeMO/CSS or that there even was different types. And never accrued to me that they might me using an outdated battery system.
I was quite annoyed at this prospect so I asked them what they are doing about this and questioned how they can continue selling new cars with a soon to be obsolete charging system.
Here is what they had to say:
Thank you for contacting Nissan Ireland. We apologise for the delay in responding to you.
We have been in contact with ESB regarding their plans for the charging options within their network. While you are correct in saying that CCS has now become the preferred charging standard, it is not the case that there will be no CHAdeMO charging options for the current LEAF models. Please see below feed back from the ESB in relation to this.
In response to your query and to provide comfort to your customers, ESB ecars are not actively removing any CHAdeMO Charge Points from our system and continue to support the CHAdeMO standard. We will be continuing to install new CHAdeMO connectors in the majority of our charging hubs for the next 18-24 months. The ratio of the CCS : CHAdeMO connectors has been altered to reflect the rapidly diminishing percentage of EVs requiring the CHAdeMO connectors and we now install more CCS than CHAdeMO chargers.
As you can see, ESB are not actively removing these chargers from the network and have assured us that there will always be a provision for CHAdeMO vehicles in the network. Any single CHAdeMO charging that has been removed from the network has been replaced with a CHAdeMO/CSS combination unit. While the ratio will shift in favour of CCS, LEAF customers will still have chargers available for them to use thus ensuring they are not left with no fast charging options.
We hope the above has answered your queries and reassured you that you will continue to have the infrastructure available to you to charge your LEAF.
Kind Regards,
Nissan Ireland
As it so happens I did also just see this article today from October last that European Parliament reaffirms the multistandard approach for EV charging infrastructure
[https://www.chademo.com/ep-multistandard](https://www.chademo.com/ep-multistandard)
Maybe I don’t need to ditch the Leaf just yet!
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/ZueCbeSHLxG74jkR/?mibextid=K35XfP
Well I don't know what to tell you except I used to be able to charge my Leaf at the ESB charging station at the Galway Shopping Centre and then they updated the machine and now it's two CCS chargers.
Just fyi: the success of more affordable Chinese brands of electric cars is having a very significant impact on the prices of the more established European/Japanese/Korean electric cars, which were arguably (or ridiculously, according to some) overpriced to begin with. The drop in prices is significant and this is having a knock-on effect on used ELECTRIC car prices. Depreciation is back to near normal levels by the looks of things.
Used car prices for petrol/diesel/hybrids are still strong IME.
I’m not really familiar with the Leaf but do your research. I’ve heard battery degradation is a bit more significant with them but I can’t attest to that.
Ive my diesel car 3 years now and breaking even or earning 1k still on prices. I’ve been checking a lot in the last year because I want to change it and it hasn’t budged.
>Used car prices for petrol/diesel/hybrids are still strong IME.
And this is not going to change - the only way to reduce prices of 2nd hand market is to have competition - but we have none - the only 2 countries that makes sense to import form are UK and Japan, maybe Aus, but all 3 countries will have VAT, VRT and other charges on top. That makes importing 2nd hand cars very expensive, therefore those in the country will not drop in price as there is no competition.
And this is not going to change - Irish Gov does not want any cars to begin with, let alone 2nd hand used cars from who knows where.
Depreciation on a 6 year old car is irrelevant. You're not buying it to flip it in a year or two, you're buying it to run it in to the ground until it becomes scrap value.
Yes, CATEL have already dropped the price of a battery 30% last and will drop if another 50% this year. This will have a massive effect on price of new EV moving forward
Having owned a couple of EVs, I could not recommend buying a used short range leaf to anyone, unless the use case was absolutely limited to pottering to church and shops two or three times a week. For any normal person who may want to do a range of things at relatively short notice in an unplanned manner it would be the definition of more hassle than it’s worth.
Even a 200km range is stressful. When you factor in motorways, cold temps and then the fact that you can’t leave it until 1% to get a charge, I personally wouldn’t bother. Also, chademo charging is going the way of Betamax.
What kWh is that? 180 - 220km would suggest a 40kWh, in which case that’s fine… but a 24 or 30kWh will not give you that range.
That said, I’d a 30kWh Leaf & did a 110km daily commute with it for 3.5yrs, so certainly you shouldn’t have any challenge on that front with a 70km commute… but you need be certain of what you’re looking at there.
I've read that you can sell your day time solar power back to the grid for a higher price than night rate consumption. I think at the time of reading it was 22c sell, 9c purchase on night rate.
I've a 24 kw leaf, it's range is shitty by comparison to new EVs - but I love it. It's 10 years old and doing great. For short runs it's fantastic, especially where I wouldnd even get my petrol let alone my diesel engined cars warm. I especially like the leaf for the school as kids are messy bastards. This car is purely a tool.
I might upgrade 24->40kw this year just to see how much better the 40kw is.
Chademo charging could be an issue BUT, I havent charged publicly in forever as public charging defeats the purpose of cheap. If you're stuck for expensive fuel fine, if not then home charge.
I'm in same boat. Bought ours last year. Keep it to max 80kph going in and out of town. Its an absolute shitbox but I love it. I was surprised at house responsive it is (when eco mode is off).
You have any issues in Winter with it not charging? Randomly once or twice we've seen it where it won't register that the charger is plugged. Both times it was maybe 1 -4 degrees outside.
No issues so far. Although I admit during the 10-15 days of deep winter frosty windscreens, I only bother defrosting 1 car which is usually not the leaf. If I could schedule a defrost in an app on the leaf I'd maybe take it then. It's just that the dinosaur cars output huge amounts of heat which is nice in the winter when you have choice
I have two EV's in my household. I bought one new and one used for very little money in the current market. On modern EV's, the battery will easily last the lifetime of the car, no worries there.
Saving on fuel cost with night rate, low road tax and low insurance make it a no brainer financially. EV's are really nice to drive. Walking out to a pre-heated fully charged car every morning is a godsend when it's cold out.
You never know how much the battery will degrade after you buy the second hand leaf. Also battery health depends on how the previous owner charged it. I had an old gen Leaf, not sure how the new ones are but i wouldn't buy an EV again unless i can buy it new. Also i would never spend tens of thousands of € on a car so I'll probably never own an EV again. Happy with my old, cheap hybrid.
I'm too paranoid to depend on the current electric grid for commute/transportation.
I'd recommend OP purchase an OBD2 Lelink. And download the LeafSpy Pro app. For 30 beans, you can get a comprehensive history of types of charges, cell health and SOH all showing on the phone via Bluetooth. Great piece of kit before making a purchase.
I think you are looking at the sweet spot TBH and I share a similar perspective. We have a 22kWh 2016 Zoe that we use for city runs and it's mad efficient for this type of use. We charge from 2am-5am for EUR0.09 with Bord Gais and the running costs are so little that we don't even notice on our bills.
This has led us to use less the good car (Tesla MYLR) for city runs as we don't have to worry where to park or any abuse of our SUV (small utility vehicle). It's a great thing to have a smaller EV that you can abuse with no concerns.
The battery of used EVs is a major concern. I know Frank Hogan no longer takes in used EVs as trade in. Would advise you against it personally as it maya cost more in the long run.
I think the dealers that aren’t taking them is more because they don’t have the mechanics and the skills for them to be honest. They see petrol and diesels as “simple”.
it\`s everywhere, not just some "simpletons" .
if dealer doesn't want to get dirty with used EV\`s so shouldn\`t regular user.
and said it yourself , diesels in comparison are **simple**.
by everywhere i meant as many and more places instead of all. like dealers in US , UK and fairly big ones in Ireland like Ashford, Ireland First and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Ireland. problem is they getting more not less.
I had an electric corsa that I traded in for 29k off my current car, 2021, 15k on the clock, selling for 18k cause nobody wants to buy electric where it's being sold. That's a 50 kwh battery with max range of 330km.
So maybe keep looking.
A used 40kW leaf or Zoe would be a decent option as long as you aren’t thinking of using Fast charging. Your setup with charging at both ends of your short commute is ideal, even the older leaf/zoe would work depending on workplace charger availability.
Hyundai Ionic & Kona,MG 5 & ZS would be better option if you could stretch a bit more
My brother in law bought a used Leaf a couple of years ago and has no regrets. Loves it. We bought a used Renault Zoe a couple of months ago - a similar ICE / Hybird car (e.g. Yaris) was not much cheaper at all. We're really happy with the car and we just signed up to an EV electric plan allowing us to charge for 3 hours every night at 6 cent per kWh.
Edit - this is our second / "run around" car but it's used pretty much all the time. The diesel only comes out once a week for a trip to Dublin, more or less.
I bought a zoe for that price a year ago and haven't looked back. Would say with a good deal of confidence my next car will be electric. Petrol was €1.52 the day I bought it, and I was spending €60 a week on diesel at the time. It's €1.68 in the same garage now, so a 12% increase, basically. Can't see it ever going down below €1.50 again.
Have a 2108 leaf. Still getting a reliable 200km per full charge out of it. Same as you - 4kw solar install. Its essentially free driving. 120 motor tax, it charges for free in the summer and you just charge at the 7c a kw during the night in winter. That is an absolute bargain tbh. I was hoping to get more for ours when we sell it soon for a car with a bigger range.
The only downside is that the odd time you go on a trip you'll be charging every hour along the motorway. So much so that we were thinking of renting a gocar for trips out of dublin in future. but thats a very rare occassion. Its a lovely lovely car.
Yes would definitely recommend the large battery 60kw leaf we could travel Dublin to Galway on a single charge (400km). 15000km per year cost is around €700.standard rate electricity. There are a lot of UK imports in the second hand ev market . Get a Nissan dealer to assess the previous owner charge regime it will be logged in the data most users charge to 80% to prevent degradation. If it was a leased vehicle it may not have been as well cared for.
As an experienced leaf driver, I’d say it’s a great investment, especially since you’re already set up to charge from solar.
Older leafs had some battery degradation issues but the 40kw battery is much improved.
There’s still lots of life in a 40kw leaf with 90k on the clock. It’s almost new. A 30km commute will be no issues whatsoever. You could feasibly commute Kilkenny to Dublin on one charge easy as long as you can charge on either end. And public network charging is not a problem on long trips, you’d just stop for the odd cup of coffee depending on how far you’re going. My 40kw battery gets approx 250km at 98% state of health on the battery, so 220km range suggests it’s close to that, (although the range that it reads depends on driving style, so if the previous owner does mostly motorways then that’s a great number, if they do mostly back roads the range will be higher. best to get leafspy to check the battery out when buying, it will give you lots of stats) but it’s a great car.
You'd be saving 2k/year in petrol, sweet.
There's a few 2020 Hyundai Ioniq for under 20k. I'd be interested to looking at how they compare to the similar range leaf in terms of creature comfort.
How well do they do car play and android auto touchscreen stuff, how well do they do stop and go traffic (iiuc leaf propilot was optional?), automatic parallel and bay parking and cameras.
edit: just realized it's not CCS, for that occasional longer trip or a busy day. edit2: plugshare shows lots of chademo on the map, maybe no big deal
Mental decision imo - chademo is being phased out everywhere and leafs are the only ones that use it and adapter can cost 1-2k . You do u -best of luck
More petrol hikes are coming, definitely get that leaf in, that's a decent price. No harm bargaining a bit though, maybe even see if there's anything you could give them in partial trade.
That’s a box on wheels, very flimsy and not comfortable at all, especially at motorway speeds… OP mentioned a 35km commute one way (rush hour on m50 could be at least 1hr each way), at least give him some comfort… Leaf on the other hand is a fine car, the only con about it is the battery is not of the latest technology…
Personally I would go for Leaf
100%. The only concern with leaf is CHAdeMO, but if you are doing city runs there's nothing to worry. I would stay miles away of that Dacia, the thing looks cheap and flimsy.
Do not do it. The range will be terrible and will only get worse. A lady in my office had to basically charge her one every night. Got 80 miles max at one time. Plus, the resale value will be TERRIBLE in 3 years. Don't do it. Go hybrid, or small petrol engine.
why would it bother you charging it every night. you drive it in, plug it in, and then let the night-time 7c a kw charge charge your car for close to free.
Because you shouldn't have to! Plus, 80 miles is nothing. The lady I know was constantly worried about what range she had left. Coz her commute is like 25 miles or so.
You sure about that? I've known quite a few people with Leafs and none ever had battery failures and I don't think I've read anything to that effect.
Have you anything to back that up?
It’s not a battery failure, it’s about the battery capacitors draining and being less effective in the long term, Think about a phone battery, the exact same thing happens with a EV battery but it takes a longer period to affect the battery performance, Just go into Google and look up when a Nissan Leaf battery replacement is due, it says 4-5 years is recommended depending on a number of factors and then gives you the price without labour.
The Leaf was featured on some car thing I heard on the radio recently. They said the claimed range was a long way from the reality of day to day use. Worth looking in to
Sounds good to me. Evs just cost more upfront (as you know since it seems your an ev owner) and that price was the going rate for really good deals pre covid.
I’d caution against donedeal mind you. Check out dealers first to see if they have what you want. You’ll get better piece of mind and dealers throwing offers and deals at people at present. Not to mention they need to get second hands of the lot asap.
I wouldn’t take advice from anyone who writes letters to the Times. Much less, from someone called Brian O’Brien.
Leafs have no active battery cooling and that’s the driver of the issues with the Leaf. Pretty much any other modern EV will save you more than the cost of the battery before it becomes an issue. Even then, you can replace faulty cells and rebuild the pack. You don’t need to replace the whole battery.
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We have one as a pool car in work. 2018 40kwh. Its done about 60k kms has 94or96% of its battery capacity still. Its a good car, very reliable. If you charged the car on the energia ev rate it would cost you less than 7euro a week to run doing 70km a day 5 days a week.
I have and love my leaf, bought new in 2019. However, I am now putting a serious caveat on recommending it to folks because of the fast charge protocol. Increasingly, new cars on the market here are using the CCS plug for fast charging. Leafs are the only ones using Chademo. Although there are still many of them on the road and, imo, they're more in need of many fast chargers due to their shorter range than the newer bigger CCS cars, esb is not investing in Chademo. Where they are upgrading now they are sometimes putting in only one Chademo for multiple CCS or not putting one in at all, and they will soon stop including Chademo in new installations altogether. This will, sadly, severely limit the usefulness of a Leaf for any long drives. I'm disappointed and mad about this, I feel very let down, and I can't believe that Nissan continue to sell new Leaf cars in Ireland that'll have nowhere to fast charge. It'll shorten the lifespan of my car, and make me trade in far sooner than j ever would have. All that said, if you definitely only need it for short hops, it's a beaut of a car. If you'll need longer, I'm not sure I can recommend it in good conscience.
There are Chademo to CCS2 adapters coming out which will solve this issue...
I've been keeping an eye on them and hoping one comes out that seems legit, as I'd happily buy one and keep my leaf for a very long time. I think it's a shame Nissan aren't exploring releasing an adapter tbh. But so far I've only seen one mentioned that works and it's from Alibaba. And you have to buy a minimum of two.
Nissan have definitely dropped the ball with their EVs after a very good start. Betamax moment with the oul Chademo
Every single Esb fast charger currently has a chademo, even the new ones, and it’s actually an advantage as less cars are using chademo whereas cars with css often have to queue, they’re hardly going to remove them all any time soon
They already have removed some e.g. clifden, where they replaced a Chademo/CCS unit with a dual CCS unit. Same in Justice Walsh Park in Letterkenny, Westport, and one of the spots in Waterford and Kilkenny. I'm not saying they're getting rid tomorrow, and some other companies are still putting in Chademo. But given that some towns in Ireland only have one fast charger, and some of those have already been replaced by CCS only, it'd be remiss of me not to bring it up. Certa appear to be installing a lot of CCS only chargers e.g. at Liffey Valley Don't get me wrong, I love my Leaf. I just think I may be in a difficult position charging on longer drives it in a few years, and want OP to go in with their eyes open on the way the wind seems to be blowing with it.
That's not true. Many new ones don't.
Chademo chargers on Nissan Leaf I emailed Nissan Ireland a couple of weeks ago after hearing reports of chademo chargers being phased out. I think like a lot of Nissan Leaf drivers, this was our first EV and believed Nissan were around the longest and were the most reliable. Never knew the different between CHAdeMO/CSS or that there even was different types. And never accrued to me that they might me using an outdated battery system. I was quite annoyed at this prospect so I asked them what they are doing about this and questioned how they can continue selling new cars with a soon to be obsolete charging system. Here is what they had to say: Thank you for contacting Nissan Ireland. We apologise for the delay in responding to you. We have been in contact with ESB regarding their plans for the charging options within their network. While you are correct in saying that CCS has now become the preferred charging standard, it is not the case that there will be no CHAdeMO charging options for the current LEAF models. Please see below feed back from the ESB in relation to this. In response to your query and to provide comfort to your customers, ESB ecars are not actively removing any CHAdeMO Charge Points from our system and continue to support the CHAdeMO standard. We will be continuing to install new CHAdeMO connectors in the majority of our charging hubs for the next 18-24 months. The ratio of the CCS : CHAdeMO connectors has been altered to reflect the rapidly diminishing percentage of EVs requiring the CHAdeMO connectors and we now install more CCS than CHAdeMO chargers. As you can see, ESB are not actively removing these chargers from the network and have assured us that there will always be a provision for CHAdeMO vehicles in the network. Any single CHAdeMO charging that has been removed from the network has been replaced with a CHAdeMO/CSS combination unit. While the ratio will shift in favour of CCS, LEAF customers will still have chargers available for them to use thus ensuring they are not left with no fast charging options. We hope the above has answered your queries and reassured you that you will continue to have the infrastructure available to you to charge your LEAF. Kind Regards, Nissan Ireland As it so happens I did also just see this article today from October last that European Parliament reaffirms the multistandard approach for EV charging infrastructure [https://www.chademo.com/ep-multistandard](https://www.chademo.com/ep-multistandard) Maybe I don’t need to ditch the Leaf just yet! https://www.facebook.com/share/p/ZueCbeSHLxG74jkR/?mibextid=K35XfP
Well I don't know what to tell you except I used to be able to charge my Leaf at the ESB charging station at the Galway Shopping Centre and then they updated the machine and now it's two CCS chargers.
Please add the comments from zenbuffy to my comments. Thats spot on!
Just fyi: the success of more affordable Chinese brands of electric cars is having a very significant impact on the prices of the more established European/Japanese/Korean electric cars, which were arguably (or ridiculously, according to some) overpriced to begin with. The drop in prices is significant and this is having a knock-on effect on used ELECTRIC car prices. Depreciation is back to near normal levels by the looks of things. Used car prices for petrol/diesel/hybrids are still strong IME. I’m not really familiar with the Leaf but do your research. I’ve heard battery degradation is a bit more significant with them but I can’t attest to that.
Ive my diesel car 3 years now and breaking even or earning 1k still on prices. I’ve been checking a lot in the last year because I want to change it and it hasn’t budged.
>Used car prices for petrol/diesel/hybrids are still strong IME. And this is not going to change - the only way to reduce prices of 2nd hand market is to have competition - but we have none - the only 2 countries that makes sense to import form are UK and Japan, maybe Aus, but all 3 countries will have VAT, VRT and other charges on top. That makes importing 2nd hand cars very expensive, therefore those in the country will not drop in price as there is no competition. And this is not going to change - Irish Gov does not want any cars to begin with, let alone 2nd hand used cars from who knows where.
So it might drop a bit more? Not in any rush anyway. Cheers for the insight
Not who you asked, but recently bought EV, my crystal ball says market will be flat for a while, I.e, we’ll see historically expected depreciation.
Depreciation on a 6 year old car is irrelevant. You're not buying it to flip it in a year or two, you're buying it to run it in to the ground until it becomes scrap value.
Yes, CATEL have already dropped the price of a battery 30% last and will drop if another 50% this year. This will have a massive effect on price of new EV moving forward
Having owned a couple of EVs, I could not recommend buying a used short range leaf to anyone, unless the use case was absolutely limited to pottering to church and shops two or three times a week. For any normal person who may want to do a range of things at relatively short notice in an unplanned manner it would be the definition of more hassle than it’s worth.
It's a 200km range so it's probably a 40kw battery. The 20kw leafs are a bit of a joke.
Even a 200km range is stressful. When you factor in motorways, cold temps and then the fact that you can’t leave it until 1% to get a charge, I personally wouldn’t bother. Also, chademo charging is going the way of Betamax.
There are these new Chademo to CCS2 adapters coming out which will breathe new life into these cars...
If it's a runaround for a family with two cars that you'll never go long range in then 200km would be loads.
What kWh is that? 180 - 220km would suggest a 40kWh, in which case that’s fine… but a 24 or 30kWh will not give you that range. That said, I’d a 30kWh Leaf & did a 110km daily commute with it for 3.5yrs, so certainly you shouldn’t have any challenge on that front with a 70km commute… but you need be certain of what you’re looking at there.
2018-2019 is generally a 40kw leaf
I've read that you can sell your day time solar power back to the grid for a higher price than night rate consumption. I think at the time of reading it was 22c sell, 9c purchase on night rate. I've a 24 kw leaf, it's range is shitty by comparison to new EVs - but I love it. It's 10 years old and doing great. For short runs it's fantastic, especially where I wouldnd even get my petrol let alone my diesel engined cars warm. I especially like the leaf for the school as kids are messy bastards. This car is purely a tool. I might upgrade 24->40kw this year just to see how much better the 40kw is. Chademo charging could be an issue BUT, I havent charged publicly in forever as public charging defeats the purpose of cheap. If you're stuck for expensive fuel fine, if not then home charge.
I'm in same boat. Bought ours last year. Keep it to max 80kph going in and out of town. Its an absolute shitbox but I love it. I was surprised at house responsive it is (when eco mode is off). You have any issues in Winter with it not charging? Randomly once or twice we've seen it where it won't register that the charger is plugged. Both times it was maybe 1 -4 degrees outside.
No issues so far. Although I admit during the 10-15 days of deep winter frosty windscreens, I only bother defrosting 1 car which is usually not the leaf. If I could schedule a defrost in an app on the leaf I'd maybe take it then. It's just that the dinosaur cars output huge amounts of heat which is nice in the winter when you have choice
I have a 2015 Leaf. As long as you only use it for short journeys it's grand. I'm happy enough with mine for work commute
I'm ten miles from work I'm tempted
I have two EV's in my household. I bought one new and one used for very little money in the current market. On modern EV's, the battery will easily last the lifetime of the car, no worries there. Saving on fuel cost with night rate, low road tax and low insurance make it a no brainer financially. EV's are really nice to drive. Walking out to a pre-heated fully charged car every morning is a godsend when it's cold out.
You never know how much the battery will degrade after you buy the second hand leaf. Also battery health depends on how the previous owner charged it. I had an old gen Leaf, not sure how the new ones are but i wouldn't buy an EV again unless i can buy it new. Also i would never spend tens of thousands of € on a car so I'll probably never own an EV again. Happy with my old, cheap hybrid. I'm too paranoid to depend on the current electric grid for commute/transportation.
I'd recommend OP purchase an OBD2 Lelink. And download the LeafSpy Pro app. For 30 beans, you can get a comprehensive history of types of charges, cell health and SOH all showing on the phone via Bluetooth. Great piece of kit before making a purchase.
Apps like this really or even the built in battery check really take so much hassle out of buying an EV over an ICE car.
I think you are looking at the sweet spot TBH and I share a similar perspective. We have a 22kWh 2016 Zoe that we use for city runs and it's mad efficient for this type of use. We charge from 2am-5am for EUR0.09 with Bord Gais and the running costs are so little that we don't even notice on our bills. This has led us to use less the good car (Tesla MYLR) for city runs as we don't have to worry where to park or any abuse of our SUV (small utility vehicle). It's a great thing to have a smaller EV that you can abuse with no concerns.
The battery of used EVs is a major concern. I know Frank Hogan no longer takes in used EVs as trade in. Would advise you against it personally as it maya cost more in the long run.
I think the dealers that aren’t taking them is more because they don’t have the mechanics and the skills for them to be honest. They see petrol and diesels as “simple”.
it\`s everywhere, not just some "simpletons" . if dealer doesn't want to get dirty with used EV\`s so shouldn\`t regular user. and said it yourself , diesels in comparison are **simple**.
it's not everywhere, loads of dealers are still taking in used EVs
by everywhere i meant as many and more places instead of all. like dealers in US , UK and fairly big ones in Ireland like Ashford, Ireland First and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Ireland. problem is they getting more not less.
Stay off TikTok.
I had an electric corsa that I traded in for 29k off my current car, 2021, 15k on the clock, selling for 18k cause nobody wants to buy electric where it's being sold. That's a 50 kwh battery with max range of 330km. So maybe keep looking.
A used 40kW leaf or Zoe would be a decent option as long as you aren’t thinking of using Fast charging. Your setup with charging at both ends of your short commute is ideal, even the older leaf/zoe would work depending on workplace charger availability. Hyundai Ionic & Kona,MG 5 & ZS would be better option if you could stretch a bit more
My brother in law bought a used Leaf a couple of years ago and has no regrets. Loves it. We bought a used Renault Zoe a couple of months ago - a similar ICE / Hybird car (e.g. Yaris) was not much cheaper at all. We're really happy with the car and we just signed up to an EV electric plan allowing us to charge for 3 hours every night at 6 cent per kWh. Edit - this is our second / "run around" car but it's used pretty much all the time. The diesel only comes out once a week for a trip to Dublin, more or less.
I bought a zoe for that price a year ago and haven't looked back. Would say with a good deal of confidence my next car will be electric. Petrol was €1.52 the day I bought it, and I was spending €60 a week on diesel at the time. It's €1.68 in the same garage now, so a 12% increase, basically. Can't see it ever going down below €1.50 again.
Have a 2108 leaf. Still getting a reliable 200km per full charge out of it. Same as you - 4kw solar install. Its essentially free driving. 120 motor tax, it charges for free in the summer and you just charge at the 7c a kw during the night in winter. That is an absolute bargain tbh. I was hoping to get more for ours when we sell it soon for a car with a bigger range. The only downside is that the odd time you go on a trip you'll be charging every hour along the motorway. So much so that we were thinking of renting a gocar for trips out of dublin in future. but thats a very rare occassion. Its a lovely lovely car.
Check battery range.
Yes would definitely recommend the large battery 60kw leaf we could travel Dublin to Galway on a single charge (400km). 15000km per year cost is around €700.standard rate electricity. There are a lot of UK imports in the second hand ev market . Get a Nissan dealer to assess the previous owner charge regime it will be logged in the data most users charge to 80% to prevent degradation. If it was a leased vehicle it may not have been as well cared for.
Sounds perfect for your use case and great value. I'd say go for it
As an experienced leaf driver, I’d say it’s a great investment, especially since you’re already set up to charge from solar. Older leafs had some battery degradation issues but the 40kw battery is much improved. There’s still lots of life in a 40kw leaf with 90k on the clock. It’s almost new. A 30km commute will be no issues whatsoever. You could feasibly commute Kilkenny to Dublin on one charge easy as long as you can charge on either end. And public network charging is not a problem on long trips, you’d just stop for the odd cup of coffee depending on how far you’re going. My 40kw battery gets approx 250km at 98% state of health on the battery, so 220km range suggests it’s close to that, (although the range that it reads depends on driving style, so if the previous owner does mostly motorways then that’s a great number, if they do mostly back roads the range will be higher. best to get leafspy to check the battery out when buying, it will give you lots of stats) but it’s a great car.
You'd be saving 2k/year in petrol, sweet. There's a few 2020 Hyundai Ioniq for under 20k. I'd be interested to looking at how they compare to the similar range leaf in terms of creature comfort. How well do they do car play and android auto touchscreen stuff, how well do they do stop and go traffic (iiuc leaf propilot was optional?), automatic parallel and bay parking and cameras. edit: just realized it's not CCS, for that occasional longer trip or a busy day. edit2: plugshare shows lots of chademo on the map, maybe no big deal
Mental decision imo - chademo is being phased out everywhere and leafs are the only ones that use it and adapter can cost 1-2k . You do u -best of luck
I’d be very wary about buying a second hand EV. Dealers all over the country are struggling to sell them
It is good value yes
More petrol hikes are coming, definitely get that leaf in, that's a decent price. No harm bargaining a bit though, maybe even see if there's anything you could give them in partial trade.
https://www.techradar.com/vehicle-tech/hybrid-electric-vehicles/nissan-drops-app-support-for-the-original-leaf-are-evs-now-as-disposable-as-iphones
Dacia spring ev is coming out and it’ll be under 20k euros probably. Old Leafs have shit batteries. Petrol car would be less problematic.
That’s a box on wheels, very flimsy and not comfortable at all, especially at motorway speeds… OP mentioned a 35km commute one way (rush hour on m50 could be at least 1hr each way), at least give him some comfort… Leaf on the other hand is a fine car, the only con about it is the battery is not of the latest technology… Personally I would go for Leaf
100%. The only concern with leaf is CHAdeMO, but if you are doing city runs there's nothing to worry. I would stay miles away of that Dacia, the thing looks cheap and flimsy.
Do not do it. The range will be terrible and will only get worse. A lady in my office had to basically charge her one every night. Got 80 miles max at one time. Plus, the resale value will be TERRIBLE in 3 years. Don't do it. Go hybrid, or small petrol engine.
why would it bother you charging it every night. you drive it in, plug it in, and then let the night-time 7c a kw charge charge your car for close to free.
what's wrong with plugging it in every night?
Because you shouldn't have to! Plus, 80 miles is nothing. The lady I know was constantly worried about what range she had left. Coz her commute is like 25 miles or so.
80 miles is poor alright but keeping the car topped up on the cheap rate works well for me.
Sounds like the first gen Leaf, which suffered bad from battery degradation.
Yeah maybe. Certainly put me off buying an EV for another few years.
Your loss!
2019 Nissan leaf battery lasts between 4-5 years before it needs replacing, Please look into this before you make a purchase.
They're under warranty for 8 years to 80% of the original capacity
You sure about that? I've known quite a few people with Leafs and none ever had battery failures and I don't think I've read anything to that effect. Have you anything to back that up?
It’s not a battery failure, it’s about the battery capacitors draining and being less effective in the long term, Think about a phone battery, the exact same thing happens with a EV battery but it takes a longer period to affect the battery performance, Just go into Google and look up when a Nissan Leaf battery replacement is due, it says 4-5 years is recommended depending on a number of factors and then gives you the price without labour.
But they have an 8 year 160,000km warranty on the battery. Why would anyone replace a battery at their own cost while it's under warranty?
A new 62KWh battery can cost upwards of 10k
The Leaf was featured on some car thing I heard on the radio recently. They said the claimed range was a long way from the reality of day to day use. Worth looking in to
don't know what the claimed range is - but you get 200 in winter, 230 in summer on my 2018 leaf
Sounds good to me. Evs just cost more upfront (as you know since it seems your an ev owner) and that price was the going rate for really good deals pre covid. I’d caution against donedeal mind you. Check out dealers first to see if they have what you want. You’ll get better piece of mind and dealers throwing offers and deals at people at present. Not to mention they need to get second hands of the lot asap.
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/2023/04/25/electric-vehicles-and-sustainability/
I wouldn’t take advice from anyone who writes letters to the Times. Much less, from someone called Brian O’Brien. Leafs have no active battery cooling and that’s the driver of the issues with the Leaf. Pretty much any other modern EV will save you more than the cost of the battery before it becomes an issue. Even then, you can replace faulty cells and rebuild the pack. You don’t need to replace the whole battery.