Shortly to be buying a LEAF!

Herzlos

What is your other car? That's 25p/mile in fuel, which is something like 30mpg?
As said, you can probably buy a car for much less that'll do 60mpg and save you £125/month in fuel whilst not having battery issues to worry about.

If it's all very short trips then the EV is potentially the better idea though.

harveybobbles wrote: »

Always used to amaze me when people would buy a new car because it has £30 or free VED.

They seem to forget they've just had to spend thousands...

It's also congestion charge except, gets free parking and free charging all over the place. Sure you pay more for the car itself, but the lease payments are potentially less than you save from CC/Parking alone in London.

Then if you can charge it at work you're essentially looking at free motoring.
Most of peoples journeys are short enough to use an EV.

OddballJamie

Trunk_z wrote: »

Mileage is roughly 1000 a month.

My calculations were... rough in my head. I'll work through them now:

1000 miles a month currently costs roughly £250.

1000 miles in the Leaf would require approximately 10 charges in a month (2.5 a week). The leaf has a 24kwh battery, of which you have access to 22kwh.
22kwh * 10 charges = 220kwh
I pay 11.498p per kwh.
220 * 11.498 = 2529.56p or £25.30 ish.
This works out to about £6.32 a week.

Our weekly shop has a free EV charging post, so 1 of the weekly charges will be there and cost us nothing.

I agree that perhaps any more economical car will save money though.

Again seems optimistic, the real world figures I've seen are around 75-80 miles.

If you travel through the congestion zone then it's easy to get the savings, especially if you have charge points at work. This is where I see EV working best, switch charges to work points only.

Quick maths suggests you're getting 22mpg from your current car, for fair comparison probably best to get costings from a new petrol/diesel engined vehicle and include fuel.

martinthebandit

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/best-cars/62048/most-economical-cars


Just my two pennies worth

OddballJamie

martinthebandit wrote: »

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/best-cars/62048/most-economical-cars


Just my two pennies worth

All diesel. 12,000 miles PA is not really diesel mileage, especially as OP is mentioning congestion zone.

forgotmyname

£250 for fuel over 1000 miles which is approx 23mpg? Are you sure your only getting 23mpg?

Are you on economy 7?

The running costs are cheaper but NOT £250 a month cheaper.

Read the reviews also... "Any round trip of more than 60 miles might give you a seizure as you watch the meter run down. More than once I have had to creep home with everything switched off, looking out through a tiny slot of unmisted windscreen" (Telegraph)

Seems to suggest that you will need to keep it for a minimum of 10 years to even get close to covering the costs over buying something like a Golf or Focus.

Buy something that does 40mpg and your fuel bill is halved. Not many cars that wont do 40 mpg these days.

Trunk_z

That MPG is the same as my calculations.

My running costs of the Leaf are most likely optimistic. If we assume 80 miles per charge, it would result in an additional 2.5 charges. So, about £5-£6.

Charging at work isn't something we had considered - My workplace actually has just purchased an electric vehicle for site usage, I wonder if I could charge it at work... That would be interesting.

I have read that Telegraph review - I had the same feeling when on our 24 hour test drive we got stuck in Southampton - the dealer said the RFID card would work, I said it wouldn't . Turns out I was right! Luckily, a another Leaf owner let us borrow theirs and we were able to get home.

Perhaps an alternative car could also be the answer.


When I posted this originally, I wasn't expecting the number of responses. It has given myself and my partner a lot more to think about, and opened up some further possibilities which we hadn't considered.
I'd like to thank everyone for their contributions to this topic, it is great to have other people's perspectives to help figure things out sometimes - it's easy to be unable to see outside of your box.

Regards,
Chris

almillar

Chris, fair play for thinking it through and taking any criticism on board.
You like the Leaf, that's great. It's not for everyone, and going by your driving pattern, a diesel isn't for you. There are stacks of people whose driving pattern suits an EV instead of a combustion engine - lots of short journeys, so they can make a lot of sense as a second car.
Until you look at purchase price. Anyway, all I wanted to say is - there are other EVs out there! Leaf was one of the first, it seems you can get them a lot cheaper now, but have a look at other brands too, don't just get swept away by the first one you try.

iolanthe07

I would love to buy a Nissan Leaf. Even though I realise it would not be sensible financially, the thought of no tail pipe spewing out noxious gases, especially if the electricity used to charge the car is produced from renewables or nuclear, is very attractive. I'm sure it is the future, and if the manufacturers could guarantee a 200 mile range with heater or aircon on, I would seriously consider buying or leasing one. My next car will probably be a hybrid.

OddballJamie

iolanthe07 wrote: »

I would love to buy a Nissan Leaf. Even though I realise it would not be sensible financially, the thought of no tail pipe spewing out noxious gases, especially if the electricity used to charge the car is produced from renewables or nuclear, is very attractive. I'm sure it is the future, and if the manufacturers could guarantee a 200 mile range with heater or aircon on, I would seriously consider buying or leasing one. My next car will probably be a hybrid.

I wouldn't mind a PHEV or something like the i3 with range extender.

Not to save money, I just love gadgets.

PDC

Friend of mine recently bought one and they've found it great, does the day to day work they want and what's more they like the car.