Nissan Leafs....amazing deals to be had (1000 miles UPDATE)

jaydeeuk1

Glad you're enjoying the car, can't believe some of the comments on here, you can afford it and have made the figures work so fair play to you, we don't all have to be driving 10 year old mondeos. I think you also got a good deal on it too. Surprised the jealous types haven't asked for a custard test.


Never considered a leaf when looking for my next car (I too like interesting cars, don't really care if they're crap or not!), did look at the ampera/volt but even 2nd hand decent condition ones were still well over £20k. Based on the mileage I'm doing at the moment a leaf or a zoe could have probably worked.

londonTiger

Well you guys are funding r&d into better EV so that's a good thing. You're funding the work needed to improve cell technology so it can be a truly realistic alternative to internal combustion engines. There's been some headway into rechargable aluminium batteries which are cheaper, longer lasting and safer


I hate the economic arguement of EV. It doesn't cost less to run than petrol. EV brand new is much more expensive than a petrol vehicle brand new.

The depreciation on lithium cells is EXPENSIVE!. Look at the twizy, some £60 per month to rent the battery, that should give you an idea of the battery depreciation. Cos I bet a petrol twizy wouldn't cost £60 a month in petrol to run.

Twzy battery rental:


twizy with a small petrol engine could do 42mpg city driving (remember very small engine with 45mph top speed).

3000(miles)/42=71.4 gallons

322litres in 71.4 british gallon.

current petrol price. 114p per litre.

322 (litres) x 114p = £367.08 total fuel cost for 3000 miles.

Twizy prices:
£540 p.a. battery rental on 3 year lease. (plus charging cost)
£780 p.a. battery rental on 1 year lease. (plus charging cost)

Hydrocarbons is still cheaper to run. Please do not argue that EV are cheaper to run.

londonTiger

gzoom wrote: »

*1000 mile update CLICK HERE*

I thought I make people aware Nissan are doing MASSIVE discounts on the Leaf (All electric car) till end of March (10 days to go).

Essentially £10k off list price (£26k list), and interest free PCP.

I'm just about to order ours today, £160/month for 24months, 6k per year, NO DEPOSIT. When you consider £0 road tax, £2-3 for electricty every 100 miles, £0 London congestion charge, free home charger, loan car for 14 days a year for longer trips if needed, cheap insurancd, it really is almost free motoring but in a brand new car. Total amount paid in 2 years is under £4k....Selling our current second car will release £15k of equity, which we'll put in the mortgage, monthly mortgage repayments will by £110/month, so net effect is the Leaf will be costing us £50/month to get from A to B. Our Sky/Internet package is about the same price per month!!

Clearly you have to be able to live with the limitations of one, 80 mile real life range, so like your iPhone needs plug in every night, so you need a drive way. But as a second car it's amazing value!!

I suspect they've knocked the prices down becuase they can't shift these and they need to get rid of these before the next gen of EVs come out.

Even though it's a PCP, I doubt many people will end up continuing the contract to purchase the car outright. The cells will depreciate eventually and when it does people are going to face the prospect of spending £6000 on battery overheal on a 8 year old EV.

AdrianC

londonTiger wrote: »

Twzy battery rental:

Umm, they aren't the prices on Renault's website...
https://www.renault.co.uk/vehicles/new-vehicles/twizy/battery-and-charging.html
Your image has 12mo/3k miles at £65/mo.
Renault have 12mo/4.5k at £55, 12mo/9k at £67.

You've got the Zoe prices there (and the higher mileage prices are a LOT higher!)
https://www.renault.co.uk/vehicles/new-vehicles/zoe/battery-and-charging.html

Twizy - 6.1kwh, Zoe - 22kwh

Every single Twizy I've seen has been a signwritten promo/publicity vehicle.

Joe_Horner

AdrianC wrote: »

Umm, they aren't the prices on Renault's website...
https://www.renault.co.uk/vehicles/new-vehicles/twizy/battery-and-charging.html
Your image has 12mo/3k miles at £65/mo.
Renault have 12mo/4.5k at £55, 12mo/9k at £67.

You've got the Zoe prices there (and the higher mileage prices are a LOT higher!)
https://www.renault.co.uk/vehicles/new-vehicles/zoe/battery-and-charging.html

Twizy - 6.1kwh, Zoe - 22kwh

Every single Twizy I've seen has been a signwritten promo/publicity vehicle.

So, interesting running cost question - do you count the battery hire as part of the maintenance costs or part of the fuel costs? My gut says it should be included in the "fuel".

So, that £67 / month for 9k miles equates to 9p per mile on top of your electricity IF you do your full 9k miles (presumably with pretty steep penalties if you go over).

Adding the OP's 0.5p per mile (incluing the free top-ups he's managed) gives a "real" fuel cost of 9.5 pence per mile, which is equivalent to about 57 MPG from a diseasel @ £1.20/litre.

On the 4.5k deal it totals about 15 p / mile which is 34MPG equivalent from petrol @ £1.15.

Either way, the "cheap fuel" isn't really any different from proper cars that cost less and don't have the disadvantages of having to stop every hour or so to fill up etc.

Of course you're still allegedly saving the planet*, which is fair enough if you want to, but cheap mileage it ain't :beer:








* although, not from centralised generation, grid losses, rare earth mining or toxic waste disposal.

gzoom

Joe_Horner wrote: »

So, interesting running cost question - do you count the battery hire as part of the maintenance costs or part of the fuel costs? My gut says it should be included in the "fuel".

Excluding the battery hire costs from my monthly PCP deal the Leaf is costing me £125/month, that's ZERO deposit, 0% interest.

That's £125/month for a BRAND NEW car, with sat nav, bluetooth audio, auto-climate control, folding mirrors, curise control, auto-light/wipers, seats 5 adults comfortablly, remote access for heating controls.

Yes running a £500 banger is cheaper, but £125/month with NO deposit is very little money to pay for a brand new car regardless of how its powered....Infact the basic spec Leaf (no satnav) was only £49/month excluding fuel costs...

I don't know where you guys get your fule from, but our other car is a Lexus Hybrid, that can return a REAL 50mpg using normal unleaded....But compared to the Leaf, the Lexus has a massive drink problem, ive done the numbers, hence the Lexus is now hardly driven, it's done barely 300 miles since the Leaf has arrived

gzoom

londonTiger wrote: »

I suspect they've knocked the prices down becuase they can't shift these and they need to get rid of these before the next gen of EVs come out.

Even though it's a PCP, I doubt many people will end up continuing the contract to purchase the car outright. The cells will depreciate eventually and when it does people are going to face the prospect of spending £6000 on battery overheal on a 8 year old EV.

Nissan charges you £4980 for a new battery, but will give you back £1000 for a old battery. In 4 years of ownership I spent £2500-3000 on repair costs for my BMW, and that didint even include having to repair/replace the turbos, which would have left me with an additonal £3000 bill.

By all accounts the battery degredation is much less than even Nissan have predicted, I wouldnt be keeping mine to find out, but one Taxi firm have a Leaf coming up to 100,000 miles with next to no loss in battery performance (still charges to 100%).

Compared to repair bills on ICE cars, spending £4000 on a new battery at 100K+ is hardly a nightmare situation.

Some people just don't like change, I understand that, but if you do your own research into EVs your see that though the current crop is only 1st generation products, they are viable, and for me anyways, I have no interst in any petrol/diesel cars again. Once my Leaf contract expires, I'll be replacing it with a Tesla

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/nissan/89694/nissan-leaf-battery-replacement-to-cost-4920

AdrianC

Umm, you seem to be suggesting that an EV won't require any repair. Clearly, that's cobblers.

Sure, there's no internal-combustion engine or transmission.
But all the rest of the car - the driveshafts, the suspension, interior, braking system, electronics - they're all still there. The braking and electronics are _more_ complicated, not less.

Unless you want the limited range of a pure EV (how the hell does somebody profitably use a Leaf - with a by-the-book range of ~75 miles - as a taxi?), then you've still got the internal combustion engine, and a more-complicated transmission requiring maintenance and potential repair.

Inksleeves

I've just signed up for a Zoe offer, details are in thread I started the other day..

It seems there are loads of Zoe cars on the way to the country, very few with customers waiting.

The dealer I contacted ( Sutton Park) even altered the 3 year PCP deal so it came closer to the two year offers from other dealers.

I'm getting a 7500 miles PA PCP 36 month agreement.
Battery and car are £157 a month.
Deposit is 798. (colour option added £495)

At the end there is 6K outstanding on finance or I give it back. Its a four year warranty. There is the 5K government subsidy and a 5K discount from Renault.

Currently my costs on a 2006 Civic 1.8 are
Fuel £80-100 (5k a year)
tax £15
Depreciation £90

So I'll be driving a new car for virtually cost neutral.

Add in the benefits of free charging in city centres with 3 hours free parking, the £100 a year I'll save on the insurance premium.


My wife has a company Volvo V60, I commute 10 miles a day.
It just makes sense .

jaydeeuk1

If you can charge your EV for free, then EV is cheaper to run. If you get petrol for free (or rather paid to fill up), like I used to until feb when morrisons stopped selling them fricking 3v cards, then running a v12 petrol engine will be cheaper.
Toyota seem to be heralding hydrogen as the answer, I'm not so sure yet. I still think range extenders, like the BMW i3 are the future - there's no way in the next 15-20 years the fossil fuel conglomerates will allow petrol and diesel to fall by the wayside, bit like we're seeing with ecigs and tobacco companies either hitting the market with their own or calling for them to be regulated, making them highly expensive.