Looking to purchase a '2nd' hand electric vehicle....

powerful_Rogue

Afternoon,

Looking for a little bit of advice.

Currently got a 3 door 56 plate diesel. Owned this for 13 years. Lovely car, but is showing it's age and with a lil one on the way soon, looking to get a 5 door car a little bit more modern.

The missus has the main car, mine is used to get me to and from work (3 miles each way) and tips runs etc!

I've got solar PV, so am considering electric. I've seen a few Nissan Leaf vehicles around the £7-8k mark for a 2016 plate.

I know with diesel the engines are just breaking in at 100k, whereas on a petrol this is a bit more different. (I know theres a lot more to it then that!)

Apart from the battery health on an older electric vehicle, is there anything else to look out for?

[Deleted User]

The telematics tend to stop working after a while. Sometimes you can pay to keep them going, other times they are just obsolete.

hollie.weimeraner

You'll get more informed answers on here: https://www.speakev.com/categories/nissan-ev-forum.97/
For me the issue with the leafs, especially the early ones is the limited range. Guy near me has one but barely does any mileage.

Herzlos

Even an older Leaf will be fine for a 6 mile round trip.

Though if it's really only used for that, and you've potentially got somewhere to change at work, you could save a fortune by getting an e-bike instead. 3 miles will take you maybe 10-15 minutes on a bike which will assist you up to 15mph.

You can get pretty nice ones for £1000, which could be income tax free if you've got a cycle to work scheme.

MikeJXE

Herzlos said:

Even an older Leaf will be fine for a 6 mile round trip.

Though if it's really only used for that, and you've potentially got somewhere to change at work, you could save a fortune by getting an e-bike instead. 3 miles will take you maybe 10-15 minutes on a bike which will assist you up to 15mph.

You can get pretty nice ones for £1000, which could be income tax free if you've got a cycle to work scheme.

Had to laugh at Even an older Leaf will be fine for 6 mile round trip lol

I could walk that far and I'm 82

I'm NEVER EVER EVER going Electric 

Ganga

MikeJXE said:

Herzlos said:

Even an older Leaf will be fine for a 6 mile round trip.

Though if it's really only used for that, and you've potentially got somewhere to change at work, you could save a fortune by getting an e-bike instead. 3 miles will take you maybe 10-15 minutes on a bike which will assist you up to 15mph.

You can get pretty nice ones for £1000, which could be income tax free if you've got a cycle to work scheme.

Had to laugh at Even an older Leaf will be fine for 6 mile round trip lol

I could walk that far and I'm 82

I'm NEVER EVER EVER going Electric 

Hope you never need a mobility scooter 

Herzlos

MikeJXE said:

Herzlos said:

Even an older Leaf will be fine for a 6 mile round trip.

Though if it's really only used for that, and you've potentially got somewhere to change at work, you could save a fortune by getting an e-bike instead. 3 miles will take you maybe 10-15 minutes on a bike which will assist you up to 15mph.

You can get pretty nice ones for £1000, which could be income tax free if you've got a cycle to work scheme.

Had to laugh at Even an older Leaf will be fine for 6 mile round trip lol

Some of the very first ones with problems have ranges as low as 20 miles now. There was a huge thread arguing about how that made them completely useless and how all EV's must also be useless.

3 miles is about an hours walk, I could do that comfortably but I'm not sure I could be bothered to do it regularly when I could do it in a fraction of the time on a bicycle.

Grumpy_chap

MikeJXE said:

Had to laugh at Even an older Leaf will be fine for 6 mile round trip lol

I could walk that far and I'm 82

Herzlos said:

3 miles is about an hours walk, I could do that comfortably but I'm not sure I could be bothered to do it regularly when I could do it in a fraction of the time on a bicycle.

Doing that as a walk for the commute to work would depend on whether or not there is need to carry stuff in each day and / or need to be turned out in a super-smart suit or a more weather-appropriate outfit is acceptable.

Ectophile

Once a Leaf gets down to 20 miles, it's because some of the cells in the battery pack have failed totally.  There are now garages that will dismantle failed battery packs, and swap out the dead cells with working ones from other scrapped Leafs.  You don't get a new battery pack, but at least you get one that works.  And for a fraction of the cost of a new pack.

grumiofoundation

MikeJXE said:

Herzlos said:

Even an older Leaf will be fine for a 6 mile round trip.

Though if it's really only used for that, and you've potentially got somewhere to change at work, you could save a fortune by getting an e-bike instead. 3 miles will take you maybe 10-15 minutes on a bike which will assist you up to 15mph.

You can get pretty nice ones for £1000, which could be income tax free if you've got a cycle to work scheme.

Had to laugh at Even an older Leaf will be fine for 6 mile round trip lol

I could walk that far and I'm 82

I'm NEVER EVER EVER going Electric 

But you are going to keep posting on every EV thread (incredibly usefully to everyone of course) about how you refuse to go electric I hope?

Petriix

I wouldn't personally look at the old Leaf (or the newer one for that matter) simply because they were designed with little thought for battery longevity and have no active thermal management.

Really a 40kWh or greater battery size is a sweet spot. You can comfortably do any 50 mile each way trip without worrying about charging away from home, and that covers most day-to-day driving for most people. I'd be looking for battery owned Zoe ZE40 or similar.