You Won't Believe How Much Money I Save With My Cheap Nissan Leaf?

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[ElGuajiro]

We've owned a Chevy Bolt EV since January 2017. We've got solar on our home shortly after, so mostly we drive on sunshine. Last Fall, at about 62, 000 miles, GM replaced the battery at no charge to us. GM changed the battery due to a recall for potential fire risk. At that point we had not noticed any battery range degradation. The new battery is slightly larger so we have even greater range, ~260 miles EPA rated. We have over 71, 000 miles now and we charge it almost exclusively at home using a level 2 charger (220 volt AC). We have driven our Bolt on several long road trips, the longest was 2, 000 mile RT to Texas. Our only maintenance costs have been tires, windshield wipers and cabin air filter. We have reservations for a Rivian R1S and a Chevy Silverado EV, whichever we get first will replace our other vehicle, a Chevy Colorado. We love our EV.

[CautiousDavid]

I like how Nathan strikes me as an off-road and bigger vehicle kind of guy, but he’s also out here advocating for the Leaf. I think the Leaf and others like it make a ton of sense for around-town. Great video!

[ericapelz]

I have a 2018 LEAF with 15, 000 miles on it. It has been fast charged exactly once in its life (before I bought it) and I still get the rated 150 miles of range from it. It cannot be overstated how fast charging the LEAF shortens its battery life. Another worthy point is don't charge the battery when it's hot. I use the charge timer to have a full battery by morning when I need to leave for work and that gives the battery time to cool off when I get home. The timer also makes sure my battery is warm in the morning when I leave for work on cold NE Ohio days. I love my little LEAF. With solar on the house, it's as if gas became free. Oh, and I don't miss gas stations one little bit.

[NoelBarlau]

We have a 2013 Leaf (exact same color as yours and also sans-hubcaps, which really upsets my wife) which we bought for $10k in 2015 and it had 19k miles at the time. It now has 66k miles and the range has decreased from 84 miles when new to us down to about 70 miles today in warm weather. Don't talk to me about the range when cold. It's terrible. But it's been absolutely wonderful to have as a daily runabout and we put an estimated 90% of our annual miles on it, keeping a Subaru Outback on standby for longer trips. It's been one of the best purchases we've ever made. Zero mechanical issues to date, and I've only replaced tires, windshield wipers, and 12v batteries. It seemed to eat those like candy there for a while until they did a software update a couple of years ago, and it's been much better since then.

[jimcabezola]

I really enjoy hearing about THIS car. More affordable EVs are far more interesting than the usual SUV EVs that have more infotainment than actual usefulness. Mahalo for this report!

[sonomabob]

I am in the same boat. Least expensive way to get around the county. Windshield wiper broke and tires wore out. Thats it!

[stevejordan]

We bought a 2011 Leaf SL new...with CHaDeMo charging stock...by buying the floor model. In 135, 000 km (85K miles, ) we've put on two sets of tyres and wiper blades, an air filter, and a bottle of blue coolant. When petrol was $3.11/gal, it cost 86% less per mile than our PT Cruiser. Nissan put a new battery in seven years ago, and it's at 68% SOH. I still get 50+ miles out of an 80% charge, and 97% (200 GIDs) gets over 70 miles, and that's with a 40-mile freeway run. It also cost 60% less than the Tesla S (the only other production EV at the time.)
I sure hope I can get another battery for it, now that Nissan cancelled my order $12K for a 40kWh replacement. (Stupid Ariya.)

[mb_a]

I'm about 3 minutes into your video which I'm enjoying and will continue watching but.. I feel like I wanna say "dude!, the very reason I was able to buy a 2013 Leaf SV for the insanely low price of $6, 995 back in 2016 was because people didn't want them, now you're trying to help them understand why they should get one. Soon there won't be any good deals left." Although I know this to be true, I too have encouraged others to purchase one of these inexpensive, entry level EV's. I've had mine for six years now, the range is down to about 60 miles now (more than enough for my daily commute) and in those 6 years the only thing I've needed to purchase is tires (they where almost new when I bought it, I'm on my third set), and wipers (I'm on my 5th set). That's it! Heck even the brakes are still factory thanks to the regenerative braking.

I don't know how much money this car has saved me over the years (no smog checks, no oil changes, no belts, no hoses, no radiator, no transmission, the list goes on) and more importantly.. NO GAS!

ZERO emissions!! Heck, zero maintenance!

Maybe you'll get into it later in the video but the one thing I tell people though you really have to experience it for yourself is just how much fun it is to drive this car! I'm in my 60's and I've owned a lot of cars but this is by far my favorite! It's also the ugliest car I've ever owned but once I'm in the driver seat I forget about that. All that torque can sure be a lot of fun, especially when the light turns green!

[davidtaylor]

The Leaf was the best run around town car that I bought. Saves so much money compared to driving a truck.

[ronaldmail]

I just hope folks watching this don't get the wrong ideas about all evs losing their range like this cause the Nissan lacked liquid cooling.

[deansmits]

I have a 2017 Leaf S, and my experience mirrors everyone else's. No trouble with it, some battery degradation, and just love not going to a gas station. How long does it take to charge? About 10 seconds, plug it in before bed. My only advice, don't get the base S. It doesn't allow you to easily charge to a set %, so I end up charging to 100% often. And while it has heated seats, no heated steering wheel. Considering the range hit it has in the cold, and the heater doesn't get real hot, a heated steering wheel with seats would be fine in 40-50⁰ weather without running the main heater much, preserving range. And hopefully the SV and SL have a better radio, the radio in the S is hot garbage. For spoken word only.

[acamilop]

I just sold my 2013 leaf that I had for the past six years for $2k more than I paid for it. Car was flawless with zero issues or needs. Icing on the cake is I charged it for free for the last 4 years. Essentially a nearly free car.

[lalainenash]

I have my Nissan Leaf 2013 that I bought in 2014. Saved hundreds of thousands of dollars.

[mycents]

This example is exactly what I was thinking. Your daughter does not have to pay for gas or electricity (when charging at home). This gives her freedom or more money for other things. People in England have put 62KW batteries in their Leafs after 10 years and more than doubled range.

[m.necatisepetcioglu]

I have a 2011 Japanese-made Leaf since August 2010. Since then, we proudly owned and driven it. Last 14 years, it had ZERO problems. 6 months ago, when it was around 260, 000 km, the battery was very degraded, and we wanted to see the options to buy a new leaf or a newer year model leaf or just replace the battery. All new leaf and newer model leaves are made in the US, and workmanship and craftmanship quality are not even near to Japanese made. We have to admit that. Japanese-made is very well made. Anyway, we ended up getting a new battery. We found a 62 KW battery with some additional modifications, like shocks and spring replacement since e62 Kw is much heavier; now our leaf has a second life with a 450 km single charge. If you can find a Leaf 2011-2012, Japanese made with NBOT beat up so much, buy it and replace the battery; you won't regret it. I don't understand people spending 80K-90K on new EV cars and making car payments every month. Thats crazy. Do you wanna save money or waste money? Ask yourself that question.

[beoldziewski]

I appreciate how Nathan is an all around car guy, not someone stuck in a niche. It's a good video about the old Leaf model. It is limited, can be inconvenient, is not anywhere near the range and battery longevity of newer EVs...BUT...dang they're cheap right now. And when your car is getting 10-15mpg in stop and go traffic as you take an hour to move 10-20 miles, that Leaf is great! If you don't have that kind of commute, that's great, the fewer people who suffer through that the better.

[jimclay]

Nate, glad to see the update. My wife and I own a 2016 SL, 30 kWh. We love the car. 54k miles on it, only purchased a set of tires, and wiper blades, we are down 3 bars, as soon as the 4th drops we will be going in for our warranty repair. They do not make the 30 kWh battery any longer, so they will update it with the 40 kWh unit. About 160 miles range when new. I will definitely let you know when and how that works out. We love our "nerdy' car as we have been told it looks odd. Only the headlights I would change!! 2 weeks ago when gas hit $5 a gallon did we start getting questions on the car. Twice in one day. Never happened in 3.5 years. When we first got it with15k miles, the battery was like new, it was rated for 107 miles per charge. Just driving around town without heat or AC, no highway driving, we would get 140 miles on a charge. Less then $3 for electricity plugged in at home. It's odd, just about every 10k miles a bar drops off, 1st time was at 30k EXACTLY. I was driving, I hit 30k, drove a few more miles, shut off the car, went into the store, came out, started it (turned on) and boom, a bar was gone. Nothing more of a gut punch when the first one drops.

[rodneyanderson]

Nissan will replace the battery if you lose 5 bars out of 12 during the warranty period. We bought a 2017 Leaf in April of 2020 with 38K miles that had only 7 bars of battery capacity. That car came with a 30KW battery new. I'm guessing it must have been fast charged frequently. Nissan replaced the battery with a 40KW battery at no charge and we've put almost 30K miles on the car in just less than 4 years. We still have 12 bars of battery capacity, but the range has dropped to about 145 miles on a full charge where it was about 170 when the battery was new. Of course, it depends on whether you stay on surface streets or use it on the highway, and the outside temperature plays a big part in the usable range. Fortunately, here in the Phoenix area it never gets as cold as it does in Boulder, CO. By charging during super off-peak hours (11:00 pm to 5:00 AM) my cost for fuel averages about 1.5 cents per mile, about 1/8th what I paid for fuel on my Mazda 3 which is a very similar sized car. The car has needed one rather expensive repair, we had to replace the Power Distribution Module at 52K miles and that was a bit over $4000. For some reason, this car seems to be hard on rear tires, we've bought two sets in 30K miles. Other than that it has been inexpensive to operate. It's been a good car for the purpose, which is a city car, with limited highway use. We've never fast charged it, and probably never will. If you have to pay 35 cents per Kw Hr. at a commercial charging station it's as expensive as buying gas at today's prices where regular gas is around $3.00.

[Jangocat]

I inherited a 2015 Leaf. My old man bought it a couple years ago and I was uninterested because of the range. Now he cant drive anymore and it's mine. I have to say I love this car. Got 220v in my garage and it charges fast. I work 10 miles away and rarely have to drive more then 15 miles away. I got an ICE vehicle for longer trips. But I got to say this is fine for most around the town trips and I only put gas in my ICE vehicle maybe once every three months now. Before the leaf it was like once a week 50 bucks for the super unleaded my turbo car requires. The leaf is surprisingly fast too. I really like this car for what it is.

[MarkLLawrence]

Bought my 2012 Leaf in Jan 2017 for $8500. Made sure I found one that was originally late off the lot and still had battery warranty. Found one with 10k miles and 9 months remaining with 3 bars down in capacity. Lost the 4th bar 3 months and 4k miles layer so Nissan replacement was free. After that the next two years I put on 40k miles plugging in to a 110v outlet at home. I still have it, my wife drives it on her under 5 mile commute to work while I drive my longer range EV. I could turn around and sell that Leaf for more than I paid for it now, great little car.