2018 Nissan Leaf

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ncerna

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 17, 2017
Messages
76
So I hear the "new" Nissan Leaf will be revealed in a couple of weeks.
Do you guys think it stands a chance against the Tesla Model 3 and the Chevy Bolt?
I have heard that the current Leaf is not as reliable as a Spark.
What will Nissan have to do in order to get people to buy the new Leaf?
Would any of you consider buying it?
 
It depends. What's the real range? What's the real price? Whats the styling? And make that in person please as Nissan is rather hit or miss stylistically these days. And most importantly, what's the thermal management system for the battery?

Then we'll see.
 
I think the number one factor for me would be the price. I love my Spark EV, and had thought of buying a Bolt in the near future.
But that $35,000 starting point is just too much money for me. If Nissan can price the Leaf somewhere between 25 and 30 grand, then I might consider it. Assuming of course that it has a good battery, and also performs well.

I also like the fact that if one purchases a new Nissan Leaf, they get free access to the EVgo network.
 
I have heard (don't know if true or not) that the LEAF2 will have 40 kWh and 60 kWh battery pack options, with the 40 kWh being the first one released (about 160 miles range). It (40 kWh) is rumored to be priced at about $30K. Before incentives. It sounds very tempting.
 
SparkE said:
.... with the 40 kWh being the first one released (about 160 miles range). It (40 kWh) is rumored to be priced at about $30K. Before incentives. It sounds very tempting.
I don't get it. For $5k more you can have a Bolt with 60kWh and 238 mi range. And a battery that will not sit there and freeze in the winter and fry in the summer.

Leafs are famous for battery degradation because of this cheap engineering.
 
NORTON said:
SparkE said:
.... with the 40 kWh being the first one released (about 160 miles range). It (40 kWh) is rumored to be priced at about $30K. Before incentives. It sounds very tempting.
I don't get it. For $5k more you can have a Bolt with 60kWh and 238 mi range. And a battery that will not sit there and freeze in the winter and fry in the summer.

Leafs are famous for battery degradation because of this cheap engineering.

$5000 is a lot of money to most people. That's pretty much the money one would save by driving an electric vehicle.
I can buy a Chevy Sonic for less than $20,000. Or I can buy a Bolt for $35,000. If I buy the bolt, I can't tell people that I am saving money on gas by driving an electric vehicle. At that point, the real reason I bought the Bolt is simply because I enjoy driving an electric vehicle more than a ICE vehicle.

We all know that buying a new car is never a good investment. One will always lose money do to depreciation.
A slightly used Chevy Spark EV is a somewhat reasonable purchase. Since you can now buy them for less than $10,000 with few miles. You can save money on gas. And the car should last you at least a good 6 years. Maybe more. But since there aren't any older(more than 4 years old) Chevy Spark EV's out there, it's hard to tell.
 
It's not $5000 less, it's $7500 less (plus tax).

And *myself*, personally, I don't have the need for an extra 40-60 miles range. In fact, the Ioniq EV (125 miles) is probably all I need - but the extra 30-40 miles of cushion would be nice. I'll use the BEV for 90% of my driving, and my 'ICE' (currently a pure ICE, PZEV, but replacement vehicle will be a fuel-efficient and low polluting PHEV) to be used for trips over 150 miles. My Spark works great for us (family, so we get to fight over who has the privilege of driving the Spark each day). Enough miles for most daily drives - R/T to San Francisco is about 100 miles, so a DCFC stop is mandatory and it bothers my wife, so we generally take the ICE for trips to SF or anywhere in the 'north bay'. Literally, we've only put about 3000 miles a year on the ICE since we got the Spark EV. And that is mostly a few number of long trips (Ventura, Reno, Sacramento from SF Bay Area). We've changed our habits so that we each plan our day around when the EV is available : work commute (often carpooling so wife keeps the car during the day), visiting friends, shopping, etc. is dependent on when the car is available. I was surprised when I realized how much we had changed our routine to drive electric.

It will depend on prices when I 'return' my Spark EV lease, but I'll either dicker and buy the Spark, or I'll pay $5K-6K for a used LEAF-1. And then get a PHEV with 30+ miles electric range, so that 98% of our driving is electric, but we have the option of driving 500 miles at a moment's notice. And a REAL hybrid, fuel- and pollution- efficient, not an i3 with a low-efficiency, polluting "range extender".
 
I didn't say that it was $5000 less. I said $5000 is a lot of money to most people.
It was in response to the person above who said that I should just spend $5000 more over a 2018 Nissan Leaf and buy a Bolt.

If the reason why you buy an electric vehicle is purely for environmental reasons, then price doesn't matter too much, as long as you can afford it. But the main reason why I purchased the Spark EV was to save money on gas, since my work has a charging station. That is why the price of the 2018 Nissan Leaf matters to me. The only way I would buy a newer car, is if the price is right. I figure if the MSRP less than $30,000 then it would be somewhat attractive, since there would also be the $7,500 tax rebate. Otherwise, it would make more financial sense to buy a used Chevy Bolt.

But for now I am content with the Spark EV.
 
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