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Old 01-27-2018, 11:41 AM   #14 (permalink)
JSH
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Quote:
Originally Posted by oil pan 4 View Post
My wife's drive to work is like 4 miles and mine is maybe 12.
I would like to use it to go to the next nearest town which is 50 miles round trip.
It appears to be short between 1 and 1.5 battery bars, and is getting 3.3 miles per KWH. It may not be from around these parts.
Winters are short here, but can be briefly burtal.
I do have a garage that will be partially heated by my coal furnace.

You won't get 50 miles round trip in a 2011 Leaf with the original battery.

My commute to work is 50 miles round trip. Starting with a full battery and preheated cabin my Spark EV uses about 30% of the battery capacity to run the heater on low to keep the windows from fogging. (Temp set to 72F, fan speed to 1 of 5, outside temp about 40 to 45F) That is why you don't want a Leaf with the electric resistance heater.

Just for reference: My Spark is basically new. It is rated at 82 miles range. I get 90 miles in the summer even running the A/C but only 60 in the winter running minimal heat in mild Portland winters. (EDIT: For reference the 2011 LEAF was only rated at 72 miles when new)

I know you want to pay cash, I do the same. However I would wait and save until I could afford a later model LEAF as it is a much better car. The early LEAFs will drop in value even more when the batteries are out of warranty. A replacement costs $5500 though it is the later battery that is better.

The LEAF is also the only 1st gen EV I would personally buy. Nissan designed a car to be sold the the masses and has sold about 300K. The other OEMs converted a current car into a EV to sell the 2K per year required for CARB's EV mandate. I have zero confidence I would be able to get parts for my Spark out of warranty and there is no aftermarket support. That is why I leased my Spark even though I could have purchased it for only $11K.

Last edited by JSH; 01-27-2018 at 12:50 PM..
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