Great to see the old leaf ! Love the cob web in shot under the bonnet , says such a lot ! Well summed up Andrew , these are great 2nd cars and ideal 'starter' EV for those who are nervous about switching away from fossil fueled vehicles.
Nissan Leaf should conquer the world and solve world wars and fix political corruption...ok maybe that is too much...honestly I own a Leag and it's my best car and I have given it a nickname and give it a blanket so it remains warm at night.
I have a 2013 Leaf with a 24 kWh battery. I bought it used for $6000 US and it has been the perfect commute car. With 88,000 miles on the odometer, it still has eleven bars! It costs me about $1.25 in electricity to travel the 26 miles for my trip to work and back. I can't begin to calculate the savings over having an ICE car - especially with fuel prices now.
Unfortunately the bubble has burst on EVs, unless you charge at home of course but the point is to use it outside not calculate getting home! They want to triple the electric charging points. So for eg If you have a Toyota Prius for 120 miles of driving will cost £20 of petrol. To charge an equivalent EV it will now cost £34 as the repair and upgrades of charging stations is too costly used by too few EVs. So prices have to go up to put money back into the system, plus of course electricity is now the most expensive power that we use and is to create
@@stumpusMaximus If repair and upgrades are too expensive, government can step in to help. We HAVE to make a transition from a carbon-based economy to a clean-energy economy. We don't have a choice in the matter unless we want vast areas of the Earth to be uninhabitable.
I have a 2011 Nissan Leaf… and it has been brilliant… never once a failure 12 years later… just tires… that's it… But I live in a hot area… so the battery has degraded to about 70%… so range is limited… fine for around town… I can do a full days worth of errands… but not so good anymore for longer trips… very comfortable car.. good passenger space, handles and drives nice.. OK boot… it has been my most trouble free, least expensive car to date… I look forward to many more years with it…
Wow, Dr Euan McTurk really gives the right information and explains it so well. Another great video Andrew and great that you are showing second hand EV's are still very viable.
Great update, and well done for even attempting all those repairs whilst trying to film at the same time. Hopefully this means we can look forward to a feature-length episode 'Flaviana holds forth about the Leaf'.
The slowness of Leaf is due to the low baud rate on its internal communications. It's a very old protocol which was cheap (or free, not sure here) to license, and more (EOBD) was not needed. License for EOBD was USD5 per vehicle I think at some stage. So $5 x 500 000 is 2.5 million saved. There was also a study that showed that the life of a battery can be extended by up to 30% by charging it to 100% and then discharging it at a high rate to 90% immediately after. (Can't find it right now) Very interesting video, thank you.
At work we've used Leafs from the early 2010's and, as a short journey car, it was perfect. When I say short, a return journey of around 60 miles is doable, after than it was all dependant on type of day. We then got Leaf2s, bit night and day to be honest and such an improvement and have done many 1000's of miles in them. So, why do I share this? For anyone looking for a 2nd hand Leaf EV, original Leaf for a shop runner, Leaf 2 for something a little more as a daily driver. :)
Nice video, Andrew. I had one of these Leaf 24, I bought it used for 7.000€ and I sold it one year later for 8.500€. Now, here in Spain, you can't find one for less than 12.000€. As much as petrol prices rise, as much these cars rise. It is totally recommendable as a second car or for people who use it for their commute. I have very good memories of this "Frog." 😄
I have been driving our leaf since 2010. It is 2011 first generation. Just lost a bar a week ago. Felt really sad. It is 179,000km. There were no major issues at all last 12 years. Normal wear and tear, breaks, tires, wipers, etc. Great car and sad to see Nissan is not able to keep the Leaf in future production.
Thanks for the update. I sold my 2011 Leaf for $3600. It had 46% battery and 6 bars with 65890 miles on it. My range was about 38 miles. I upgraded to a PHEV that will give me about 30 miles on the EV side, and 600 miles on the petrol side. (American gallons) My Leaf cost me about 0.05¢ per mile, and returned between 3.4 to 3.9 miles per kWh.
I watched this video just before I bought my 2014 Leaf and coincidentally my washer pump just failed. I remembered seeing your DIY repair and just followed it to do my own repair (with a £10 part from eBay) and I now have working windscreen washers again. So thanks for reassuring my about buying a Leaf and thanks for saving me money on repairs!
great vid! Took your advice 2 years before seeing it! We’ve a Mini Merc (A160) for visiting family and weekends away but everyday running around even in rural Lincolnshire) it’s the Nissan leaf (with rear camera) from 2013. Linking your stuff with a young lady showing how to power my TV some lights and a fridge from my Leaf with a 12v to Mains inverter, wow everyday’s a school day. Even for a 75yo retd. Uni lecturer! And the bloke in the middle going in great depth about battery, well nextime insomnia hits I’ll know where to go! Thanks very much for the time and effort yiu put in.if your missus’ is that good looking I may skip a game of golf to watch the next one! Cheers
Thank you for the video. Really interesting to hear about your experience and battery health. I bought an used 2017 24kWh 26000km Nissan Leaf for daily commuting. Did my homework before purchase, and I'm fairly confident the car will reach 200 000km without a problem. When it is scorching hot in the summer, avoid quick charging if battery temp bar is over 6 bars to avoid battery degredation. I live in Finland and it is quite cold most of the year, which helps to keep the battery healthy.
Try changing the Bulbs on a Skoda Superb. The manual read something like this; To change Headlight Bulb, first remove Headlight (See Section ** for Instructions) Turn to Section **: To remove Headlight, first remove bumper (See Section %% for Instructions).
It is always a pleasure to watch your channel. Although we drive and enjoy our hybrid '21 Jeep Wrangler High Altitude 4xe, this info on the Leaf's battery has made me thinking about getting one. Thanks Andrew!
Thanks for this battery info. It mostly confirms my understanding of battery management. We have a 30 kWh Leaf which has just lost its 12th bar at nearly 5 years of age. We use it mostly for local trips so tend to keep it close to 50% SOC to optimise battery life.
Love my leaf 30. 10 bars battery health at 115,000 miles :) I use the app and it only took about a week to get it transferred :) very interesting interview with your battery expert :) he's the man
Thanks Andrew, really enjoyed that, despite no Flaviana. 😁 One of my favourite things (or used to be) is doing little jobs like that, so satisfying. I thought your camera work was amazing, you showed everything needed to get the job done. You kept apologising for lack of focus but it was outstanding in such a small area. Mind you the cobweb said it all...I once had a pet spider living in my wing mirror despite multiple automatic car washes! Lovely as you are, get the gin in eh? Flaviana's opinion is vital. 😄👍
Thanks, Jude. We have a giant garden spider living in our Leaf wing mirror! It came out to say hello the other day while I was parking and I almost scraped the car!
Great info, if only the battery facts were quoted by mainstream media, every EV add or article is inundated with miss-information, Personally I currently have a Toyota hybrid but hope to get an EV in 2-3 years and wouldn't worry at all about getting a 2 year old MG, Hyundai etc, can't afford new and also think its best to wait for the industry and market to stabilise.
Dr. E knows his stuff... Sounds like MG will be selling a few more SR MG4s on the strength of his comments. Good to see you getting your hands dirty - and why not in these times of austerity! Leaf is not my cup of tea but agree that it is a great option for a 2nd car...
Hello There, a great Video, you can also get the individual modules replaced for the battery and that will increase the bars on the battery indicator etc. Cheers Peter :-)
Sold my old leaf 63 plate , it was an ex taxi with 190,000 miles . Still drove absolutely fine and everything still worked . Battery SOH 65% . 50 + miles of range .
my dec 2013 leaf 24KWH AHR=49,19 SOH=75,43 396V HX=62,93 ODO=148,868 KM 299 QCs 5610 L2 220V every day to 100% CHARGING AT HOME! 2,2KWH i drive 60km a day... own it for 4 years now every end of the week when the charge is full i pull the plug out and i put it in again for 2 times! rebalancing every week :) got only 6mv diference off all cells!
30 kWh LEAF bought through ecocars 4.5 years ago and lost the first bar at 83% recently. Has absolutely no impact to the day-to-day usability for me which is typically 75 miles per day, so like you I'm not worried by it. Thanks for doing this LEAF update 🙂 Handy to know how to fix the washer pump 👍
We’ve just bought a Leaf again. 2017 White Tekna with 6.6 charging and 12 bars. Sent the PCP Zoe back. Sadly the Airbag light has come on, but hopefully a simple fix.
Congratulations! Let me know what the airbag light issue turns out to be. Does it need a service? Perhaps get Cleevely EV to do that and the airbag light at the same time?
can agree 100% with Ewan, on our first 24kWh Leaf the battery SOH went to around 91% in Summer and back up to 100% every winter, taking a regular trip that required three rapids in a day in each direction always put up the apparent battery SOH. Our 40Kw Leaf is totally different. just a regular .01% loss of battery SOH every month, now down to 89% at nearly five years old.
Andrew, I have complete sympathy with changing light bulbs on cars. You need to have the smallest hands to replace them. I'd like to change my car h7 headlight bulbs to leds, however I know it's going to be a nightmare changing them. Another great video Andrew, keep up the good work.
I still have nightmares about changing headlight bulbs on my old Smart car. You either needed to take wedge your hand into the tiny air vents at the base of the windscreen and do it all by touch one-handed, or take the whole of the front of the car off! Not a trivial task.
Agreed. I've changed headlamps for friends' cars and some models require a substantial amount of removing plastic shields and components, etc. under the hood to get at the socket. Also, two license lamps were out on my 2007 Camry. This was picked up during an oil change and inspection at a Toyota dealer. They quoted $70 parts and labor to replace them! I said no, thanks. Naturally there's a RUclips video on how to change them. It takes a bit of time but completely doable by the average person.
part 3 - P.S. have charged to 100% at home for past 2 years and 90% at rapids and have only done work on it myself, after its Mot's so in all that time I have replaced a suspension tie bar link (new), a track rod end (new), lower ball joint /arm(new), crazy thing is, all those were on the drivers side and I'm quite slim. lead acid battery (new), a wiper motor (used off ebay), wiper blades (new) and lastly the heater PTC (used ebay from Lithuania) off a very low milage 2021 leaf, yes, yes I know, I'm going on a bit. So 95,000 miles has cost me in parts no more than 500 all in. and you are right the sound system is dopey (apparently that means excellent) Anyway toddle pip old boy. well young compared to me cheers Graham
Yeah, most definitely a great commuter car. I have a 2014 Tekna with 235.000km and a SOH of 70%, 9 bars, still able to do my daily 70km commute and no issues what so ever. Just had an issue with front shock absorber, but for the rest just tyres and wipers changes, break pads are the original.
Hi Andrew, I bought my 2013 Tekna from ebay in 2015. It was a drivable write-off. Hit in the back and shunted into a bus apparently, it had done 29,000 when I got it, all in it cost me 6,800 Quid including repairs (sorry my pound key isn't working) I have been all over the place in it. I live in Morecambe and have been to London 3 times with my Girls (that's not Sugar daddy talk) My two mid to late teens offspring then, early twenties now. My first trip there took 12 hours because being a thrifty/tight bas*rd, we went for for free , I visited every nissan dealer for a charge as close to the M6 and M1 as was humanly possible, It was was a big adventure the first time, subsequent times I'd realised life was/is finite. I digress, Any road up as my Great aunt Hetty used to say, it now has 124,000 on't clock and still has 10 battery bars, ICE car lovers! - STICK THAT IN Y PIPE N SMOKE IT (but not with fire, use some nifty electrons in stead) 1 -
Thanks Andrew. Most informative, especially the explanation of the urban myth about rapid charging to 'regain' that lost capacity.. From what you said, losing one battery SOH bar means that its health is between about 78% and 85%. As you've seen, the LeafSpy app with the dongle will give you better fine-grained SOH data. Thanks too for the EV equivalent of Hubnut car tinkering! 😉👍
Thanks Andrew for another informative posting. As your subtitle says, there are still the naysayers who think EV batteries are finished in a few years and end up in landfills. Getting Dr. McTurk to explain why that is not the case adds some authority to put those ‘oily' ideas to bed....We just have to keep hammering away until the general public (whoever General Public is) realise that an EV will stay economically viable and be doing useful work for far longer than any ICE car.
I own two old LEAFs. I bought a “2013” SL on 12/16/2012 - Yes, I just turned 10 years of not buying Gasoline, YAY! - it has lost 7 bars. When it’s cold out, it’s good for 20 to 28 miles. And on 10/13/22 I bought a 2012 for $2450 because it has no heat. The quote locally to repair the heat is $3800 from Nissan! LOL - I’m not fixing it. I use my LEAFs to hog up parking spaces in the city for my Tesla ;) - I live in the city with only on-street parking and I charge out my kitchen window and so I need a particular spot on my street and that’s what the old LEAFs do.
Really interesting video Andrew - especially the input from your guest battery guru. I've got a 2015 Acenta (24Kwh) and absolutely love it, as our low-cost runaround. Couldn't agree more with your suggestion that in a 2 car family, one should be a cheap(ish) EV........if you can find one 😎
I like videos with your wife too, but alone you are much more substantive, hers are funny because of her reaction to something you've done wrong. Keep both types coming.
I always wondered why Nissan didn't incorporate a thermal management system as their engineers must have anticipated premature battery degradation in years ahead? Great video, though, especially the contribution from Dr McTurk.
Another great video, Nissan made the Leaf battery air cooled to keep cost down , there theory was this car is for city and urban driving and not long distance, obviously the water cooled batteries are better especially for longer distances driving.
Great video. Really interesting interview with the battery guy. The standard range mg zs also has an lfp, great to hear how long they'll probably last.
The LE Link dongle is the one you need for the Leaf and can be found here: amzn.to/44A32PE LeafSpy can be downloaded here: apps.apple.com/us/app/leafspy-pro/id967376861 (iOS) or play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Turbo3.Leaf_Spy_Pro&hl=en_GB&gl=US (Android)
Ouch on the washer pump! Realistic cost is about £12.50. Most of the time you can just get a generic one and it'll fit and last as long as the car. Only bonus of OEM is it should fit first time. I very much doubt nissan make their own washer pumps!
I've seen Nissan leafs with 50k miles on them, and only 2 bars. Apparently they don't like hot climates. Why is there no internal fan rotating the air around the pack? I figured, any 12v, 1A fan has sufficient power to cause an air draft, significantly extending longevity of the cells, while using less power than even an LED headlight. If the nissan leaf cells didn't have the cell heater pads, they would last longer as well, at least in hot climates. As far as cold climates, you could fast charge the batteries which will heat up the cells enough. At 12A, 220V, most sockets support up to 2640W, some even up to 15A or 3300W. That's sufficient power to increase the cell temperatures to 75f, and dump some hot air in the cabin. Nissan should have just pasted each cell on an aluminum plate, mounted to the battery chassis, for faster heat extraction.
My wife hates the leaf with a vengeance , looks of outside , personally I’m not bothered but its battery problems and it’s charging standards are poor . Don’t expect to go far without waiting or blocking ac chargers for hours . If have home charging at home ok for 2nd runabout , love Italian food ❤
We've had a Leaf from new for 9 years and we've NEVER been able to get CarWings going. When I called Nissan they assumed that I was a hacker, treated me like a crim. Pity becaue otherwise I can't fault the leaf. Goint to trade up soon, but it won't be Nissan, even tho the wife likes the look of the Arya. It's just too inconvenient going out to the car to check the SOC all the time.
The BEV is the perfect short trip way of avoiding the worst aspect of ICE motoring - the elimination of the cold start wear and rotting of the exhaust system. ICE (for a while longer) for motorways and EV for city congestion………then don’t be late dumping the old dirty ICE entirely.
our 2020 has cost us one wiper blade since we bought it. we've never fast charged it. 100 miles costs us about 15p. basically way cheaper than taking the bus 200 quid a year in electric 30 quid road tax. best car i have ever owned. here in sweden cars are rotten by 8 years old. so 2028 probably scrap it.
Looking at a leaf with 9 bars less than 50,000 miles on it. The 1st owner was the one who put those miles on it. The second owner did not drive the car at all for 3 years. Is this car safe?
The car’s perfectly safe, but the battery has clearly degradated. I’ll be making a video about it soon as a neighbour got a Leaf with about 9 bars too and although it can be repaired, it’s not cheap. Personally, unless it’s an absolute bargain, I’d go for another Leaf. Also, bear in mind that 30kWh Leafs have notoriously bad batteries.
Really great video which will be so useful for people starting out with EVs. The battery academic was very interesting as well although at one point I felt like saying "don't confuse me with facts!" Just as a rough estimate, how much range do you get now from the Leaf? One of these would suit my daughter who would rarely drive more than 30 miles return.
Thanks, Peter! Absolute worse case scenario - motorway driving in winter with freezing temperatures - you'd be looking at 50 miles. Most of the time it's more like 70 miles.
Nissan Leaf should conquer the world and solve world wars and fix political corruption...ok maybe that is too much...honestly I own a Leaf and it's my best car and I have given it a nickname and give it a blanket so it remains warm at night...I actually talk to it more than my wife. As well when someone puts down my car in a pub I get into a fight at the pub .
So all the time you could not get registered on the app, could the previous owner have accessed the car? Could be an interesting future video..Apps and car security
Good information. Thank-you! Since you mentioned having solar panels to charge your Leaf, may I ask if you also have a home battery or is it just panels and the electric company supplies the rest?
Please tell me how to charge a 2016 Nissan leaf only to 80% overnight, without physically monitoring it charge, when there is no remote function to do so on the car ?
If you set the charge schedule in the car (instead of using your wallbox to schedule), there’s an option called Long Life Mode. Select that and it’ll always just charge to 80%.
Sorry that function does not exist on a 2016 Nissan Leaf 30 kwhr, i remember something about Nissan removing it because they thought that charging to 100 % was not the issue that they originally thought it was with earlier models. How wrong they were.
@MrEV As you know all EV's degrade with time and use cycles, that is why I have learned my lesson and will never buy another EV ever again, whereas my 15 year old Mercedes E Class diesel and my 19 1/2 year old Mazda MX5 petrol still have the ranges they were bought with, the Mercedes having over 3 times the range of a modern EV at 650 miles at dual carriageway speeds and 350 miles pulling a 7.5 metre fixed bed 4 berth caravan. My wall box is a dumb charger by the way immune to the forthcoming fuel duty on electricity used for an EV, which will become inevitable if there is no duty from ice vehicles. That and 20 % vat, instead of the 5 % domestic rate. Hospitals etc. will still need to be built.
How do you charge the leaf at home? I'm guessing you've got a type 2 and the leaf having a chademo you'd probably need to slow charge with a granny cable.
I’ve been following the charging costs, at the time of this video, and due to the current UK energy pricing rip off, and the economics for public charging just don’t work. It there seems to be near price parity for EVs. My calculations make it almost equal for a 64 mpg Diesel at 1.77 / litre vs an EV charging at 0.69 p/ kWh contactless when calculating GBP/mile and assuming 3.5 mile/kWh. I know it’s not just about money but with a price premium for an efficient EV it seem the incentive has gone. I want to do something for the environment but have I got my figures wrong?
I agree that for anyone that relies on a lot of public charging, right now the EV equation doesn’t necessarily work unless it’s an ultra-efficient car. That said, when considering total cost of ownership, including slower depreciation, then an EV can still work out the better deal.
I have a 2016 leaf Teckna 6.6 charger in Arctic white. I have had it 7 years and 2 months from new. It has done 34k miles. It has now lost 1/3 rd of the battery capacity and range with the loss of 4 out of 12 battery bars and is a total disappointment against the time I had it in the early years when I wore rose coloured spectacles, thinking it was the best thing since sliced bread. How can electric cars be environmentally friendly when the batteries degrade to such an extent that they become unusable and have to be scrapped much earlier than ice vehicles because the batteries are not economically viable to replace on a cost basis. I also have a 15 year old Mercedes E Class 2.2 litre cdi which still gives me 51 mpg on a run and the range it gives me is unchanged from when I bought it new at 650 miles. I will not be buying another EV after my experience of the Leaf, which is now used as a town car only, tethered within it's home charger range until the battery finally is not logistically able to cover useful distances. The bottom line is that from day one from new, with time and use cycles, all lithium batteries degrade, whilst ice vehicles do not, making EV's not fit for purpose in my opinion.
I was having this conversation with someone yesterday actually. It's unfortunate that the LEAF is so bad with degradation and, as my friend pointed out, it's mainly affected EV trailblazers like yourself. It's especially bad as yours is such low mileage. The LEAF is quite unique in this respect as Zoes, i3s and many other 'old' EVs don't have the same problem. The LEAF's lack of thermal management for the battery is one of the reasons it's so bad. Newer EVs have done hundreds of thousands of miles and have no meaningful degradation and as time goes on and battery tech improves, it'll become even less an issue. That doesn't make it any less disappointing for you of course.
A joy as ever ... but you are no DIY guy ... lol 😁 It' s something you grow up doing ... or you don't. BTW there's some flaky finance guys having a right chat further down in the comments
Yes, Flaviana is the DIYer in this house! Thanks for letting me know about those flaky finance guys. I've removed those comments now. (After making a note of their amazing financial tips obviously - I'm not stupid!) 😀
I just wish the Leaf wasn't so damn ugly!!!!! LOL. Otherwise I'd have bought a used Leaf. Now we're on the hook for an ID.4. (my wife wouldn't go for the Ioniq 5) No offense to Leaf owners. I've got a 2005 Prius. Ugly and practical.
The ID.4 seems like a great car. Massive space in the back too! The Leaf isn't much of a looker, although my daughter prefers it to anything else we've driven because "it looks friendly"!
Excellent content (as usual)! My wife (who is bored to tears by and hates my EV and Solar/battery viewing) now watches your content whenever Flaviana is present! She has even taking to attempts at vetoing purchases by affecting a (poor) Flaviana impersonation and stating ‘I like it, but I like it a it £30 much and not a £40 much’ 🤣
Perfect timing Andrew as we're about to buy our first ev - a 2nd hand Leaf - and this has removed the last lingering doubts. Been following all your adventures with all your other evs for a while now. Love your content and of course, more Flaviana please. She's priceless 😀
@@MrEV hopefully you'll get your hands on a BYD Atto 3 one day. We're in New Zealand and they're available here. We were considering getting one but thought we'd go with the Leaf first as a cheaper entry point to ev driving. Would love to see your review of them one day.
Actually think of it this way. You bought the EV for a thrifty price point, therefore just do the Robert Llewellyn trick and buy a 40 kWh battery to fit into your 24 kWh leaf. After all the fuel savings you accumulated should pay for the range increase of the new battery installation.
Mine is a 40 kw leaf, 2019 model, its gets driven 100 miles per day, 5 days a week. Currently at 60,000 miles, and uses about 80 % per day. So I need the 100% per day.
The biggest expense in EV is depreciation. On a 1st gen Leaf, it doesn't matter that much although even the 10+ year old 1st gen have been depreciating a lot in the last year due to the perceived worthlessness as a golf cart. So you still don't want to overpay even for a 1st gen Leaf in 2023. On a Tesla, depreciation is a huge money loser that no amount of fuel and tax savings is going to make up for. Everybody thought Teslas and many ICE cars appreciate in 2021 and 2022 so it's OK to overpay. How wrong they were.
Andrew, why on earth would you put halogen bulbs in an electric car, especially one with a small range like a Leaf? LED's are the way to go in any car and they use so little power to run. Plus they are almost twice as bright. They can be ordered online for $40. American.
![Nissan Leaf Reduction Gear ATF Change [Efficiency boost!]](/img/1.gif)
Great to see the old leaf ! Love the cob web in shot under the bonnet , says such a lot !
Well summed up Andrew , these are great 2nd cars and ideal 'starter' EV for those who are nervous about switching away from fossil fueled vehicles.
Nissan Leaf should conquer the world and solve world wars and fix political corruption...ok maybe that is too much...honestly I own a Leag and it's my best car and I have given it a nickname and give it a blanket so it remains warm at night.
I have a 2013 Leaf with a 24 kWh battery. I bought it used for $6000 US and it has been the perfect commute car. With 88,000 miles on the odometer, it still has eleven bars! It costs me about $1.25 in electricity to travel the 26 miles for my trip to work and back. I can't begin to calculate the savings over having an ICE car - especially with fuel prices now.
That's amazing! Great to hear. Thank you!
Wow! I have an 2013 too 81,000 miles and now 5 bars :/ but gets over 110 Fahrenheit :( here
Unfortunately the bubble has burst on EVs, unless you charge at home of course but the point is to use it outside not calculate getting home! They want to triple the electric charging points. So for eg If you have a Toyota Prius for 120 miles of driving will cost £20 of petrol. To charge an equivalent EV it will now cost £34 as the repair and upgrades of charging stations is too costly used by too few EVs. So prices have to go up to put money back into the system, plus of course electricity is now the most expensive power that we use and is to create
@@stumpusMaximus If repair and upgrades are too expensive, government can step in to help. We HAVE to make a transition from a carbon-based economy to a clean-energy economy. We don't have a choice in the matter unless we want vast areas of the Earth to be uninhabitable.
It's the perfect car for that.
I have a 2011 Nissan Leaf… and it has been brilliant… never once a failure 12 years later… just tires… that's it… But I live in a hot area… so the battery has degraded to about 70%… so range is limited… fine for around town… I can do a full days worth of errands… but not so good anymore for longer trips… very comfortable car.. good passenger space, handles and drives nice.. OK boot… it has been my most trouble free, least expensive car to date… I look forward to many more years with it…
Wonderful to hear!
It's good to watch somebody wrestling with awkward to get at car parts whilst I drink tea with biscuits !! Thanks Andrew...
Wow, Dr Euan McTurk really gives the right information and explains it so well. Another great video Andrew and great that you are showing second hand EV's are still very viable.
Thanks so much. Euan is brilliant!
Great update, and well done for even attempting all those repairs whilst trying to film at the same time. Hopefully this means we can look forward to a feature-length episode 'Flaviana holds forth about the Leaf'.
The slowness of Leaf is due to the low baud rate on its internal communications. It's a very old protocol which was cheap (or free, not sure here) to license, and more (EOBD) was not needed.
License for EOBD was USD5 per vehicle I think at some stage. So $5 x 500 000 is 2.5 million saved.
There was also a study that showed that the life of a battery can be extended by up to 30% by charging it to 100% and then discharging it at a high rate to 90% immediately after. (Can't find it right now)
Very interesting video, thank you.
Have bookmarked this video for reference for when I have to do maintenance on the Leaf in the future.
At work we've used Leafs from the early 2010's and, as a short journey car, it was perfect. When I say short, a return journey of around 60 miles is doable, after than it was all dependant on type of day. We then got Leaf2s, bit night and day to be honest and such an improvement and have done many 1000's of miles in them.
So, why do I share this? For anyone looking for a 2nd hand Leaf EV, original Leaf for a shop runner, Leaf 2 for something a little more as a daily driver. :)
Great to see James from James and Kate channel in his full time job, does great EV videos as well.
Yes, theirs is another of my favourite channels. I especially love all of James's MG5 videos too - flying the flag for cheap, reliable EVs!
Nice video, Andrew. I had one of these Leaf 24, I bought it used for 7.000€ and I sold it one year later for 8.500€. Now, here in Spain, you can't find one for less than 12.000€. As much as petrol prices rise, as much these cars rise. It is totally recommendable as a second car or for people who use it for their commute.
I have very good memories of this "Frog." 😄
I have been driving our leaf since 2010. It is 2011 first generation. Just lost a bar a week ago. Felt really sad. It is 179,000km. There were no major issues at all last 12 years. Normal wear and tear, breaks, tires, wipers, etc. Great car and sad to see Nissan is not able to keep the Leaf in future production.
I have 84% health, 225 000km, 8 years. Usually charge to 80%. Moderate climate.
Appreciate that you reviewed an 'old' EV. Nice to see how much life is still left in them. Or especially in this Leaf! Cheers 🍻
Thanks for the update. I sold my 2011 Leaf for $3600. It had 46% battery and 6 bars with 65890 miles on it. My range was about 38 miles. I upgraded to a PHEV that will give me about 30 miles on the EV side, and 600 miles on the petrol side. (American gallons) My Leaf cost me about 0.05¢ per mile, and returned between 3.4 to 3.9 miles per kWh.
I watched this video just before I bought my 2014 Leaf and coincidentally my washer pump just failed. I remembered seeing your DIY repair and just followed it to do my own repair (with a £10 part from eBay) and I now have working windscreen washers again. So thanks for reassuring my about buying a Leaf and thanks for saving me money on repairs!
That's wonderful to hear - and well done for doing it so cheaply!
great vid! Took your advice 2 years before seeing it! We’ve a Mini Merc (A160) for visiting family and weekends away but everyday running around even in rural Lincolnshire) it’s the Nissan leaf (with rear camera) from 2013. Linking your stuff with a young lady showing how to power my TV some lights and a fridge from my Leaf with a 12v to Mains inverter, wow everyday’s a school day. Even for a 75yo retd. Uni lecturer! And the bloke in the middle going in great depth about battery, well nextime insomnia hits I’ll know where to go!
Thanks very much for the time and effort yiu put in.if your missus’ is that good looking I may skip a game of golf to watch the next one! Cheers
Thank you for the video. Really interesting to hear about your experience and battery health. I bought an used 2017 24kWh 26000km Nissan Leaf for daily commuting. Did my homework before purchase, and I'm fairly confident the car will reach 200 000km without a problem. When it is scorching hot in the summer, avoid quick charging if battery temp bar is over 6 bars to avoid battery degredation. I live in Finland and it is quite cold most of the year, which helps to keep the battery healthy.
In Cornwall there was a Leaf Taxi that did over 100k miles and is still going , the guy got more
Try changing the Bulbs on a Skoda Superb. The manual read something like this; To change Headlight Bulb, first remove Headlight (See Section ** for Instructions) Turn to Section **: To remove Headlight, first remove bumper (See Section %% for Instructions).
Great video. The leaf has really grown on me the more I see it. Ideal as a runabout isn’t it for local journeys. Lovely colour too.
It is always a pleasure to watch your channel. Although we drive and enjoy our hybrid '21 Jeep Wrangler High Altitude 4xe, this info on the Leaf's battery has made me thinking about getting one. Thanks Andrew!
Great to hear - thanks Kathryn!
Thanks for this battery info. It mostly confirms my understanding of battery management. We have a 30 kWh Leaf which has just lost its 12th bar at nearly 5 years of age. We use it mostly for local trips so tend to keep it close to 50% SOC to optimise battery life.
Love my leaf 30. 10 bars battery health at 115,000 miles :) I use the app and it only took about a week to get it transferred :) very interesting interview with your battery expert :) he's the man
Thanks Andrew, really enjoyed that, despite no Flaviana. 😁 One of my favourite things (or used to be) is doing little jobs like that, so satisfying.
I thought your camera work was amazing, you showed everything needed to get the job done. You kept apologising for lack of focus but it was outstanding in such a small area.
Mind you the cobweb said it all...I once had a pet spider living in my wing mirror despite multiple automatic car washes!
Lovely as you are, get the gin in eh? Flaviana's opinion is vital. 😄👍
Thanks, Jude. We have a giant garden spider living in our Leaf wing mirror! It came out to say hello the other day while I was parking and I almost scraped the car!
Great info, if only the battery facts were quoted by mainstream media, every EV add or article is inundated with miss-information, Personally I currently have a Toyota hybrid but hope to get an EV in 2-3 years and wouldn't worry at all about getting a 2 year old MG, Hyundai etc, can't afford new and also think its best to wait for the industry and market to stabilise.
Our 2014 Leaf is at 101 335 km and 90,34% SOH. This summer I did a 2500km trip and right after that the SOH was 98+ % for a while.
We are in the same boat. 1st gen i3 and we use it 75% of the time. The cost to refuel the ICE car for one month we can drive the EV for over a year.
Flaviana said it was OK to watch this, so I did. Thanks, Andrew!
Dr. E knows his stuff... Sounds like MG will be selling a few more SR MG4s on the strength of his comments.
Good to see you getting your hands dirty - and why not in these times of austerity!
Leaf is not my cup of tea but agree that it is a great option for a 2nd car...
Hello There, a great Video, you can also get the individual modules replaced for the battery and that will increase the bars on the battery indicator etc. Cheers Peter :-)
P.S. you could replace the battery as well.
Sold my old leaf 63 plate , it was an ex taxi with 190,000 miles . Still drove absolutely fine and everything still worked . Battery SOH 65% . 50 + miles of range .
my dec 2013 leaf 24KWH
AHR=49,19
SOH=75,43 396V
HX=62,93
ODO=148,868 KM
299 QCs
5610 L2 220V every day to 100% CHARGING AT HOME! 2,2KWH
i drive 60km a day... own it for 4 years now
every end of the week when the charge is full i pull the plug out and i put it in again for 2 times! rebalancing every week :)
got only 6mv diference off all cells!
I got a 2023 and now got 15000 miles in 5 months and i love it for local stuff
30 kWh LEAF bought through ecocars 4.5 years ago and lost the first bar at 83% recently. Has absolutely no impact to the day-to-day usability for me which is typically 75 miles per day, so like you I'm not worried by it.
Thanks for doing this LEAF update 🙂 Handy to know how to fix the washer pump 👍
We’ve just bought a Leaf again. 2017 White Tekna with 6.6 charging and 12 bars. Sent the PCP Zoe back. Sadly the Airbag light has come on, but hopefully a simple fix.
Congratulations! Let me know what the airbag light issue turns out to be. Does it need a service? Perhaps get Cleevely EV to do that and the airbag light at the same time?
can agree 100% with Ewan, on our first 24kWh Leaf the battery SOH went to around 91% in Summer and back up to 100% every winter, taking a regular trip that required three rapids in a day in each direction always put up the apparent battery SOH. Our 40Kw Leaf is totally different. just a regular .01% loss of battery SOH every month, now down to 89% at nearly five years old.
Andrew, I have complete sympathy with changing light bulbs on cars. You need to have the smallest hands to replace them. I'd like to change my car h7 headlight bulbs to leds, however I know it's going to be a nightmare changing them. Another great video Andrew, keep up the good work.
I still have nightmares about changing headlight bulbs on my old Smart car. You either needed to take wedge your hand into the tiny air vents at the base of the windscreen and do it all by touch one-handed, or take the whole of the front of the car off! Not a trivial task.
Agreed. I've changed headlamps for friends' cars and some models require a substantial amount of removing plastic shields and components, etc. under the hood to get at the socket. Also, two license lamps were out on my 2007 Camry. This was picked up during an oil change and inspection at a Toyota dealer. They quoted $70 parts and labor to replace them! I said no, thanks. Naturally there's a RUclips video on how to change them. It takes a bit of time but completely doable by the average person.
I’d spray CRC silicone ‘dry’ lube into the washer pump as a preference.
part 3 - P.S. have charged to 100% at home for past 2 years and 90% at rapids and have only done work on it myself, after its Mot's so in all that time I have replaced a suspension tie bar link (new), a track rod end (new), lower ball joint /arm(new), crazy thing is, all those were on the drivers side and I'm quite slim. lead acid battery (new), a wiper motor (used off ebay), wiper blades (new) and lastly the heater PTC (used ebay from Lithuania) off a very low milage 2021 leaf, yes, yes I know, I'm going on a bit. So 95,000 miles has cost me in parts no more than 500 all in.
and you are right the sound system is dopey (apparently that means excellent) Anyway toddle pip old boy. well young compared to me
cheers Graham
2017 30kWh Leaf, 132,000 miles. 4 capacity bars now gone😢
Yeah, most definitely a great commuter car. I have a 2014 Tekna with 235.000km and a SOH of 70%, 9 bars, still able to do my daily 70km commute and no issues what so ever. Just had an issue with front shock absorber, but for the rest just tyres and wipers changes, break pads are the original.
Hi Andrew, I bought my 2013 Tekna from ebay in 2015. It was a drivable write-off. Hit in the back and shunted into a bus apparently, it had done 29,000 when I got it, all in it cost me 6,800 Quid including repairs (sorry my pound key isn't working) I have been all over the place in it. I live in Morecambe and have been to London 3 times with my Girls (that's not Sugar daddy talk) My two mid to late teens offspring then, early twenties now. My first trip there took 12 hours because being a thrifty/tight bas*rd, we went for for free , I visited every nissan dealer for a charge as close to the M6 and M1 as was humanly possible, It was was a big adventure the first time, subsequent times I'd realised life was/is finite. I digress, Any road up as my Great aunt Hetty used to say, it now has 124,000 on't clock and still has 10 battery bars, ICE car lovers! - STICK THAT IN Y PIPE N SMOKE IT (but not with fire, use some nifty electrons in stead) 1 -
Thanks Andrew. Most informative, especially the explanation of the urban myth about rapid charging to 'regain' that lost capacity.. From what you said, losing one battery SOH bar means that its health is between about 78% and 85%. As you've seen, the LeafSpy app with the dongle will give you better fine-grained SOH data. Thanks too for the EV equivalent of Hubnut car tinkering! 😉👍
Great video enjoyed the interview with the battery man. 👍
Thanks Andrew for another informative posting. As your subtitle says, there are still the naysayers who think EV batteries are finished in a few years and end up in landfills. Getting Dr. McTurk to explain why that is not the case adds some authority to put those ‘oily' ideas to bed....We just have to keep hammering away until the general public (whoever General Public is) realise that an EV will stay economically viable and be doing useful work for far longer than any ICE car.
Thanks David! I couldn't agree more.
I own two old LEAFs. I bought a “2013” SL on 12/16/2012 - Yes, I just turned 10 years of not buying Gasoline, YAY! - it has lost 7 bars. When it’s cold out, it’s good for 20 to 28 miles. And on 10/13/22 I bought a 2012 for $2450 because it has no heat. The quote locally to repair the heat is $3800 from Nissan! LOL - I’m not fixing it. I use my LEAFs to hog up parking spaces in the city for my Tesla ;) - I live in the city with only on-street parking and I charge out my kitchen window and so I need a particular spot on my street and that’s what the old LEAFs do.
Very helpful. Thank you!
Really interesting video Andrew - especially the input from your guest battery guru. I've got a 2015 Acenta (24Kwh) and absolutely love it, as our low-cost runaround. Couldn't agree more with your suggestion that in a 2 car family, one should be a cheap(ish) EV........if you can find one 😎
I like videos with your wife too, but alone you are much more substantive, hers are funny because of her reaction to something you've done wrong. Keep both types coming.
I always wondered why Nissan didn't incorporate a thermal management system as their engineers must have anticipated premature battery degradation in years ahead? Great video, though, especially the contribution from Dr McTurk.
Apparently they just wanted to keep the cost down? Still an odd decision.
Another great video, Nissan made the Leaf battery air cooled to keep cost down , there theory was this car is for city and urban driving and not long distance, obviously the water cooled batteries are better especially for longer distances driving.
That's interesting. They must not have anticipated people taking them on long journeys.
I'm so jealous. In Switzerland it's impossible to get a good one for under 15k
Great video. Really interesting interview with the battery guy. The standard range mg zs also has an lfp, great to hear how long they'll probably last.
Had a 24kw leaf sa a taxi 120000 miles only lost one bar
Wow Andrew with your new 'Hands on', skill set James maybe looking to recruit you.... 🔨 😇
Provided it’s just replacing bulbs and washer pumps, I’m there!
Great video. Where is link for OBD and Leafspy please?
The LE Link dongle is the one you need for the Leaf and can be found here: amzn.to/44A32PE
LeafSpy can be downloaded here: apps.apple.com/us/app/leafspy-pro/id967376861 (iOS) or play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Turbo3.Leaf_Spy_Pro&hl=en_GB&gl=US (Android)
Ouch on the washer pump! Realistic cost is about £12.50. Most of the time you can just get a generic one and it'll fit and last as long as the car. Only bonus of OEM is it should fit first time. I very much doubt nissan make their own washer pumps!
I've seen Nissan leafs with 50k miles on them, and only 2 bars. Apparently they don't like hot climates. Why is there no internal fan rotating the air around the pack? I figured, any 12v, 1A fan has sufficient power to cause an air draft, significantly extending longevity of the cells, while using less power than even an LED headlight.
If the nissan leaf cells didn't have the cell heater pads, they would last longer as well, at least in hot climates. As far as cold climates, you could fast charge the batteries which will heat up the cells enough. At 12A, 220V, most sockets support up to 2640W, some even up to 15A or 3300W. That's sufficient power to increase the cell temperatures to 75f, and dump some hot air in the cabin.
Nissan should have just pasted each cell on an aluminum plate, mounted to the battery chassis, for faster heat extraction.
My wife hates the leaf with a vengeance , looks of outside , personally I’m not bothered but its battery problems and it’s charging standards are poor . Don’t expect to go far without waiting or blocking ac chargers for hours . If have home charging at home ok for 2nd runabout , love Italian food ❤
Great stuff. How about investigating the V2G side of the Leaf? Might be useful this winter if it works
I’ve signed up to Indra’s V2H trial so I’m hoping to share some good news with that after they do the assessment.
@@MrEV Thats great, hopefully some more interesting vids on the way
our 2012 still rolls around daily @60% SOH probably has a few years of useful life left for what we do with it
We've had a Leaf from new for 9 years and we've NEVER been able to get CarWings going. When I called Nissan they assumed that I was a hacker, treated me like a crim. Pity becaue otherwise I can't fault the leaf. Goint to trade up soon, but it won't be Nissan, even tho the wife likes the look of the Arya. It's just too inconvenient going out to the car to check the SOC all the time.
your a good lad Andrew
The BEV is the perfect short trip way of avoiding the worst aspect of ICE motoring - the elimination of the cold start wear and rotting of the exhaust system.
ICE (for a while longer) for motorways and EV for city congestion………then don’t be late dumping the old dirty ICE entirely.
our 2020 has cost us one wiper blade since we bought it. we've never fast charged it. 100 miles costs us about 15p. basically way cheaper than taking the bus
200 quid a year in electric
30 quid road tax.
best car i have ever owned. here in sweden cars are rotten by 8 years old. so 2028 probably scrap it.
I wonder if there’s a cheap way to upgrade the sound system?
Looking at a leaf with 9 bars less than 50,000 miles on it. The 1st owner was the one who put those miles on it. The second owner did not drive the car at all for 3 years. Is this car safe?
The car’s perfectly safe, but the battery has clearly degradated. I’ll be making a video about it soon as a neighbour got a Leaf with about 9 bars too and although it can be repaired, it’s not cheap.
Personally, unless it’s an absolute bargain, I’d go for another Leaf. Also, bear in mind that 30kWh Leafs have notoriously bad batteries.
The Renault Zoe has much better range, and a very good music system...
More updates please.
I lost my carwings. Apparently with a recall update. So frustrating.
Oh that's so annoying. What year Leaf do you have?
Really great video which will be so useful for people starting out with EVs. The battery academic was very interesting as well although at one point I felt like saying "don't confuse me with facts!" Just as a rough estimate, how much range do you get now from the Leaf? One of these would suit my daughter who would rarely drive more than 30 miles return.
Thanks, Peter! Absolute worse case scenario - motorway driving in winter with freezing temperatures - you'd be looking at 50 miles. Most of the time it's more like 70 miles.
Nissan Leaf should conquer the world and solve world wars and fix political corruption...ok maybe that is too much...honestly I own a Leaf and it's my best car and I have given it a nickname and give it a blanket so it remains warm at night...I actually talk to it more than my wife. As well when someone puts down my car in a pub I get into a fight at the pub .
So all the time you could not get registered on the app, could the previous owner have accessed the car? Could be an interesting future video..Apps and car security
That's a really interesting point. I imagine it's possible. Certainly worth doing a video about - great idea.
It's on
How about a Polestar 2 Standard Range? Don't test?
Will you have another Leaf update ?
There’s not much to report really - it’s still great! I’ll try to film something soon though.
Maybe a cost breakdown of ownership the degradation of range and battery.
❤
Good information. Thank-you! Since you mentioned having solar panels to charge your Leaf, may I ask if you also have a home battery or is it just panels and the electric company supplies the rest?
Yes, sadly no home battery yet so the bulk of our energy comes from the grid.
May i ask why you kept the model 3 over the ioniq 5?
We only had the Model 3 for three months. I just filmed that part of the video in summer when we had it.
Please tell me how to charge a 2016 Nissan leaf only to 80% overnight, without physically monitoring it charge, when there is no remote function to do so on the car ?
If you set the charge schedule in the car (instead of using your wallbox to schedule), there’s an option called Long Life Mode. Select that and it’ll always just charge to 80%.
Sorry that function does not exist on a 2016 Nissan Leaf 30 kwhr, i remember something about Nissan removing it because they thought that charging to 100 % was not the issue that they originally thought it was with earlier models. How wrong they were.
@@stevezodiac491 Sorry - I had no idea. That's crazy! I wonder whether that makes the 30kWh suffer from degradation more than others?
@MrEV As you know all EV's degrade with time and use cycles, that is why I have learned my lesson and will never buy another EV ever again, whereas my 15 year old Mercedes E Class diesel and my 19 1/2 year old Mazda MX5 petrol still have the ranges they were bought with, the Mercedes having over 3 times the range of a modern EV at 650 miles at dual carriageway speeds and 350 miles pulling a 7.5 metre fixed bed 4 berth caravan. My wall box is a dumb charger by the way immune to the forthcoming fuel duty on electricity used for an EV, which will become inevitable if there is no duty from ice vehicles. That and 20 % vat, instead of the 5 % domestic rate. Hospitals etc. will still need to be built.
How do you charge the leaf at home? I'm guessing you've got a type 2 and the leaf having a chademo you'd probably need to slow charge with a granny cable.
Type 1 to type 2 Converters are available
Off topic, but I notice you have solar thermal for your domestic hot water.
We do! It’s great. We’ll do a video at some point soon.
@@MrEV Look forward to it, put mine in 10 years ago ( panels in the garden) - paid for itself 3 times over.
I like the shirt!
I’ve been following the charging costs, at the time of this video, and due to the current UK energy pricing rip off, and the economics for public charging just don’t work. It there seems to be near price parity for EVs. My calculations make it almost equal for a 64 mpg Diesel at 1.77 / litre vs an EV charging at 0.69 p/ kWh contactless when calculating GBP/mile and assuming 3.5 mile/kWh. I know it’s not just about money but with a price premium for an efficient EV it seem the incentive has gone. I want to do something for the environment but have I got my figures wrong?
I agree that for anyone that relies on a lot of public charging, right now the EV equation doesn’t necessarily work unless it’s an ultra-efficient car. That said, when considering total cost of ownership, including slower depreciation, then an EV can still work out the better deal.
Long journeys need yourself, the whole family will definitely get frustrated
I have a 2016 leaf Teckna 6.6 charger in Arctic white. I have had it 7 years and 2 months from new. It has done 34k miles. It has now lost 1/3 rd of the battery capacity and range with the loss of 4 out of 12 battery bars and is a total disappointment against the time I had it in the early years when I wore rose coloured spectacles, thinking it was the best thing since sliced bread.
How can electric cars be environmentally friendly when the batteries degrade to such an extent that they become unusable and have to be scrapped much earlier than ice vehicles because the batteries are not economically viable to replace on a cost basis. I also have a 15 year old Mercedes E Class 2.2 litre cdi which still gives me 51 mpg on a run and the range it gives me is unchanged from when I bought it new at 650 miles. I will not be buying another EV after my experience of the Leaf, which is now used as a town car only, tethered within it's home charger range until the battery finally is not logistically able to cover useful distances. The bottom line is that from day one from new, with time and use cycles, all lithium batteries degrade, whilst ice vehicles do not, making EV's not fit for purpose in my opinion.
I was having this conversation with someone yesterday actually. It's unfortunate that the LEAF is so bad with degradation and, as my friend pointed out, it's mainly affected EV trailblazers like yourself. It's especially bad as yours is such low mileage.
The LEAF is quite unique in this respect as Zoes, i3s and many other 'old' EVs don't have the same problem. The LEAF's lack of thermal management for the battery is one of the reasons it's so bad.
Newer EVs have done hundreds of thousands of miles and have no meaningful degradation and as time goes on and battery tech improves, it'll become even less an issue. That doesn't make it any less disappointing for you of course.
Using solar panels isn’t free because solar panels are not free.
They are for us as they were already on the house when we moved in.
Hi Andrew, I keep adding a long comment and it keeps disappearing Have you any Idea what's happening to them ?
cheers
Graham
Hi Graham - that’s very odd. I’ve not seen anything and nothing is ‘held for review’?!
@@MrEV ok here goes I'm going to stick my copied piece on now if that's ok
A joy as ever ... but you are no DIY guy ... lol 😁 It' s something you grow up doing ... or you don't. BTW there's some flaky finance guys having a right chat further down in the comments
Yes, Flaviana is the DIYer in this house! Thanks for letting me know about those flaky finance guys. I've removed those comments now. (After making a note of their amazing financial tips obviously - I'm not stupid!) 😀
Ahhh LEAF it out
I just wish the Leaf wasn't so damn ugly!!!!! LOL. Otherwise I'd have bought a used Leaf. Now we're on the hook for an ID.4. (my wife wouldn't go for the Ioniq 5)
No offense to Leaf owners. I've got a 2005 Prius. Ugly and practical.
The ID.4 seems like a great car. Massive space in the back too!
The Leaf isn't much of a looker, although my daughter prefers it to anything else we've driven because "it looks friendly"!
@@MrEV indeed it's not intimidating! we can say that! :) nice to hear from you. i've been watching your vids for about a year now.
Mk1 Leafs...a car for the head...
Boycott Tesla Fascism
Excellent content (as usual)! My wife (who is bored to tears by and hates my EV and Solar/battery viewing) now watches your content whenever Flaviana is present! She has even taking to attempts at vetoing purchases by affecting a (poor) Flaviana impersonation and stating ‘I like it, but I like it a it £30 much and not a £40 much’ 🤣
Perfect timing Andrew as we're about to buy our first ev - a 2nd hand Leaf - and this has removed the last lingering doubts. Been following all your adventures with all your other evs for a while now. Love your content and of course, more Flaviana please. She's priceless 😀
Thank you! That's great to hear. You'll love the Leaf - it's such a wonderful car. The problem is that it beats many of the new cars I try!
@@MrEV hopefully you'll get your hands on a BYD Atto 3 one day. We're in New Zealand and they're available here. We were considering getting one but thought we'd go with the Leaf first as a cheaper entry point to ev driving. Would love to see your review of them one day.
Watch the battery degredation and weep over time and use cycles. I am sure like me you will regret your decision after it ages a few years like mine.
Actually think of it this way. You bought the EV for a thrifty price point, therefore just do the Robert Llewellyn trick and buy a 40 kWh battery to fit into your 24 kWh leaf. After all the fuel savings you accumulated should pay for the range increase of the new battery installation.
I was always wondering what happened to Ian McCullough.
Mine is a 40 kw leaf, 2019 model, its gets driven 100 miles per day, 5 days a week. Currently at 60,000 miles, and uses about 80 % per day. So I need the 100% per day.
I would plug led headlights in em. Not halogen.
I'm kicking myself for not thinking of that when I bought them in a hurry!
The biggest expense in EV is depreciation. On a 1st gen Leaf, it doesn't matter that much although even the 10+ year old 1st gen have been depreciating a lot in the last year due to the perceived worthlessness as a golf cart. So you still don't want to overpay even for a 1st gen Leaf in 2023. On a Tesla, depreciation is a huge money loser that no amount of fuel and tax savings is going to make up for. Everybody thought Teslas and many ICE cars appreciate in 2021 and 2022 so it's OK to overpay. How wrong they were.
Andrew, why on earth would you put halogen bulbs in an electric car, especially one with a small range like a Leaf? LED's are the way to go in any car and they use so little power to run. Plus they are almost twice as bright. They can be ordered online for $40. American.
I ordered the lights in a rush without doing too much research and I'm kicking myself for not getting an LED now. It didn't even occur to me!