Any reason not to buy 20/21 62kwh Leaf (UK)

[LiamE]

Hi all
I’ve joined the group
as I’m on the brink of buying a 62kwh Leaf and I’m hoping for any pointers.
I drive 18k miles a year and I’ve worked out that a bank loan over 5 years plus the charging would cost me about £50 a month more than I’m paying for fuel and road tax for my 16 year old petrol qashqai £3,250 p.a.). The insurance hike would cost me another £40 a month, and then there’s the charger to consider which I have no clue where to start. Then I’d want the extended warranty each year until 100k miles on the clock (so another £40 odd per month).
So all in all it makes good financial sense to get myself a 2020/21 Tekna as opposed another petrol car where I’d be paying for the bank loan AND the same again for the fuel.
I understand range can be a problem in winter in combination with motorway driving. My round trip commute is 120 miles, with about 100 of that on the motorway. I drive about 60 mph and tend to coast downhill and generally don’t accelerate hard.
Am I going to be struggling for range especially during winter months?
And as the miles stack up, eg approaching eg 100k, will battery capacity fall to the extent that I could be struggling?
I’ve a couple more questions if you’d be so kind to give me a view please:
There are a few tekna models around 2020 and 2021 on autotrader, for sale by Nissan dealerships, costing around £17-18k. They come with 1-2 years warranty. I’m assured by Nissan that my local garage, Ancaster, in Slough will honour the warranty even though issued by another company. Has anyone had any bad experiences where their local garage wouldn’t accept the warranty from another dealership?

Lastly, are there any faults for me to look for and were there any peculiarities with particular years?

Is it worth holding our a bit longer for the recent facelift? A ‘22 facelift model would cost me another £4k which doesn’t seem worth it, as I’m anticipating running whatever I get into the ground.
Thanks for any help
Liam

 

[Admin]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[danelo]

First off, you need to determine how you will charge the car. Being able to charge at home is really the only way to go. Seems to problematic and expensive, to me, to go any other way. Of course, there are some who don't have home charging and they do fine.

The other thing is to get Leaf Spy and use that to help you get an excellent idea of the real state of the main drive battery. The gauge that is in the car is absolutely worthless. Search this forum and you will get all kinds of information that will help you use Leaf Spy.

Go luck in your search.

 

[LiamE]

Thank you Danelo. So I can install Leafspy on my phone and check the battery health on the car at the dealer? Is there a recommended cutoff value under which I should walk away? E,g for a 2020/21/22 model? Thanks again

 

[LiamE]

Welcome to the forum.

Thank you

 

[Bombastinator2]

The only one I can think of is if you can get a Tesla for the same price. Or a bolt for a whole lot cheaper. I personally consider the leaf the #2 car. If teslas are not an option one gets a leaf.

 

[Themilkfloat]

Lots of Kia niros and Hyundai Kona’s on the market now for similar money. But yes, I’d go for a slightly older Tesla for that sort of money.

 

[Bombastinator2]

Lots of Kia niros and Hyundai Kona’s on the market now for similar money. But yes, I’d go for a slightly older Tesla for that sort of money.

The issue imho is who has the best tech and is offering more bang for the buck. Tesla has better tech than everyone due to their motor and battery pack systems even if their coach work has issues. (Yeah that term is as old as you think. Maybe older) it will be manny years before ANYONE can catch up to them. If they ever even do. Everyone else uses more battery to go less far. Nissan has been effectively doing it longer than anyone else though. And their battery packs are cheaper. So the tech crown for non teslas goes to Nissan, followed by Toyota, followed by everyone else. As far as bang/buck goes that one changers without warning. YMMV.

 

[danelo]

Thank you Danelo. So I can install Leafspy on my phone and check the battery health on the car at the dealer? Is there a recommended cutoff value under which I should walk away? E,g for a 2020/21/22 model? Thanks again

You will need an OBDII dongle, along with the Leaf Spy. Then you can quickly check any Leafs you find.

Searching the forum will give you an idea of what is considered good. My car that I bought a few months ago, a 2021 with 18k miles, has a SOH of 92%, a HX of 78%, and about 80 quick charges. I would say mine is probably a bit worse than average. Reason being is that it had sat on a couple dealer lots for about a year, so not treated as well as it could have been treated. I didn't use Leaf Spy when I bought it. I had no clue about the Leaf when I bought it. I just wanted an electric car.

 

[Bombastinator2]

You will need an OBDII dongle, along with the Leaf Spy. Then you can quickly check any Leafs you find.

Searching the forum will give you an idea of what is considered good. My car that I bought a few months ago, a 2021 with 18k miles, has a SOH of 92%, a HX of 78%, and about 80 quick charges. I would say mine is probably a bit worse than average. Reason being is that it had sat on a couple dealer lots for about a year, so not treated as well as it could have been treated. I didn't use Leaf Spy when I bought it. I had no clue about the Leaf when I bought it. I just wanted an electric car.

I wish that were true. I still have no idea what all the graphs and dials on that app mean. Or what is good or bad. There may be a tutorial that tells me that I haven’t found, the best I can do right now is I vaguely think that “teeth” on the comb of the battery graph is good and really even is bad. I don’t know though. Also batteries are effectively dead below 80% SOH, and it’s time to pull it and put it in a powerwall. But again I could be totally off base. Massive levels of ignorance over here.
I do believe that all you need to have to look for a car is “lite” which works on all leafs, and the plug thing is a standard amongst all cars so while the app may change, the plug won’t. You can use it on just about any newer car. ICE or electric. Even after you buy a car they’re still good for stuff. And there is apparently sometiming up with the android app for whatever reason.

In general the UK should be a good place to run an electric car. Very consistent weather that isn’t too terribly cold or hot is good for EV stuff. English cars used to have a rep for working well in the UK, but not elsewhere. The consistent weather is the reason

 

[LiamE]

Thanks all for your views. I’m bamboozled by the Leafspy terminology, but for simplicity, if I were to go for a 18 month old facelift leaf, with less than 10k miles, should I just ask the Nissan dealer selling it to get their service dept to give me the battery SOH value?
Also, I want to take advantage of the Octopus cheap overnight charging, are there any recommendations for which charger to get installed please?
Lastly, I got excited by the Octopus announcement yesterday about the V2G option, but it needs a £6k charger. Daft!

 

[Chad E. Mo]

1) I'd never trust a dealer.
2) Leaf Spy Pro is the best evaluation tool. I'd learn how to use it.

My use-case is almost identical. I do a 102 mile round trip to my workplace four times a week. The 62kWh Leaf is excellent for this, even in temps below freezing. I would not suggest trips longer than 400 miles in a single day, due to battery heating from quick charging.

What I'd look for, using LeafSpy Pro:

Hx over 90​

SOH over 90​

QC's less than 50​

Cell voltage variation less than 50mV while driving up a long steep hill; ~20mV variation on the flats at 60mph.​

​

My used 2020 SV+ came with the factory EVSE, which I keep in the car, but at home I use an Aimler EVSE (similar to this) that has adjustable power settings. I simply installed a 240V outlet in my garage.

RE: The "comb" display mentioned earlier... flat, with low cell variation is preferable. That screen tells you a lot in the text at the top.

 

[LiamE]

1) I'd never trust a dealer.
2) Leaf Spy Pro is the best evaluation tool. I'd learn how to use it.

My use-case is almost identical. I do a 102 mile round trip to my workplace four times a week. The 62kWh Leaf is excellent for this, even in temps below freezing. I would not suggest trips longer than 400 miles in a single day, due to battery heating from quick charging.

What I'd look for, using LeafSpy Pro:

Hx over 90​

SOH over 90​

QC's less than 50​

Cell voltage variation less than 50mV while driving up a long steep hill; ~20mV variation on the flats at 60mph.​

​

My used 2020 SV+ came with the factory EVSE, which I keep in the car, but at home I use an Aimler EVSE (similar to this) that has adjustable power settings. I simply installed a 240V outlet in my garage.

RE: The "comb" display mentioned earlier... flat, with low cell variation is preferable. That screen tells you a lot in the text at the top.

View attachment 3307

That’s very helpful, thank you. What is Hx?

 

[Chad E. Mo]

Hx meaning is open to debate on the fora. Some say that its meaning was recently changed.

My personal understanding, is that it represents the average cell conductivity. The higher the number the better. (Rising internal cell resistance being a symptom of degradation.) My Leaf's Hx drops and its SOH drops a small amount each time I QC. Probably due to localized heating inside the cells.

 

[DougWantsALeaf]

100 mile conure commute is a perfect Leaf Plus use case.

 

[LiamE]

Hx meaning is open to debate on the fora. Some say that its meaning was recently changed.

My personal understanding, is that it represents the average cell conductivity. The higher the number the better. (Rising internal cell resistance being a symptom of degradation.) My Leaf's Hx drops and its SOH drops a small amount each time I QC. Probably due to localized heating inside the cells.

Thank you Chad, Zero Credibility. Fantastic handle you go by!

 

[LiamE]

100 mile conure commute is a perfect Leaf Plus use case.

Thanks Doug, good to know.

 

[Chek]

Hello.
1) you should be good with the range - my 2021 sv supposed to go for 240km and actually does 200, so plus will cover your distance well
2) as first reply said - think about charging - my level 1 charger gives me around 20kw for 12 hours overnight charging - in your case it will be an issue and you either need level 2 charger installed (requires electrician) or rely on charging at work too
3) as per my understanding. 21 and 22 models have absolutely no difference - hence don’t bother about paying more for 22.

 

[LiamE]

One last question, which home charger should I get? I’ve an electrician coming next week to take a look who said he can get whatever I charger I’d like. He’s registered for the
. I need one to be compatible with cheap overnight tarifs from octopus or Edf.
Also, so I’m not taken for a ride, how much should I expect to pay for the charger and the fitting?
I have a smart meter already.

Thanks for any suggestions

 

[LiamE]

Hello.
1) you should be good with the range - my 2021 sv supposed to go for 240km and actually does 200, so plus will cover your distance well
2) as first reply said - think about charging - my level 1 charger gives me around 20kw for 12 hours overnight charging - in your case it will be an issue and you either need level 2 charger installed (requires electrician) or rely on charging at work too
3) as per my understanding. 21 and 22 models have absolutely no difference - hence don’t bother about paying more for 22.

Thanks Chek