JimSouCal said:
I am in the same camp. I bought the car with reduced expectations of the battery as compared to others. On the other hand, I expected much greater quick charge deployment. I remain happy (so far) with the LEAF.
Me too. But I don't think mwalsh's expectations were unreasonable. Nissan touted 100 mile range and 70% battery in 10 years, so he could have expected 70 miles at the end of 10 years, adequate for his 61 mile requirement. As backup he could count the promise of widespread L2 and QC infrastructure, the possibility of L2 charging at work, the expectation that Nissan would
of course offer replacement batteries for sale, and the expectation that future batteries would have higher capacity and lower price.
Myself, I made sure the car had ample range for my daily commute, plus occasional errands doubling that mileage, plus occasional evening trips downtown, even with battery degradation to 70% in 10 years. There were to be charging stations at many retailers like Starbucks and movie theaters and there were to be something like 40 QC stations in town within a year or two - probably at least 20 by the time my car arrived. If anything unexpected happened I'd just go to my neighborhood Arco station, which planned to install a QC, for a quick fill up. Instead there are 3 operational QC stations in the region, plus 3 Blink QC stations one of which is definitely broken and the other two which might or might not work. There are also 2 new evGo stations which are scheduled to become operational "any day now" - the same status those 40 Blink stations had for the past couple of years.
The car still works fine for me because, as an engineer, I was so conservative in my assumptions. But also I thought that Nissan would be conservative in its engineering assumptions. Sure I was making a bet buying the car, but Nissan was betting the company on the car. They had been testing batteries for decades, including years of testing in the Arizona desert heat. They had much more information than I did about battery performance and future battery developments. If they'd bet the company on battery degradation to 70% in 10 years worldwide including places like Arizona then I'd bet the way the smart money was betting and purchase the car rather than lease.
I still recommend Leaf for people whose driving patterns fit its real world range. But in the absence of a battery replacement price I can only recommend leasing, not purchase. And if I were shopping today it would be a close decision between leasing a new Leaf and buying a Chevy Volt with thermal management and, in the absence of much public charging infrastructure, the real world ability to go about the same EV distance as Leaf.