Valdemar said:bhicks said:I keep hearing about the original packs loosing bars. I have found a few ads for leafs that mention only 5-6 bars available and they only have 40-50k on the odometer. That seems like a terrible design. There is no chance that car will ever hit 100k. What is the solution to that? All the threads I found about battery replacement were extremely vague on the cost to do that. I found one thread that mentioned price but it said $10,000 for the battery. Is that correct? If so, that's insane. That basically means that when the battery dies the cars has zero value since the cost of a used 1st gen with good battery is less then the repair. It's like owning a disposable car. You drive it until the battery runs out then just junk it. That may not be a bad approach if the batteries can go 500k but if they can't even get close to 100k then these cars seem like a technology joke.
There is capacity warranty for up to 60 months/60000 miles, if the car drops to 8 bars or less Nissan will replace the battery under this warranty, so a 2011 car with 6 capacity bars that has 40-50k on the odometer may be a good find as you can get a free new battery. You should confirm with Nissan if the car is eligible for such warranty replacement before buying.
Out of pocket battery replacement will cost 5-6k, one of the MNL members just recently got his replaced for $5,500.
Yes, 2011 cars were not a good investment as it turned out. I expect to be able to squeeze 120,000 miles out of my battery but with greatly reduced range, so I will have to charge on the road more and more. It all depends how far you need to drive daily, if all you need is 30-40 miles and have a second car for occasional long trip the Leaf will be usable for quite a while.
After talking with my insurance company and now finding out the cost in battery replacement every 100-120k I have some numbers and they don't bode well for the Leaf. I average about 40,000 miles a year in driving my car. If I get 120k out of a new battery, then every 3 years I spend around 6K on an new battery. That's 2k a year for battery cost plug another $1500-$2k a year in electric bill. A 35mpg communter car like a Kia forte or something will end up costing almost the exact same amount in fuel as I will spend in electricity and battery replacement. There are still a couple unknowns that still may make the Leaf more affordable. Are there any tax incentives for buying a used EV? Is the cost of registration in CA less for an EV?