Nubo said:
No one can tell you the value of QC; it depends on how they're deployed in your area and whether or not they're conveniently located and reliable enough to facilitate longer trips you'd want to make with the vehicle, and how important that ability is to you.
Yep, along w/their pricing and as part of reliability, not only that of the equipment but whether the spot is frequently ICEd or blocked or whether there's a long line. NRG EVgo is a ripoff (http://www.nrgevgo.com/san-francisco-bay-area/) and apparently their billing system is horrible and a total waste of time to deal with when there are problems. Blink is a ripoff at $0.59/kWh to DC FC in the Bay Area. Those are basically almost all the DC FC choices available in the Bay Area.
When Boardwalk Nissan in Redwood City's DC FC was free (where I leased my 1st Leaf from), there were apparently long lines. I never used it once since it was nowhere near me and I'd not want to use it to go from the South Bay (where I am) to/from SF due to the lines and very limited hours. I recall someone posted in the Bay Area Leaf FB group that they were DC FCing and 5 Leafs were in line behind them.
The above DC FC is no longer free, so I'd guess there are few lines anymore, maybe except Nissan NCTC users (I never had that and still don't). And, I have no CHAdeMO inlet on my current Leaf, so it's moot now.
Nubo said:
Personally I enjoy having the QC option. It did facilitate a few long trips in our 2012. My 2015 is a year old now and I have only QC'd one time, at the dealership when I picked up the car. And my area is rife with QC stations. But if the need crops up, I want the option.
For me, it wasn't worth $1K to $1.5K extra. That buys me a LOT of gas for my Prius and less headache, anxiety, waiting and inconvenience. Even at $1K premium, $3.50/gal and if I only achieved 40 mpg in my Prius, that buys me over 285 gallons and would propel my Prius over 11.4K miles.
So, really, I want to pay that premium for the privilege of paying WAY more per mile to DC FC than it does to drive my Prius (and the above)? And, I'll barely ever use it? No thanks. I'm not hardcore like Tony Williams.
In 2 years, on my 1st Leaf, I successfully used my CHAdeMO inlet 16 times, all of which were on free DC FCs (weren't many then and aren't many now). In every case, I didn't actually really need the juice. I was sorta passing by and figured I could pick some up while catching up on a few things on my phone.
IIRC, all 3/4 or all 4 of the free DC FCs I ever used are no longer free. Even with free DC FCing, the cost of the inlet makes each of those charges rather expensive. Then there's the whole time, value, money equation.
Nubo said:
My primary consideration in a used LEAF would be the battery. Invest in the OBDII dongle and the Leaf Spy smartphone app so you can get the real detailed battery info from the car. The difference between a decent battery and a degraded one far outweighs all the other value considerations, imho.
Yes, quite important. I made sure the used candidates didn't reside in hot climates (e.g. Phoenix) and I used Leaf Spy on them.