Will an '11 handle an 80 mile roundtrip commute in Austin tx

[adric22]

Summer temps can get to around 100 for a few weeks......winters can gets to 35-45. Im thinking this would not be a smart car to buy in this climate, but i love the idea of getting a $12k car and saving $130 a month on gas compared to my ICE car ($2 a gallon now, 22mpg). Over 5 years thats about $8k in gas savings, making the cost of the car essentially $4k over 5 years. But its not worth it if I'm gonna regularly be stranded on the side of the road in the cold winter days on my way home from work.

BTW my commute is to work and i intend to instal a 240 at work so i can charge there. Im just worried about making the 40 mile trip each way on a cold day with a car that has or will have some battery degradation due to the hot summers.

I think with the 240V charger at work, you should be able to accomplish this reasonably well. However, I have found often people with long commutes are often using the highway. What speed are you driving during your commute? If it is mostly freeway, that will change things a good bit.

If this were a brand new Leaf (or at least a 2013 or newer) I'd say this would be no trouble. But with a 2011, I hesitate to give my blessing if you are going to be driving 40 miles each way on the freeway. Besides the battery degradation issue of a 2011, it is going to have more issues on cold days.

You may want to consider a Chevy Volt. You can pickup a used one for a few thousand more than a used Leaf. With charging at work and at home you'd probably be driving close to 95% on electricity, but you would not have to worry about running out of juice on those unusual days.

 

[RonDawg]

Do you think the heated seats make enough of a difference to accomplish what I need?

If you really want a Leaf, in your situation you're better off getting a 2013 or newer model with the hybrid heater. It will have to be an SV or SL model; the Leaf S, and all 2011/2012 models, use a very power hungry resistive-only heater. The 35-45 degree F temps you speak of are perfect for the hybrid heater.

If you will be plugged in to 240 volts both at home and at work, one thing you can do to extend range is (besides using seat/steering wheel heaters as much as possible to reduce cabin heater usage) pre-heating the car at home before you leave for work. You can use a timer, or for the SV/SL models use CarWings, at least until the end of 2016 when AT&T is expected to shut off 2G service that CarWings depends on. During the summer you can use the same timer/CarWings to pre-cool the car before you get into it.

 

[madnessssss]

After doing some more reading on this board, it seems as though the leaf battery is an absolute POS and will need replacing every 60k miles or so, completely eliminating all gas savings. I suppose I'll have to wait until 2020 or so whenever Tesla finally makes a Model E to get what I want out of a car. Dissappointing. It sucks that the tech is there and has been there for years now, yet no major car companies will invest anything in it and do it right. Instead, they put out half assed compromised garbage like the Leaf.

An investment in battery manufacturing 5 years ago would mean big Model S type batteries at lower prices by now, and death to the oil industry. Electric cars with 150 mile range with batteries that will last 20-30 years in cars for $25-$35k should exist already if not for the incompetence of established automakers.

 

[KJD]

After doing some more reading on this board, it seems as though the leaf battery is an absolute POS and will need replacing every 60k miles or so, completely eliminating all gas savings.

Maybe you still need to do some more reading on this forum. The 2015 battery is a different battery than the 2011 and the new battery has a much better chance of living to see the 100,000 miles that you want.

I am sure that there are some 2015 LEAF drivers in Austin. You should be asking them how they like the car.

 

[ksnogas2112]

You must have dependable charging at your destination. If you even 'think' it might not be available you will be stuck.

If I'm using Stoaty's degradation chart correctly, you will be 70% degraded in less than 3 years. This is starting with a 3 year old 2011 with 11 capacity bars and an estimated yearly mileage of 20k miles (80miles*5days*50 weeks)

 

[apvbguy]

BTW my commute is to work and i intend to instal a 240 at work so i can charge there. Im just worried about making the 40 mile trip each way on a cold day with a car that has or will have some battery degradation due to the hot summers.

I can't speak for the car in question but for any LEAF if you cannot do a charge while at work your 80 mile r/t commute is just about impossible to complete. if you cannot charge each and every day while at work, forget about the LEAF. the I3 bev, MB b series, Kia soul E, VW golf E, volt/elr and lastly the mighty Tesla would be better suited to your needs. YMMV

 

[TimLee]

After doing some more reading on this board, it seems as though the leaf battery is an absolute POS and will need replacing every 60k miles or so, completely eliminating all gas savings. I suppose I'll have to wait until 2020 or so whenever Tesla finally makes a Model E to get what I want out of a car. Dissappointing. It sucks that the tech is there and has been there for years now, yet no major car companies will invest anything in it and do it right. Instead, they put out half assed compromised garbage like the Leaf.
...

Although I am glad we at MNL helped remove some of the unrealistic rose colored tint from your glasses, and even though I and many of the early adopters have valid reasons to be irritated with Nissan; however I think your current characterization of Nissan and the LEAF is excessive.

Yes, Nissan did choose to make the early adopters testers of an unproven product and has not done much about it, but they were the first to make a fairly functional all electric vehicle available world wide and they are substantially subsidizing the replacement battery price.

It is neither all rosey which is where you started, or all black and dreadfully awful which appears to be your current perspective :?

 

[Wennfred]

Nope, 80 mile round trips is not going to make it, I am seeing 60 miles right now with some hills and in ECO mode. With 240v Evse on each end it's becomes doable. Need to check your mileage as you could qualify for a replacement battery pack with 4 or 5 lost capacity bars under 60k miles.


Fred

 

[cdub]

If you can charge at work yes. If not... No.

 

[madnessssss]

After doing some more reading on this board, it seems as though the leaf battery is an absolute POS and will need replacing every 60k miles or so, completely eliminating all gas savings. I suppose I'll have to wait until 2020 or so whenever Tesla finally makes a Model E to get what I want out of a car. Dissappointing. It sucks that the tech is there and has been there for years now, yet no major car companies will invest anything in it and do it right. Instead, they put out half assed compromised garbage like the Leaf.
...

Although I am glad we at MNL helped remove some of the unrealistic rose colored tint from your glasses, and even though I and many of the early adopters have valid reasons to be irritated with Nissan; however I think your current characterization of Nissan and the LEAF is excessive.

Yes, Nissan did choose to make the early adopters testers of an unproven product and has not done much about it, but they were the first to make a fairly functional all electric vehicle available world wide and they are substantially subsidizing the replacement battery price.

It is neither all rosey which is where you started, or all black and dreadfully awful which appears to be your current perspective :?

a 3 year old low mileage car that may or may not make it 40 miles without a 4 hour charge is indeed dreadful.

 

[derkraut]

Madnessssss said: "a 3 year old low mileage car that may or may not make it 40 miles without a 4 hour charge is indeed dreadful."

FYI, I have a 3 1/2 yr old low mileage 2011 Leaf that I routinely drive 50+ miles on 100% charge, @ 55-60 mph on the freeway, any time I want. I certainly would not describe my car as being dreadful".:roll:

 

[Reddy]

Let's see if I can bring a realistic point of view. Since you're in Austin, I'll use a local example. How much would you pay for a top-of-the-line Dell laptop computer from 4 yrs ago? And what's the run-time on that 4 yr old battery? Maybe about 50% of the original 4-5 hrs. Now, there are newer laptops with newer, more energy dense batteries that cost less than the original list price. Which would you choose? Choose a product that meets your needs, not necessarily based on price.

Although it's might be hard to imagine, some of us paid upwards of $35-$40K for this "POS" 2011 Leaf. Now a new 2015 with better battery can be had for less than $25K. Used cars are always much less than new, I just wish I had the chance to buy a 4 yr old Leaf back in 2011. I didn't, so that's that. Now, I also know batteries degrade, and I knew that based on my driving pattern, this product would still be useful for 10-20 years, and I was hoping 25. Now maybe that's a bit optimistic, but if needed I can do all of my errands and work in less than 10 miles.

Now if you were smart, you'd figure out how to buy a 2011 with the degraded battery, but less than 60,000 mi so that you could get the battery replaced with a new 2015 variety under warranty. Perhaps you'd even spend the effort to find out about real ways of measuring battery degradation. People here have spent thousands of hours on this stuff, so you might appreciate their efforts. Here, I'll do some of the work for you:
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=17168
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=18905
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=12789
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=14285&hilit=Leaf+Spy

Since the 2011 had an EPA range (not highway, but mixed use) of 75 mi new, then you must be smoking some of that good Austin air, if you think you'll get 40 mi at freeway speeds in another 10 years. This car is most efficient at city speeds and anything over 55 mph really cuts into the range. Even the 2015 model only has an EPA range near 85 mi. Unless you're a pretty efficient driver, or doing mostly around town errands, you'll be disappointed. Remember it's a LEAF (Leading, Environmentally-friendly, Affordable Family car) not a TESLA.

If I were in your situation, I would buy a used 2011, especially one that will get a new battery, and be able to make it work for at least 5 years. Seems like a pretty good deal to me, but then again I pay much more for gasoline and much less for electricity than you good folks in TX. Also, hearing anyone talk about needing heat in TX just makes me laugh. I spent 5 years north of Dallas, and didn't turn on the house furnace for the first two winters. Then again, none of my gas vehicles ever had A/C (even while in TX).

 

[ty1]

Federal and state level tax breaks on a new Leaf made my new 2015 Leaf "cheaper" then a used 2012 in my area.

 

[finman100]

As an FYI to ty1, fill in the 'location' on yer profile so we don't have to guess where these great incentives are. Thanks!

Curt

 

[desiv]

The tax breaks can be great, but two things to remember are that:
-You're paying on the full price, so montly payments are more.
(Unless you take the money you get back and refinance putting it back into the loan I suppose, but that still takes a while.)
-You have to make enough money to qualify for the tax credits in the first place.

As for leasing a new model, you need to be under 12k miles/year or be willing to pay for "miles over."

That said, I agree some of these incentives make much more sense to get new if you can.
(or a great deal on used.. ;-) no State incentives where I live..)

desiv

 

[MrIanB]

Lease a Volt or get a used one. That will solve your problem and worries.

Ian B