LEAF alternatives available nationwide

What other BEVs are available nationwide?

For each BEV,
- Can any of them be ordered even if they're not stocked nationwide?
- If you buy one and ship it to a state that doesn't sell them, can they be serviced?

Cars I can think of:

Cars that are nationally available

• Nissan LEAF
• BMW i3
• Tesla Model S
• Ford Focus electric

Cars that seem fairly serious that for some reason I was under the impression might eventually be distributed nationally

• Kia Soul EV
• VW eGolf
• Mercedes B-class

All the others seem pure compliance cars with no plan to go nationwide, but thats just my impression.

• Fiat 500e
• Chevy Spark EV
• Honda Fit - no longer made
• Toyota RAV4 - no longer made

dm33 said:

What other BEVs are available nationwide?

For each BEV,
- Can any of them be ordered even if they're not stocked nationwide?
- If you buy one and ship it to a state that doesn't sell them, can they be serviced?

Cars I can think of:

Cars that are nationally available

• Nissan LEAF
• BMW i3
• Tesla Model S
• Ford Focus electric

Cars that seem fairly serious that for some reason I was under the impression might eventually be distributed nationally

• Kia Soul EV
• VW eGolf
• Mercedes B-class

All the others seem pure compliance cars with no plan to go nationwide, but thats just my impression.

• Fiat 500e
• Chevy Spark EV
• Honda Fit - no longer made
• Toyota RAV4 - no longer made

Click to expand...

Ford Focus Electric, none on the dealer lots in my town http://www.inventory.ford.com/dealer/Lance-Cunningham-Ford-05613/dealerLot/?zipcode=37901&model=Focus%20Electric&segment=Hybrid&lang=en&branding=1 only selling about 150 a month per the http://insideevs.com/monthly-plug-in-sales-scorecard/ I think I'd move that down to the middle group until they can start either selling like hotcakes or at least stock them in major cities across the country.

Not that these are really Leaf alternatives, but there are the Smart ForTwo ED, Tesla Model X and Mitsubishi i-Miev.

Honda Fit EV is no longer made, but I was under the impression that Honda was re-leasing ones that were turned in at the end of their original leases, some of them anyway.

Regarding the term "nationwide", technically speaking the Leaf is not available in Alaska, since that state's only two Nissan dealers are not Leaf-certified. In some other states, Leaf-certified (and sometimes all) Nissan dealers are so sparse that it's effectively a sales ban; for example, in Nevada there is only one Leaf-certified dealer outside of the greater Las Vegas area, and it's in Reno. The next nearest dealer to the west is on I-80 in Shingle Springs, CA, the next one to the east is all the way in the Salt Lake City area.

Let's not forget that Tesla is officially not available in any state that has outlawed their sales model, like Texas. Yeah you could buy one in a state where it is sold and import it and register it yourself, but that's no different than buying a 500e or Chevy Spark EV and bringing it to a state where it's not normally sold.

For what its worth we run a Smart ED Cabrio. Absolutely love the car and it has LOTS of Jam. On the highway we pretty much keep our limit at 120 KM but around town 150 KM seems to be a reasonable expectation. Honestly we seldom go more than 60 KM in a day. Level 2 charging only is its biggest limitation. 17K will buy a non convertible. Around 20K will get you a convertible. Probably the most fun car we have ever owned. We will be replacing our our other oil burner in a couple years and it will probably be a leaf as we need four seats for one of our cars. Hence I'm here learning about leafs.

RonDawg said:

Let's not forget that Tesla is officially not available in any state that has outlawed their sales model, like Texas. Yeah you could buy one in a state where it is sold and import it and register it yourself, but that's no different than buying a 500e or Chevy Spark EV and bringing it to a state where it's not normally sold.

Click to expand...

It is different. I live in Dallas, where Tesla sales are "outlawed", but they have a service center in Addison (next to Dallas). If you were to "import" one of those CARB state compliance vehicles to a non-CARB state, you wouldn't be able to get them serviced. There are many reports of people importing RAV4-EVs and being unable to get them serviced at their local dealer.

OP: Why do you want a LEAF alternative? Or are you just cataloging the options?

aarond12 said:

OP: Why do you want a LEAF alternative? Or are you just cataloging the options?

Click to expand...

Lease coming to an end and will be forced to get another car. Evaluating options.

• We don't want to extend again. Car will be out of warranty etc.
• New lease on a new LEAF might be double what we paid. We checked lease prices a few months after getting our 2013 and for the exact same vehicle, they were asking double what we paid. When our lease is up its up. We'll have to get a car and can't delay. So we can't wait around for better deals to show up.
• Buy a used LEAF. East coast inventory is very sparse. Can't get them from far away. Prices sometimes too high. Basically far and few between. Again we'll be in a time crunch.
• Get some other EV. Nissan has disappointed lately refusing to sell the 30kwh battery for older LEAFs and trying to stiff customers on warranty if they have 60,002 miles when their battery drops below 66% capacity as reported by their bars.

If we were in California we'd have plenty of choices. But in NC, its a different story. We've considered the i3. They're having lease deals on that right now. It seems a little small inside and more expensive. We may take a look but unlikely to pull the trigger.

Kia Soul EV might work, except you can't officially get it here, and if you could, they can't service it.

I'd be interested in the VW eGolf. They're having good lease deals. But can't get them here. I thought VW had made claims of going nationwide, but it seems just empty talk and its nothing more than a compliance vehicle.

I looked at a Mercedes B-class. Very nice. Good room, nice trunk. Like the longer range. But expensive and not available here.

I was hoping someone would chime in and say that some car that isn't officially available can be ordered here even if its not in stock.

We're planning to pre-order the Model 3 in March, but need a car to tide us over a few years until it actually becomes available.

Just because the Ford Focus Electric is not stocked in your area doesn't mean it's not available nationwide. You can go into any certified Ford dealership in any state and place an order for a Ford Focus Electric... not that anyone would want to do that... But you could.

The same is not true of cars like the Kia Soul EV and the VW e-Golf. Dealerships outside of designated markets are prevented from placing orders for these cars. It doesn't matter if you have the training and ability to service these cars. The manufacturer won't permit their sale. People usually call these compliance cars, but they may be artificially limiting supply for other reasons than compliance.

Below is a cut and paste from a smart car board that I posted. I thought it may be relevant for those considering a second vehicle. Although I am thinking that we may not end up with a leaf as our second electric vehicle, the reality is, although Angela is now changing her mind on a 4 seater commuter, I still think it may have some merit....but having said that I think I'll probably still need to borrow her smart for my fun car fix once or twice a week. Below is the cut and paste...but remember I still seem to be changing my mind every few days...or more often. Honestly I think I like the leaf better than the e-golf from a classy car point of view.

"So, as some of you know, once we bought our smart ED this summer and were completely hooked on the e-experience we decided that during our winter time off we would check out various electric vehicles so we would be better informed when we replace our CDI in 2018 when we get back from europe. So Angela has been mentioning that she would probably like a 4 seater this time. We have driven the leaf which she was lukewarm on, so assuming that maybe the e-golf will make it into Canada we decided to try one out here. Angela quickly realized what having a 4 seater means as far as size and anything as big as an E golf or Leaf is probably out of the question if she is the principal driver.

So what were our impressions...or at least mine.

Nice car, tight, doors close nice, reasonably quiet, reasonably ergonomically friendly or at least I could get used to it,...I guess. Overall a very nice appliance...er..car

The acceleration felt similar to the smart although I think the smart is faster from 0 to 60 KMH. I think the golf was faster from 60 to 110. Not as much road feel, With the smart you kind of point it, with the golf you kinda steer it, probably a result of it being bigger.

Good storage. Nav was OK although I tend to never use that kinda stuff. Remember, this is supposed to be for Angela. I always get her hand-me-downs. I got her grand style CDI and she got the new ED. I got her Iphone 4S and she got the 6. She gets new underwear and I get....well,..you get the picture.

Really for me the e-golf only had three draw backs,

1. It had a roof.
2. It had a back seat.
3. It was 36,000 US dollars or roughly twice what we paid four our Smart ED brand new.

So, assuming nothing similar to the smart 453 ED comes out between now and 2018, we are leaning towards the smart...again.

All of this of course, JMHO"