Need an Opinion

Hey guys,

I am a Volt owner and I would like get my wife a Leaf. Here are the facts

Looking for USED leaf budget of 12K
Wife drives 29.3 miles one way , and 27 of these miles are highway miles.
Average speed on HWY is about 65 miles.
We live in Chicago Suburbs

Based on the facts above; can I buy 24KWH battery pack Leaf or do I need to go with 30Kwh battery pack which puts it out of my price range.
For 12K what is the best I can get around ILLINOIS?

Clearly, I do not want get yelled at by my wife and sleep on the couch. That is my real dilemma.

Thank you

Short answer: Buy her an ICE, a PHEV, or a hybrid.

Others will provide the longer answer.

Jedlacks said:

Short answer: Buy her an ICE, a PHEV, or a hybrid.

Click to expand...

+1

Women tend to love Priuses, and the Prius PHEV gets fantastic MPG, with just enough EV range to get her ready for an EV in a few years. You might be able to find a used 2012 for that price. If not, a Prius II is a good choice.

Although I agree somewhat with the others, let's try to provide a little more body to the answer.

1) Does your wife have workplace charging? And is she willing to plug-in at work?

If no to either, then you should get her a plug-in hybrid, prius, etc.

Here's the reasoning:

At 65mph and a 60-mile round-trip commute, you're barely at the limit of how far you can take the leaf and still baby the battery. Come winter, her range on a 100% charge might barely make it (on new batteries), but any drop in capacity will leave her stranded unless she's willing to charge at or near work.

Your other option is to go for a lease on a 30kwh 2016 SV or SL. They are desperate to move them in regions where they are in stock, and the way these leases usually work, it's no more expensive than financing a new car should she like it enough to want to keep it and buy it off-lease. If not, she can turn it in, for a total of maybe $10k over three years.

I agree with the others. My suggestion is buy a used Volt. I checked Cars.com and found several used Volts within your budget around the Chicago area. These cars tended to be in the 60-70k mile range but with the Volt's dual propulsion and pretty robust battery this should not be a problem.

We're also in the Chicago 'burbs and our '12 LEAF is down a bar of capacity but the longest work commute in our household is about 32 miles R/T ... not each way and really only a short (maybe 5 miles) stretch at 50 MPH. Yesterday, our LEAF left the house with an indicated 90 miles of range and we did a 32.5 R/T from home to Addison, IL and back mostly along RT 355 and 290 averaging between 65 and 70 MPH; A/C running -- so while you might think we had close to 58 miles of range when we returned home --- not even close; about 33 miles left (of course this is with the early LEAF's poor GOM display) --- speeds over 50 to 55 will really kill the range, less so with A/C but even worse with the heater running. As we had some more errands to run (but at much lower speeds) I charged at home on my L2 240V charger for a little over an hour to get me up to about 47 miles of range. As you do NOT want to get that dreaded call from your SO that the car just died, get a Volt or take the $12K and do a one-payment lease with a new LEAF until ranges get better. We have 4 cars and 3 drivers so we all have an alternate car to drive if the trip is simply not feasible due to distance, speeds or temps -- the 24 kW LEAF would be right at the limit on a 60 mile R/T on 65 MPH highways with not much to spare; doubtful it would make it at all in sub-zero temps (mine stays home when we have real cold weather).

Don't get me wrong -- we love the LEAF but have lived with it for close to 5 years now and know its limitations --- never been stranded yet!