cgaydos
Well-known member
Marilynfan said:Now my next question is would a 2012 suit my needs (and save me some $) or do I need the better heater of the 2013? I just contacted a Leaf dealer in my area to see when they expected to see the 2013s and was told June or July. They do have a 2012 in stock I can go and take a look at. If you were me would you wait?
How about the quick charge option - I can't see how I would ever be able to use it as there are no chargers in my area to use it. I don't imagine Nissan provides roadside assistance that can give you a L3 charge?
2012 now vs. 2013 later - that is an interesting trade-off, and a lot of it depends on the price discount you'd get for the 2012.
The 2013s have a lot of advantages over the 2012 - the big ones are: more range (the EPA numbers are misleading on this as they changed the rating system for 2013, but it's actually a sizable boost), a more efficient heat pump instead of a heating coil, and the 6.6 kW charger (optional) which cuts level 2 charging time in almost half if you have a 30 amp level 2 EVSE. As people have gained experience with the 2013s they'd found lots of other little things that have been done to improve the overall car and experience.
But the 2012 and 2011 are still LEAFs, they still do the job (the numbers I gave you were for my 2012), and for a significant enough discount the 2012 might be a better choice. It really depends on how much you value those new features.
The L3 QC port is a nice feature, as others have said, if you have an L3 station available. I have a QC in both our LEAFs but they've never been used because there is no L3 station in Colorado. If L3 stations do arrive that would greatly increase the usable round-trip range of our LEAFs. So the value of these ports depends entirely on the unknown of when future L3 stations are available. No, I known of no QC charge from road-side assistance.