Only the battery matters

This rate is really crazy non-sense. For the old 2012 leaf, that is 6.3x the cost of residential energy in NC. Even for newer cars that can charge at faster rates, it will be at least 3x more expensive than using your home's outlet.

It feels like the property management is trying to profit out of these stations, while they advertise it as an amenity to prospective residents.

I am really trying to explore all the options to get a cheap car these days, but it really seems that there is no option which has a cost of ownership below $200/month, which is my limited budget.

Old ICE with lots of miles -> you pay high maintenance

Newer ICE/EV -> you pay in depreciation

Old EV -> you pay overpriced eletricity

nlspace said:

Offer them $2k. They might want to move it.

If it cost $10 to fully charge, and if you only need 10 miles a day, you could charge every 3rd or 4th day. So a whole year would cost you $900 to $1200 for charging, assuming you can't find or figure out a less costly option. Actually charging every other day from 20 to 80% would be quicker and cost less overall. That last little bit to fill it to Full takes a long time at a slow rate, so wouldn't be worth it to use that system for Full charging.

It looks like they are pricing about 35 cents per kwh and assuming the full pull at 7.2kW. Since the laef is only 3.3kW charger then the actual usage is only like a buck/hour, so they would be making money when you plugged in.

i was driving a 6-bar 2012 about 26 miles a day until it got rear end totaled. It would show about 40 to 45 miles range when fully charged depending upon temperature and how it was driven, but my average was around 4.8 to 5 miles per kwh in town driving.

Maybe you can find a charger priced upon actual usage instead of flat rate?

Click to expand...

At $2k I guess I would still buy it, but that seems like very low. It is really hard for an owner to see a nice car with everything (except the battery) looking pretty new going away for the cost of a falling apart 2000s ICE with 200k miles. But the worst case, I get a no.

I dont think I have any external outlet in my apartment and I am certainly not allowed to extend a cable from my window to the car in the parking lot. (Although it is just a few feet away)

I will talk to management tomorrow about these absurd rates and see what they say, but the odds for me joining you guys as an EV owner look pretty slim at this point.

Sort of a shame because there aren't many people around who would benefit from an old 6 bar Leaf.

Nice analysis. You seem to be able to get to the heart of the matter quickly. Good for you.

Maybe you can find another Leaf 2013+ for a similar price. They can be very cheap transportation but if you have to pay for charging by the hour - not so much. Good luck.

shortRunsOnly said:

I am really trying to explore all the options to get a cheap car these days, but it really seems that there is no option which has a cost of ownership below $200/month, which is my limited budget.

Old EV -> you pay overpriced eletricity

Sort of a shame because there aren't many people around who would benefit from an old 6 bar Leaf.

Click to expand...

The cost of charging does not change with EV car value.

If your Apt is expensive charging, then look for charging elsewhere. Plugshare.com is a great aid to finding charging

Neighbor
At work
Close to work
Another Apt

SageBrush said:

shortRunsOnly said:

I am really trying to explore all the options to get a cheap car these days, but it really seems that there is no option which has a cost of ownership below $200/month, which is my limited budget.

Old EV -> you pay overpriced eletricity

Sort of a shame because there aren't many people around who would benefit from an old 6 bar Leaf.

Click to expand...

The cost of charging does not change with EV car value.

If your Apt is expensive charging, then look for charging elsewhere. Plugshare.com is a great aid to finding charging

Neighbor
At work
Close to work
Another Apt

Click to expand...

I am looking at all the options, but here in my area, I can only find some L2 spots. I would have to go to these places, plug the car, and wait 3h. Repeat 2x a week. Seems very inconvenient.

I've been able to expand my charging options with a portable electric scooter I keep in the car. So long as the charging is within about 2 miles of where I want to be for 2 - 6 hours, it has worked quite well. Admittedly though, I have not tried it in bad weather.

Ended up purchasing a cheap ICE with low (<150k) mileage. Hope it does the trick for me.

Sad I wont be able to join you guys here. Thanks everyone for sharing the knowledge and helping in this decision.

No problem. What did you get? I used to help friends shop for cars.

shortRunsOnly said:

Ended up purchasing a cheap ICE with low (<150k) mileage. Hope it does the trick for me.

Sad I wont be able to join you guys here. Thanks everyone for sharing the knowledge and helping in this decision.

Click to expand...

You made the right, practical decision. Hopefully you found an old Honda or Toyota that will be economical to run and low maintenance too.

Unfortunately, I couldnt find a good Honda or Toyota in my price range that wasnt too old or had less that 200k miles.

So, I ended up with a 2007 Saturn Ion Coupe. 121k miles, single-owner. For $2500, I think it was a decent deal. I got a professional mechanic to inspect it and the only thing he found was a bad valve gasket and a flat spare tire.

The owner was a retired policewoman which was really nice, so that helped me buy it too.

Good luck, hopefully you'll get some useful life from the Saturn for now and be able to buy an EV when home charging for condo owners/renters is more mature and affordable.

Saturns, like most American cars of the era, are subject to what I call the "100,000 mile Blues" in which multiple parts wear out in a relatively short time, but hopefully this one has already had all those parts replaced. They are fairly good cars aside from that.

Hope you are right!