Why would anyone buy a nissan leaf right now???

[GaleHawkins]

A Leaf can make sense if one charges at home and never use over 40

[dmacarthur]

I don't anticipate driving long range with the Leaf often, but I'm disappointed that my brand new car was built with completely obsolete charging technology. Ask me next week, but if someone asked me, "Why would anyone but a Nissan Leaf right now?" the answer would be that nobody should.

I am going to predict that you will not regret this purchase as much after you get an EVSE installed at home and find out where the ChadeMo locations are- we have had Leafs for over 5 years and essentially charge all the time from home, at night getting off-peak rates. The DCFC system is OK for traveling, at least in the Northeast, thruway trips are relatively trouble-free and we don't mind waiting half an hour or so every 3 hours to get a charge and a snack. Think of it this way: as there become fewer ChadeMo cars on the road the lines for the EVSE will become shorter!

[WetEV]

Since I didn't have a way to charge at home, I had to confront the public charging realities much sooner than I would have otherwise. I gingerly drove to several broken charging stations before finding an L2 charger. Given that it only charges 10%/h,

This rate is fine if you are at home, resting, eating, playing, sleeping. Even with a Tesla or something nicer you will find charging at home is a real plus when compared with ICE cars. Even 120V aka L1 aka granny charging aka trickle charging is better than waiting for a public charger.

BTW: the rate was probably slow because the battery was cold. After a long drive, the battery will be warmer, and will charge faster in the winter. In the summer, the reverse.

I see that even the 2023 Nissan Ariya uses CCS, so it appears that the Leaf is the only car sold in the US that uses CHAdeMO. I have to assume that in 3-5 years, there will be virtually no CHAdeMO chargers left in the US. If I had known that, I would have either bought a Tesla Model 3 or waited 6-12 months for how the EV market and supply chain issues shook out.

As there will be Chademo cars on the road for more than a decade, I'd guess that there will be some Chademo support for that long. Several brands are still installing 1 Chademo for every CCS. Getting to and from Sleeping Buffalo, MT will always be a problem, however.

I don't anticipate driving long range with the Leaf often, but I'm disappointed that my brand new car was built with completely obsolete charging technology. Ask me next week, but if someone asked me, "Why would anyone but a Nissan Leaf right now?" the answer would be that nobody should.

When I bought my Leaf there was no Chademo chargers in Washington State, and I thought I'd never use the fast charging port. Charging at home and/or work means a very pleasant commute, and that was my entire plan at that point. That plan still works, and will work even after the very last Chademo in North America is scrapped.

[DougWantsALeaf]

120 new Chademo Locations in Jan 2023 alone.

https://www.reddit.com/r/leaf/comments/ ... are_button

[frontrangeleaf]

EVGO just installed 6 bays at our local King Soopers, all 1:1 CCS to Chademo.

Not of any interest to us, as it's about a mile from our house, but there you go. Still being deployed as new.

[ENIAC]

I wonder if used LEAF sales are increasing as a result of the used EV tax credit? The sale has to be through a dealer and you get a 30% tax credit up to $4,000.

[SageBrush]

I wonder if used LEAF sales are increasing as a result of the used EV tax credit? The sale has to be through a dealer and you get a 30% tax credit up to $4,000.

Not in play yet

[SageBrush]

I don't anticipate driving long range with the Leaf often, but I'm disappointed that my brand new car was built with completely obsolete charging technology. Ask me next week, but if someone asked me, "Why would anyone but a Nissan Leaf right now?" the answer would be that nobody should.

You can see by the other responses that people realize the LEAF is not a general purpose car. I found the LEAF use case unacceptable since I wanted to only own one car. However, I really am not tempted by long drives so I bought a Bolt that would let me travel ~ 200 miles one way without aggravation. In the Bolt DC charging is slow but widespread enough for where I might travel, and improving rapidly. For the odd trip that the Bolt is a poor choice I'll rent a Tesla.

CHAdeMO is on the way out, often broken, and not maintained. That is today. In the future it will be worse. I really do think that a LEAF buyer should view the car as not having DC charging. Doing otherwise is likely to lead to buyer's remorse.

As said above, your slow DC charging was due to a cold battery. Tesla and a few other EVs warm up the battery before you arrive at the charging station to solve this problem. It is usually called 'battery pre-conditioning.' LEAF does not have this feature

The above covers winter charging and DC charging. The LEAF has other major problems, including rapid gating in the summer (presuming DC charging is available), and more rapid battery degradation compared to EVs with battery pack thermal control. Then you get to consider the generally poor experience at Nissan dealerships, sky high repair costs in the context of overall good reliability, and absolutely terrible customer service from Nissan.

I would not go so far as to say that nobody should buy a LEAF, but I think it better be dirt cheap. The LEAF I owned cost me $7k to buy. That made for a high value ownership experience.

[Wakyak]

120 new Chademo Locations in Jan 2023 alone.

https://www.reddit.com/r/leaf/comments/ ... are_button

That's reassuring. I had heard late last year that more charging stations were coming but I didn't expect them to roll out so quickly.

[DougWantsALeaf]

I haven't looked closely in other parts of the country, but a handful of new Chseo locations appeared in Chicagoland just in the past couple months. Not much luck with the barren middle of Illinois getting more infra though.

Kia/Hyundai dealers (and Nissan) are mainly adding the dual handles, so very happy to have more choices.