The First 30,000, take it or Leaf it.

[NavyCuda]

My previous daily driver is still probably my favorite car.  A 1994 Infiniti Q45 I affectionately named "Precious".  Precious is powered by an all aluminum, dual overhead cam 4.5L V8 engine rated for 278hp and 292ft.lbs of torque.  Precious is very picky about the fuel she will burn, so I had to run Chevron 94 octane which has no ethanol.  I would have much preferred to buy my fuel from the Co-op, but their fuel has ethanol.  My commute is 125km, round trip.  So with errands and the other little stops of life, that puts me well into 3000km a month.  Precious, on a good day would net around 13.5L/100km, couple that with premium fuel and I was looking at a fuel bill of around $600/month.  Being an Infiniti, parts for upkeep are not cheap, I only use premium consumables and OEM parts, so my total monthly operating cost before insurance was around $800/month.

 

One day I went into my local Nissan dealership, Abbotsford Nissan, to get oil filters for Precious and our Maxima as both use the same filter, 15208-55Y0A.  I had been following the Nissan Leaf with some curiosity and decided to have a closer look at one while I was there.  After sitting in the car, getting a bit of a demo, I went home.  I started running the numbers, using rough estimates based off internet experiences with the Leaf and figured the monthly operating cost for the Leaf would be somewhere under $600 a month.  The issue was range, especially as the car would age and battery degradation would become a problem.  So I asked my employer if they would let me put in a charging station(EVSE- Electric Vehicle Service Equipment), which is really just a massively overpriced extension cord as the charger is in the car itself.  When my employer said yes, I went and bought the car.  I didn't test drive it, so I was rather nervous the first time I drove my 2015 Leaf SV.

 

The first couple weeks with the car I was watching energy consumption closely, figuring out how far I could push the range if I needed to.  In the third week I realized that with having charging on both ends of my commute there was no need to hold up traffic so I started to drive it like a normal car. For the most part, driving the Leaf resembles driving an automatic.

 

There are three mode selections, R, D and B. R is reverse, pretty self explanatory. D is drive, also pretty self explanatory. B is battery mode, which enables full regenerative braking when the throttle is released and without the brake pedal being depressed. This makes it possible to drive with just the throttle for the majority of my commute save for the places where I need to come to a complete stop or traffic conditions dictate I need more braking force. In R, D or B, from a dead stop, releasing the brakes will cause the car to creep in the selected direction behaving very much like an automatic transmission would.

 

Passing is where things get a little bit different, though not by much. The first time I decided to pass someone I followed the same procedure I would with precious. First I verify it's safe to pass, then I commit to the maneuver, depress the throttle completely and shoulder check for safety. With precious, the transmission needs time to downshift, the engine needs time to build RPM and by the time I'm done shoulder checking I'm starting to accelerate. The Leaf responds immediately to throttle input, so when I fully depressed the throttle and started to shoulder check, the Leaf jumped forward. It actually scared me a bit because I had to abandon my passing maneuver and get on the brakes so I wouldn't rear end the person in front of me. The Leaf doesn't need much, if any run-up for passing, which actually agitates traffic a bit because they think I'm tailgating when in reality I'm ready to pass. I've since gone back to using a bit of a run up to try and prevent people from accelerating during the passing maneuver to stop me from getting back in the lane

 

In terms of driver fatigue, the Leaf has the least driver fatigue of any vehicle I've driven. Even though precious is a luxury sedan, the Leaf is quieter, smoother and doesn't need the attention precious does.

 

The seats are quite comfortable, the interior design is decent although it does show that the Leaf is without question a previous generation of interior design. From a technology standpoint, mine is the SV model, so it has navigation, bluetooth hands-free, heated steering wheel, heated seats and a few other of the goodies we've become accustomed to. My iPhone 5s paired to the car without issue other than the hands free text messaging doesn't work. I can use siri through bluetooth for that, so not a big loss. The navigation system is passable but the voice recognition is terrible. During one drive where I knew mostly where I was going, but needed some direction to the exact location, it took 20 minutes of a 25 minute drive to get the navigation to understand the street number. Terrible.

 

Exterior design, well, I bought it as an appliance. My sales person, the sales manager and the finance manager were all trying to convince me that it is a good looking car. It isn't. It's ugly, to a degree that puts it in a class of its own. After owning it for a year the design has grown on me, but it's still ugly. I understand the engineering reasons behind having the headlights protrude out of the body like like two angry zits, but it's still ugly!

 

The operating costs ended up coming in better than I expected even with me driving the car hard and being well below the normal energy average for most EV drivers. Most EV drivers are in the 6.2km/kWh area, I never manage more than 5.2km/kWh. Since owning the Leaf, it has given me the ability to visualize a kWh like I have never been able to before. My employer won't let me pay for the electricity I use at work, so I only have to pay for one half of my commute, which works out to $30-40/month in electricity. It's worth noting though, that here in BC I never pay more than $0.12/kWh. In some areas, high electricity rates and the lower price of fuel now will have a major effect on the economics of owning electric. A quick and interesting comparison: My wifes maxima gets about 9.5L/100, converting the energy of gasoline to kWh, that works out to around 85kWh/100km. The Leaf works out to around 19kWh/100km, with charging losses. Proving that electricity is far more efficient for producing rotational force.

 

I was in a collision, two actually, both not my fault. This is where the Leaf starts to become an issue. The Leaf is one of the worst depreciating vehicles on the market, this means that having a claim on the car has eliminated its miniscule resale value. I have to eat that loss in value, meaning I can't trade it in against the next generation Leaf when it is released. The insurance company(family insurance, my collision coverage) doesn't care about accelerated depreciation and while I could try to sue ICBC for the accelerated depreciation, it would cost me more than I would get back. I also was refused the loss of use coverage I paid for because my dog comes to work with me. Rental companies don't want dogs in their cars, something I understand as I have allergies. I suggested that they pay for permits on one of my other vehicles that my dog is allowed to ride in, I was denied. I was told that bringing my dog to work is a choice, when it's not a choice. They also refused to cover my fuel costs, as my entire budget is based around the EV. So I went a month without work because I couldn't get wheels. When my Leaf was finished, the right side bearing was shot so I was bringing the car back to the body shop to show them it needed to be replaced, someone turned left across a painted island, right in front of me, collision number two. Now with $20,000ish of damage, it has no resale value, Nissan won't even look at it for a trade in. However I must commend my bodyshop, Fix Auto Abbotsford West, who went out of their way to get me into a car. They have one company Leaf that was a managers car at another location. They took the Leaf away from him, waived the no-pet requirement and provided me with a car to get to and from work. I've put 3500km on their Leaf so far.

 

So the end to that last little story is this, if you're going to buy an electric car in BC, avoid family insurance at all cost. They will not write the car off unless the damage exceeds 100% of the retail value of the car, even in the first year. ICBC will write it off at 50% of the retail value in the first year. When I re insured the car, I went all ICBC, with lower deductibles and my payments went down by $10/month. The other issue is that Family Insurance has very poor customer service, they're difficult to get in contact with as a customer. I've had to eat around $3000 in lost wages so that was the first and last time I'll ever use third party insurance.

 

So in 35,000km of Leaf experience, I've come to love the Leaf and I wouldn't entertain the idea of owning anything else for my daily commute. If I need to go anywhere further away than the Leaf can take me, it gives me an excuse to drive precious.

[RGProductions]

Just now, Wedsea040 said:

I'll stick with my Porsche, thank you very much . Nice review though!

ooh, what Porsche?

[NavyCuda]

13 minutes ago, Wedsea040 said:

I'll stick with my Porsche, thank you very much . Nice review though!

My 300zx Twin Turbo is my go-to fast car.  It's red and a total heat score.  Terrible as a daily driver and the dog hates it!

[RGProductions]

Just now, Wedsea040 said:

2013 Panamera GTS

nice

 

[NavyCuda]

13 minutes ago, Wedsea040 said:

Nice! I would be scared to bring my dog in the Porsche, he vomits any time we drive him anywhere.

 

Mine is a Rhodisian Ridge back, he can't lay down in the front seat, ends up leaning against the door with a paw on the arm rest or window sill.  He looks like I beat him when I ask him to get into it.   

[Overkilled]

I was honestly expecting a Leafy thread 4/10 IGN

[ShadowCaptain]

Id rather die than get a leaf  

 

id never want to get out of it for fear people will realise that its my car!!

 

personally waiting for the model 3, but for now im happy with my 07 Audi A4 although im getting another car in a few months

[NavyCuda]

Yeah I know what you mean.. Getting bothered by the granola girls is also a hassle.

 

Plus the stupid questions: Can it actually go 60mph?!. Does it have AC?!. 

 

The low operating cost makes it completely worth while.. It's faired two collisions rather well too, so it's a pretty tough car.

[NavyCuda]

My Leaf is still not sorted out since the first collision and is at Nissan.  They provided me a 2016 Leaf SV as a loaner.

 

The 30kWh battery makes a noticeable difference in range.  With the 24kWh, I would get to work with 50% charge remaining(62.5km), with the 30kWh I arrive with 68% remaining.

 

The steering is a bit lighter which I like and the headunit reads my USB stick faster.