Overview

Any new home should have at least two electric car charging ports. Electric cars should be the present and are the future. So, after 5 years of driving one, it seems a good idea to describe how buying and driving an electric car has been for me.

Background

I decided in 2017 that I wanted an electric car and narrowed it down to a Nissan Leaf. Wanting something affordable that I could drive the 22 miles to work and back each day, a used Leaf fit the bill. After some research, I concluded that one with a 480 volt, fast charge port was a necessity. I don’t use it often, but it’s nice to have when I do need it.

Leafs of the era when I was looking, came in three trim packages. Without going into details, the higher trim packages had the quick charge port standard, and the lowest one (the Leaf S) didn’t. After looking for one of the higher trim package Leafs, I found a S at a local dealership with a quick charge port. It turned out to be a great deal. As their loaner and test drive car, it was a 2015, with only 1600 miles on it. I bought it that afternoon for $11,000. There are ones just like mine (2015 and earlier, with 40,000+ miles on them) all over the internet for $15 – $17,000 now, thanks to high gas prices. So, I could sell it now, after driving it for 40,000 over 4 1/2 years and make $4000 – $6000 on it. But, enough gloating.

Calculus for buying

Cost to drive my Chevy Colorado to work and back

Payment $0

Gas to drive it 22 miles each way to work and back @ 22 mpg =$95.00 /month @ $2.20/gallon

4 oil changes/year @ $75 = $25 / month

Total cost to drive the 2006 4-cylinder Chevy Colorado = $120/month*

*(plus other service costs that the Leaf doesn’t incur, but I was conservative in my estimate)

Cost to buy and drive the 2015 Leaf

Payment = $219/month

Electricity =$18/month

Extra Insurance (since I would be keeping the Colorado) =$50/month

Total Cost to buy and drive the Leaf to work and back =$287.00/month

Cost Summary

So at $287/month for the Leaf payment, electricity to charge, and additional insurance minus the $120/month that I was paying to drive the Colorado to work and back, I would be paying $167/month to buy and drive the virtually new Leaf with 1600 miles on it – WHAT A DEAL!

The Leaf Experience

Finally (thank god), I’ll get to the experience of owning and driving my Leaf these past 4 1/2 years. It has been a joy! I plug it in when I get home every evening with its included 120 volt charger and it’s fully charged in the morning.

Having forgotten to plug it in 4 times since I’ve had it, I’ve taken the charger to work and charged it there. I wake up in the morning to a fully charged battery, and the heater or air conditioner has been on for 10 minutes, so the interior is cooled or heated to whatever temperature at which I have it set. There’s a programmable timer to allow the heating/cooling to come on for ten minutes before I get in. Being programmable by the day, I can set it to come on weekdays and not on weekends. It only comes on when the Leaf is plugged in, so it doesn’t drain the battery. And this is standard on the lowest trim package.

My drive is quiet (except the music from my thumb drive that plays through car’s stereo via the USB port). The Leaf’s acceleration off the line is staggering to me (0-60 in ~7.7 seconds, I think). I’ve always driven 4 cylinder cars and trucks or work vans, so that’s like a rocket to me. The steering is also like no other vehicle that I’ve driven. It’s called speed adaptive steering, I think. The great steering, couple with the low center of gravity, since the batteries are below the floorboard, make for a wonderful handling experience.

Battery Life

My battery has proven to be long-lived. I have 40,000+ miles on a 7 year old car (remember it is a 2015 that I bought in 2017), and I have lost one bar on the battery meter. It comes down to a loss of about 6 miles per charge. When I first got it, the guess-o-meter estimated between 93-95 miles on a full charge. It’s now showing between 87 and 89 miles every morning. I’ll take that. To its credit, the guess-o-meter has erred on the side of caution. On one occasion, I drove for 10 miles with it showing 0 miles left. That’s bad for the battery, but it beat being stranded.

The ‘Bad’ Part

Now for the bad part of owning and driving the Leaf. When I bought it, I was told that it had a heat pump heater, which uses less power. That proved not to be true. Using the air conditioner lowers the range somewhat, but using the heat lowers it substantially more. I would guess 7-10%. I’m not sure because I rarely use the heater. The Leaf has heated seats and a heated steering wheel. That, combined with the preheated car, make for a comfortable ride without the heat on 95% of mornings. I am more likely to use the heat on the way home for some reason. I do use the air on the way home in the summer, but still have a full charge from the 120 volt charger in the morning. When I visit my mom after work, I have to stop by the Nissan dealer halfway there to use their quick charger for 10-15 minutes. She lives 40 miles from work and 40 miles from my house, so with the total trip from home to work to her house back home, it’s just out of the range of one charge on my battery. And getting home at 9:30 or 10:00 PM with a fully depleted battery would not allow the 120 volt charger to fully charge the Leaf overnight. Okay, that’s all the bad!

Summary

All in all, I LOVE THE LEAF! – my wife says to an unhealthy extent. She loves it too, just not the level that I do. With a MPGE (miles per gallon equivalent) of 107, I fell good about driving it, regardless of the above-mentioned great deal that it was. I’ve reserved an electric Ford Lightning, but it was reservation number 120,000, so it doesn’t look like I’ll get one this year. So, I’ll keep my 2006 Chevy Colorado for hauling lumber and towing our sailboat. I’m hoping for better luck next year on the Lightning.