To EV or not to EV, that is the question

An acquaintance of ours has a Leaf. His battery has seen some degrading and his range has come down some. 2.5 years into a 3 year lease.

My brother has a Leaf as well and drives about 1.5/2m up Temple Hills Drive in Laguna. When that battery level is low, he's got to recharge at the base of the hill or risk a mid point stop.

Like all tech, YMMV, so plan accordingly.
 
With current incentives, the Prius Plug-In price is on par if not better than a comparably equipped "standard" Prius. Even if you don't plug, you still get the benefit of the lithium-ion battery vs the NiMH battery (lighter weight).

One more advantage of the carpool sticker is that once they run out, you now have a commodity only available on the used car market. The last gen yellow stickers were estimated to add $2-3k to the cars value. Hopefully that holds true with the green stickers.
 
davenlei said:
For those on EV, have you noticed a large decline in range over time with battery degradation?
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Absolutely.  I had my first Leaf for 3 years and during that 3rd year the capacity was so reduced (down to 9 of 12 bars) that I did not feel comfortable doing a 60 mile trip.

A great site for info on the Nissan Leaf is the MyNissanLeaf forum.
 
OpenSky said:
Yeeouch! My love for the Leaf will probably be directed at the I3 by then (test drive in a couple of weeks!) and at lease end in 1 year, will be parked in the dirt at Tustin Nissan ;D
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Yes, it was disappointing how quickly the battery degraded. But even with all that, I leased another one because there was so much that I enjoyed about it.  Definitely go in aware of the pros/cons just like one would with a new home in Irvine ;)
 
OpenSky said:
irvinehomeowner said:
The Leaf is not ready for prime time!! ;)
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Don't make me have a post-gasm. I might get all Tyler at the end and commit TI suicide. Perhaps that would be a good thing ?!
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Sorry... please stay on the handball court.

But all this Leaf bashing makes me sad because that Nissan minivan, the E-NV200 uses the same engine. Maybe it will be better by then.

I would actually buy an EV pickup truck as a 3rd vehicle if someone comes out with one. Maybe the rumored Scion Pickup based on the Toyota A-BAT?

abat-1.jpg
 
opensky - when did you get that that $0 down leaf lease? was it for the 2013 model? were  they advertising 0 down? or did you negotiate that.  sounds like if we do get a leaf it will have to be the 2 year lease.
 
Qwerty, here's a thread where people are sharing their lease deals on the Leaf:
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=11245&start=1870
 
After hearing all your guys stories and doing my own 'obsessive' research, even if this 90 mile round trip commute job does not pan out, I may still go the EV/PIH route for myself. 

I was originally thinking about a 1-2 year old Lexus GS350 for the next car (in about 2 more years) but now considering a EV/PIH of my own.  Hopefully they have a new carpool sticker program by then.

A question directed at SGIP, so if your brother does run out of power mid way up the hill, does assisted braking and power steering go as well? 

So, a fun question....  Who has hit top speed in their EV/PIH?  What did the car do?  Was the max speed as advertised?
 
OpenSky said:
woodburyowner said:
+1.  I have a plug-in and share the exact same views.  I don't even bother charging my car anymore since I'm never at Tier 1 rates.

Another benefit that no one mentioned is that the carpool sticker actually gets you free access on some of the Toll roads.  You still need a transponder, but you can select the "3" person switch on it and drive through some toll roads without paying.
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Linkage? Metro indicates their fastrak lanes don't offer a reduced price / selecting "3" with an EV.
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Check here -https://www.metroexpresslanes.net/en/home/index.shtml
 
Read an article in the OCReg about the B-Series from MBZ.

Uses Tesla to manufacture the engine and then ships them to Germany to build.

Starts at $40k+... is it better than the i3?
 
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