Hello,
I'm relatively new to the idea of buying an EV, my husband has always been pro-EV and after reading an excellent article on EVs from a website called waitbutwhy, I am convinced that they are the future and would like anyone's general advice on our strategy:
Situation:
Currently own a 2010 toyota yaris with 98,000 miles on it, runs just fine. I need it to go to work with commutes ranging from 15, 20, and 35 miles one way (I work at a couple of different sites) about 6-10 days a month depending on my shift length. The 20 and 35 mile commutes have access to a charger port, although limited. I have been trying to check on my shifts how many ports are available when I arrive and it varies.
Husband works from home right now and so we haven't really needed a second car. However, it is very inconvenient at times not to have an extra car and we are now going to put our toddler into daycare a couple of days a week, so we are looking to get a second car. The furthest day care we would consider would be a 20 mile one way trip.
Our long-term goals would be to have a long-range EV that as the battery degrades and turns into a shorter range EV, we would just get another long-range EV.
It appears that long-range EVs are reaching a critical point this year and so we are considering the following:
Buying a very cheap Nissan Leaf, a 2011 or 2012. Even with the battery at 50% we should be able to cover our "worst transportation day," i.e. I take the gas car up to the 35 mile commute site if I couldn't be sure of getting a charging site and husband takes the toddler to day care on a 20 mile commute (being 40 miles on a there and back status). It looks like it takes about 8 hours to charge on the slow 2011 batteries, which should work out just fine for the day care.
In our area a 2011 is selling for $6,000 with around 50,000 miles on it.
The idea would be that we could keep this car for a couple of years and wait for the battery to degrade to a point where the range is <40 miles. At that point we could either replace the battery for $5500 plus labor costs and keep it all going for another 5-10 years- at which point there should be plenty of long-range cars and maybe we could have our dream car of a used Tesla ; ) or if it lasts a little longer than a couple of years we could dump it and just get another EV with 200 mile range on it which would be able to replace our gas car once it goes plus or minus getting another cheap nissan leaf as needed.
Obviously things might change if the gas car goes kaput earlier...but thoughts? Anything I'm missing from our methodology?
ETA: oh and we just had an electrician install a "fast" charger in our garage : )
I'm relatively new to the idea of buying an EV, my husband has always been pro-EV and after reading an excellent article on EVs from a website called waitbutwhy, I am convinced that they are the future and would like anyone's general advice on our strategy:
Situation:
Currently own a 2010 toyota yaris with 98,000 miles on it, runs just fine. I need it to go to work with commutes ranging from 15, 20, and 35 miles one way (I work at a couple of different sites) about 6-10 days a month depending on my shift length. The 20 and 35 mile commutes have access to a charger port, although limited. I have been trying to check on my shifts how many ports are available when I arrive and it varies.
Husband works from home right now and so we haven't really needed a second car. However, it is very inconvenient at times not to have an extra car and we are now going to put our toddler into daycare a couple of days a week, so we are looking to get a second car. The furthest day care we would consider would be a 20 mile one way trip.
Our long-term goals would be to have a long-range EV that as the battery degrades and turns into a shorter range EV, we would just get another long-range EV.
It appears that long-range EVs are reaching a critical point this year and so we are considering the following:
Buying a very cheap Nissan Leaf, a 2011 or 2012. Even with the battery at 50% we should be able to cover our "worst transportation day," i.e. I take the gas car up to the 35 mile commute site if I couldn't be sure of getting a charging site and husband takes the toddler to day care on a 20 mile commute (being 40 miles on a there and back status). It looks like it takes about 8 hours to charge on the slow 2011 batteries, which should work out just fine for the day care.
In our area a 2011 is selling for $6,000 with around 50,000 miles on it.
The idea would be that we could keep this car for a couple of years and wait for the battery to degrade to a point where the range is <40 miles. At that point we could either replace the battery for $5500 plus labor costs and keep it all going for another 5-10 years- at which point there should be plenty of long-range cars and maybe we could have our dream car of a used Tesla ; ) or if it lasts a little longer than a couple of years we could dump it and just get another EV with 200 mile range on it which would be able to replace our gas car once it goes plus or minus getting another cheap nissan leaf as needed.
Obviously things might change if the gas car goes kaput earlier...but thoughts? Anything I'm missing from our methodology?
ETA: oh and we just had an electrician install a "fast" charger in our garage : )
Even completely satisfied leaf owners probably would probably not recommend you buy a 2011 leaf with 50k miles on it. If you do go for it, do like you said and plan on keep the leaf at home for your 35 mile trips.