Hello again, I am writing just because I have exactly the same car, same colour, same trim, same year 65 plate, and just to confirm how good these cars are. If you are not sure about EVs and would like to try as a second car and not spend a fortune, yeah this is the car. Just love it. I bought mine in December 2020 and back then it had done only 4000 miles. Since then I have been using it for my daily commute and on my days off work I do Amazon flexi delivery for 3 hours. Best car I have ever had.
This is the first time I've seen your channel. Great to hear your views. I have to add I agree, Jonathan Porterfield is the person to talk to, if you want an EV, either through auction or new. Jonathan helped me get a 2014 Kangoo ZE, Feb. last year for 3,200 + VAT, a massive saving. And its worth pointing out that Jonathan passes on the discount he gets on auction fees, which partially offsets his own charge. But his help and advice is worth every penny. Alex is a great chap too.
I have had a Leaf from New 6 years ago. Really love it and still get 100 mile range. Great car and really reliable. Wouldn't go back to a petrol car, great to hear you have had such a good experience with your Leaf. Even better to hear someone who knows about Electric cars talk positively about them rather than some yahoo that knows nothing about them and has never even been in or seen one.
Last month I bought a 2013 Leaf SV with 41k miles, for $2k. I love it. It gets 52 miles of range but that’s ok for my needs. We have a hybrid minivan for road trips.
I bought in September, here in Spain a Leaf 24 Acenta blue five years old for 7.000€ (about 6.000 pounds?), exactly the same that yours Leaf. :) We are pretty glad with the car. It gives me about 100-125km of real range. It was the main car for the 95% of our family necessities. It's a fantastic family car. Cheap of buy and cheap in running costs. I totally recommend to anyone whom can charge it at home. Thanks for this nice video.
Thank you Andrew, first time viewing your videos, very useful and informative. The Leaf seems to be the most popular of all the EV, and i think you have highlighted this well. Best wishes to you and your family. Kind regards from Gilingham, Kent.
We find the regen great in the ZOE but true energy saving / hyper mileing means driving so you do not need to slow down using the brakes or even regen, regen is not as efficient as not using the energy in the first place 😇
I'll be giving Jonathan a call next week to find us a Leaf too. Definitely seems the right way to go and everything I've seen of him via Fully charged etc is good. 👍 Enjoying the video content. Thanks for the messages on twitter.
Really enjoying your channel. Its so good to hear such a measured commentary of everything you look at. You also live just around the corner from my brother in Canterbury too…I’m in NZ. So enjoy the scenery too.
Thanks for this. I will be in a similar position when my Tesla M3 lease runs out at the end of the year. The Tesla has been great and we will miss it but I know what you mean about leasing. My wife won’t drive it because she is worried about it getting scratched. A second hand leaf will make a great second car.
Great video, I feel compelled to comment though. I've just recently sold my battery lease Leaf and you and your viewers could be missing out on a trick. My car was a 2015, 3.3kw Tekna in Grey with 32k miles, full Nissan service history and as immaculate as any other 6 year old car (2nd car). However with regards to the battery lease they are becoming more and more sensible as a used purchase. The 24Kwh Leaf has a 5 year battery warranty from Nissan and this will now have expired on most 24's. So now the lease comes in as quite useful as the poor mug that paid for the lease thus far (me in this case) has paid the bulk of the money and you can now either use the lease to protect the battery (Nissan will ensure it retains a minimum 9 bars useable capacity) plus you get roadside assistance for the car, including if you ever run out of power it will be recovered. My car sold for £5750, which I'm ok with, but which presents a good option for someone buying second hand, esp as the cost to buy out the lease (if that interested you) was £2100. So with a lease battery, as long as you know the numbers make sense, you get a better car battery insurance and you always have the option to buy the lease out if you want. Just my 2p worth, but don't underestimate the battery lease cars as with confusion brings opportunity to get a great deal if you know what you are doing.
Just to reinforce James's point, while not for everyone, with the right buyer and use-case the battery lease can be worth considering. You don't always have to 'own' a thing. In one of his older videos, "Nick Raimo" on his channel, talked through the pros & cons in detail - he was a fan of the lease. The option to buy out the lease remains of course. If a Zoe was an interim purchase expecting to trade up fairly quickly then the battery lease might be interesting.
AS to the brake issue suffered by EV's. The problem is not serious enough if a person simply follows these steps. 1. Once per month put the vehicle into NEUTRAL 2. Brake the car with your brake pedal INSTEAD of doing REGEN for a distance of a mere 1,000 meters one trip to town will do it. 3. The facts are that Dust as well as RUST accumulate on those brake parts. 4. These simple steps will save thousands on repair cost and replacements I do not have an EV as I have a 2018 Volt Premier PHEV I followed those steps religiously. I managed to keep my brakes intact for 4, years of driving electric mostly as I only drive in EV mode in town. My brakes lasted until 154,657 km. I live In Canada we use the metric system here. Try it and keep your brakes in tip top shape longer and save money. P.S. This is not something anyone will find in a user manual.. Trial and error does work on many things. ALSO be safe out there and drive carefully.
Great buy as a short range second car. We have an e niro and a LEAF but £ per mile range the LEAF wins, and it is a quirky looking thing which adds to the appeal. A future modern classic.
Just got my first EV a couple of weeks ago and went with the e-Niro 4+ based off your previous videos. I love it, such a great car inside and out. Thanks for all your vids, they've really helped me out!
I'm in the Canterbury area too and am quite pleased to see just how many electric cars are about in town. Lots of new and old Leafs, Tesla model S & 3's even a white X! Zoe's, eNiro's etc., etc. I'm looking to upgrade from my 16 plate Leaf to a 62kwh Leaf so this is really timely advice and, having seen a lot of Jonathans videos, will see what he can do for me. Thanks Andrew!
Great video andrew. I think you made the right choice over the Zoe. As for waiting for the video of the DS3 CROSS BACK I think you’ve given us brief summary of you thoughts on the car without doing the video. And finally I so agree with you Johnathan of eco cars is one of a rare breed ( an honest salesman).
Congratulations on the new-to-you car. We did the same thing and picked up a first-gen i3. The requirement was a Rex and fast AC & DC charger. Replacing one gas car has saved us 75% on our fuel bill and older cars are less $ for insurance.
Congratulations on your new leaf. You can ask any decent mechanic to do a 12v battery capacitance test. It takes like 30 seconds and this will determine if your 12v has bad cells and will give a print out. Another thing you can do to increase 12v battery life is keep the terminals clean by buying a $10 terminal cleaner. Also wash the top of the battery with a mixture of baking soda and water to neutralise acid that can create current leakage. Hi from Australia!
Your wife n mine would get on famously. 10k reduced to 5k. Man maths brain both of us. Was shouting at the screen on the Zoe test drive as the regen is governed by the pressure on the brake pedal. Also the gear position is highlighted on the TFT screen. Ours is a 2013 Zoe like yours our second EV. Hope you enjoy the leaf you've purchased. Get the little faults sorted and you should have many years of trouble free motoring. We have had the Zoe for a couple of months it had issues. But we have sorted them now. My wife loves it . Also I've used it myself for work saving the leafs PCP milage for the longer journeys.
As much as I love my Zoe I know what you mean about the Leaf - I test drove one before getting the Zoe and it definitely is more refined. I don't really understand the issue with the regen though - the Zoe doesn't have modes to choose from in the same way but if you apply the brake pedal you'll get the regen anyway. If you're used to more of a one pedal experience though (I'm not) then perhaps it becomes a higher priority. Still, good job for getting the Leaf at that price - I hope it serves you well (I'm sure it will!)
Yes agreed ... to get increased regen in the Zoe you just press the brake pedal and it increases the regen ... just not as much regen without pressing the brake. You can see the increased regen indicated on the display as you press the brake.
Glad it all worked out. My 2014 Leaf is still going strong here in Alaska. But I do have a reservation in for a new Aptera so we'll see where that all goes.
Having an electric car in Alaska is an impressive commitment to EV. Especially as in petrol 80% of the energy in the fuel goes to heat (20% to motion)... and in Alaska you must need the heat 8+ months of the year!
@@markyates5744 It's amazing the difference heated seats and steering wheel can make. With both of them turned on, there is little need for the cabin heater. But there is no doubt that much more of my battery capacity goes toward heating than the typical EV owner.
Excellent videos. Wish we'd seen these prior to purchasing our 2014 Nissan Leaf Acenta (our first dip into the EV world) but still happy with the purchase (£6,000 with 47,500miles on the clock and 12 bars). Only real disappointment is the touch screen that is unresponsive on the right hand side (we were looking at another similar model who's owners stated that was a problem with theirs). Is this quite common with this model? We've got a 6.2kw roof-mounted solar pv with 4.8kw battery storage and a Zappi EV charger with a tethered type 2 connector. Can anyone suggest the best adapter so I can plug this into the car? I have the 3pin system which works ok but takes quite a few hours to charge up. Only had the car a few days but quite enjoying it as our second car for local journeys.
Glad you got the second car and at Mrs EV's preferred price and colour! Is it worth getting the car professionally cleaned and polished to give you the new car showroom feel? Perhaps even a quick scratch repair service? Also, my E Niro 4+ is now looking to arrive in the next week!!!!! Taken ages and was delayed for 2 months by Government grant.
I don't think I'll bother getting it professionally cleaned. We quite like the fact we can get it a bit messy without feeling guilty! One trip with my daughter and it already looked like a pastry bomb has gone off. Enjoy your e-Niro!
I've had 2 cars off JP for friends , great bloke and process. Cream interior was an option on later cars but not for long. Door can be realigned manually or with a jack, James C did mine at a mobile service.
Just a bit of info for anyone looking at second hand LEAF models. Whilst the early Japanese LEAF ALL came with the cream interior (and an electronic hand brake) the cream interior was not exclusive to the Japanese car. The light interior was an option on the Sunderland built LEAF as an Acenta as well, albeit very rare. So the cream interior does not mean it is defintely Japanese spec. The easiest way to to be sure is if it has the bulkhead between the rear wheelarches it is definitely an early Japanses car. HTH Derek. Love your videos, especially when Flavia gets involved as love her forthright nature. Don't let her get put off by the occasional comment.
Really helpful video Andrew. Please keep us informed how you get on. I am thinking of dipping my toes in the 2nd hand EV market, so will be very keen to see what your experience is like. Thanks again, keep them coming!
Andrew, please educate people correctly. I believe all EVs except Tesla do regeneration of energy when using the brake pedal as well as any regen by releasing the accelerator pedal. It’s called blended braking. I know many folks like the golf cart feeling of cars coming to a stop when the accelerator is released, but costing is actually the most efficient as long as you have blended braking.
The Zoe does have regen, they just hide it to give it (wrong IMHO) a feel like a regular car, as you press the brake pedal the actual braking is regen blended with friction brakes where required. This is what is wrong with the VW ID range, the sooner manufacturers copy the Leaf with E-Pedal the better! What does Mrs EV say about the foot handbrake after what she said about the handbrake in the Zoe!?
"you must get rapid charging"... Couldn't agree more and i wonder how many new-toEV buyers will not add that as an option on their new Zoe which (IMO shamefully) doesn't come with that as standard on lower spec versions. And then when they are happy with it and want to go further afield find its useless for long trips. Or that its resale value is much lower than otherwise.
Hi Andrew think the leave did suffer with door sag .. I/e doors tend to drop slightly if you grab the bottom of the and be a bit forceful and grab the door at the bottom and pull up this should remedy this 😳😚 love our old leaf still uk 🇬🇧 made .24kwh cars are the best value on the market imho
Happy motoring Mr & Mrs ev. I prefer the original shaped leaf to the newer one. I got my 30kwh acenta leaf from a main dealer in 2019 £14k. I wish I knew about eco car's back then!!
@General Smedley Butler are you saying the 30 kwh battery doesn't degrade as much as previously thought ? I'm looking to buy my first ev and getting more confused by the day.
Thanks Andrew- great content as always. We’ve just paid the ‘balloon’ payment on an almost identical era and spec leaf so good to have that decision supported by your purchase!... ours sadly (though low mileage) has lost a battery bar (we are on ~ 84% SOH according to leaf spy and I think the first bar goes at 85. Any idea what you SOH is?
It is surprising that it has 12 bars. It must have had the battery replaced, but I suggest verifying it properly with LeafSpy.... and you should tell us what you really think about the E-Tense 🤣😂
I'm no expert but 12 bars on this age and model in UK is not unexpected. Would be good to know the SoH though. Interestingly it seems the 30kw/hr deteriorate more. I have a 30 of very similar age and mileage which has about 82% SoH and one bar down. I can see at some point having bought the more expensive version my range range will eventually drop below that of a similar 24. So this looks a really good buy to me - be interesting to see what range it has. The 30 has a longer battery warranty, but I think Nissan have been sneaky and changed the %SoH the bars drop at (which warranty is based on) so that again you are no better off than with the 24. I do love it though.
I need to get myself an OBD Bluetooth dongle and Leafspy! I'm sure it's the original battery - the owner(s) must have looked after it very well with not too many rapid charges. E-tense review coming next week!
@@MrEV I guess an i3 was just a bit above the budget because a 2014 60Ah BEV would do nicely as a 2nd car for local trips - perhaps inner London buyers are keeping the price firm. I totally got it with the one-pedal driving within 5mins of my first test drive >4yrs ago - it's just the best thing. :)
You're only running that car for free from solar energy if both of the following are true: (a) you currently use no power from the grid and (b) the power that your solar panels generate in excess of power currently used by your house is equal to or greater than the amount of power used to charge your car. Unless both of these are true (which I believe is not the case, having seen your other videos) then you are not running the car for free.
On a sunny day I trickle charge the Leaf with 1.3kW. That's easily manageable with the solar panels and is completely free. Obviously that's not doable when the air conditioning's in use (which isn't that often), but the house baseload is 0.2kW so it's possible much of the time. Generally the car is charged overnight though.
Miss my red 2017 leaf. Have the 40 kWh tekna 20 plate now but often think of my first. My wife has a 2013 Zoe n loves it. Tried to talk her into a leaf like yours but it was too big. I guess size matters 🤷♂️🤣
12 bars doesn't mean no degradation. The 12th bar is 15% and the other 11 are 6.25% each, these figures relate to the usable capacity about ~21kWh and not the gross 24kWh. Therefore even at 86% SOH it'll still show 12 bars. I've owned two 24kWh LEAFs and my last one in 2015 was a new special edition Acenta+ model in the same blue colour with the 6.6kW onboard charger, both charge cables and lovely blue accent 17" Aurora wheels. They are a good car and only let down by the ambient air flow cooled battery and subsequent degradation. You'll definitely not lose out in any future sale. 👍
I had the response below from Nissan on this, but don't hold me to it! (Breakdown cover I just do separately). We would like to inform you that customers can have their vehicle serviced by a workshop or competent person without compromising their warranty. However, a warranty claim may be denied where the claim in question in case by a failure of a repairer to carry out a particular repair or maintenance operation in the correct manner or by the use of poor quality spare parts causing damage to the vehicle. Should you wish to go outside of the Nissan network for regular servicing or repair work, then we would recommend the following: • The vehicle should be serviced in line with the Nissan’s service schedule including mileage and time limits and the work due at each service interval (e.g., the correct filters, lubricants and other fluids are changed in each service). • Use of Nissan genuine parts or parts of equivalent quality. • The repairer must use the recommended grade and specification for all lubricants put in the vehicle e.g., low ash oil for cars with Diesel Particulate Filters (DPF).@@jamessjoynson4388
I did the first service with Nissan and was expecting something decent from their 'battery report' - they told me there were 12 bars showing - that was it - amazing insight Nissan!
Congrats on getting another Leaf! Thanks for the mention regarding the PTC heater, I managed to replace mine myself for a few hundred pounds, it's possible (just!) without removing the dash. Here's my video I'm assuming Jonathan was referring to: ua-cam.com/video/q6SwES6OAVo/v-deo.html
Wish I could get one at this price, even the one you compared it against: 2015 52k miles £7250. Maybe it's a bad time trying to buy an electric car at the moment..... for price at least.
That's the situation I'm in. I'm wanting the ioniq for the 200klm range; but it's $5000 more than the leaf. I generally keep a car till its scrap but I dont know what to do here. First ev. Any thoughts ?
It said I had a range of 99 miles when it was delivered but we’re getting more like 80 miles out of it with the journeys we do. So we’d be getting 53 miles out of it with ten bars. Fine for us to be honest - we would just have to charge more.
Hi, anyone know if auction houses provide service information? I've had a look at a few different ones and a range of cars and can't seem to find any service info which is odd because it would be one of the first things you would look at when buying a car. Thanks
@@MrEV Thanks for the quick reply. I couldn't find the service details anywhere when looking at the listings, is it something you need to request, is provided after or maybe somewhere I'm not looking? Thanks
@@davebown8145 That's interesting. Have a look at this video of our latest auction process and you can see some service history on the listing: ua-cam.com/video/7OWw4Gprb6c/v-deo.htmlsi=ok7BD9vdsGQCcQNC&t=67
@@MrEV Thanks, will take a look at that tonight. Just can't make my mind up between an Ioniq 5, a more sensibly priced Niro or Skoda superb phev. Need a lottery win..
@@davebown8145 A lottery win? Don't we all! If money were no object, I'd go IONIQ 5 again. Great EV. It's hard to argue with those charging speeds if you do plan on going long distances with it. That said, the Niro is a wonderful all-rounder. Just a shame its charge speed is so slow.
Bargain and I hope we get more videos on why a second hand ev is not a bad idea. Not sure about the leaf but some cars had regen braking via the brake pedal rather than one pedal driving in all the new cars.
Yes, the Zoe does (which I didn’t know until countless people corrected me!) but it doesn’t brake when lifting the foot off the accelerator so that’s what we were referring to when we said ‘regen’.
buying a used leaf based on 12 bars is a no no - a leaf with 12 bars could still have lost 15% of its battery capacity - always use leafspy where possible to give you a better idea
That's a great question and the honest answer is: I don't know! My guess is that the battery would make EVs slightly more expensive to insure. Less prone to fires though and in theory less things can go wrong, so that may even things out. If anyone has any information on that, please comment!
@@MrEV Our 5 year old leaf seems about 10% more than than our 13 year old VW Touran and similarly more than the 5 year old Octavia diesel it replaced - I don't understand whey though.
Our experience is the Leaf was slightly cheaper to insure (approx £200/yr with Aviva) compared to our old Citroen C1 it replaced in 2015. However, I've never been able to make sense of insurance sometimes polices, sometimes just calling up and talking to them reduces a premium by £100! The Leaf is certainly not an expensive car to insure.
Cool you got the Leaf! It's weird the model 3 only has one setting now for regen - max. Of course if you are charged to 85% or above and / or the battery is at ambient 10C or so then the regen is limited to 50% - but the 50% is still a good 50kW or so. Doing a 95% range charge I had about 15kW regen - and that felt really weird - having to use the brakes again!
Well done, the Leaf is the most boring car ever, but at that price you can’t go wrong. Fantastic deal, make sure you block the pumps at your local petrol station.
At the time the video was made, all cars were appreciating which was unheard of. Today, it's completely reversed and EVs have the worst depreciation. Ask any Tesla owner about that. The biggest cost of EV ownership that results in a high cost per mile is depreciation, so the most important purchase factor after number of bars is to pay as little as possible. So no, you won't save any money by buying a Tesla instead of ICE. Due to the range and thermal limitations of the 1st gen Leaf, you should be trying to pay as close to zero as possible even though 5k sounds cheap already. If you can get the depreciation down like buying a 6 bar for 2k, you truly do have a car with ultra low cost per mile near zero. With utility and tax rebates in the states for used EV, you can get the cost to purchase to zero on a 1st gen Leaf which removes the depreciation expense.
Be interesting to see how you get on with Chademo disappearing from lots of new sites and refreshes of old ones. Leafs are not getting easier to use as you might have thought
I think the issue may have been price actually as it's difficult to find one less than £10k. Or it was that Flaviana didn't like the particular shade of blue. Yes, it was that.
@@MrEV Thought so. Would love to possess that level of simplicity in decision making. Would be interesting to see the battery specs using a OBD ll and Leaf Spy. That 12th battery bar disappears at 85%
Has anyone had any success with this recently? I contacted them in early June with a request, got a reply from someone called Gyles after a week or so and asked a couple of questions from his reply but since then heard nothing. I messaged eco-car.net on Twitter and was told they were 'snowed under with requests and struggling to cope'. Fair enough. But apparently they don't care or want customers as after asking, just once a week, why I'd heard nothing after FIVE WEEKS, Porterfield blocked me on Twitter. Rather a pathetic response to a potential customer who was only wondering if I was ever going to be hearing from Gyles.......
I'm sorry to hear you've been waiting but what I would say is Jonathan isn't the kind of guy to let people down without good reason. He's very recently sold Ecocars to Reflex Orkney and is also now working with Drive Electric to deliver leases to people in Orkney - my video has come at just the wrong time I think as his health is suffering with the stress of trying to juggle everything. I know all too well what stress can do so I'm hoping he gets better soon and manages to cope with everything. 😔
Jonathan port field and eco cars are fantastic, sorry but personally I think the first generation Nissan Leaf is UGLY 🤮🤮 but hey it does what it should and what you need 👍👍
The high cost of even secondhand EVs could only possibly make sense if you are doing insanely high mileages, they make no financial sense otherwise and in the UK with gas providing most of the electricity then if you believe in the CO2 climate change fantasy they make no sense CO2-wise either.
If you can sell it and make very little (if any) loss - and that’s likely to be the case due to demand - then I’d argue it makes a lot of sense. I’ll ignore the second part of your comment.
Want a cheap EV? Talk to Jonathan at Eco Cars: eco-cars.net - tell him I sent you! 😀
Nice one, Andrew! Wishing you many happy miles of driving it. 🙂 👍
Hello again, I am writing just because I have exactly the same car, same colour, same trim, same year 65 plate, and just to confirm how good these cars are. If you are not sure about EVs and would like to try as a second car and not spend a fortune, yeah this is the car. Just love it. I bought mine in December 2020 and back then it had done only 4000 miles. Since then I have been using it for my daily commute and on my days off work I do Amazon flexi delivery for 3 hours. Best car I have ever had.
This is the first time I've seen your channel. Great to hear your views. I have to add I agree, Jonathan Porterfield is the person to talk to, if you want an EV, either through auction or new. Jonathan helped me get a 2014 Kangoo ZE, Feb. last year for 3,200 + VAT, a massive saving. And its worth pointing out that Jonathan passes on the discount he gets on auction fees, which partially offsets his own charge. But his help and advice is worth every penny. Alex is a great chap too.
I have had a Leaf from New 6 years ago. Really love it and still get 100 mile range. Great car and really reliable. Wouldn't go back to a petrol car, great to hear you have had such a good experience with your Leaf. Even better to hear someone who knows about Electric cars talk positively about them rather than some yahoo that knows nothing about them and has never even been in or seen one.
Last month I bought a 2013 Leaf SV with 41k miles, for $2k. I love it. It gets 52 miles of range but that’s ok for my needs. We have a hybrid minivan for road trips.
What a deal!
I bought in September, here in Spain a Leaf 24 Acenta blue five years old for 7.000€ (about 6.000 pounds?), exactly the same that yours Leaf. :)
We are pretty glad with the car. It gives me about 100-125km of real range. It was the main car for the 95% of our family necessities. It's a fantastic family car. Cheap of buy and cheap in running costs. I totally recommend to anyone whom can charge it at home.
Thanks for this nice video.
Thank you Andrew, first time viewing your videos, very useful and informative. The Leaf seems to be the most popular of all the EV, and i think you have highlighted this well. Best wishes to you and your family. Kind regards from Gilingham, Kent.
We find the regen great in the ZOE but true energy saving / hyper mileing means driving so you do not need to slow down using the brakes or even regen, regen is not as efficient as not using the energy in the first place 😇
Just bought one for 8500€ 2016 1Quick charge showing according to LeafSpy. Had scratches down one side. Perfect car for most days of the week!
Good deal! We love ours - I’ll be publishing an update video soon.
I'll be giving Jonathan a call next week to find us a Leaf too. Definitely seems the right way to go and everything I've seen of him via Fully charged etc is good. 👍 Enjoying the video content. Thanks for the messages on twitter.
Great to hear! Jonathan is a genuinely lovely man. Even my wife likes him!
Definitely happy to have a first gen LEAF to go along with our LEAF Plus in the family garage.
Really enjoying your channel. Its so good to hear such a measured commentary of everything you look at.
You also live just around the corner from my brother in Canterbury too…I’m in NZ. So enjoy the scenery too.
Thanks for this. I will be in a similar position when my Tesla M3 lease runs out at the end of the year. The Tesla has been great and we will miss it but I know what you mean about leasing. My wife won’t drive it because she is worried about it getting scratched. A second hand leaf will make a great second car.
Great video, I feel compelled to comment though. I've just recently sold my battery lease Leaf and you and your viewers could be missing out on a trick. My car was a 2015, 3.3kw Tekna in Grey with 32k miles, full Nissan service history and as immaculate as any other 6 year old car (2nd car). However with regards to the battery lease they are becoming more and more sensible as a used purchase. The 24Kwh Leaf has a 5 year battery warranty from Nissan and this will now have expired on most 24's. So now the lease comes in as quite useful as the poor mug that paid for the lease thus far (me in this case) has paid the bulk of the money and you can now either use the lease to protect the battery (Nissan will ensure it retains a minimum 9 bars useable capacity) plus you get roadside assistance for the car, including if you ever run out of power it will be recovered. My car sold for £5750, which I'm ok with, but which presents a good option for someone buying second hand, esp as the cost to buy out the lease (if that interested you) was £2100. So with a lease battery, as long as you know the numbers make sense, you get a better car battery insurance and you always have the option to buy the lease out if you want. Just my 2p worth, but don't underestimate the battery lease cars as with confusion brings opportunity to get a great deal if you know what you are doing.
Just to reinforce James's point, while not for everyone, with the right buyer and use-case the battery lease can be worth considering. You don't always have to 'own' a thing. In one of his older videos, "Nick Raimo" on his channel, talked through the pros & cons in detail - he was a fan of the lease. The option to buy out the lease remains of course. If a Zoe was an interim purchase expecting to trade up fairly quickly then the battery lease might be interesting.
AS to the brake issue suffered by EV's. The problem is not serious enough if a person simply follows these steps.
1. Once per month put the vehicle into NEUTRAL
2. Brake the car with your brake pedal INSTEAD of doing REGEN for a distance of a mere 1,000 meters one trip to town will do it.
3. The facts are that Dust as well as RUST accumulate on those brake parts.
4. These simple steps will save thousands on repair cost and replacements
I do not have an EV as I have a 2018 Volt Premier PHEV I followed those steps religiously. I managed to keep my brakes intact for 4, years of driving electric mostly as I only drive in EV mode in town. My brakes lasted until 154,657 km. I live In Canada we use the metric system here.
Try it and keep your brakes in tip top shape longer and save money.
P.S. This is not something anyone will find in a user manual.. Trial and error does work on many things. ALSO be safe out there and drive carefully.
Great buy as a short range second car. We have an e niro and a LEAF but £ per mile range the LEAF wins, and it is a quirky looking thing which adds to the appeal. A future modern classic.
Just got my first EV a couple of weeks ago and went with the e-Niro 4+ based off your previous videos. I love it, such a great car inside and out. Thanks for all your vids, they've really helped me out!
Great to hear! Enjoy the e-Niro - it's a wonderful car!
I'm in the Canterbury area too and am quite pleased to see just how many electric cars are about in town. Lots of new and old Leafs, Tesla model S & 3's even a white X! Zoe's, eNiro's etc., etc. I'm looking to upgrade from my 16 plate Leaf to a 62kwh Leaf so this is really timely advice and, having seen a lot of Jonathans videos, will see what he can do for me. Thanks Andrew!
There are loads around here aren’t there! I see about ten EVs just on the ten minute school run!
Great video andrew. I think you made the right choice over the Zoe. As for waiting for the video of the DS3 CROSS BACK I think you’ve given us brief summary of you thoughts on the car without doing the video. And finally I so agree with you Johnathan of eco cars is one of a rare breed ( an honest salesman).
Congratulations,don't you love it when a plan comes together.
Congratulations on the new-to-you car. We did the same thing and picked up a first-gen i3. The requirement was a Rex and fast AC & DC charger. Replacing one gas car has saved us 75% on our fuel bill and older cars are less $ for insurance.
Porterfield is the man. Hope he makes millions 👍🏽
Congratulations on your new leaf. You can ask any decent mechanic to do a 12v battery capacitance test. It takes like 30 seconds and this will determine if your 12v has bad cells and will give a print out. Another thing you can do to increase 12v battery life is keep the terminals clean by buying a $10 terminal cleaner. Also wash the top of the battery with a mixture of baking soda and water to neutralise acid that can create current leakage. Hi from Australia!
Your wife n mine would get on famously. 10k reduced to 5k.
Man maths brain both of us.
Was shouting at the screen on the Zoe test drive as the regen is governed by the pressure on the brake pedal. Also the gear position is highlighted on the TFT screen. Ours is a 2013 Zoe like yours our second EV.
Hope you enjoy the leaf you've purchased. Get the little faults sorted and you should have many years of trouble free motoring.
We have had the Zoe for a couple of months it had issues. But we have sorted them now. My wife loves it . Also I've used it myself for work saving the leafs PCP milage for the longer journeys.
Will definitely consider this next time around - was very similar when I imported a car from Japan, just with a much longer wait for it to show up!
Great to see the Great value you got buying a used Nissan Leaf. Muxan are doing battert upgrades on the Leaf which can extend its life for many years.
As much as I love my Zoe I know what you mean about the Leaf - I test drove one before getting the Zoe and it definitely is more refined. I don't really understand the issue with the regen though - the Zoe doesn't have modes to choose from in the same way but if you apply the brake pedal you'll get the regen anyway. If you're used to more of a one pedal experience though (I'm not) then perhaps it becomes a higher priority. Still, good job for getting the Leaf at that price - I hope it serves you well (I'm sure it will!)
Yes agreed ... to get increased regen in the Zoe you just press the brake pedal and it increases the regen ... just not as much regen without pressing the brake. You can see the increased regen indicated on the display as you press the brake.
When vehicle to home/grid becomes the norm this will make a great power wall as well so money well spent.
My Leaf has great re-gen braking by using the e-pedal feature, driving with one foot basically.
I love one-pedal driving! A shame the old one doesn’t have that.
epedal uses the friction brakes that’s why it’s so strong. 😉
Glad it all worked out. My 2014 Leaf is still going strong here in Alaska. But I do have a reservation in for a new Aptera so we'll see where that all goes.
Having an electric car in Alaska is an impressive commitment to EV. Especially as in petrol 80% of the energy in the fuel goes to heat (20% to motion)... and in Alaska you must need the heat 8+ months of the year!
@@markyates5744 It's amazing the difference heated seats and steering wheel can make. With both of them turned on, there is little need for the cabin heater. But there is no doubt that much more of my battery capacity goes toward heating than the typical EV owner.
Thanks for another great video.
Excellent videos. Wish we'd seen these prior to purchasing our 2014 Nissan Leaf Acenta (our first dip into the EV world) but still happy with the purchase (£6,000 with 47,500miles on the clock and 12 bars). Only real disappointment is the touch screen that is unresponsive on the right hand side (we were looking at another similar model who's owners stated that was a problem with theirs). Is this quite common with this model? We've got a 6.2kw roof-mounted solar pv with 4.8kw battery storage and a Zappi EV charger with a tethered type 2 connector. Can anyone suggest the best adapter so I can plug this into the car? I have the 3pin system which works ok but takes quite a few hours to charge up. Only had the car a few days but quite enjoying it as our second car for local journeys.
I wish there was a Jonathan Porterfield here in Canada.
Flattered , thanks 😊
Hi Andrew, this is a great and interesting Video, thank you for sharing your perspective it's much appreciated. Cheers Peter :-)
Glad you got the second car and at Mrs EV's preferred price and colour! Is it worth getting the car professionally cleaned and polished to give you the new car showroom feel? Perhaps even a quick scratch repair service?
Also, my E Niro 4+ is now looking to arrive in the next week!!!!! Taken ages and was delayed for 2 months by Government grant.
I don't think I'll bother getting it professionally cleaned. We quite like the fact we can get it a bit messy without feeling guilty! One trip with my daughter and it already looked like a pastry bomb has gone off.
Enjoy your e-Niro!
Very good buy! As usual a very honest review.
I've had 2 cars off JP for friends , great bloke and process. Cream interior was an option on later cars but not for long. Door can be realigned manually or with a jack, James C did mine at a mobile service.
We have James coming in a couple of weeks so will have it sorted then!
Just a bit of info for anyone looking at second hand LEAF models. Whilst the early Japanese LEAF ALL came with the cream interior (and an electronic hand brake) the cream interior was not exclusive to the Japanese car. The light interior was an option on the Sunderland built LEAF as an Acenta as well, albeit very rare. So the cream interior does not mean it is defintely Japanese spec. The easiest way to to be sure is if it has the bulkhead between the rear wheelarches it is definitely an early Japanses car. HTH Derek. Love your videos, especially when Flavia gets involved as love her forthright nature. Don't let her get put off by the occasional comment.
That’s great info - thanks, Derek!
Really helpful video Andrew. Please keep us informed how you get on. I am thinking of dipping my toes in the 2nd hand EV market, so will be very keen to see what your experience is like. Thanks again, keep them coming!
Andrew, please educate people correctly. I believe all EVs except Tesla do regeneration of energy when using the brake pedal as well as any regen by releasing the accelerator pedal. It’s called blended braking. I know many folks like the golf cart feeling of cars coming to a stop when the accelerator is released, but costing is actually the most efficient as long as you have blended braking.
The Zoe does have regen, they just hide it to give it (wrong IMHO) a feel like a regular car, as you press the brake pedal the actual braking is regen blended with friction brakes where required. This is what is wrong with the VW ID range, the sooner manufacturers copy the Leaf with E-Pedal the better! What does Mrs EV say about the foot handbrake after what she said about the handbrake in the Zoe!?
I told my wife we didn't want a DS, so am really looking forward to your confirmation!
You dodged a bullet there! Vid next week.
Was happy to sell the leaf now was happy to buy one :)
Interesting! Thanks for the video. (I was wondering what was happening with the DS3 review... Say no more.)
"you must get rapid charging"... Couldn't agree more and i wonder how many new-toEV buyers will not add that as an option on their new Zoe which (IMO shamefully) doesn't come with that as standard on lower spec versions. And then when they are happy with it and want to go further afield find its useless for long trips. Or that its resale value is much lower than otherwise.
Is Flaviana happy with the lower spec Acenta? I hope you get many happy miles from it. Good on you Jonathan Porterfield!
She loves it - the lower spec hasn't bothered her at all!
@@MrEV Glad to hear that. Perhaps she will do some videos with you on the LEAF.
Hi Andrew think the leave did suffer with door sag .. I/e doors tend to drop slightly if you grab the bottom of the and be a bit forceful and grab the door at the bottom and pull up this should remedy this 😳😚 love our old leaf still uk 🇬🇧 made .24kwh cars are the best value on the market imho
Correct , this is the 'fix' for dropped leaf doors , usually the drivers door.
Twelve bars is obviously a good thing but it doesn't mean "no battery degradation" like you said! It means less than 15% battery degradation.
Very true!
Love the DS3 and hate the leaf, so I guess its a marmite issue, some love,and some hate them.
Great that we have so much choice these days!
Happy motoring Mr & Mrs ev. I prefer the original shaped leaf to the newer one. I got my 30kwh acenta leaf from a main dealer in 2019 £14k. I wish I knew about eco car's back then!!
Likewise! - also see my reply to EV-olution above on this. Think I'd buy differently today.
What about software updates on this Leaf? OTA, visit to the garage or no updates?
Certainly not OTA and I can't imagine Nissan bother updating 'old' cars like this anyway. If there was something, I'd go to my local dealer.
@General Smedley Butler are you saying the 30 kwh battery doesn't degrade as much as previously thought ? I'm looking to buy my first ev and getting more confused by the day.
You seem to be a bit on the fence over the DS3. 😂 Glad to see that you got a ‘new’ second car. :)
So agree with the DS3 comments
Let us know in 3 months how it’s working out with the leaf please Andrew
What door did you walk into.
Thanks Andrew- great content as always. We’ve just paid the ‘balloon’ payment on an almost identical era and spec leaf so good to have that decision supported by your purchase!... ours sadly (though low mileage) has lost a battery bar (we are on ~ 84% SOH according to leaf spy and I think the first bar goes at 85. Any idea what you SOH is?
i love my leaf 30 its great can i visit :) what does your leaf say on gom when at 100 % charge?
Great choice, I miss our 2015 Accenta 24kw, how’s the battery health?
I keep e-pedal on all the time in my new leaf, it feels strange without it now. But using the brakes while e-pedal is on feels awful.
It is surprising that it has 12 bars. It must have had the battery replaced, but I suggest verifying it properly with LeafSpy.... and you should tell us what you really think about the E-Tense 🤣😂
I'm no expert but 12 bars on this age and model in UK is not unexpected. Would be good to know the SoH though. Interestingly it seems the 30kw/hr deteriorate more. I have a 30 of very similar age and mileage which has about 82% SoH and one bar down. I can see at some point having bought the more expensive version my range range will eventually drop below that of a similar 24. So this looks a really good buy to me - be interesting to see what range it has. The 30 has a longer battery warranty, but I think Nissan have been sneaky and changed the %SoH the bars drop at (which warranty is based on) so that again you are no better off than with the 24. I do love it though.
I need to get myself an OBD Bluetooth dongle and Leafspy! I'm sure it's the original battery - the owner(s) must have looked after it very well with not too many rapid charges.
E-tense review coming next week!
The BMW i3 definitely does one pedal driving - hardly ever need to touch the brake in mine
One of the reasons my wife loves it! Talking of which, I just finish our review edit!
@@MrEV I guess an i3 was just a bit above the budget because a 2014 60Ah BEV would do nicely as a 2nd car for local trips - perhaps inner London buyers are keeping the price firm. I totally got it with the one-pedal driving within 5mins of my first test drive >4yrs ago - it's just the best thing. :)
Amazing value car
What a wonderful DS review!! 😂😂
You're only running that car for free from solar energy if both of the following are true: (a) you currently use no power from the grid and (b) the power that your solar panels generate in excess of power currently used by your house is equal to or greater than the amount of power used to charge your car. Unless both of these are true (which I believe is not the case, having seen your other videos) then you are not running the car for free.
On a sunny day I trickle charge the Leaf with 1.3kW. That's easily manageable with the solar panels and is completely free. Obviously that's not doable when the air conditioning's in use (which isn't that often), but the house baseload is 0.2kW so it's possible much of the time.
Generally the car is charged overnight though.
Miss my red 2017 leaf. Have the 40 kWh tekna 20 plate now but often think of my first. My wife has a 2013 Zoe n loves it.
Tried to talk her into a leaf like yours but it was too big. I guess size matters 🤷♂️🤣
What would you say is the summer / winter real world range on a leaf 24?
12 bars doesn't mean no degradation. The 12th bar is 15% and the other 11 are 6.25% each, these figures relate to the usable capacity about ~21kWh and not the gross 24kWh. Therefore even at 86% SOH it'll still show 12 bars.
I've owned two 24kWh LEAFs and my last one in 2015 was a new special edition Acenta+ model in the same blue colour with the 6.6kW onboard charger, both charge cables and lovely blue accent 17" Aurora wheels.
They are a good car and only let down by the ambient air flow cooled battery and subsequent degradation. You'll definitely not lose out in any future sale. 👍
Is it worth buying one of these today or would you invest in the newer battery tech?
Flaviana even takes over the videos she's not in 😂
Great video as always Andrew. Will you be taking the Leaf to a Nissan main dealer for servicing or going elsewhere?
Don't you need to keep taking it to a main dealer to keep the 8 year battery warrinty and breakdown recovery?
I had the response below from Nissan on this, but don't hold me to it! (Breakdown cover I just do separately).
We would like to inform you that customers can have their vehicle serviced by a workshop or competent person without compromising their warranty. However, a warranty claim may be denied where the claim in question in case by a failure of a repairer to carry out a particular repair or maintenance operation in the correct manner or by the use of poor quality spare parts causing damage to the vehicle.
Should you wish to go outside of the Nissan network for regular servicing or repair work, then we would recommend the following:
• The vehicle should be serviced in line with the Nissan’s service schedule including mileage and time limits and the work due at each service interval (e.g., the correct filters, lubricants and other fluids are changed in each service).
• Use of Nissan genuine parts or parts of equivalent quality.
• The repairer must use the recommended grade and specification for all lubricants put in the vehicle e.g., low ash oil for cars with Diesel Particulate Filters (DPF).@@jamessjoynson4388
I did the first service with Nissan and was expecting something decent from their 'battery report' - they told me there were 12 bars showing - that was it - amazing insight Nissan!
I have James from Cleevely EV (and the James and Kate UA-cam channel of course) coming in a few weeks to do a major service.
@@rossbransby thanks for the information Ross.
Bargain car and such an easy process many thanks
I'm sorry if I'm wrong, but I don't remember you saying how many miles your Leaf has on it.
59,036 I think it is
This is a brilliant cheap way of getting a home storage battery as it does V2G my Tesla Powerwall with half the capacity cost £9000.
That’s a great point and I’m kicking myself for not mentioning it! It really is a drivable Powerwall!
Great Video.
Scotland!🎉
Congrats on getting another Leaf! Thanks for the mention regarding the PTC heater, I managed to replace mine myself for a few hundred pounds, it's possible (just!) without removing the dash. Here's my video I'm assuming Jonathan was referring to: ua-cam.com/video/q6SwES6OAVo/v-deo.html
That's the one! Thanks Glyn!
Wish I could get one at this price, even the one you compared it against: 2015 52k miles £7250. Maybe it's a bad time trying to buy an electric car at the moment..... for price at least.
Yes, prices have gone crazy due to demand and lack of supply for new ones. 😕
@@MrEV Is the market still messed up? What sort of money should I be looking to pay for a similar Leaf?
Did you consider the classic Ioniq(28kWh) at all? Though you probably wouldn't get it for the price you got the Leaf for.
That would have been a great car but difficult to find one under £10k.
That's the situation I'm in. I'm wanting the ioniq for the 200klm range; but it's $5000 more than the leaf. I generally keep a car till its scrap but I dont know what to do here. First ev. Any thoughts ?
How many battery bars is acceptable?
How far would a ten bar expect to go for eg?
It said I had a range of 99 miles when it was delivered but we’re getting more like 80 miles out of it with the journeys we do. So we’d be getting 53 miles out of it with ten bars. Fine for us to be honest - we would just have to charge more.
Too bad that you don’t have many video on nissan leaf. One from tekna on resale value and this…
Hi, anyone know if auction houses provide service information? I've had a look at a few different ones and a range of cars and can't seem to find any service info which is odd because it would be one of the first things you would look at when buying a car. Thanks
They do tell you the service history.
@@MrEV Thanks for the quick reply. I couldn't find the service details anywhere when looking at the listings, is it something you need to request, is provided after or maybe somewhere I'm not looking? Thanks
@@davebown8145 That's interesting. Have a look at this video of our latest auction process and you can see some service history on the listing:
ua-cam.com/video/7OWw4Gprb6c/v-deo.htmlsi=ok7BD9vdsGQCcQNC&t=67
@@MrEV Thanks, will take a look at that tonight. Just can't make my mind up between an Ioniq 5, a more sensibly priced Niro or Skoda superb phev. Need a lottery win..
@@davebown8145 A lottery win? Don't we all! If money were no object, I'd go IONIQ 5 again. Great EV. It's hard to argue with those charging speeds if you do plan on going long distances with it. That said, the Niro is a wonderful all-rounder. Just a shame its charge speed is so slow.
What happened to the Citroen that you hired?
The DS went back - we just had it for a month. I’ll put the review live next week hopefully.
Bargain and I hope we get more videos on why a second hand ev is not a bad idea. Not sure about the leaf but some cars had regen braking via the brake pedal rather than one pedal driving in all the new cars.
Yes, the Zoe does (which I didn’t know until countless people corrected me!) but it doesn’t brake when lifting the foot off the accelerator so that’s what we were referring to when we said ‘regen’.
buying a used leaf based on 12 bars is a no no - a leaf with 12 bars could still have lost 15% of its battery capacity - always use leafspy where possible to give you a better idea
That’s absolutely true of course but that’s impossible to do at auction.
First Leaf I ever saw was blue.
How expensive is the insurance is more than petroleum cars or cheaper
That's a great question and the honest answer is: I don't know! My guess is that the battery would make EVs slightly more expensive to insure. Less prone to fires though and in theory less things can go wrong, so that may even things out.
If anyone has any information on that, please comment!
@@MrEV Our 5 year old leaf seems about 10% more than than our 13 year old VW Touran and similarly more than the 5 year old Octavia diesel it replaced - I don't understand whey though.
Our experience is the Leaf was slightly cheaper to insure (approx £200/yr with Aviva) compared to our old Citroen C1 it replaced in 2015. However, I've never been able to make sense of insurance sometimes polices, sometimes just calling up and talking to them reduces a premium by £100! The Leaf is certainly not an expensive car to insure.
We had a 30kw leaf before changing to a 38kw ioniq and loved it.. Enjoy
I miss your Kia eNiro. No more Videos about my Car ;(
We miss it too!
Cool you got the Leaf!
It's weird the model 3 only has one setting now for regen - max. Of course if you are charged to 85% or above and / or the battery is at ambient 10C or so then the regen is limited to 50% - but the 50% is still a good 50kW or so. Doing a 95% range charge I had about 15kW regen - and that felt really weird - having to use the brakes again!
Should have kept the Niro if you wanted a second car.
Can’t wait for the video on the monstrosity, maybe your partner can give you a hand.
Wow I just payed $13,000 plus taxes, so $15k for one with an accident and 150,000km.
Well done, the Leaf is the most boring car ever, but at that price you can’t go wrong. Fantastic deal, make sure you block the pumps at your local petrol station.
At the time the video was made, all cars were appreciating which was unheard of. Today, it's completely reversed and EVs have the worst depreciation. Ask any Tesla owner about that. The biggest cost of EV ownership that results in a high cost per mile is depreciation, so the most important purchase factor after number of bars is to pay as little as possible. So no, you won't save any money by buying a Tesla instead of ICE. Due to the range and thermal limitations of the 1st gen Leaf, you should be trying to pay as close to zero as possible even though 5k sounds cheap already. If you can get the depreciation down like buying a 6 bar for 2k, you truly do have a car with ultra low cost per mile near zero. With utility and tax rebates in the states for used EV, you can get the cost to purchase to zero on a 1st gen Leaf which removes the depreciation expense.
Be interesting to see how you get on with Chademo disappearing from lots of new sites and refreshes of old ones. Leafs are not getting easier to use as you might have thought
I don't know why 'we' decided against the Soul? I think we all know why😉
I think the issue may have been price actually as it's difficult to find one less than £10k.
Or it was that Flaviana didn't like the particular shade of blue. Yes, it was that.
@@MrEV
Thought so. Would love to possess that level of simplicity in decision making. Would be interesting to see the battery specs using a OBD ll and Leaf Spy. That 12th battery bar disappears at 85%
Has anyone had any success with this recently? I contacted them in early June with a request, got a reply from someone called Gyles after a week or so and asked a couple of questions from his reply but since then heard nothing. I messaged eco-car.net on Twitter and was told they were 'snowed under with requests and struggling to cope'. Fair enough. But apparently they don't care or want customers as after asking, just once a week, why I'd heard nothing after FIVE WEEKS, Porterfield blocked me on Twitter. Rather a pathetic response to a potential customer who was only wondering if I was ever going to be hearing from Gyles.......
I'm sorry to hear you've been waiting but what I would say is Jonathan isn't the kind of guy to let people down without good reason. He's very recently sold Ecocars to Reflex Orkney and is also now working with Drive Electric to deliver leases to people in Orkney - my video has come at just the wrong time I think as his health is suffering with the stress of trying to juggle everything. I know all too well what stress can do so I'm hoping he gets better soon and manages to cope with everything. 😔
Jonathan port field and eco cars are fantastic, sorry but personally I think the first generation Nissan Leaf is UGLY 🤮🤮 but hey it does what it should and what you need 👍👍
I completely understand that reaction although it’s grown on me!
The high cost of even secondhand EVs could only possibly make sense if you are doing insanely high mileages, they make no financial sense otherwise and in the UK with gas providing most of the electricity then if you believe in the CO2 climate change fantasy they make no sense CO2-wise either.
If you can sell it and make very little (if any) loss - and that’s likely to be the case due to demand - then I’d argue it makes a lot of sense.
I’ll ignore the second part of your comment.