Would a second-hand Leaf with limited range be a waste with no daily commute?

OscarBluth

I've been following some of the threads on here off and on as we consider purchasing an electric car but nobody posting seems to match our situation, which may reinforce the idea that an EV may not be for us. We would not be daily car users, but would probably plan to do one long-ish drive a month (I would go to one of either Galway/Belfast/Limerick/Maynooth about once a month for work) and visit family (about 20min drive) twice a week, plus doing bigger grocery shops and drives into the Wicklow
Mountains at the weekend.

At the moment, we live close to the city centre in Dublin with no car and get by with bikes, public transport or Go Car/occasional weekend car rentals, but we do own our house and do have a parking space in front of it. We are planning a family and increasingly think it's time to get our own car.

One of the new long-range EVs would be perfect, but we can't afford it: we would be looking at a max budget of 10-12k rather than 25/30k. For ethical reasons, we would prefer electric: we're doing some work on our house next year and would hope to get some solar out of that. However, I don't know if a shorter-range EV would make any sense in our situation.

From what I can work out, we could get a 2 or 3 year old with a 90km range for about 10k, esp if we are able to import from the UK, which would mean all local travel and trips as far as say Maynooth could be done without charging. What in wondering is the practicality beyond that- if I'm driving to Galway for a 10am meeting, will I get away with thirty minutes and a coffee half way there, or do I risk needing to stop twice/missing my meeting because the charging point is busy? If we are in a better financial position in five years time, will I be able to upgrade the car for a longer-range EV or will it be practically worthless at that point? My head is telling me we might be better off spending 7k on a second hand ICE and trading it in in five years, but if there's a practical case to be made for a lower-range leaf in this situation I'd love to hear it.

Shefwedfan

Instead of Electric v petrol/diesel I would say you are more of a electric v no car. First off have you priced Solar panels yet? They are not cheap and pay off period is long. I would check that first off.

Do you have any issues with Go Car etc at the moment? Or is it a service which you have now gone past? Kids are normally a big reason why people move to a car so I can understand that but I would guess as you live in city you have majority of kids services close and trying to get to and from with car might be painful? A good buggy might be cheap.....

If you do decide to go on a car then I would take a step back for 6 months. With new Leaf out etc the prices are going to come crashing down on older models. You could then pick up a 30kWh for cheaper. If that is the way your want to go. Also keep an eye for Zoe, even on battery lease it could be great option.

You do have to remember it is not just the car, tax on electric is cheap and your insurance "should" be cheaper on electric but do you have any no claims? Half your money could be spent on insurance.

If I was you I would check Solar pricing and insurance before making any other sort of decisions.

I would not be too concerned about charge point, you can get them installed cheap, just don't ask on EV Facebook forum as it is a joke and everything is 1400 quid....shower of gangsters

unkel

How much do you spend per month on public transport / taxis / gocar?

For €10k-12k you can only buy a 24kWh second hand Leaf and you are looking at 2 charges each way to go to the likes Limerick / Belfast / Galway. Current EVs can do it with one charge (or none if you drive a good bit below the speed limit), but they are out of budget. Can you live with doing all that charging on your monthly trip?

Answer these 2 questions and we will try give you the best solution for you.

bk

OscarBluth, I'm almost in exactly the same boat as you!

Live in the city, have family, no car. We walk, cycle, take public transport, odd taxi. Walk to work, just 3km.

Head down to Cork about once a month to visit family, other weekends do a lot of hiking in Wicklow and further afield.

When we had our child, we thought we would need a car, but held off and the truth we have gotten by just fine without it until now. It helps living in the city with multiple excellent schools within walking distance, different, sporting clubs, lots of other activities, decent public transport, etc.

I think what Shefwedfan says here is spot on:

Instead of Electric v petrol/diesel I would say you are more of a electric v no car.

You need to work out if you really need a car at this point at all. Or if you could perhaps hold off for another few months or even a few years.

One thing you could look at is how much you are currently spending on gocar and other car rentals. You could look at your emails for the past year to figure this out. That is perhaps your biggest current cost that would be eliminated by buying a car and depending on how much you use them over a year, might be as much as owning an EV.

You could also look at how much you are using taxi's (Uber/MyTaxi/Halio email receipts) and public transport, leap card receipts. Though you might still have some or most of these if they are a result of going out drinking.

How are you currently getting Galway/Belfast/Limerick/Maynooth? Car rental? or taking the train/bus? Your employer refund you your costs? Add up those costs if you can too.

And BTW if you are renting a car, consider taking one of the private coach services instead if possible, Aircoach/Citylink/etc. are pretty fast, comfortable and cheap these days to those places.

Personally even if I owned a car, I'd still take Aircoach to Cork, 3 hours reading a book/watching a movie rather then having to actively drive. Of course this depends on where you need to go when you get there.

BBTW For grocery shopping think about using Tesco's Online Delivery service, costs just €10 per month for unlimited deliveries and is much nicer then dragging the kids around the supermarket IME.

Shefwedfan is again right, if you can hold off for 6 months, then 30kWh Leaf's second hand are likely to start falling into your price bracket. If you can wait two years, then even longer range EV's will be possible.

Personally I decided to hold off, we decided that we really don't need a car for now, we still manage to get around just fine, we have managed to travel the length of the country and in fact the world, with a child and without a car and have saved lots of money as a result. I'll probably finally give in in about two to three years time, assuming changes of work place don't dictate otherwise and buy a long range EV then that matches all my needs. At least that is the plan for now.

Bigus

A secondhand ice would suit you current needs better for now , leaf range is not suitable for what you really need the car for .
But because you're doing such low annual mileage , you should consider a high mileage ( discounted for the year ) car , as by the time you sell it the total mileage will have averaged down .

A good halfway house would be a high miles low tax Prius hybrid .

Shefwedfan

bk wrote: »

I think what Shefwedfan says here is spot on:


Shefwedfan is again right,

With all these compliments I really am blushing :P:P:P:P

Scottie99

If you're buying secondhand, I'd go to the Uk and get the 30kw.

BoatMad

Bigus wrote: »

A secondhand ice would suit you current needs better for now , leaf range is not suitable for what you really need the car for .
But because you're doing such low annual mileage , you should consider a high mileage ( discounted for the year ) car , as by the time you sell it the total mileage will have averaged down .

A good halfway house would be a high miles low tax Prius hybrid .

In fact , with the usage , it could once pricing is introduced for fast chargers in 2018, show that an EV is not a good choice where its bought for journeys that can only be done by fast charger usage ( i.e. you have little use of home charging )

the current thinking is that home charging will be the cheapest , with fast charging the dearest ( as to how dear no-one knows )

Hence a small engined cheap ICE

CramCycle

A similar situation, will be replacing our current car in the next month or two and have been looking at second hand EVs which seem reasonably priced. I will be buying from a dealer but here is the type of driving that will be done.

Daily, two trips, 20km each way in rush hour traffic from the start.
Once a fortnight, a trip of 130km, twice. I know it will mean a charge on the way as a minimum (how long does this take, can I still do it if the garage has closed for the night?). Buying a 2015 or 2016 model from a dealer, what is the range going to be on a Nissan Leaf for example?

Am I being stupid buying EV now, what brands should I go for, and what should I look out for, hopefully buying from a dealer will reduce the risk. Or am I just being stupid and should either go PCP (can't buy outright new) or stick with petrol/hybrid for another 5 years and then take the plunge.

unkel

Sweet spot would either be a 2014/2015 Leaf 24kWh for about €10k (a bit more from a dealer). You would have to charge at a fast charger for about 10 minutes on your 130km trip (provided you can charge at your destination too before going home). All public charge points are open 24/7, but beware that charge points at Nissan dealers are not.


For a bit more money you could have a 2016 Leaf 30kWh (about €15k, a bit more from a dealer) that can do the trip without charging