Why Prius suits us better than the Volt

Although the IDS is a concept car, it's a huge wink wink at what the Leaf 2.0 could be. Sure, it won't have all the fancy concept features, such as the steering wheel that slides into the dash when you switch to autonomous mode, nor will it have full featured autonomous driving, but I can guarantee you the Leaf 2.0 will have a 60 kWh battery. I don't know why people keep mentioning 150 miles range for it; there's no reason to expect it would have anything less than 200 miles or what the Bolt will offer.

Nissan is still trying to sell the 2016 Leaf, so there is no reason for them to spill the beans on Leaf 2.0. Chevy doesn't care at all about the Spark EV, and they seem to think the Volt and Bolt cater to different customers, so they have no problem talking the Bolt up all they can.

 

I just hope the next Leaf isn't as ugly (and I'm not one to care about appearances) or as un-aerodynamic as the first. If something looks as bad as the current Leaf, it had better be the most aerodynamic car on the market, but it isn't even close.

For being a purpose-built EV, the original Leaf is a dud. It's as if conventional car engineers were employed to build the Leaf, rather than being creative and exploiting the strengths EV offers. Perhaps they were playing it safe, but safe sucks.

 

Leaf is loosing price like crazy. When I was shopping for a car, it was one of candidate. It's not hard to find 12K price with a low milage. Apparently people on Leafs are not making too many miles. Then what is point to have it? I know where electric makes a big difference. When I been to China last summer I have seen a ton of people on electric scooters or light bikes make their commutes.

 

I knew I'd take a huge depreciation hit when I bought my 2015 SV in December 2014, but I paid $20k OTD (after incentives) for a car with a $35k sticker price. The depreciation off of $35k is a nightmare, but off of $18k (assuming a pretax price for the $20k OTD I paid) depreciation is only slightly worse than most cars. The crappy range still suits my family for about 15k miles/year as a secondary vehicle with relatively few L3 charges, so we're happy with it. That would be a lot of miles on an electric scooter/light bike

 

a really cheap leaf vs an expensive next gen could be a difficult decision.

 

I think Leaf resale is terrible because people are terrified of what happens if the battery pack dies. You get a 150,000 mile/10-year warranty in California. After that, if you need a repair, maybe Luscious Garage can fix it, otherwise, the car's a throwaway.

 

same with any hybrid or bev i suppose. i think time and track record will allay peoples fears and prices will rise. in the meantime, it's a boon for those in the know.

 

The regular Prius is well-proven: The hybrid packs last a long time, and replacement costs around $3K, which isn't a killer. But a Leaf battery pack is maybe ten times bigger, and nobody's rebuilt one yet. And the labor would be horrible. Nobody knows what happens when these cars begin to wear out.

 

hasn't anyone put any miles on them yet? i'm not concerned what happens when they wear out, i'm only concerned when that will be.

 

Well, if the warranty is 10 years/150,000 miles, then it will be 150,001 miles.

 

Not so for all hybrids. The first gen Insight can operate with a completely dead traction battery and still get close to the same fuel economy (70 MPG) when in the hands of the right driver. Even so, the resale on the Insight isn't good.

Battery prices will continue to fall, and replacing a battery pack is way simpler than rebuilding an engine or transmission. The future of automobile repair will be easier, not more difficult.

 

The low resale value is partially due to the unknown about when the pack dies, but it's also due to being able to get new ones so much cheaper than their sticker price (between discounts and tax credits/rebates).

You don't get a 10year/150k mile warranty for BEVs, you get an 8year/100k mile warranty, even in CARB states. And for the Leaf the 24kWh battery is warrantied against capacity loss for 5year/60k miles, for the 30kWh battery it's 8year/100k miles (free replacement battery if the car loses 4 out of the 12 capacity "bars" in warranty). Out of warranty battery replacement is $5500 plus labor and tax, which isn't bad compared with how much larger the battery is than the regular Prius's. (It's unknown if they will allow upgrading from the 24kWh battery to the 30kWh battery at replacement time.) The problem with a high mileage Leaf is not that the battery will die, but it's that the capacity will drop over time reducing usable range (significantly more susceptible on the 2011-2012 model years).

 

i just think it's all the variables that make a used plug in devalue so quickly.

 

Except a Tesla

 

are they holding up well?

 

They seem to be doing fine. The few owners over 100,000 miles seem to be seeing less than 15% loss and some claim less than 5% loss.

 

resale value?

 

ah, thanks. how are used prices holding up?

 

I looked for used Tesla's a year ago, and they were listed at the same as new price. This is probably due to limited supply and long wait times for the vehicles.