#cars Did you learn anything from buying your electric car
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#cars
Did you learn anything from buying your electric car?
We plan to buy a cheap Leaf or something similar soon. -
#cars
Did you learn anything from buying your electric car?
We plan to buy a cheap Leaf or something similar soon.@ohmu We learned that charging at home (even if just on regular wall outlet) can serve most in-town purposes. And any car with range > 200 mi range anxiety pretty quick once you charge on the road a couple times. Also one peddle driving is awesome!
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@ohmu We learned that charging at home (even if just on regular wall outlet) can serve most in-town purposes. And any car with range > 200 mi range anxiety pretty quick once you charge on the road a couple times. Also one peddle driving is awesome!
@ohmu Also this site has been doing a series on buying used EVs in diff price ranges. Here’s where they started: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/01/how-far-does-5000-go-when-you-want-an-electric-car/
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#cars
Did you learn anything from buying your electric car?
We plan to buy a cheap Leaf or something similar soon.@ohmu don't go for cheap, invest in a version with larger battery.
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#cars
Did you learn anything from buying your electric car?
We plan to buy a cheap Leaf or something similar soon.@ohmu Not sure what the charging situation looks like in your neck of the woods, but around here we had the options of "type 2" and "type 2 + CCS" charging, slow and fast respectively. In some places it's getting hard to find a slow charger, so I wish we had gone for the fast one, but we saved on that. I guess the lesson being: future proof power connectors as much as possible.
Also: pretty much no matter what model, the multimedia systems suck, and software maintenance is spotty. As such we're happy that we didn't go for the maximum software features but do navigation etc through Android Auto (yeah, bleargh. But: there are reverse engineering efforts for that, at least).
Finally, the battery (of 2020) is rock-solid. These days the estimate is that batteries survive the rest of the car, and given what we see, that's believable. We "rent" our battery, which means that the manufacturer takes it back when it's at 70% capacity (making recycling a Somebody Else's Problem), but I think we might have done better paying upfront.
tl;dr: Spend more if it means more charging options. Don't waste money on the multimedia system.
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@ohmu don't go for cheap, invest in a version with larger battery.
Depends on your use case. If it is a 2nd car you can get away with a leaf. Our 2013 leaf, originally ~90 miles range, now down to ~60 on its second battery pack (first pack got down to ~40 miles range, less in winter, before we replaced it), gets about 8,000 miles a year in local driving. We had a gas car for long range driving, but now we have a Kia EV6 (~280 miles range).
So what you learn is if you can charge at home, you hardly ever go as far as you think you do. And if you have a level 2 charger you get back 20 miles per hour of charging.
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#cars
Did you learn anything from buying your electric car?
We plan to buy a cheap Leaf or something similar soon.@ohmu We had a dedicated charger installed but I think if we hadn’t needed to run a 30 amp / 220V circuit to the same location in order to install a wheelchair elevator, we could have done fine with trickle charging off of a dedicated 110V outlet. We set the car to do most of its charging in off-peak (i.e., cheaper) hours, so it’s plugged in overnight anyway.
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Depends on your use case. If it is a 2nd car you can get away with a leaf. Our 2013 leaf, originally ~90 miles range, now down to ~60 on its second battery pack (first pack got down to ~40 miles range, less in winter, before we replaced it), gets about 8,000 miles a year in local driving. We had a gas car for long range driving, but now we have a Kia EV6 (~280 miles range).
So what you learn is if you can charge at home, you hardly ever go as far as you think you do. And if you have a level 2 charger you get back 20 miles per hour of charging.
@nosrednayduj @ohmu I meant a Leaf with a larger pack. For one because of the reasons you mention
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@ohmu We learned that charging at home (even if just on regular wall outlet) can serve most in-town purposes. And any car with range > 200 mi range anxiety pretty quick once you charge on the road a couple times. Also one peddle driving is awesome!
@KevinFreitas
You rock. Good stuff. -
@ohmu Not sure what the charging situation looks like in your neck of the woods, but around here we had the options of "type 2" and "type 2 + CCS" charging, slow and fast respectively. In some places it's getting hard to find a slow charger, so I wish we had gone for the fast one, but we saved on that. I guess the lesson being: future proof power connectors as much as possible.
Also: pretty much no matter what model, the multimedia systems suck, and software maintenance is spotty. As such we're happy that we didn't go for the maximum software features but do navigation etc through Android Auto (yeah, bleargh. But: there are reverse engineering efforts for that, at least).
Finally, the battery (of 2020) is rock-solid. These days the estimate is that batteries survive the rest of the car, and given what we see, that's believable. We "rent" our battery, which means that the manufacturer takes it back when it's at 70% capacity (making recycling a Somebody Else's Problem), but I think we might have done better paying upfront.
tl;dr: Spend more if it means more charging options. Don't waste money on the multimedia system.
@patrick
Brilliant. Thank you! -
@ohmu We had a dedicated charger installed but I think if we hadn’t needed to run a 30 amp / 220V circuit to the same location in order to install a wheelchair elevator, we could have done fine with trickle charging off of a dedicated 110V outlet. We set the car to do most of its charging in off-peak (i.e., cheaper) hours, so it’s plugged in overnight anyway.
@joXn
That's two votes that a 110v charger worked out fine. Awesome! Thank you! -
@nosrednayduj @ohmu I meant a Leaf with a larger pack. For one because of the reasons you mention
@hermannus
Why but a big battery? That's exactly the money I was hoping not to spend.
Context: We have an ICE car that will last forever for driving anything like a long distance. -
@hermannus
Why but a big battery? That's exactly the money I was hoping not to spend.
Context: We have an ICE car that will last forever for driving anything like a long distance.@ohmu why you want to buy an EV? There's your answer. That's why there's two of them here now. One with larger range and one smaller (which is still 150 miles)
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@hermannus
Why but a big battery? That's exactly the money I was hoping not to spend.
Context: We have an ICE car that will last forever for driving anything like a long distance.@ohmu oh and I don't know how it is with you, but here we have dynamic electricity prices. So that gives us a margin in when to charge
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@ohmu why you want to buy an EV? There's your answer. That's why there's two of them here now. One with larger range and one smaller (which is still 150 miles)
@hermannus
Large volume grocery runs. Commuting. -
#cars
Did you learn anything from buying your electric car?
We plan to buy a cheap Leaf or something similar soon.@ohmu I bought a 2019 Tesla Model 3 six years ago.
* Great car to drive
* Never had any range anxiety, even on very long drives
* Rapid charges like it stole the electricity (15 minutes on average)
* Collision detection is a bit too sensitive (slowing down without any visible obstruction)
* Full Self Driving ... isn't...
* Social stigma due to the muskrat is too much for me to consider buying another one
* Fuel costs (in Norway) went from about 250 USD/month with my diesel BMW, to less than 50 USD now. I do almost all my charging at home, only using public charging when driving very long distances.I'd probably go for a VW iD7 estate, or a Polestar 2, if I were getting a new car today. I'd not consider a pre-facelift Leaf, but the newer models have decent range, and a bit of poke in the motor, so those are quite good. My neighbour drives one, and is very happy with it.
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#cars
Did you learn anything from buying your electric car?
We plan to buy a cheap Leaf or something similar soon.@ohmu my big caution is that Leaf batteries have poor thermal management and degrade much more than most other EV batteries. Their cost of entry is low, but a battery replacement within a few years is not out of the question. Also the older ones at least, still use CHADEMO which is a much harder plug format to find in the wild than CCS or NACS
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@ohmu I bought a 2019 Tesla Model 3 six years ago.
* Great car to drive
* Never had any range anxiety, even on very long drives
* Rapid charges like it stole the electricity (15 minutes on average)
* Collision detection is a bit too sensitive (slowing down without any visible obstruction)
* Full Self Driving ... isn't...
* Social stigma due to the muskrat is too much for me to consider buying another one
* Fuel costs (in Norway) went from about 250 USD/month with my diesel BMW, to less than 50 USD now. I do almost all my charging at home, only using public charging when driving very long distances.I'd probably go for a VW iD7 estate, or a Polestar 2, if I were getting a new car today. I'd not consider a pre-facelift Leaf, but the newer models have decent range, and a bit of poke in the motor, so those are quite good. My neighbour drives one, and is very happy with it.
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@ohmu my big caution is that Leaf batteries have poor thermal management and degrade much more than most other EV batteries. Their cost of entry is low, but a battery replacement within a few years is not out of the question. Also the older ones at least, still use CHADEMO which is a much harder plug format to find in the wild than CCS or NACS
@klardotsh
Very good to know! -
@Myphatself @stenpett
That's heavy! Thank you.
