Nissan LEAF 2015 electric car owner review

Nissan LEAF 2015 electric car owner review

Doug Robertson drives a Nissan LEAF Tekna 24kWh 2015 electric car.

This is Doug’s second electric car, he’s owned the LEAF from new and drives between 5,000-10,000 miles annually. The current mileage of the car is between 40,000-50,000 miles and he achieves 75 miles range from a full charge.

 

Rate your LEAF out of 5.

 

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Why did you choose this electric car?

I had a 2013 plate LEAF Acenta 24kWh and it did 26,500 miles of trouble-free low-cost motoring for 2 years on a PCP deal from Nissan so I up-graded to the top spec, the Tekna model. Both cars have had little done to them in terms of replacement parts but the new one has had a new aftermarket set of front discs and pads (apparently due to the lack of use due to excessive use of regen???). They have cost me around 25p per mile TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) and that’s without allocating the solar feed-in benefits.

 

Positives – List 3 or more reasons why you love this electric car.

  • It drives very well
  • nothing has really gone wrong with it
  • it is half the TCO cost of my Skoda Fabia 1.4 TDI (my last ICE car).

 

Negatives – List 3 or more things that you really don’t like about this electric car.

Range is a little limited but if the public charging system was more available/reliable then that would not be an issue at all. Our use of the public charging system for this car is probably only 1 or 2 times per month.

 

Have you experienced any faults with the car? If so, what have they been?

As above, the front brake discs and pads replaced after 32,000miles.

 

What are the standout tech features of your LEAF?

The all-round camera views are great, the simplicity of the vehicle set-up, the comfy heated seats and steering wheel and hopefully it’s ability to provide V2H in the near future to further reduce our cost of electricity.

 

Surprise us! Tell us something people wouldn’t readily know about this electric car.

It’s not as efficient a drivetrain as our IONIQ 28kWh and the correct miles/kWh figure for it is around 3.5 miles per kWh and not the 4 to 4.3 miles per kWh advised by the car’s dashboard. It is probably on a par with most BEVs but the IONIQ is 15-20% more efficient and even moreso at motorway speeds.

 

What electric car are you interested in next and why?

I was interested in buying a Kia e-Niro but the price hikes to the current excessive levels make that impossible. Price-parity between ICEs and BEVs has been reached now no matter what the manufacturers like to tell us and they are all using the Porsche/Lamborghini method of limiting supply to hike prices.

 

What home charging unit do you use? Would you recommend it to others and why?

In winter a Rolec 7kW unit which is 9 years old and when the sun shines a 13A external solar-supplied socket.

 

Rate your home charging unit out of 5.

 

What home electricity supplier & tariff do you use? Would you recommend it to others and why?

Octopus Energy’s Go 5 hour tariff – yes, definitely recommend it. If folks want to gain £50 for changing to them let me know by text on 07771 578666 and I can do that for the new user.

 

Rate your electricity supplier out of 5.

 

What public charging networks would you recommend to others and why?

I use ChargePlace Scotland very infrequently around Scotland and on a couple of recent trips south to London have used both Polar and Gridserve successfully.

 

List your top 3 favourite public charging networks (in order of preference).

See above.

 

Who do you insure your electric car with? Would you recommend them to others and why?

Saga – 3 year deal.

 

Rate your insurance provider out of 5.

 

Estimate how much money you save per month owning and running an electric car compared to a petrol/diesel car.

£250

 

See other owner reviews here

 

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