How Far Can My 7 Year Old 2013 Nissan LEAF Drive?

[@ansonz2236]

Awesome review! I just bought a 2013 leaf with almost 100k on it, but still 10 bars left! Super excited for it.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Wow that's a lot of miles for a vehicle with such limited range, and secondarily a lot of bars for that many miles. Great find!

[@kjam87gxp]

How much does it cost to charge all week

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

@@kjam87gxp That depends on how much you drive. In my case I always charged for free at work so I never paid to charge it at all.

[@ElectrifiedJourneys]

The Nissan Leaf is a highly underrated EV and although it doesn't have the capacity or the BMS of most other big name EVs, eventually it will be recognized as one of the best made EVs that was mass produced at the twilight of the electric revolution. My opinion only I know, but I'm also a very optimistic person I guess. Congrats on your recent purchase! I wish you many fun miles of EV driving in this unique little car that handles and drives quite amazingly.

[@robertsalas948]

How much did u pay?

[@mikespark72]

Thank you for that man! I was wondering what an older Leaf could do in the city. 7 bars left is a LOT of degradation though, and in so little miles driven, its a bit surprising!

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

I've been perusing the local classifieds of other 2013 Nissan LEAFs, and I've seen one with 10 bars remaining, several with 9 bars remaining, and a couple with 7 bars like mine. There's even one with only 6 bars remaining. When I purchased it there were 9 bars remaining, and within months it lost a bar, then another one a year later. Super poor technology compared to a Tesla. It's still a useful car, but certainly limits options. Oh, also worth mentioning is out of 11 LEAFs for sale in my area right now mine has the most miles on it. Most of them are around 35k miles. Thanks for watching, and feel free to subscribe if you're interested in this type of video!

[@matthewlibanio8227]

You also have to be fair. The smaller battery pack does mean you charge much more frequently than a larger one which will be strained a lot less. So while a Tesla has liquid cooling to help it with longevity, frequency of charging coupled with number of fast charges and charging to 100% and leaving it at 100% takes a toll on any battery. My 2018 Model 3 with 69,000kms has 9.1% degradation already so I stopped Supercharging. It clearly accelerated wear dramatically. Also to be fair, first gen leafs had a poorer chemistry which was the nail in the coffin for earlier leafs than newer ones. Newer ones hold up extremely well so far.

[@matthewzizzo4586]

@@matthewlibanio8227.... Can you please reccomend a quality , 240v 27A charging cable that I can plug into a socket ?... I am in a very populated area , and my vehicle is parked in front of my house on my property , but have no garage.... so a "charging station" ( vulnerable to vandalism ) is not a good option....thankyou.

[@matthewlibanio8227]

@@matthewzizzo4586 A portable charger from a 2016-2019 Chevrolet Volt will work on either 110v or 240V up to 15 amps. It's got a 24ft cord that goes really far. I used that for years for both my Tesla and Volt. It's quite weather proof too. It's the best portable charger by far I have ever seen that works with any EV.

[@Prodigious1One]

@@ElectricTechAdventures do you make sure to charge up to 80% instead of 100%? I bought my used 2013 leaf with 12 bars in late 2018. I charged it to 100% for about a year and I lost one bar after the first year then a second bar after the second year. I just needed to drive further. But now I generally charge to 80% and the car still has 10 bars. I only charge to 100% for road trips. The car did show me 101 miles of range while charging on level two and being set to 100%. Thus the car can surprise. However that high range can fall easily. The real maximum range is probably in the 90s.

[@tons4759]

I currently have a 15 Nissan Leaf SL just hit 55K and lost another bar. Only have 10/12 bars. Bought the car used with 21K with 11/12 bars. Your video gave me a lot of insight into my leaf. Thanks!

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

I'm glad I could help!

[@ifellinlovewithmhmm]

IDK if this was a steal, I just bought a used 2013 Nissan Leaf for $4,749 with a range of 70-85 miles and it has 12 bars. Im only using it 40-50 miles a day, 2-3 days a week. it also has 78k mileage

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Sounds like a steal to me! 12 bars is fantastic. Sounds like it's working well for you.

[@woozone]

Very helpful video! I’m considering a 2013 Leaf with about 75k mi and wanted to know about battery degradation as well as recharging capacity. Your video really helps!

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

I'm glad it was helpful!

[@RyanCoomer]

I have a 2016 Nissan Leif and it used to get 140 miles per charge but now only about 35 miles per charge. too much fast charging sometimes twice a day in 100 degree weather. it's a 2016 but I bought it in 2018 and used it for work which had a LOT of driving around town.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Wow that's really bad battery degradation! Active thermal management is really important for longevity of this battery chemistry.

[@Chrisb8s]

My EV journey started with Nissan Leaf Videos and test drives. I live in the Phoenix area and while I fell in love with the leaf (my wife not so much) I was so worried that it wouldn't get me to the airport and back without a charge and that would just not do. So, about 5 years ago I bought a used Chevy Volt gen 1 and waited for the model 3. I loved my volt and put tons of miles on it. it was like a game to try to get it to stay in electric mode. I would stop for lunch at free chargers and even though it took forever, I would charge it up and drive another 45 miles or so. Then when the 3 came out. I was not impressed, it was nearly $60k, not $35 like promised so when a friend of mine got a cpo (back when tesla did cpo fully refurbished) Model S, I started shopping with Tesla and found my 2014 p85 with Ap1, I love it and this week I am getting a trailer hitch for it. so I found your videos. Anyway, I know that you are waiting for the cybertruck which will be cool, and I have looked into upgrading to maybe a used long range model s with fsd, but.. the amount they will give me on my car is sad.. and I could sell it outright, but my car is paid for and I have a few upgrades like the new Mcu2 so when I see this video I think.. yes, replace the battery, for $11k, you get a new car that has a classic leafy look. my thought is, that even at $20,000 which is crazy high for a new battery.. if I could get 100kwh in my Model S I would keep it forevery :)

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

That's awesome, thanks for sharing! How much battery degradation has your Model S had so far? When it no longer has the range you need I recommend selling private party. Typically trade in value is just too poor to be worth the tax advantage in my experience. There's usually someone out there that has a short range need who would be able to use it as is and you could upgrade to a longer range vehicle. That might make more sense than replacing the battery. From what I've seen of Tesla battery degradation it should typically last the life of the car, like half a million miles. Unless it fails during the 8 year battery warranty, or perhaps gets abused later in life.

[@Chrisb8s]

@@ElectricTechAdventures I bought my car with 58,000 miles on it 3 years ago.. today it has 104,000 miles. I rarely charge to full, but I did recently just to see what the number said for miles I still get 239 miles, so new it was supposed to be 265, but being a p85 it was probably less. That is still more than the base model Audi GTor the Ford Mach E. so I am very happy with it.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

@@Chrisb8s That's awesome, thanks for sharing!

[@techontesla5284]

I am actually shocked that you got that much range was seven battery bars that’s really good

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

For what it's worth I ran the battery lower than I normally would. I don't like range anxiety, like most people.

[@Sanjayadon]

I have a 4 bar 2012 LEAF and can barely to 40Km in the city. I use LeafSpy to monitor the battery level as it gives more accurate data than the guess-o-meter. I'd say you can do 8-12Km till the car drops to the turtle mode. You will instinctively slow down when the range anxiety kicks in! Great video!

[@808xcountry5]

How much to replace the battery?

[@Sanjayadon]

@@808xcountry5 at the moment it is about 1.2 million LKR to replace it. But there's a severe shortage of EV battery packs due to economic crisis in SL.

[@lw216316]

can't get Leafspy to work, any ideas?

[@jerrymarin9435]

My 2012 leaf has 7 bars left. Just picked it up, gonna drive it for a year and think if I want to invest in battery replacement. So far I like this car though

[@sugarlandedward]

Great review. Thanks for taking the time to do this!

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Glad it was helpful, and thanks for watching!

[@Prodigious1One]

For the freeway, drive in eco mode and drive at around 50 miles per hour to maximize range. Try to regenerate while going down hill to conserve energy.

[@AZITHEMLGPRO]

Cope*serve energy

[@RobertRoweMusic]

We have a 2012 Leaf with abour 75k miles, with 7/12 bars left. It's still decent for in-town driving, errands, etc. We just added an ICE car to the quiver to give us a few more years with the Leaf.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Cool, thanks for sharing your experience. Since making this video I decided to sell the LEAF because I'm working from home now and was rarely using it. The family that purchased it got it for their teenage children to go between home and their high school. Seems like a pretty good fit for them.

[@blomegoog]

already did this back in 2012. got over 90 miles. included freeway and hills too. but no A/C.

[@edwizard62]

Love the Scenery. Where is this at? Great review.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

I drove around northern Utah county.. The prettiest scenery that you saw was probably in Alpine Utah. I'm glad you liked it!

[@futbol1972]

2014 Nissan LEAF S with 32,041 miles for $8,995 or 2014 sparks ev with 66,748 mikes for $8,999 the sparks have DC fast charging. I don't know about the Nissan leaf?? Also the sparks has about 68 miles in range left. I drove it for 10 miles city and highway and it said it gave me 2.4kw range. At 92 degrees and with ac on at 68

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

My Nissan LEAF had DC fast charging using the CHAdeMO plug type. That is an optional charge port so they don't all have it. It's not an ideal method of charging since LEAFs don't have active thermal management they don't control the heat caused by fast charging and causes increased battery degradation. It's there for when you're in a pinch, but shouldn't be regularly used.

[@sebasean2066]

My 2016 Nissan Leaf has lost three bars in 2023, can only go about 100 kilometers in summer and of course a lot shorter in the winter of -10 degrees celcius. But apart from that everything works great, zero issue.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Thanks for sharing your data point. Are you saying that it lost the three bars all in 2023 or that over the last 7 years by 2023 it had lost three bars?

[@matthewlibanio8227]

You are also comparing a car that cost twice as much if not more. I would also like to see cost of ownership of the Tesla vs the Leaf. My 2018 Model 3 if out of warranty would have cost me over $6800 in repairs already. My mom's 8 bar 2012 Leaf has required $125 in a new 12V battery in 9 years... Of you want to include tires, then it has cost $942 in 9 years and the 2018 Model 3 in 3 years has cost me personally over $2200 with tires. So overall, the Tesla wins on longevity, but if you compare cost of ownership, the Leaf while being a silly air cooled car will always smash the Tesla for reliability and cost of ownership every time.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

The purpose of this video was to simply test and show what my LEAF was capable of. It was not a comparison video to the Tesla because I agree that's not a fair comparison. I did mention the Tesla's battery degradation as a point of reference of better technology, and yes the price is significantly different between the vehicles. You make good points that I agree with in that my LEAF doesn't go through tires NEARLY as fast as my Tesla does...which is kind of obvious considering how much more powerful Teslas are. But I guess for some people who don't understand high performance vehicles and their speed of tire wear need to have that called out. In summary the LEAF has lower cost of ownership/maintenance but it's capable of FAR less, mostly due to it's abysmal range. My Tesla will be out of it's CPO warranty in the next couple of months and I'm a little nervous about what repairs will cost going forward, but considering I've been using the car for the past 2 years paying zero for any maintenance or fuel costs I've accrued quite the slush fund of what I would have spent if I'd driven a gasoline vehicle over the same 37k miles.

[@matthewlibanio8227]

@@ElectricTechAdventures Don't misinterpret me as attacking you or your conclusions, hahaha, actually I thought your video among the more fair of the Leaf videos. I get it, Leaf hasn't been amazing for degradation, to be sure, but it was the first of it's kind, and some leeway is given for that. So for sure, you are spot on, just that sometimes folks equate degradation with reliability which is not fair. Leaf is tremendously reliable and has never failed us once. Just the sucky range getting worse and worse. Not sure how I forgot, but my Husband did remind me of the headlight replacement last year on the Model 3 that made us gasp. It was covered under warranty, but it was replaced under warranty because it wouldn't stop flickering. Common early model 3 issue. The cost to replace on the invoice was a whopping $1927 + 2.5 hours labour at $175 CAD + tax!!! So while we adore our Model 3, it's definitely apt to completely wipe out any savings if more than 2 or 3 of those happen in a year. I also acknowledge all high end vehicles are not cheap and this is nothing new to a BMW or Mercedes owner. But it's something to think about for sure. Under warranty our Model 3 is excellent, but next year when the B2B warranty runs out, I am, like you, going to have to decide.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

@@matthewlibanio8227 I've used our warranty more than I had originally thought we would, sadly. Some of those times are documented in my 1 year in review video but other times have happened since then. I'm going to make another video near our 2 year mark in a couple months which will also be when our odometer gets to 100,000 miles and I'll outline all the other times we've had our Model S serviced under warranty. My invoices always just shows a total of $0 since it's covered under warranty so I don't know what these repairs would have cost. I'm guessing your just asked them what it would have cost?

[@matthewlibanio8227]

@@ElectricTechAdventures All my invoices show costs and then they just $0.00 at the right side of the invoice and the bottom shows 0. Maybe it's a Canadian thing possibly.

[@futbol1972]

Nice comparison:)

[@DragonButter32]

wow your car is the same as mine battery and miles wise....looking forward to this

[@chrissscottt]

Interesting vid. Has the rate of battery degradation stayed the same in your experience?

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

I don't have any hard data to go off of but I think the rate of decline is somewhat consistent.

[@chrissscottt]

@@ElectricTechAdventures Thanks for the reply.

[@leetcodeking4859]

Happens to all electric cars. My 2018 Model 3 Tesla with over 100K miles can only go 150 miles at full charge on the freeway now at 75 MPH. Looking to sell it.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

What was the range of your 2018 model 3 when it was new? My 2015 Tesla Model S has 131,000 miles on it and can travel 245 miles on a charge. It had 262 miles of range on it when I purchased it at 63k miles on the odometer. I believe it was 270 miles of range from the factory. I believe the number one factor that affects the dramatic range loss of the LEAF is it doesn't have active thermal management. But there are other factors at play such as how the BMS is programmed or the chemistry of the batteries etc.

[@brendanleonard1375]

I'm thinking of getting a 2013 Leaf with similar miles as yours. I don't know how many bars it has. It's for sale for $5k but I may be able to haggle it down. The longest trip I have is my 20 mile trip to school, so about 40 miles total. But I can avoid the highway on the way there and get reg braking and my school is in the city so there are a lot more charging ports available if I need them. I really want to get an EV though. :)

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

I hope you're able to get a LEAF as it is a good car to drive, it's just limited in range. If you have a known route though like you do taking it to work then it could very well work for you. If you're able to charge at your destination then it doubles your range. EVs are the best!

[@matthewzizzo4586]

Driving a couple weeks in my " new to me " 2013 leaf(65.4kmi-10/12soh).. ...I think ur plan will work... depending on the individual range of the car you get , you may have to make sure to get that leaf right on the charger when you get home... and you may not be able to use it at night how you want to because of your driving needs the next day . You said you were in school so I'm thinking you may be a young person ? I am 46 , and for the last two weeks of driving this car I have often thought my opinion of this car would have been different when I was , say 26 ? and wanted to take off places , and did do just that .... that being said... good luck this is a fantastic car.

[@mak8422]

@@ElectricTechAdventures can you just plug it into a normal outlet

[@nickborrrego]

@@mak8422 sure can. It's a slower way to charge, but I typically reclaim my daily commute overnight.

[@Francisco-j1e]

All the used leafs in my country have 3 or 4 bars

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

What country do you live in? I'm guessing a really hot place if the batteries have degraded so badly.

[@MyFunFamily.]

Same. Nz

[@patrav5542]

Very good test and explaining overveiw of the data results. But I have tried to find some one doing this with Metric and Celcius information. Regards from Sweden.🇸🇪

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Ya sorry about that. In some of my videos I put on the screen the conversion to Celsius or kilometers or kilograms. But in general it's time-consuming and I don't always remember to do it and it's time-consuming for me during the editing process to convert everything. I wish the United States just used the metric system.

[@patrav5542]

No need to be sorry. You presenter the US miles figures wich im thankful for. I can figure it out my self. I have a 2016 leaf 30 kWh battery. I bought new 6 years ago. I drove 130 000 plus km with it and 10bars left on battery. This is in season including winter here in Sweden but the car is always in warmgarage home. Range arround 120 to 150km today depend on weather and speed. Merry christmas 🎅

[@johnspence8141]

This varies greatly on temperature and rapid charging. Some Leafs lose 2.5% each year, some lose almost nothing. Also people make the mistake of charging it to 100% which isn't really the best way to go about it. Keeping it charged to 80% and never letting it go below 50% is probably optimal. Warmer climate = longer life.

[@lw216316]

where do you get the information about 80 and 50 ? How do I stop the charge at 80 ?

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

There's general published data and studies I've seen through the years regarding lithium ion batteries. It's important to hone in on the specific chemistry you're dealing with though because the "care instructions" vary a bit. In general with lithium it's better to maintain a charge in the middle of the battery, but it is still a thing to serve you and not the other way around so don't fret too much about it. It's what you do on a regular basis that matters the most. For instance on a daily basis try not to go below 10% or above 90%, the more ideal range is more like 20-80, or even better 30-70. Over thousands of charge cycles it'll make a difference if you're constantly doing something that's not good for the batteries like the charge percentage. Another is if the batteries get overly hot, or are charged when overly cold. In my opinion all electric cars should have active thermal management like all Teslas do. The LEAF unfortunately does not so it's up to the owner to try to manage temperature by where it's parked, when it's charged and where it's driven. It's a fair climate vehicle frankly and will suffer in any extreme environments like Phoenix, AZ in the summer or northern climates in the winter. Also in my 2013 LEAF it had a setting where it would stop charging automatically at 80%, but the 2014 and beyond models have that feature removed so it's up to the owner to stop the charging, which is pretty unreasonable to expect. My Juicebox Pro 40 has wifi connectivity so I can remotely stop the charge, but many EVSE's don't. Ultimately I used my LEAF to get to work and back which was a fine use case for it's limited range, but I've since sold it. It had too many limitations to bother keeping around now that I'm mostly working from home. We use our Tesla Model S for everything except for towing our RV which we got a gas truck for while we wait for the Tesla Cybertruck.

[@Mark-eb2vt]

I was going to buy one used as my first electric car and this is crazy to me. I work 75 miles away pure hwy driving I would be charging every single day twice a day. This is crazy lol

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

The minimal range of the older LEAFs really limit the situations where they're useful. I sold mine to a family for some teenage children to commute to high school in. That was a good use case. I used it to commute to work which was only 6 miles away one way so it worked fine for my situation too. It was annoying any time I needed to go somewhere besides work though because often it was beyond the range of the LEAF so I had to coordinate with my wife to use our Model S instead.

[@ek9772]

Would you say the reason the Tesla has less battery degradation is due to the active thermal battery system, or it has more to do with battery chemistry?

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Based on my research on EVs in general, thermal management is very important. I would put that at #1 importance. After that I don't know enough to try to rank them, but software management is important like the BMS. The type of cell both being pouch/prismatic/cylindrical AND the chemistry also come into play a lot I'm sure.

[@ek9772]

@@ElectricTechAdventures thanks. I like the fact that you honor your belongings by caring and maintaining them over time. 😊 This is in contrast to disposing of stuff as soon as it shows signs of aging.

[@stem_saving1644]

Nice review. I currently have a 6 year old leaf with 60k miles and get ~80 miles on it. I only lost 1 capacity bar though. I'm surprised by the difference in our ranges given the same battery pack. Do you have the older chemistry pack?

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

I'm not sure what years "older" is but mine is a 2013 model year. I think perhaps the old version was 2011-2012 from what I remember reading in the past. The prior owner used the car pretty heavily fully charging and draining the battery twice a day to get to and from work. So it had already lost 3 bars by the time I bought it. It lost another bar after I'd had it for 6 months or so and I sold the car after putting about 5,000 miles on it. I started to work from home exclusively so simply never drove it and decided to just save money on insurance and registration. Plus it's limited range limited its usefulness as a general run around car. It worked fine for commuting to work since it was such a known distance.

[@stem_saving1644]

@@ElectricTechAdventures I have the '15. It's definitely a good car. Just wished they added thermal battery management like GM did. I drive it back and forth to work mainly. It does really struggle in the winter in single digits temps. Range goes down by 15-20 miles. Didn't like that, but good thermal management would have helped. But as adopters of new technology, it's a tradeoff with price.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

@@stem_saving1644 yep I totally agree! Active thermal management is very important for many reasons such as performance, longevity, etc...

[@pioneer7777777]

Any idea why the degradation is so bad? Our 2013 just recently lost its first bar and is at 60,000 miles. Ours is in Minnesota and has no quick charge port so only level 1 and 2 charging. I'm certain this has helped the battery last longer.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Wow yours is doing REALLY well! I've looked at many used Nissan LEAFs from 2013 for sale on local classifieds and I guarantee you're in the vast minority having lost just your first bar. When I purchased my LEAF in Feb 2018 it had 60k miles and already had lost 3 bars at that time. The prior owner used it to commute on the freeway using most of the range one way, and their place of work had a destination charger they used to get back home. I've only put an additional 7k miles on the car and my commute is much shorter and I've limited charging to 80% most of the time. I've DC fast charged it a handful of times, probably not more than 3 times. What have your charging habits been that made it last so long?

[@pioneer7777777]

@@ElectricTechAdventures We charge to 100% all the time, it sits in an unheated detached garage in the shade. We're definitely not pampering it. Now we have a leaf plus as well so the old LEAF is not getting driven as often.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

@@pioneer7777777 Interesting. Well I don't know what the major differences are, but I do know looking at used LEAFs that there is a large variance of battery health out there, especially when considering that Most Teslas have much closer battery degradation. I chalk it up to better thermal management, and software controlled battery management.

[@dougabbott8261]

Heat really beats up these batteries.Charging them while in hot conditions while the battery is hot etc etc really does them no favors.

[@sc400gilliland]

Level 1 charging is the way to go longevity

[@randrowe9660]

Any chance you know what it would cost to put in a 40 kwh battery? Are Leaf owners in the states doing battery swaps like they do in Europe?

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

I haven't heard of anyone in the United States offering battery swaps. Since making this video I've sold the LEAF because I'm working from home now exclusively. Thanks for watching!

[@lw216316]

Dealer wanted well over 10k to put in new 24kw battery, private shops wanted 15k to upgrade to more kw

[@stevezodiac491]

I have a 30kwhr 6.6 charger Leaf Teckna. It has done just less than 30k miles and I have had it from new 6 3/4 years ago. It lives in the temperate NE of England and has never been abused or left full etc. It now has 9 battery bars and has lost 25 % capacity. Compared to my other 18 year old MX5 and 14 year old E Class diesel, both of which have not changed in range, the Merc still being able to do 650 miles at motorway speeds and 51 mpg. The Leaf is an absolute disater and I will never buy another electric car of any description again until I have no other option, being forced to do so against my will, by the UK gov. after my experience of the leaf. The other thing is the passive battery cooling may have caused the degredation ? but ' battery life channel' has a 2 year old liquid cooled ID3 which has lost 10 % in that time. Electric car batteries are not suited to long time service, compared to quality ice cars i am afraid !

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

My 2015 Tesla Model S 85D now has 122,773 miles on it and it has lost 6% of it's range. It's rated miles is now 251. Just another data point.

[@fredlwal]

How much would it cost to replace those batteries?

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

In 2018 I went to a Nissan dealership and asked them and they quoted me $10,000 to replace the battery which is of course absurd considering I paid $7,800 for the car. And for what it is worth it was still working fine for what I needed it for which was commuting to work a relatively short distance like 6 MI one way. But for the last year I've been working from home so I actually sold the Nissan leaf recently. The people that bought it got it for their teenage children to take to high school a couple of miles away so cars like this still work for a certain use cases just fine and I doubt the battery will get replaced anytime soon in this car. I have heard of aftermarket options closer to $4,000 to replace the battery. I actually think there are some other comments on this video that has a URL to that company if you are interested.

[@donthompson9862]

What do you do when it's cold out?won't the heater drain the battery plus wipers going radio ect?

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

The wipers and radio use a tiny amount of electricity compared to the battery and have virtually zero effect on range. The heater has some effect, so range is a little less in the winter but the amount depends on how cold it is outside and what the cabin set temperature is. I'd estimate roughly 10%. It had enough range to get to work in the winter without any problems. In my Teslas I've camped overnight in the car in weather down to near single digits and the heater uses about 10-18% of the battery over about 10 hours.

[@willgeorge5644]

exactly where my 2013 leaf is with this. However, leafspy says the is more in the barrey even when the display stops registering, I did another 15 miles after leafspy said it was empty!

[@lw216316]

got leafspy but can't get it to work ?

[@Gunsforfreedom]

My 2012 is around the same. I still charge up at 10 miles remaining, just to be safe : )

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

That's a good idea, you certainly need to be comfortable with razor thin margins when driving a LEAF. In my Tesla if I only have 10 miles of range remaining I'm typically stressed, but in the LEAF that's normal. The big difference however is that the LEAF never leaves town so I could at any point pull over and I'd be relatively close to help. In my Tesla if I'm going down to 10 miles remaining it's most likely while on a road trip and I could potentially be in far flung remote locations where getting stranded would be a much bigger deal. Thanks for watching!

[@Gunsforfreedom]

@@ElectricTechAdventures I basically drive my Leaf like a regular car that has a 1/4 tank of fuel LOL. Except, it only costs a few cents to "refill" it at my house.

[@widget1967]

71,500 Miles on my 2015 24KWh Leaf and I've just lost my first bar!

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Wow, that's really good. Where about do you live, and do you ever DC fast charge it?

[@DragonButter32]

i cant beleive you charged in two hours where you using the chademo

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

It charged for 2 hours and 50 minutes using my Juicebox Pro 40 which can charge up to 9.6 kW, but the onboard charger of the LEAF can only handle 6.6 kW so it was charging at 6.6 kW.

[@InnovativeSustainableSolutions]

Good test! Are you planning on selling the car or refurbishing it? The current battery is probably down to it's last year as mobile power source unfortunatly.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Why do you say the battery is down to its last year? Incidentally I did list it for sale today. Not due to its battery condition but because I now work from home exclusively and have not used it very much this summer so I decided to go ahead and do this review and then sell it. Rather than continue paying for registration and insurance and having it take up space in my garage.

[@InnovativeSustainableSolutions]

@@ElectricTechAdventures I'm assuming about 6 cycles/week @ 50 miles/cycle. That puts about 300 more cycles on it this year, which will shave another bar or 2 of the health, or 5 to 10 miles off the range. Extrapolate that out to 2 years, and the range falls to a point where the vehicle doesn't have much utility left. Good luck with the sale! I have your DIY grid-tie video queue'd up to watch later. I do a bit at the end of my videos called the EconomEV of the week: basically the cheapest EV I can find in the US. Reach out if you have trouble moving the Leaf, and want to firesale it as an EconomEV

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

@@InnovativeSustainableSolutions Thanks for the insight. Personally I haven't been putting that many miles on it, even when I was using it to commute to work each business day. So with somewhat light usage I think it probably has closer to 5 years of life, but becoming more and more limited over that time. I was planning to trade it in to Tesla when I pick up my Cybertruck (hopefully around April 2022) and let them deal with it, but I have been using it so little I decided to just go ahead and sell it private party now and we'll be a one vehicle household (with our 2015 Tesla Model S 85D) until I get the Cybertruck.

[@InnovativeSustainableSolutions]

@@ElectricTechAdventures I think I'm probably in the high mileage bracket, as far as 2011 Leaf drivers go, at 50+ miles/day. They're building that giga factory just 200 miles south of here. We're gonna apply for jobs there when they start hiring, I'm ready to jump ship from UPS. We're dual motor registration #30,000 or so. It will be the first vehicle we have EVER purchased new. It's gonna be a perfect work truck, and it feels good putting your family in a tank when they have to be on the road.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

I also have a Cybertruck reservation and I'm in position around 61,000, but according to docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1--6OR9ECwSwZdkOtWkuslJVCyAAfQv1eJal1fdngfsk/edit#gid=0 I'm more like in position 18,000 due to the tri motor trim I selected. That spreadsheet is predicting April 2022 is my availability date. I've always advocated for buying used vehicles, and never thought I'd buy a brand new one until the Cybertruck came along. There's literally nothing like it or as good as it for the price anywhere in the world. Yes I could still wait another year or two and possibly still get one used, but I decided I'd go ahead and make a philosophical exception for this one. I have lots of big plans for it both for personal use and KZbin videos!

[@litestuffllc7249]

sure I'd like to see a highway speed ride - if you avne't done one .

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

This is the video you're asking for. kzbin.info/www/bejne/nXfUpGaHjrqHqM0

[@GrotrianSeiler]

How is the car doing 2yrs later? How many bars is it down to from 7?

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

I sold it so I don't know. A mother purchased it for her high school student children to get to school and back.

[@stevysan420]

I have a 2013 leaf with 3 bars. 85,000km. 50km range which is 30 miles 😶

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Wow that's really getting down there to towards the bottom of usefulness! There's another comment on this video of someone mentioning a company that can potentially do battery replacements. Hopefully if that's not financially viable for you now, it will be soon.

[@roadstar499]

can you buy a new battery for this that is better than the nickle cad it came with??i see you can buy lithium batteries for older gen toyota prius cars... also does this car have battery fan/water cooling to make the batteries last much longer than ones without good cooling??? i am just starting to researh buying an electric car...i really need to be able to charge at my house and get around 120 miles per day 3-4 days a week..car will be used for delivery job... thanks for sharing..

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

I've heard that there's a company that makes Nissan LEAF battery pack replacements, but the original battery doesn't have any active thermal management (liquid heating or cooling) and I don't believe the replacement does either because it would require components (like a radiator) in the car in addition to inside the battery that don't exist. An EV makes for an excellent delivery car because it's so economical and is pleasant to drive, but range is the limiting factor if you get an EV with too little of which there's many. An older used Tesla Model S might be affordable enough for you to use as a delivery vehicle and have enough range.

[@therandomtester9561]

24 kWh yes, but that's gross capacity. Usable, when new was claimed around 20-21 kWh. 13.2 kWh from the socket, but there's a charge-loss of around 10%, so I guess about 11,9 kWh went into the battery. You should have parked with 4-5%, extrapolated you should be able to put 12.5 kWh back in, giving around 35-40% loss. Compared to norwegian cars, that's huge loss! Normal here is to have lost 1, max 2 bars on a -13, and still 16+ kWh remaining. But the Leaf is known to loose capacity in heat, something we don't have much of over here..

[@conrado800]

Talk to a company called EV Rides they can install a new battery for you up to 250 miles range

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Good to know thanks for the heads up! For any others reading this comment the pricing is listed here evridesllc.com/battery-upgrade-service/

[@Chrisb8s]

@@ElectricTechAdventures you know, compared to buying a brand new car, it's not a bad option

[@computerbob06]

@@ElectricTechAdventures If you don't need the range to be any bigger, the 24kwh swap out is a $3k no brainer! And only 3 days to complete the work? Probably take a Tesla centre 3 months (looking at TFL Car's Model 3 experiences)!

[@blee3417]

Hi, now I am considering buying a second hand 2013 model. Do you think I am wrong to buy?

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

It is a good car as long as the range works for what you need it for and as long as you can get it for a cheap price.

[@no-damn-alias]

Even at 0% the Leaf has 10% reserved capacity. Could you do the test again with leafspy? You can go down to 0.5kwh remaining and it will tell you the actual SOH.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

I've actually sold my LEAF since this video was made. We primarily use our Model S and we use a Ford F-250 only when towing our travel trailer.

[@roadstar499]

so whats the cost of a charger roughly that i could use at my house for this... ? and what year car would i have to have to get over 100 miles per day?also does it rise electric bill much? i plan on putting around 350 miles per week on this driving it 3-4 times a week... thanks for your time..

[@bid84]

Hi the “granny” charger costs about €250 to buy new, if you want to travel over 100miles a day you will need to at least buy the 30kw leaf, which came out in 2015 I think.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

I'm not an expert on home chargers (EVSE) but when I researched it in 2018 I decided to purchase a Juicebox Pro 40 and it worked great for me for my LEAF and still works great for my Model S. I spent $550 for mine, but there's a bit of a variance on EVSEs out there in the market. My LEAF came with a charger, but it was only a 15 amp (standard household outlet) plug and thus quite slow. What year is a bit too generic of a question because you could get a Tesla Model S from 2012 that still has enough range to get you 100 miles per day, but a Nissan LEAF didn't have over 100 mils of range until 2016. I wish you the best in your search, electric vehicles are awesome but like most things in this life you get what you pay for.

[@xboxice2005]

7 BARS LEFT!!!!!! WOW

[@casey360360]

Bagtery longevity on these would be so much better if Nissan had put a damn active cooling system on the freaking battery!!!!

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

I completely agree.

[@casey360360]

@@ElectricTechAdventures they're still super convenient EV commuters. I'm looking at 3 of tomorrow, hopefully bringing one home. I've figured $28 a month to charge with my commute to work with leeway for extra stops on the way. My 40mpg station wagon can't even fill up for $30.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

@@casey360360 it worked as a great commuter car for me as well.

[@casey360360]

@@ElectricTechAdventures if you have cheap electricity (everyone has solar here in Phoenix) it makes much more sense than an ICE for short commutes. I can charge at work with a level 1 too, that powers "free" haha.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

When I commuted to work they had level 2 (6 kW) chargers provided for free to us employees. It was awesome going from a gas car to electric and all of a sudden not only was I not spending any money on gas to get to work, I could also run a few short distance errands and still get back to work the next day to charge it back up. Then I changed to working from home and didn't need the car at all, which was even cheaper due to no insurance/maintenance costs. :)

[@funnyfoodreviews]

HOW MUCH IS A NEW BATTERY FOR THAT OR A refurbished one

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

I don't know current pricing. I looked into it briefly summer 2018 and a new battery from Nissan was about $10k which is more than I paid for the whole used vehicle. I've heard of retrofits in Europe, but nothing locally.

[@Alexandros4053]

Yeah, nice car the engineers could do better battery back that time... it's 3500 euro (5000 us doars) in Ireland to change it to drive 60000 miles in Ireland you need buy petrol for 9000 euros.. Stiil wort to buy Nissan leaf Swap battery and make same milage again... :)

[@jestronixhanderson9898]

Mine has 45000 on it and 20% loss for 6 years. I can lose another 20% and use it perfectly, ill probably go another 5 years and grab an aftermarket battery.

[@samusaran7317]

Change your charging habits and you will see less degradation.

[@richardh6756]

Are you going to get a new battery you could get one through Nissan I think

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

I sold the car because I work from home now, but if I still had it I'd continue to use it as is since it still worked for me to get to work. If it ever got to the point that it couldn't do that then I'd consider replacing the battery for sure.

[@bid84]

Wow your battery degraded quickly, my 2014 leaf has 11 bars remaining. Mileage is around 60k miles. I’m in Ireland so perhaps the climate is prolonging the battery, I can still get 65-80 miles Ona charge.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Your battery is doing well for sure! I imagine climate might have something to do with it as well as how it was used. I purchased my LEAF at 62,000 miles / 99,779 kilometers and 5 years old. The original owner drove it to work every day using nearly the full range each way, so they charged it during the day at work, then charged it overnight at home every day. Because of this usage it got many more cycles put on the battery over a shorter period of time than many EVs. Plus all that driving was at around 80 mph / 128 kph so the battery was probably fairly heavily stressed or hot twice a day. Because the LEAF doesn't have active thermal management the battery likely degraded more quickly. I believe most charging was at a level 2 charger (32 amps most likely). When I got it I commuted a shorter distance and being new to EVs I experimented with charging at a CHAdeMO about 4 times. The battery temperature indicator never went very high, but it was never clear at what point on that gauge was too hot. In any case those are the conditions it degraded at that speed.

[@bid84]

@@ElectricTechAdventures Ah I see, well I don’t think my car has seen much motorway action in its life. Previous owner only did short trips and mostly charged it with a granny charger so I don’t think the battery has seen much abuse. I’m sure age related degradation will become a factor as it nears the 10 year old mark. We shall see!

[@fijifun]

Great info, thanks for the video.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Glad it was helpful!

[@smooth111012]

Can’t we just replace the battery

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Yes you can. At this point in time replacing electric vehicle batteries is an expensive endeavor and some manufacturers such as Tesla have shown that battery packs can be designed to last the entire life of the vehicle, for 100s of thousands of miles. In this video I was demonstrating what my Nissan LEAF could do with its original battery.

[@matthewlibanio8227]

24kwh but not all of it was ever fully available.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Good point. I've never heard how much was actually available.

[@frankelf3151]

21.3kwh while some say 21.4kwh. There is a buffer of around 10% in most electric cars except Teslas. This is used to protect top and bottom end.

[@catherinegonzales9544]

Just bought one and I’m a delivery driver 💀 at least they have a 7 day return policy. But maybe I can make it work

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

How's the delivery driving going now 7 days later? Is it working out or did you have to return it?

[@catherinegonzales9544]

@@ElectricTechAdventures ended up returning it. I would definitely want to get a newer leaf with a batter battery in the future, but for now I’m just gonna go with a Ford Focus because they’re pretty good on gas

[@jackplunderbones]

This is so cool, thanks for posting! I am considering buying a 2013 Leaf so I found your video and watched it. I saw part way through the video that you are in Utah! I used to live in UT Co, and would take the Alpine commuter highway into work every day. So it was fun to see you take that in part of your analytical drive! 😆

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Thanks! We love it here. What state did you move to?

[@cameronsawesomechannel]

Honestly its better to spend $6k more and get the much nicer bmw i3 which goes around 150 miles on a charge.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

I bought my LEAF in early 2018 for $7,800. I don't remember what the i3 sold for at that time. The use case I purchased the LEAF for was to commute to work 12 miles per day round trip. If the i3 had been $6k more at that time I would still have just purchased the LEAF as it worked for what I needed. If you need a more general around town vehicle and you can afford the price difference then I agree the i3 is better. They're equal in ugliness too in my opinion.

[@cameronsawesomechannel]

@@ElectricTechAdventures actually i don't think the bmw i3 is ugly its a cute car but i totally agree with you the nissan leaf is a perfect city car for short commutes.

[@computerbob06]

@@cameronsawesomechannel i3 only has 4 seats as well, so if he wanted to take his family somewhere, he'd have to strap his Mrs to the roof! Bigger trunk in Leaf as well!

[@christianfiguroa7147]

Wow nice thanks

[@Rhaman68]

Cool test. The unknown factor is the style and conditions the car was driven prior to this video. After 6.5 years of driving a 2011 Leaf, since 2017 with a new battery pack, my experience tells me the differences in the guess o meter as to estimated range depends of the past driving conditions. The battery pack has a set capacity, and you explanation as to “balance” is not quite accurate. You mentioned 75 mph on high speed roads. Never advisable. For the short distances covered on a 24 kWhr battery Leaf, 22 are usable. In city driving, averaging 4.5 miles per kWh, the theoretically range is 100 but that does not happen. Numbers: 13 kWhr X 4.5= 58.5. This car averaged 4.5 miles per kWh and that explains the difference in range. Any speed above 55-60 mph requires huge amount of electricity by the LEAF. While I have not driven to such a low charge levels, I restrict trips to 50-60 miles to avoid/minimize range anxiety. So, there you have it. The Leaf is a phenomenal and capable city EV. Reliable and fun to drive. In 2016 Nisssn offered a new battery for $5,500 and planning to keep the car and estimating that price would not last long, I did the upgrade. Probably will keep at least until 2025. Oh, only 1 bar lost in 5 years charging to 80% only. Thanks for the report. Best wishes.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Whenever I drove the LEAF fast (like 80 mph) it was always in the mindset that I didn't have far to go and I had plenty of electricity to get there at that speed. If I was ever concerned about driving farther then I would avoid the interstate and would instead take surface streets. I agree it's a great city car. In my particular use case of commuting to work it did that just fine. A known distance with minimal variance if I was running errands to or from work. There were a couple times where it would have been nice to be able to go farther away such as when my Wife went somewhere farther away during the day when I was at work and I wanted to be able to join her in the evening but she was farther away than my LEAF could get to so I just couldn't go. I've now been working from home exclusively for over a year and I don't think that'll change anytime soon so I sold the LEAF to a family with some high school students that are using it to commute to school daily.

[@kennethsimbapuppyeyes6857]

i was concerned about this. I guess I could still make the 2012 work. thank you

[@nickborrrego]

Excellent review.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Thanks!

[@OhhitsWill]

Freeway range plesae!

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

I created the freeway vs city driving range test video a week after this one which you can watch here. kzbin.info/www/bejne/nXfUpGaHjrqHqM0

[@katherandefy]

Mine still has 9 of 12 bars of health.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

At what age and miles on the odometer?

[@katherandefy]

2013 year model at 83,613 miles.

[@dinithaperera4315]

Super bro

[@ProDigit80]

Meanwhile I only see leafs with 8 to 2 bars, and all under 50k miles.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

I assumed you are referring to the used car market in your area? My guess would be that people that have LEAFs with better batteries aren't selling them. Or maybe they don't exist...

[@ProDigit80]

@Anthony Dunster yeah, most leafs in so Flo can't deal with the heat. I was hoping by now at least some air cooling could be applied. Like, remove the thermal heating elements and wiring harness, and install a fan that sucks cabin air into the battery, as well as have a venting hole in the battery. Seeing the coldest it'll ever get here is about 50f, but the hottest can exceed 105f which can exceed 140f in the sun. Not many companies make leaf replacement batteries, but those that so cost an arm and a leg.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

@@ProDigit80 I'm afraid that most LEAFs are likely not worth the money to overcome the design deficiency of no active thermal management on the batteries sadly.

[@shaystern2453]

such a risk to take when 3 dashes show up. there is no alternative but a towtruck

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

I can charge it from my travel trailers electrical system on the side of the road. Not a big deal.

[@xboxice2005]

That one battery soc if you use leaf spy that's actually like 18% left plenty in a leaf :)

[@welibala18]

👍

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Thanks for watching!

[@buhrrito]

Lmao, the kids at the end. Maybe I might rethink the leaf. Thats alot of battery degredation over the years. Ill stick to gas until they outlaw it.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

I agree the LEAF isn't a great idea for most use cases. They designed it with zero thermal management which is a big mistake. I wouldn't say it's the LEAF vs Gas though. There are a lot of other electric vehicle options these days. We've been driving our used Model S as our primary family vehicle for 3.5 years now with minimal battery degradation and we've put 60,000+ miles on it. Also I hope gas vehicles are never outlawed. People should be able to choose what they want.

[@erikcordeiro6873]

Convinces me not to buy an electric car that car couldn't even get me to my work And back home without charging

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Our 2013 LEAF is at the bottom of range capabilities of electric cars. Our 2015 Tesla Model S has plenty of range, enough so that we've taken it on many long distance road trips. Just like gas cars there's a lot of variance in capabilities among electric cars.

[@erikcordeiro6873]

@@ElectricTechAdventures While it is true a Tesla does have superior range it is slightly more expensive and for most people right now hurting in this gas crisis than we not gonna have crazy money so they're probably gonna try to buy the cheapest electric Car in which will be at least just like that I've actually been on carguru recently and it's Nothing but the Nissan Leaf and one electric Ford Focus thing

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

@@erikcordeiro6873 yes the general rule of thumb of "you get what you pay for" applies here too. My used 2013 Nissan LEAF with abysmal range back in 2018 was $8,400 whereas in 2019 my used 2015 Tesla Model S was $39,400. The cost difference is very much reflected in the range difference and other features. I saved money for years to be able to purchase electric cars. It wasn't a spontaneous reaction due to gas prices. I also saved money for years to be able to purchase the solar equipment in 2017 that I DIY installed on my house. Now my transportation is largely protected from exposure to gas price fluctuations. It took a lot of effort to get to this point, but it's certainly paying off right now.

[@evangelinepujalte8618]

Lolololo

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Ya, the LEAF's range reduction is pretty sad. It's a testament to how important active thermal management is. The car was great to drive other than it's ever decreasing range. We sold it in 2020 to a family with a couple teenagers to commute to high school in only a couple miles away. It's great for that use case.

[@DragonButter32]

you drive pretty slow

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

I was driving on city streets...plus I'm trying to get a real world example of moderate driving.

[@kjam87gxp]

How much does it cost to charge all week?

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

That depends on how many miles you drive per week. I used free charging at work so I never paid for it.