Re: Nissan Leaf
 

We have charging stations all over in Portland. One of my work sites even has 3 of the fast charge stations. I think there may be several companies providing the charging stations though. I believe the ones at work are Blink stations.

Re: Nissan Leaf
 

Why are they selling 3-4 year old cars for around $10k when they cost around $40k new?

Re: Nissan Leaf
 

It's called depreciation. :rolleyes:

Re: Nissan Leaf
 

Big depreciation normally occurs for a reason. I am just assuming it's aimed at a very small market. I think a lot of people got them on a 2 year lease and were paying $199 a month which a lot of people pay just on gas. For 2 years they had fixed cost motoring as fuel was included. There are a lot for sale considering how long it has been out

Re: Nissan Leaf
 

Maybe they're just crãp? :unsure:

Re: Nissan Leaf
 

Lack of infrastructure is a weak argument. Consider about a hundred or so years ago a similar conversation.

One of the problems with the car is lack of infrastructure. Nowhere to buy gas. I'll stick with my horse you can get hay everywhere.

Re: Nissan Leaf
 

If the infrastructure to charge a car isn't there and convenient, why would people buy an electric car?


The car over a horse was a considerable advancement, gas to electric for most drivers not so much, both will do what most people desire, get you from one point to another, and gas can do that more easily with better options to refuel than electric can.


Make it just as easy for people to charge an electric car as filling one with gas, and bring electric to a reasonable price point, and people might just go and buy electric instead.

A car is useless if there is no infrastructure in place to easily charge the thing.

Re: Nissan Leaf
 

All of the above, plus at all levels of the automobile market, an electric car represents a substantial increase in capital outlay over a similar sized petrol powered car, for only a modest decrease in running costs, much of which is a result of evasion avoidance of the taxes paid on petrol and diesel fuel and/or the theft of power for recharging use of limited numbers of free charging stations provided by some cities, employers, and businesses. The avoidance of taxes and availability of unlimited "free" charging stations is economically unsustainable even in the medium term.

AND, for most people an electric car has lower utility, requiring frequent connection to a charging station for a period of hours not minutes, and is useless for return journeys of more than 50-80 mile radius (granted most journeys for most people are shorter, but people are used to being able to use their one vehicle for long as well as short journeys).

Re: Nissan Leaf
 

Check out the cost of replacing the batteries, and the lifespan if used every day, then you will understand its depreciation. Oh, it also weighs a lot, you can expect higher usage of things like brakes and tyres. Can you get nissan note's in the us? A 1.2 3 cylinder petrol with supercharging, extremely efficient and cheap to run, makes the leaf look really silly which is why they dont sell many in the uk.

Re: Nissan Leaf
 

In the UK, I had a Ford Explorer which I had converted to run on propane. The conversion cost over 1,000 GBP and included a large tank in the boot (taking up cargo space). The cost of propane was half the price of petrol making payback at about 20,000 miles. Availability was not everywhere but was improving. I still had a regular petrol tank as well. It actually gave me an overall range of about 600 miles.

In Florida, we have a CNG station 5 minutes from work. The cost is $2.05 and has been that for at least 5 years. It has NEVER changed.

CNG is simply not viable over here.

Re: Nissan Leaf
 

I heard a rumour that Toyota had been subsidizing the replacement by dealers of batteries for traded-in Priuses, thereby hiding the cost of replacing the Prius's battery packs and avoiding damaging the Prius's reputation. I don't know if such a scheme might still be going on.

Re: Nissan Leaf
 

You have to buy new cars. Horses just breed and you get a new one for free. Horses are better on muddy rutted roads. Maybe one day they'll cover the roads but until they do that the internal combustion engine is a non-starter.

Re: Nissan Leaf
 

I notice that used Volts are not much more than a used leaf and they come with a backup generator.

This is an interesting article regarding servicing costs for EVs

http://www.torquenews.com/1083/myth-...in-gas-cars-do

Re: Nissan Leaf
 

Why do you think that lack of infrastructure is a weak argument?

Re: Nissan Leaf
 

Investment in infrastructure will only happen if there is demand