There was a Nissan Leaf for sale here with less than 50k miles for about $3500 about a year or 18 months ago. When I looked into it, the dealer would charge $500 just to test it to tell me what battery pack was in it and whether any replacement was available. So I couldn't even determine if a replacement battery was available much less what it would cost without paying the dealer $500.
From what I could estimate without going through the dealer, the replacement battery would have been $8,000-10,000, no aftermarket batteries available, the vehicle range with a new battery would still be something like 100-120 miles, and the battery would degrade over time such that the car would be back to having about a 40 mile range within a few years. Operating the car on hills with either the heat or AC really reduced the driving range from what I could determine.
Might have been fine to get groceries if you lived in town and only drove in town, but you could find yourself needing a tow truck if you drove it between cities not starting out with a full charge, got stuck in traffic or whatever as time went on and the battery capacity diminished.
And the Nissan Leaf was the precious darling of the internet when it first came out.
Saw another one for sale for $4,500 a week ago with not that many miles on it.
A low income person used to be able to keep a beater gas car running by spending a few hundred here and there. It would be much harder for them to come up with $8,000-10,000 all at once to replace a battery pack.
Personally I would Not touch any pre 2018 Nissan Leaf because of battery chemistry degrades from heat only. Using back to back DC charging will cause max heat damage.
The Leafs have NO liquid or even air battery cooling system.
Financially Nissan is out of the water and resting in the rocks in my view based the resistance I found in getting my new battery pack under warranty in January 2020. I was planning on getting the Nissan Ayria until my face to face warranty struggle. Thankfully the 2020 40 kWh battery pack that they installed in 2020 to replace my 2016 failing 30 kWh pack is more stable and still has most of its 150 miles of range.
We added the 2023 Tesla Model Y dual motor long range for cross country driving and to get access to FSD. We have put 14,000 miles on it by charging it at home. It was about $12K less than a comparable Nissan Aryia
If I could not wait for the new $25K Tesla due in 2025 today I would consider a new Bolt or a used one with a new warranty replacement battery pack. All Bolts have active battery cooling like Tesla uses.
Today's Teslas are 3 generations more advanced than other brands today plus they come programmed to find every Supercharger location and will find them for you.
I am getting ready to do my first cross country trip using FSD.
For many with a solid ICE car consider driving it for a while longer since EV price declines should continue.
Last year when thinking about getting a plug-in RAV4 Hybrid I bought a 103K mile 2015 Prius C since having never owned a Toyota due to being a 50 year driver of Nissan vehicles.
The Prius C doesn't use any oil. Last weekend my son took a fast 900 mile trip into the hills of East Tennessee and it averaged 45.9 MPG. Hybrids shine beat in stop and go traffic because they spend more time in EV mode.
Since there are tons of used Toyota hybrids that could be a good EV starting point. Toyota pit falls are well covered on the web and how to checkout EV battery health on a test drive with no tools.
We are 25 years away from there being enough EVs for everyone to own one.
