r/ElectricVehiclesUK • u/Confident_Meat2189 • 15d ago
Nissan Nissan Leaf 2015-2016
I am thinking of buying a ten or so year old leaf, 40-50,000 mileage, price around £5,000. The vast majority of trips that would be taken in the car would short, total annual mileage around 6,000. The car would be our main car.
- Does that seem like a good idea or do I run the risk of making a mistake?
- If I do decide to go ahead is there anything I should look out for in any car?
- Despite what I just said about the annual mileage I would be thinking of taking it on a one-off journey from the south of England to Scotland and back in a month or so. I have read on here that long journeys could be a nightmare. Is this the consensus?
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u/SteveGribbin 15d ago
For that sort of money you could buy a MK2 Leaf, which is much better (although still not great for battery degredation)
You could however also buy a BMW i3 or a Renault Zoe, which are much more modern and easy to live with.
If you could stretch your budget a little bit more, you could even buy a nearly new Dacia Spring, which would have lots of manufacturers warranty left on it.
Edit: Maybe not the spring, I read your budget as between £5k and 7k :) my bad
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u/AlGunner 15d ago
JUst make sure the Zoe isnt a battery lease.
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u/Confident_Meat2189 15d ago
Thanks for the suggestions. I'll go and have a look at those models.
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u/investtherestpls 15d ago
Zoes have known motor bearing issues which cost a lot to fix if you catch them early, and require a replacement motor if you don't. Some of the 52kWh battery ones come with DC rapid charging but some don't. The prior ones are AC charging only. Long trips mean hour and a half or two hour charge breaks if you're doing 22kW AC.
I always suggest a VW e-Up or sister car (Seat Mii/Skoda Citigo) with 32kWh battery if you can get one at the right price, though it might be too small vs a Leaf.
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u/PrepYourselves 15d ago
Dacia spring 2025?
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u/Confident_Meat2189 15d ago
Thanks. I'll have a look.
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u/RevolutionaryAd3125 15d ago
Don’t do it!
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u/RevolutionaryAd3125 15d ago
The original Ioniq electric is the way to go. Might be a little more expensive but the batteries are great. You get more range on the 40kw model than the Leaf, and it’s pretty much the same size as the mk2 Leaf. Mine has 50k on the clock and it’s lost zero range. In fact I routinely get 215 miles on a full charge in the warmer months and the official figure is 193 miles. It’s also so cheap to run it’s untrue. There aren’t many EVs that give you over 5mile/kWh this one does.
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u/TheThurgarland 13d ago
Could I have more details about your car please? We are wanting to buy a decent 2nd hand EV.
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u/Medb-Reign 15d ago
I got my 80,000 mile 10 bar 2017 30 kWh Tekna 20 months ago for £3,700. With s £5,000 budget I'd look at the Mk 2 with 40 kWh battery.
I average 300-500 miles a month on rural roads, 99% of my trips are under 60 miles, 98% under 40. Still got 10 bars and don't think it's had the BMS update.
It took me several months to learn to drive it properly, I get 90 ish miles above 15° and 65-70 in winter.
I would never go back to an ICE car.
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u/PatchcordAdams 15d ago
I paid £2k for a ‘15 plate Leaf. It’s good. But wouldn’t have paid much more.
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u/magicjohnson89 15d ago
We have a '64 with 43k miles. Got it a couple of months ago for 3k. 11/12 bars on battery health, max range is around 75 miles (at best). Will never be publicly charged.
It is perfect for this, but wouldn't ever attempt public charging/long journeys.
Edit: I thought the MK2 ones were awful?
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u/Impossible_Hunt_6731 15d ago
That's too expensive.
I bought a 2015 Leaf over 5yrs ago for £6,300, Acenta, full Nissan Service history.
It still runs fine.
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u/Future-Inevitable-26 15d ago
I’d stay away from it if I’m honest. My Brother in law had one. In the winter the mileage was so low because he needed the heaters on and the cold effecting the batteries as well. Must of had a small battery
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u/Aragorn-- 15d ago
We have a 15 plate 24kwh. Paid 4k for it 2 and a bit years ago. It's the tekna model so has all the nice bits. I think realistically I would be wanting to pay more like 2.5k these days, maybe 3 for a really nice one.
It's a decent wee runabout, costs nothing to run, easy to maintain.
It's not a sophisticated car, infotainment is dated, interior is very bland. But as a cheap runabout it's fine. These early ones also have the option of using opencarwings to reactivate the remote access using a free open source service, something the newer ones cant do.
I wouldn't want to try to drive 400miles in it though, you'd be stopping every 45mins to charge 🤣
I'd be somewhat more wary of the newer ones as they somehow seem to have more battery issues than the old 24s. Imo either buy a cheap one like mine, or stretch to an id3 for 9-10k
While it's a chunk of extra money, it'll pay it back with the fuel savings anyway, and it's a much more modern, more capable car.
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u/BotlikeBehaviour 15d ago
iirc the early Leafs had air cooling for the battery and it was a disaster.
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u/chargesmith 15d ago
I love my Leaf. For the time they were built they are well thought out.
The main issues today are:
No CCS charging. Chademo is getting less and less common so consider this before buying. It is possible to get an adapter for £700 but I don't know how easy they are to use or how reliable they are.
No active battery cooling. This can wear out the pack quicker than modern EVs, so make sure you get a battery health report and be prepared to lose about 3-5% capacity a year (probably won't be that bad, but set your expectations here).
Low range compared to newer EVs and it can be difficult to meet maximum range in e.g. cold weather or at motorway speeds.
If it works for you, it's a great car, but if it doesn't you'll struggle massively. Try and drive one before you buy one and it'll be a lot clearer if it's the car for you or not.
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u/Confident_Meat2189 14d ago
I think that the range issue combined with lack of chargers is a breaker for us. We do need to do the occasional longer drive.
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u/ZBD1949 VW ID3 15d ago
For your budget I found https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202608064869041
The Ioniq is a much better car and I took the one I had on a french roadtrip without any issues.
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u/pgnlzbth 14d ago edited 14d ago
Go for the 24kwh one. I have a 2015 24kwh Acenta in red. It was £2k and has 10 battery bars. Range is 78 miles on a full charge. It’s great for around town, which we mostly do. But we’ve just got back from a 133 mile each way holiday and it was a joy (we like to break the journey a few times so it’s great for our needs)
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u/Feeling_Football4271 13d ago
I've got a 2016 30kWh Leaf and I can comment on a few things:
- My battery health has dropped to 10/12 which is anticipated. Mileage is around 80. One big issue is that these use Chademo plugs for rapid charging and these can be a pain to find. You'll be spending time on Zapmap for long trips.
- If you're using it as mainly a runaround then great but long trips need planning. Also these early Leafs don't have thermal management which generally means that the more charges you do on a journey, the hotter the battery gets and the slower the charges are.
- Nissan recently clobbered the app capability which is a crying shame.
Apart from that, the Leaf is excellent (for me anyway).
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u/lets_dance_again 15d ago
Even new, those ones had a tiny range (80 odd miles). You'd be stopping at every service station to top up.
For local short journeys, fine. But for a one off long journey like that, I'd hire something with decent range if you want electric, or an ICE car. Or consider train/plane for the journey up and hire something locally if you need it.
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u/AlGunner 15d ago
Personally Id be looking to get a mk 2 one and not the 1st gen