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If you charge at home and didn't when you had only ICE, how does the electric bill go down? Some special rate?

 

In my case, I've been driving a Volt for over 5 years now and before that, I owned a PiP. The Volt is currently running at 77% EV and weighs a bit more than the Spark, so naturally it uses more electricity. With the Spark, I use a lot less.​

 

it was confusing, since the o/p would be switching from a non plug in

 

A neighbor down the street had a similar set of criteria you expressed for an electric vehicle. He was also interested in an electric car because they drive mostly in town and a few round trip less than 200 miles. They have a regular vehicle for longer trips.

He went with a used Leaf ( all electric vehicle from Nissan). He got an electric vehicle at a very reasonable price that meant his criteria. Nissan Leaf have a tarnished reputation but his has given them no problems and the electric range is holding up just fine.

I have a Plug in Hybrid and they saw us plugging up the car when I had it parked outside the garage when I was cleaning the garage. They were on a walk and started talking to me about their electric vehicle. Turns out we visit the same gym and now we keep up on each others experiences.

They wanted an electric car but didn't want all the fluff and the cost that comes with a new electric vehicle! He tells me there is basically no maintenance on their vehicle - no oil changes visiting gas stations etc.

i should add I have no experience at all with BEV's.

 

i respectfully disagree - unless it's pitted against a used Yugo. Their worth is made evident in their hideous resale, once they're over 3½yrs years old. That was from personal experience as well, when we thankfully unloaded our 2011. If I were in the market next year - for something with a good long warranty & proven fit-and-finish, it would be a ~year old Kia Niro EV. Sure, it doesn't have the Tesla charging speed & infrastructure, but even the SAE - L3 group of quick Chargers is growing. Discount from the full 7500 feds and some State incentives that the original purchaser most likely got? There may be some bargains.
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Where I live now, used BEV market is virtually non-existent. I once found a used LEAF for sale at a dealer almost 300 miles away. They wanted 14K for a 5 years old LEAF. Yeah, very low mile, but for a reason. I couldn't drive it back home. Finding a new BEV at a dealer is just equally hard.

 

Hill was burnt badly by Nissan so I understand his frustrations. As long as you get a later model that didn't live in a super hot climate then the degradation will be to a minimum, but still much more than an actively cooled pack would be.

 

I don't see any on the road locally. From what I've heard Hill isn't the only one with Leaf memories. The price/performance curve never appealed to me.

I dug a bit into the leaf battery and it looks like Nissan sold the battery division to Envison, Is coming out with an upgrade this year 2020 and is looking forward to solid state in the future.Envision AESC to release NCM 811 battery cells next year - PushEVs

 

I can vouch for the Niro BEV structure as I own the Plug In Hybrid version. The Niro BEV was Motor Trend car of the year.

The stripped down base version is going to cost in excess of $30,000 new and comes with an amazing amount of bells and whistles.

I expect that a used one is next to impossible to come by. Their availability is nationwide though most are naturally found in California and some East Coast states.

The in excess of $30,000 price tag may be a show stopper for someone who wants to experiment with an electric vehicle - but for a ticket to the EV world in a new car this is as cheap as it gets. And again it is the base price if you can find one - the more common options quickly escalate the price to closer to $40,000. The $7500 is a tax credit but when you lease from KIA they will turn this into real money that takes off the price of the car. If You are interested the KIA NIRO forum has post from individuals who have done this.

Also the KONA has many fans and is made by Hyundai - KIA's parent company. For utilitarian vehicles with the most features at a reasonable price the Korean manufactures can't be beat at this time and place. This is sure to change but if your buying a car right now -----

 

I'm still learning about Li-Ion varieties and their charge/discharge comfort zones. I'd also think long and hard about how they performance in winter and/or extreme cold environments with static heating, especially the leafs configuration. I was going to post that in my reply above but it just lead me into a useless rant so I backtracked and did a bit of googling instead.

Congrats on your plugin.
I was wondering where Prime finished in your pre-sale shopping experience. because when I was shopping in summer 2017 there weren't any Ionic s to be had locally and was told early-mid 2018 was when they were expecting to have one available.
Than I read here all though 2018 there were supply chain problems with the batteries.

I realize you have a Niro, and if you know of any other differences between the Niro and the Ionic you'd like to share, I'm always open to that kind of real world info and specs.

 

leaf is fine if it spent it's life north of the mason dixon. i've talked to owners here who have had very few problems and little degradation.

prices reflect that i suppose, as they aren't that cheap here.

if you want cheap, look at all the smart for 2's they are trying to give away

 

The Prius Prime was our first option. I am a retired Toyota employee and we have a program where we get the cars at a very good discount. A new Prime was impossible to get for us in central Kentucky at the time because of Toyota's vehicle distribution policy.

I have a thread in the Hyundia/ Kia section that details why we chose the Niro Plug in, don't want to hijack the ops thread.

 

My model 3 dual motor was not nearly as expensive to insure as I thought it would be. I did need to switch homeowners to progressive to get the good rate though. Homeowners went up $200 and car went up $200 for the switch so only $400/year more than my 9 year old prius.

 

I had a 2015 Leaf for 3 years (while waiting for my Tesla M3). I put about 21K miles on it and had no "indicated" battery degradation.
When new I got just over 100 miles on a full charge and got just under 100 after the lease was up. Nice car.

Mike

 

redpoint5, who's active on Ecomodder and posts here occasionally, made a spreadsheet a few years ago just for you: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rbGeEkkKopydLKjqU9WN9PbVz7O-I2dCJSLxp5ne6Q4/edit#gid=24489222. Download and have at it.

 

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