Why did you choose a Prius Prime over a fully EV vehicle?

I see it. When I select that offer and "Build and Price" the final price does not reflect the offer.

 

No, not online price. If you read the small print, you will see that this is a dealer negotiable offer only applied on a new Leaf in stock. Since my local dealer does not have the S base model in stock, I can't get the lowest Leaf price.

 

Ah ha. Well, I may just try my luck on the 62 kWh version. KBB is saying a local dealer will pay me $22,000 for my 2018 Prime. If that's accurate I can get the 62 kWh Leaf for about $11,400 out of pocket.

 

Agreed. Personally, I believe if someone is a 2-vehicle family, the magic combination is EV + PHEV. Use the EV for all (most) of the local driving and the PHEV for travel. Which is what we have in the PiP and Leaf (2016). Also justifies getting an L2 charger, which otherwise would be wasteful for a PiP/Prime.

I drive the Prius since (pre-pandemic) I was driving a lot and distances to visit clients, and my wife would drive the Leaf to commute to work (~20-25 miles round trip most days). I would charge my PiP on L2 when I get home, then swap and plug her car in overnight.

These days however, we charge our cars once or twice a week, since we barely go anywhere...

 

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed driving again when I bought my 2015 Leaf. That is just a fantastic car, but the only problem with it is that it can only go about 70-75 miles now before needing a charge. When it was time to turn our Corolla iM lease in, I decided to buy a Prius Prime so I could still do my commute by EV but also have the options that a regular ICE car offers, and gave the Leaf to my wife (who only drives at most maybe 5-6 miles per week).

 

Well, thanks to Salamander_King I no longer have a Prius Prime. I sold it to purchase a Leaf S+. After tax rebate and local incentives my total out of pocket expense for the trade was about $4,000. So far I don't like going back to halogen headlights, but I think I'll like the range of a 62 kWh battery.

EDIT - Prius Chat doesn't have an option to choose a 2020 Leaf as your vehicle.

 

Congrats on your new Leaf acquisition. Do you already have L2 EVSE? I have not test-driven Leaf Plus, but on the 2019 Leaf I tried, the one pedal braking was something I had to disable. I can see it can be very useful if you drive a lot of stop-and-go traffic, but for my commuting, it is very rare that I ever have to put a foot on the brake pedal. Keeping my foot on the accelerator pedal all the time is more tiring for me.

 

The 2020 Leaf comes with a 220V charger with an adapter for plugging into 120V outlet if needed. I do not have an actual Level 2 charger yet. My breaker panel is completely filled. I have to hijack the dryer circuit (I don't use an electric dryer) or wait until I upgrade the service panel. I don't want to install a subpanel since the upgrade is coming sooner or later.

 

I bet LeafChat doesn’t let you specify a Prius as your vehicle.

 

I didn't like the yellow color of the halogens, so got LED replacement bulbs for the Camry. You can find a pair, in a range white color temperatures for not much more than a good set of replacement halogen bulbs on Amazon.

 

2018 and prior year Leafs are an option, just not 2019 or 2020.

 

I've been thinking about that too. How long does it take to charge it?

 

The main Leaf forum is mynissanleaf.com, but any joking aside, you are still correct. Most people just put their vehicles in their signature.

 

If you were to use the 120V plug that Toyota gives you it would take 50+ hours to charge from 0%. The S model I have supposedly has a 6 kW charger for Level 2, which would take about 12 hours from 0%. If you're out and about and find a CHAdeMO fast charger, you can do 80% in 40 minutes.

EDIT - It comes with a portable 30A Level 2 charger with a NEMA 14-50 plug on the end and an adapter for a plain old 120V outlet.

 

Thanks for letting me know. Right now all I have is an L1 charger, so it's out of the question for now. Might be able to do with 12 hours though in the not too distant future.

 

Keep in mind that's 50 hours to restore ~240 miles worth of range. Unless you're driving that much every day you're not going to need to do that much. If you drive 50 miles a day you would only need about 10 hours a night with an L1 charger. If you're in the market for one I don't know how long they're going to be doing the $6000 factory cash. My local utility also stops their $1,000 credit for electric vehicles December 31, so I felt like I "had" to pull the trigger now for a number of reasons.

 

My commute is close to 80 miles..

 

No 220V available? You could always have an electrician pop in a 220V 14-50 outlet and use the included portable L2 charger. 80 miles worth of range would only take 3.5 hours with that charger. Unless you have an unusual situation I can't see why a 220V outlet would cost more than a couple hundred bucks if you don't want to DIY.

 

I think the new Nissan Leaf is an appealing.car. The full electric range looks great for most people. If it works with your needs and commutes I can certainly see why people would want to buy one. It is also kind of a underrated bargain. It has less range than a Tesla but it costs half as much depending trim levels. Also insurance is much lower than a Tesla and closer to a Prius.

 

Definitely. After rebates and incentives, my total price for a BEV with ~240 miles of range was $20,498. That's cheaper than the Prime.

It has its quirks and limitations like all cars. Some call it a "scandal" that you can't drive the car for 750+ miles at 70+ mph in hot weather and fast charge repeatedly without the battery getting hot. Ideally Nissan would have used some active thermal management, but I still don't see that as a huge deal. I can't think of the last time I wanted to drive that far in one day in my personal vehicle. I almost always rent a minivan for road trips anyway.