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

I think you mean "one pedal driving" because there is already a brake pedal.

I've had my Leaf for almost 2 years and don't use the one pedal driving very much. I think I would use it more if my car didn't have ProPilot (adaptive cruise and lane centering). That's what I use in stop and go traffic. I usually use one pedal driving if I'm first in line at a traffic light or waiting at the drive thru.

 

Yeah, I don't know what Nissan calls it. One pedal to drive and brake. You let the foot off the accelerator, the car brakes to a full stop. That's no use for my daily drive, for I don't have much stopping in my ~18miles commute.

 

We have both a 2019 Tesla Model 3 SR+ and a 2019 Nissan Leaf 40 kWh SV with identical coverage and identical insurance premium cost at USAA.

Some of the misconception on this could be that comparisons were made to the higher trim Model 3s. Our Model 3 was $38k before federal, state, and local (utility) incentives.

 

That is encouraging as a Tesla is in my future I think. Here in Mass the premiums are still higher on Teslas though I am not sure why.

 

Monday, start with 240 miles
Tuesday, 210
Wednesday, 180
Thursday, 150
Friday, 120
Saturday, has 90 miles in morning, and need about 30 hours to get the battery back up to full.

Looks possible on paper, but you have to factor in range loss from climate control, and capacity loss over time. I wouldn't recommend it if the BEV is the only car in the household. I am hoping to do this with an used Bolt for the commute, while keeping the Camry for weekends and long trips.

It was a large deal to those that have major capacity loss and battery failure. Even with more heat tolerant chemistry, leafs will generally see more capacity loss than BEVs with active cooling.

 

Yeah, doable, but pretty tight. If work ever gets a charger it becomes a lot more tolerable! Meanwhile, I'll stick with my prime. I don't really do much long trips, but evcuating for a major hurricane is pretty important, and nothing can go as far! I would have gone with a Volt if Chevy updated a bit more...

 

Yeah, I wouldn't do a BEV as the only car. A Tesla could work for me, but I really don't care for the cars themselves now that there are some other options.

I'd rather have a small BEV for the daily commute, and something larger for trips and cargo, than try to do it all with a PHEV.

 

Range and price/kWh are getting better every year. With most households being 2+ vehicles, BEV + backup vehicle combo that fits range and budget is a great step.

 

For us, BEV decision hinges upon the installation of affordable PV panel to alleviate the high cost of electricity. At our current cost of gas (below $2/gal) and electricity (above $0.21/kWh), even the most efficient BEV costs more to operate than Prius (or any other 50+mpg hybrids).

 

So far I can't find any that will fit inside the Leaf's dust covers. It seems like they all have external drivers and the way the Leaf is configured that's not doable without modding pieces of the car.

 

That's why I would have never purchased one for $40,000, but I can't argue with the economics of a 240-mile range BEV for $20,000.

We don't have a lot of data to use for comparison as the new Leafs and the Prime are relatively new, but the 2017 data from the Battery Degradation Tool doesn't look so bad for the Leaf.



EDIT - Another consideration I forgot to put here: with such a large battery even severe degradation will not impact the usefulness of the car for my daily commute. The battery capacity would have to degrade by 60 - 70% before I was no longer able to make a round trip commute without charging. It's also unknown how well those EV batteries were treated in this data set. If people were doing lots of DC fast-charging, or parking them at 100%, etc., that could make the car look worse than I would experience.

 

I went with Beamtech brand. They just have a heatsink; no fan like others. They were a little tight getting into the Camry, but the high beams would need to 12v battery out of the way to get them in. Depending on the specific replacement they might fit a Leaf. Though if the space behind the fixture is enclosed, you might have to modify the cover to allow air flow for the LED.

 

I don't feel comfortable with an electric-only vehicle until charging stations are as common as gas stations.
IMHO the "extra" maintenance issue for a hybrid is bullsh*t.
I owned a Gen 2 Prius for 12 years and it was the most reliable, least expensive maintenance-wise car I've ever owned.
All of the major maintenance issues were always the gas engine.
Never had a problem with any of the electric components, including the battery.
I expect the Prime to be even more reliable.

 

That is exactly why a hybrid has more maintenance than a BEV. There is no gas engine in the BEV. And even with a 100% reliable engine, there is still the extra costs for oil changes, spark plugs, and other standard wear items.

 

I believe LightningBolt was referring to the OP, where the implication was that a hybrid was more expensive to maintain than a pure gasoline engine:

 

I thought that may have been the case, but only went back one page.

 

Yes, what he said...

 

The OP was the first time I had actually seen anyone talk about maintenance costs of the electric side. There has always been the question what it would cost to replace a battery being raised.

Four pages in, and likely having discounted the OP as nonsense, I had forgotten about it when it came to your post.

 

Not a problem...