Sunday 22 May 2022

 Electric cars: some opinions after a few years

So we own two electric cars, a 24kWh Nissan Leaf that we've had for a bit over 6 years now and a Tesla Model 3 SR that we've had for about 2 and a half. They are both used regularly and we've put about 55,000 miles on the Leaf and 35,000 on the Tesla.

The state of the Leaf:

1) It's lost one "bar" from it's battery state meter (this is a Nissan thing) and seems to have lost between 5% and 10% if its range from when we first got it. Significant, but still fine for a couple of trips to town and back and some running around which is its primary mode of use. Seems to be happening very gradually and at this rate I reckon the battery will still have usable range at at least 150k miles.
2) It doesn't feel noticeably different to drive since we first got it. Maybe the suspension is a bit squishier than it used to be, but that's not really surprising considering the state of the track to our house. Acceleration and steering feel the same as the day we bought it.
3) I still really like driving it as it just feels like a normal car and is comfortable and easy-going.
4) Until this year when we paid ~£500 for new rear brakes and handbrake cable to be fitted (I was too lazy) we'd spent about £100 per year on maintenance. Apart from stuff like windscreen wipers and tyres the only repairs were a new rear fog-light (got shunted by a van that broke it), and the windscreen washer motor that got broken when it got crunched by a bit of less than careful parking: the child in question will remain nameless :-)
5) It's now getting pretty scruffy inside as I'm a terrible slob. Maybe I'll have a proper go at cleaning it one day.

Executive summary: still a decent "normal" car with plenty more miles of use in it.

The state of the Tesla:

1) At ~35,000 miles it's range is as far as I can tell exactly the same as it was when new.
2) It has all sorts of squeaks and clunks. None are functionally problematic, or even easy to identify the source of, but a tad irritating for such a low mileage vehicle.
3) I've been unimpressed by the servicing in Cardiff (one experience). They broke plastic clips, sheared off captive nuts and didn't get rid of the squeaky suspension. 
4) The range, acceleration and handling are all amazing and it's great on long trips. A really useful vehicle.
5) The under-trays fell apart very quickly (again probably to be blamed on our track) and have now been replaced by after-market aluminium ones.

Executive summary: lousy build quality (especially for the price), but really useful for long trips and fun to drive.

I actually prefer driving the Leaf as it has fewer squeaks and clunks and feels more like a normal car, and if it had the same range and charging network as the Tesla I would choose the Leaf every time. I guess that's just the effect of it being built by a long-established car company rather than a relatively recent entrant to the market.

Cost of ownership:

1) Because we've got an off-grid solar PV with storage setup we do more than half of our charging from that for "free" (around 70%). I don't remember the total cost of installation, but it was around £5k. Over the last five years I reckon it's saved us double that in equivalent diesel costs. Proper "Vimes boots" stuff.
2) Maintenance is absurdly cheap compared to the diesels we were running before: probably around 20% I think,
3) The Tesla will eat tyres when driven enthusiastically: I haven't kept track of this, but I suspect that we spend about 50% more on tyres than for previous cars, so it's significant. The Nissan doesn't suffer from this.

My conclusion:

I basically love electric cars. They just work with almost no maintenance in a way that the diesels we owned never did. They are cheap to run, quiet and relaxing. Slightly different from diesels on long runs (but barely in the Tesla). Even with the "standard range" Model 3 I can get from Aberystwyth to Edinburgh in 2 stops, which is what I'd do anyway, and even with charging I get there in about the same time as the Google Maps estimate.

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