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Comment by ajford | Hacker News Reader

I loved mine for a while, but the range was a problem for me. I traded it in for a Chevy Volt (2017), and don't regret it.

The Leaf is fantastic, and will qualify that I had a 2011 model, so my range was ~45 miles due to degradation. Sadly I didn't make it in the recall range, so no replacement for me. I've heard that people with the 2013+ have better range and reliability (and less or unnoticeable degradation).

I wish more manufacturers would consider plug-in hybrids with more range. 40mi electric seems like a perfect compromise between electric range and reduced weight.

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My wife has a conventional car, so we use hers for anything requiring an especially long drive, which only really happens maybe four times a year. I never hit the ~72 mile range of my 2015 in the course of my normal day.

I feel like having access to a gas vehicle for rare occasions is the missing ingredient that makes fully electric cars viable for a large portion of the population. Maybe there's a market opportunity there.

Agreed! My average day left me with about 10mi range out of about 45mi, which caused some amount of stress if I had to deviate from my normal day to run an errand or something similar. If I had to stop for groceries on the way home, I'd end up limping home in turtle mode, which was nerve wracking.

My wife was driving an 08 prius at the time, which served as our long range car, but her work commute was about 40mi round trip, so if she had to run AC/Heat, she wouldn't make the round trip on the Leaf if I had to swap cars for the day.

Now she drives the Volt, and the 53mi range seems perfect. She usually gets home with 10-15mi range, and the ICE eliminates range anxiety.

Rental is always an option, and was something we considered if we were to get another BEV, but we routinely take 300mi round trips, so it would't economical.

Yikes! Only 45 miles? I have a 2015 Leaf and it gets anywhere from 75-92 miles depending on who is driving.

Yeah, and 45 was the high side. It often seemed closer to 38-40. I live in a hot climate, so the car was an oven without AC, which meant the range was reduced. But yeah, the early models had much worse degradation, on top of their lower range (expected on an early model, since it was new tech).

My 2014 with 41,000 miles is about 87% capacity according to leafspy. This puts it at around 73 miles which handles about 80% of our driving.

I don't understand why you're being downvoted, this sounds a like perfectly reasonable comment.

I just assume it's people not agreeing. The Leaf gets a bad rap, and a lot of hate. Nissan put a lot of great work into that car, and it doesn't get much recognition thanks to other developments in the recent years. They've been steadily increasing range (I think they're in the ~70mi range now), and have a much higher charging rate than others (Volt included, sadly).

If it wasn't for the guess-o-meter (range gauge) being so unreliable, and the degradation, I would have held on to my Leaf. But my range vehicle (an '08 Prius) was starting to need some more maintenance, and the Leaf became problematic if I needed to run any errands after work.

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