Home visits? Who knew?
DB2
You do–now. What next?
Back in the before times our doctor made house calls. Of course once he had built his practice enough he stopped doing that and then we had to come to him. That coincided with us (and most of our neighbors) becoming a two-car family, which allowed Mom to schlep us around.
The well (and I assume expensively) trained doctor was spending 2/3 of his time alone in the car which was obviously a waste of resources. Now he gets to see 30 patients per hour and have another 30 in the waiting room do he can bill the insurance companies at the “agreed” rate, even though he doesn’t really agree to it at all. Much better system. 
Built like a box, the Quantum moves at no more than 35 mph (56 kph), can be recharged from a household outlet and can travel 50 miles (80 kilometers) before a recharge. Its creators hope the $7,600 car will help revive dreams of a lithium-powered economy and make electric cars something the masses will embrace.
It is a tiny vehicle but I believe I could fit a weeks groceries into it. I live in exurbia outside a 100,000 city. A round trip to my grocery store which is on the edge of town is 25 miles. This vehicle would be iffy for a round trip to my 100,000 city. But if an $8,000 EV was available in the USA. I would seriously consider buying it while still keeping my old IC vehicle with only liability coverage.
Previously I was interested in the Elios Motor vehicle that failed due to funding. It was a torpedo 2 passenger vehicle with a motorcycle engine.
For kicks I went to see if the www.eliosmotors.com website was still there. It is! Apparently he is still trying to make a go of it but as an EV.
Targeted price $14900. 150 mile range, with A/C & cruise control & capable of highway speed
That stimulated the brain cells. What would a lightly used Nissan Leaf cost that had 70 miles of range?
I zip over to autotrader.com. I found 1 Leaf with 50K miles on it for $3,500. Most Leafs with 50 to 70K miles are $4,500 to $6,000. Hm I could be in the market for a cheap commuter EV as it would basically be fully depreciated.
I do believe there is a broad market for a basic CHEAP [under $10k] commuter EV. An EV VW bug.
Kandi was recently approved in CA, but not sure how well it would do in cold(er) weather. REALLY small battery (hence the concern) regarding temps.
Kandi & Wink Motor vehicle are Low Speed Vehicles. Max speed of 25mph. LSV are legal in my state. But IMO a used Nissan Leaf with 50-60,000 on the odometer at $5,000 would be a better deal.
On a different thread I said that an EV would NOT be in my feature as used cheap high mpg IC vehicle would be more in my wheelhouse. But now that I see very cheap Leafs are available; I may become an EV owner. And as time passes longer range EVs will become available at low prices.
I must admit that the EV revolution is progressing much faster than I imagined.
Or replacement batteries with higher capacity may become available at reasonable prices.
Wow! I hadn’t thought of that. Though it may be a while before battery production reaches a stage whether new EV production & replacement market can both be supplied.
That is what would be most appealing to a potential used EV vehicle buyer. Battery tech is improving significantly each year, although which one(s) will actually pan out is yet to be determined. Lots of new tech being tested, so one that is not yet prime-time may prove to be a winner in the long haul. Figuring THAT out will take years.
That would be an awesome deal! Looking at carmax, used Nissan Leafs are going for $16k-24k right now. In fact, the Leaf model I bought from them a few years ago for $20k is still going for $20k today.
I don’t think this is quite true. Battery tech is improving incrementally and slowly every 3 to 4 years right now. There haven’t been any huge leaps in recent memory.
I wouldn’t put too much hope on that. Maybe an exact replacement battery as was in the original car.
First off, while battery materials continue to be relatively scarce who is going to want to make battery packs and sell them without the rest of the car and give up those profits? Second, they would have to also back engineer the newer battery tech into an older platform, most likely.
It might happen after the EV car market matures in 10 or 20 years.
Mike
I found a couple dozen Leafs near me for less than $10k. Not sure what criteria you’re using to find the expensive ones.
–Peter
Battery makers do not make cars, they make batteries.
I did a search on “leaf”. Maybe carmax doesn’t sell older cars? Craigs list probably has private sellers as well as dealers. Most experts recommend being very careful with 10+ year old Nissan EVs because they don’t have a battery management system (mainly cooling and heating it as necessary) like most other EV manufacturers have.
I just did the same search again and this time two 2017 models showed up, $14,600 and $15,000. All years, anywhere in the country, etc. No additional filters.
I thought that the car makers take the cells and put them together into the size/shape/kwh that they need for their specific car model(s). For sure the car makers control the charging rate, discharging rate, cooling and pre-conditioning of the battery for faster charging.
Mike
I suspect so. I checked out carmax and the oldest leaf was a 2017 model. To get to the sub-10k range, you’ve got to go older.
And yes, craigslist includes private sellers. Why would you want to exclude those when looking for cheap cars? Yes, some are cheap for a reason, but not all. And if you understand the reason it’s cheap, it still might be a good deal.
–Peter <== bought his last two cars from private parties advertising on Craigslist, and both worked out quite well. One was about 4 years old at the time, the other over 20.
In my case because buying from carmax is a LOT easier. I can avoid driving all over the place, finding random addresses, dealing with random people, trying to find a mechanic to check out a car, etc. Instead, carmax checks out their cars, fixes what’s necessary, and puts them on their website. I get on their website, find a car I want, reserve it, maybe pay a bit to have it shipped to the local lot, and then go pick it up. They also buy used cars using a very easy process. Last time I sold them a used car, they handed me a check for the exact amount of the estimate they gave me online a week earlier.
But I agree that for cheaper and older cars, looking around, dealing with individuals, is often much more fruitful.
The cheap Leafs are older models [9-11 year old] with low miles. Plus they are not near me and would require shipping by truck. Another $1000?
Some dealers were asking $8-9000 for the older Leafs with low miles.
I am giving some serious consideration to a cheap Leaf purchase. The majority of my commuting is a 30 mile round trip to the Walmart/Walgreens stores near me. Just once or twice a week. I would’t have to spend any extra of a 240v charging port. If the car was going to sit for 3 days I could charge it at 120v.
The operation of the Leaf would give me an idea how freezing temperatures & the 2 weeks of 100 degrees weather affect the range.
Yes the Leaf has older technology & batteries. But I cannot get newer technology & batteries for $5-6000. My car buying strategy over the past 20 tears is to buy older Japanese manufactured cars with lower mileage from middle age to senior owners as they likely were not hot rodded. The purchases have resulted in reliable vehicles that start every time and last at least a decade. And there is little depreciation on such vehicles.
I admit I am loathed to abandon my tried & true car purchase strategy. But this might be a fun experiment. I’ll have to cogitate on this a bit.
Our Leaf is used almost entirely for commuting and errands. It has a stated ~140 mile range, but in reality we wouldn’t count on much over 100 miles. Luckily for us, it rarely gets charged at home because the workplace that it commutes to has a large array of solar collectors above the parking lot with free chargers for EVs underneath. I’d say it is charged at home once every month or two. And it is periodically briefly charged at a nearby free charger while running errands or shopping.
So our Leaf is for commuting and a few errands. Our Tesla is for local drives, shopping, errands, hauling kids hither and yon, and for long trips with fewer than 6 people. Our minivan is for long trips when there will be 6 or more people in either direction, and for hauling sheetrock, plywood, molding, etc