Hello, new user here!

EV Chat ⚡️💬
#1

Hello everyone, I am a new user located in Denver Colorado USA area. I am retired from the software industry. My wife and I are getting solar panels installed today - yay! And we are looking to buy a used Nissan Leaf to drive around town. Right now we own two SUV’s - a 2004 Land Rover Discovery (175,000 miles) and a 2008 Land Rover LR2 (145,000 miles).

We rock climb, mountain bike and camp a lot in Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona. I have a small (17’, 3000 lb) camper we use in the back country, so I need a diesel/gas truck to pull that thru and over the Colorado mountains (11,000’ plus mountain passes), but I am thinking an EV would be great for everyday use around the Denver area. We plan on scrapping the LR2 and keeping the Disco for our backcountry adventures. We are looking for a 3-4 year old Leaf, something that has just come off a lease. My wife volunteers at various locations around Denver, she will be the main user of the EV, that and date nites around town. Most days I don’t expect us to put more than 20-30 miles on the car. We do make longer trips up Fort Collins and down to Colorado Springs, these are 60-90 mile trips each way and I am hoping we can use the EV for those as well, with a stop at a charging station before the trip back home.

This will be our first EV. I have a lot to learn about EV’s and Solar power, I sure appreciate all the info posted here!

1 Like
#2

If you already have solar panels, you should look into buying a charging station which will allow you to transfer your solar power directly into the car (when your solar producing enough power). There’s a company in the UK that make these (https://myenergi.com), but you’d need the US equivalent which could run on 110VAC. Search around…I’m sure you could find one that runs on 110VAC…

And enjoy the Leaf! More and more of them are now starting to appear on the used market in Europe as many models are now well over five years old - but still have lots of life left! Another cheap (new) option is the Seat Mii Electric, but I’m not sure if that’s available outside of Europe.

1 Like
#3

Thanks Stuart. We don’t get Seat products on this side of the pond, but there are lots of used Leafs here and they are really cheap since most got big incentives when they were bought new and this drives down the costs. I am looking at 2-3 year old cars with 20-30k on the clock for $11-12k US. I have always bought used cars with around 100,000 miles, so this will feel brand new to me!

1 Like