Would you choose the Nissan Leaf or Chevy Volt?
The Associated Press has a very detailed article on these two cars:
http://autos.yahoo.com/articles/autos_content_landing_pages/1485/gm-nissan-compete-for-best-deal-on-electric-car/
The Nissan Leaf is a fully electric car with 100 mile per charge range. The base model will cost ,280 when accounting for the federal tax break (some states have additional tax breaks), and Nissan offers a 9/month lease with ,995 down. It comes with an eight-year,100,000-mile battery warranty. The car goes on sale in select markets in December.
The Chevy Volt is a plug-in hybrid which gets 40 miles on purely electric power, then switches into hybrid mode to extend the range much further if necessary. The Volt will sell for ,500 when including the federal tax break, but they’re offering a similar lease to the Leaf at 0/month with ,500 down. The Volt also has an 8 year, 100,000 mile battery warranty and goes on sale in select markets in November. Both will be available nationwide about a year later.
Which of these cars would you choose to lease or buy?
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It is an interesting and inevitable comparison but the article contains inaccuracies and a certain bias:
Regarding the EV1:
"GM’s EV-1, the first widely available electric car.." "By 1912 …the electric had its heyday. Some 20 companies were in the trade and 33,842 electric cars were registered in the United States."1
"GM had trouble getting most people to take the two-seat cars, which had a sticker price of roughly $44,000." This is so shockingly inaccurate that it demonstrates a bias toward GM and away from purely electric vehicles. The author obviously never saw the movie "Who Killed the Electric Car" with owners pleading to buy their cars that were recovered and crushed. How can you have a "sticker price" that is "roughly" a certain number? By definition a sticker price is a hard number.
"GM expects to sell 10,000 Volts in the first year and Nissan said it already has 17,000 orders for the Leaf." The article completely fails to mention that 17,000 represents sold out orders for available stock, which sold out within days of its first offering. The Volt is now up for advance sales and we will see the response.
"GM says the Volt’s big selling point is that drivers don’t have to worry about the battery going dead during trips. This so-called "range anxiety" dogged the EV-1." "Range anxiety" is a made up term by those who wish to instill fear of the electric vehicle. This inaccuracy again shows a bias. The EV1 had waiting lists longer than available vehicles. This hardly suggests a "range anxiety" problem. So where is the author getting their information? As if to answer this question: "To give the car wider appeal, drivers must know "they’re not going to get stranded," said Joel Ewanick, GM vice president of U.S. marketing." The article appears to be a thinly disguised advert for GM.
It is possible to choose a vehicle based upon no more than color or the location of a cup holder. It is also possible to come to such a decision with a personal bias against GM or Nissan or electric cars or even a car with a petrol engine. But if the decision comes down to a purely electric car vs a series hybrid gas/electric car then the difference in price and the intended usage should be the most important considerations.
The Nissan Leaf has a range of approximately 100 miles. Given a 10 % cushion, if I were intending to routinely drive my vehicle more than 45 miles one way per day (90miles round trip) then a vehicle with a longer range like the Volt would have an advantage. On the other hand, the volt presents a different equation. If I were driving less than 20 miles one way each day I would not need the petrol engine. Its added weight and expense would be wasted for the daily commute, the leaf is better. Trips of longer than 20 miles one way will require the use of the petrol engine. But unlike the Prius (parallel hybrid) this is not a direct drive. The engine is only operating a generator. The engine can theoretically then operate in its most efficient range and grant increased fuel economy.(see drivetrain efficiency comparisons 2) The EPA will not support the Volts former 230 mpg claim.3 But based upon the efficiency comparison chart we might guess that the gasoline only mileage of the volt could be as high as 50 to 80 mpg.
With a daily commute of 20 to 45 miles one way, the price difference of $8000 is important. The Volt is perhaps $15000 more than a conventional vehicle. At 30 mpg and 1000 miles / month average fuel will cost $100 / month. Even if savings are $60 / month (1000 miles) it would take 250,000 miles to pay off the difference with a conventional vehicles. This is what you are paying fora pollution light vehicle. But a leaf will be maintenance and pollution free . The Volt has filter and oil changes plus all the mechanical failures associated with engines.
What are your options if you wanted to take your Leaf more than 100 miles? You could find a charging station somewhere along the trip and Nissan is working to install them. It might also be possible to turn your Leaf into a sometimes series hybrid by adding a genset trailer.4 Genset trailers have been around for a while and have the advantage that you would not have to use this except when you needed to use it. Here is a similar one offered for sale: http://www.madkatz.com/acpropulsion/longRanger.html And some more discussion of what it would take:5 The question I would then have is could this be set up for less than the $8000, difference between the vehicles?
The Volt seems to be higher priced for the value. Specific uses may dictate a primary choice but in their literature and their technology GM seems to be betting on people’s fear of electric vehicles.
The Nissan. I’ve had really bad luck with Chevrolet gas burners, but I’ve never heard anything but good about Nissan quality. I’m into Ford/ Mazda and I must have a truck, so I’m hoping Ford, Mazda, or Toyota will present an affordable electric pick-up truch soon, a small one based on the Ranger/B-serieis chassis or a one based on a Toyota Tacoma chassis.
The Air Force has been using electric, plug-in Chevy S-10 trucks at Air Bases for years now.
It’s kind of a tough call. I like the insurance that having hybrid mode on the Volt brings, since 40 miles is a pretty short range. They would both be perfect commuter cars. I like the cost of the Nissan, but without the hybrid mode that additional safety is kind of missing.
If I had to only use the car to, say, get to and from work, then the Leaf would be my choice because of its cost, and relatively longer range on a single charge.
If I needed to get anywhere else, I’d choose the Volt because of the ability to switch to hybrid mode so I could keep going. I like that it can do a 40-mile roundtripper on one charge, but if I want to take it elsewhere I still have that option with the efficiency of a hybrid. I suppose the cost is slightly more prohibitive though.
I like the trend towards the commercialized plug-ins though!
Chevy is nothing but an Obuma Motors Union Vehicle
Would not pay a penny for it
Go for the Nissan
40 miles is enough for my daily commute, same with most people. The volt would be primarily electric for me. There are times, running errands and stuff, when I would use the gas generator, but I wouldn’t have to use too much gas.
But that gas generator becomes really handy when you think about long trips, which does happen often enough. The Volt could also double as an emergency generator during power outages or camping or whatever. It has tremendous versatility.
The Leaf gives you a little extra cushion with a bigger battery pack, but it’s still just a commuter car. With a Leaf, you still need a second car for longer trips.
The series hybrid is the way to go for me, and for most people, until charge times come down on the battery packs. At that time, hopefully charging outlets that can give you a quick charge, will be widely available. They ought to be, they’re not that hard to make and install. Then I will make the switch.
I just wish GM would give us more fuel options. With such a versatile platform it would be easy enough to offer a diesel version, or even a propane version. There’s so much versatility because you don’t care about power bands or low rpm torque, or red lines. You care about one number, power at peak efficiency. That’s why the engine can be so much simpler and last so much longer. They could even offer a flex-fuel turbine generator. How cool would that be?
Both being new, I would rather lease than buy them. Volt has a clear advantage over leaf on the leasing part as they both cost the same to lease, I would take the volt. Volt also has a buy back option at the end of the lease so is a clear winner.
Pretty tough call indeed….the Leafs 100 miles range is pretty tame compared to the Teslas 245 mile range and the Model S’s 300 mile range, but the price is nice! and 100 miles is probably more miles than i’d drive in a couple of days.
The volt though is good for commuting too, as well as long range trips, but i HATE the idea of STILL being hooked to oil somehow.
If the Volt used something other than gasoline, like maybe biofuel or hydrogen, or ethanol or something cleaner that doesn’t have to be drilled it would be a shoe in win
but I have to go with the Leaf simply because it uses no gas at all
The Volt is a better design.
Who wants a car that in 100 miles will have a dead battery, and nowhere to get a charge. Sounds like a formula for being stranded. Each service truck pickup will run me at least $100, and to avoid them I have to keep very careful track of my remaining charge on the battery. I have to allocate part of my precious attention to this matter, in fact be pre-occupied with it.
No, sorry pal, I’ve got better things to think about.
I want a car that gives me the benefits of electric (within a 40 mile driving budget) but is tolerant of my absent mindedness and inattention, and does not require me to devote careful attention to my battery charge at every moment or pay a huge and recurring penalty.
I predict that owners of the Nissan Leaf will be scattered by the sides of our roads, and that after a year or so folks will decide the car is more of a pain in the ass than it could possibly be worth, even if it saved this planet and several others.
The volt turns into a regular car once your electric range is exceeded.
In my own case this would happen very rarely, but I don’t want to have to think about it.
I buy products that are convenient.
I buy utility functions elegantly and simply performed — Dolphin314etc gets from A to B and doesn’t have to worry about anything. That’s what I’m willing to pay for.
I’m not willing to pay for Dolphin314etc Adventure in Catastrophe Avoidance by Continuous and Meticulous attention to some detail about my battery charge.
Cars are not marvelous puzzles for me, they are just utilitarian objects. I want a challenging car about as much as I want a challenging doorknob or sink faucet– i.e. not at all.
I can’t afford a Volt at the introductory price level. I think both cars will be flops, so I think the Volt’s price will be cut by 35% within 5 years, and the only thing that will keep it on the market is the California law that mandates a certain percentage of zero emissions vehicles.
I already have power in my garage, so setting up a charging station would be no problem.
I want the Volt, I welcome the Volt, and I will drive a Volt when the price gets down around $22,000.
I might even buy a used one at that price if I could find a new owner who was gentle on the car, put on very low mileage, and just changed his mind and now wants to unload it.
I think auto financing is a terrible idea. My idea is save money until I can afford what I want, then buy it for cash, and try to get a discount because of all cash up front. Money talks, and people without cars walk, and people who finance their cars balk, and their cars get re-poed when they’ve made half the payments.
The Nissan, hands down.
The Chevy Volt DOES use gasoline…. potentially. GM is looking for ways to maintain its dirty oil-based powertrain system, when it could have 10 years ago kicked us in to high gear with the EV1, when it was clear then that the EV1 was much in demand.
Oil has gotten the US in to so much trouble over the past 40 years. The answer is obvious. GET US OFF OIL, as soon as quickly. The Volt does little to encourage an oil-free existence.
The Nissan does. GM had it’s opportunity in the 90′s with the EV1. It failed miserably when it killed it’s own EV1 program. Now, let it suffer as it learns the lessons from its colossal mistake.
Give Nissan a chance with its’ all-electric Leaf.
None of the above. To expensive to replace the battery and limited range. Worst of all you might get stuck with that "green I am a sucker take money from me" label