Two Leafs Are Better Than One

When you have a 20 year old car and a 14 year old van, you're always thinking about the possibility of what's next. On Friday Helen came home and found out I had leased not one, but two Nissan Leafs.

After years of posturing about eventually getting another car, it became a running family joke that eventually I was just going to come home one day with a new car out of the blue without telling anyone. I guess they were partially right.

A friend at work was talking about his new Nissan Leaf and it got my juices flowing. Being the practical guy that I am, I've been intrigued by the newer fuel efficient cars for a while now. I like the efficiency of the Toyota Prius, but it always seemed a little too eco-hard core radical than I am. When I first started seeing the Leafs, I thought they had that same efficient practicality, with more of a tech-savvy stylish edge (sustainability for practicality - without the attitude). 

I know people had talked about leasing a Leaf "for free", but I figured our cars were already "free" so I never pulled the trigger. A few things finally pushed me over the edge:

• Derek will be old enough to drive by himself in the spring and, although he wouldn't necessarily need his own car right away, we figured the reality of a third car was imminent.
• Last year the state of Georgia almost rescinded the tax credit for electric vehicles and it seems likely that they will eventually lower the incentive or get rid of it.
• I finally did the math and it really does seem like you can drive a Leaf for close to free (or even get paid to drive it).

Here are the numbers:

• $395 acquisition fee (charged by bank financing the lease)
• $56 (title and registration)
• $229 (initial monthly lease payment). Nissan has a lot of preferred partner companies and I happen to work for one so I got the VPP price. It might be $30-50 a month higher otherwise, but still a good deal with the tax incentive. This summer the VPP price on the closeout 2014 S models was even better - $209.
• $229 * 23 months (the remaining lease payments)
• $350 disposition fee (charged by bank financing the lease when you turn the car back in order to handle processing the car to sell it. Waived if you re-lease or buy the car.)
• $15 * 24 months (projected cost of increased power bill). It might actually be lower and you can definitely lower this by charging at work or at public charging stations. You can also register for a lower off-peak electric vehicle rate from Georgia Power and then program your car to only charge at off-peak times.
• $72 * 24 months (insurance). The biggest gotcha - especially when you drive old cars that cost very little to insure.
• -$36 * 24 months (insurance savings from selling old car).
• -$500 (estimated maintenance and depreciation on old car)
• -$3000 (estimated sale of old car)
• -$5000 (tax credit from state of Georgia). You can spread the credit over 5 years so if we don't pay enough state tax this year to cover both cars, we will eventually. That's why Georgia is the #1 Leaf market.
• -$1500 (gas savings). We have been spending about $3000 for both cars for a number of years.
• -----------------------------
• Total SURPLUS for Leaf1 (replacing old car) = +$2479 (+$1240 per year)
• Total cost for Leaf2 (in addition to van) = -$1885 (-$942 per year)(-$692 per year if you figure $250 per year in maintenance\depreciation savings by not driving the van much)

Initially we're going to see how the standard 120v "trickle charger" works out. Some people install quick-chargers, but most people say the trickle charger works out fine. You can go about 100 miles on a full charge and, although it takes about 20 hours to fully charge with the trickle charger, it's rare that you'll ever have to go from zero to full. Right now, we're even sharing a single charger between both cars.

They're so cute

Before we got the Leafs, we planned to let Derek drive my old Legend. The new plan is to sell the Legend and have Derek drive the van (or nothing if he so chooses). He can always drive one of the Leafs when available. We'll keep the van for longer trips and special circumstances, but after a weekend I can already tell we're going to go out of our way to avoid driving the van (sorry QuickTrip).

On Saturday Derek finally got a chance to drive the Leaf when he and his friend, Blake, went to the Maker Faire

Derek was the first family member to see the Leafs when he came home from school on Friday afternoon and found me (and my very helpful salesman) shuttling the new cars home from the dealership

Drop off at the Maker Faire