Well...just seen an article in Auto Express that's made me so thankful I've bought a Fabia diesel. The article is about the cost of replacement batteries for the Electric Nissan Leaf. Apart from the initial cost of £25,000 for the car purchase, potentially just 5 years later you may have to fork out another £19,000 for a new set of batteries!! From my research, 5 years is reckoned to be about the earliest they will be needed if you look after them but even so, seems a bit early and the cost somewhat staggering. Can anyone actually see these vehicles becoming mainstream with enormous costs like that, and considering the limitations of the vehicle? I could buy two Fabia diesels for the initial purchase price and be a whole lot better off.

Well...just seen an article in Auto Express that's made me so thankful I've bought a Fabia diesel. The article is about the cost of replacement batteries for the Electric Nissan Leaf. Apart from the initial cost of £25,000 for the car purchase, potentially just 5 years later you may have to fork out another £19,000 for a new set of batteries!! From my research, 5 years is reckoned to be about the earliest they will be needed if you look after them but even so, seems a bit early and the cost somewhat staggering. Can anyone actually see these vehicles becoming mainstream with enormous costs like that, and considering the limitations of the vehicle? I could buy two Fabia diesels for the initial purchase price and be a whole lot better off.

HYDROGEN is the only way to go!

Well...just seen an article in Auto Express that's made me so thankful I've bought a Fabia diesel. The article is about the cost of replacement batteries for the Electric Nissan Leaf. Apart from the initial cost of £25,000 for the car purchase, potentially just 5 years later you may have to fork out another £19,000 for a new set of batteries!! From my research, 5 years is reckoned to be about the earliest they will be needed if you look after them but even so, seems a bit early and the cost somewhat staggering. Can anyone actually see these vehicles becoming mainstream with enormous costs like that, and considering the limitations of the vehicle? I could buy two Fabia diesels for the initial purchase price and be a whole lot better off.

How frigging much?!!!!!

HYDROGEN is the only way to go!

+1

Replacing batteries every 5 years? and they call that ecologically correct?

If only toyota didn't sell there Ni-MH tech to an oil company of all people

How frigging much?!!!!!

+1

Gadgetman, yep, £19,000 per set! But at least you can go nearly 80 miles without a recharge! Although the Which Magazine lot only got 60 miles I believe before it ran out of power. But they must be good...mustn't they???? Think I'll be sticking with diesel for a very long time.

£19,000, fu@@ that! That's £5500 more than my Monte cost and after 5 years of use hopefully the Monte won't be a pile of scrap lead.

Oh, I went diesel too. Strong residuals and great mpg

I can buy 3 of my car for £21K!!

Apparently, Nissan are hoping we will all buy one so the cost of the replacement battery pack comes down in 5 years time, the likely time when owners will need to start thinking about taking out a mortgage to replace them. Potentially, the battery packs can last 10 years with proper care but you could end up replacing them after just 5years. The design life span is 8-10 years and Nissan will replace them under warranty if anyone gets problems during the first 5 years but after that you're on your own! It will be interesting to see what happens with Hydrogen, as suggested by Seb, but that's still a huge way off in practical terms according to the governments own stats. Infrastructure and storage being the main problems.

So plenty of life left in the old internal combustion engine yet then!

The cost of the batteries alone at a straight cost / 60 months is £316 a MONTH!!!

That's about £150 a month more than what I am spending on petrol... :/

Not to mention the initial cost of the car...

Not for me thank you...

It's a shame bioethanol hasnt taken off more globally, a car like the vRS with the correct adjustments would probably run even more power with it with less emmissions and similar economy. Gather its very popular in Brazil but the costs of producing crops and refining it is whats holding it back.

Think its going to be a long while before diesels die off!

It's a shame bioethanol hasnt taken off more globally, a car like the vRS with the correct adjustments would probably run even more power with it with less emmissions and similar economy. Gather its very popular in Brazil but the costs of producing crops and refining it is whats holding it back.

Think its going to be a long while before diesels die off!

plus the ripping up of the earths lungs (amazonian jungle) to make bioethanol!, not very eco with hydrogen capture although cost initially humungus it will be the best thing all round, the race has begun allready chances are the south koreans or another asian country will be the first to develop it, it will be a 20 year wait but its started

Edited 6 September, 201114 yr by seboni121

Yep ethanol burns lovely and clean. But I wonder if developments in the diesel industry and the way the new bio fuel for diesels, is for sure going to be made, will overtake ethanol and electric altogether. I read some while ago that diesel is going to be made (and already is in small amounts) from oil producing bacteria. They ferment it in vast vats, no need to destroy farmland to grow oil crops. It needs to be fed on CO2 and some other stuff that's very cheap (so that's a winner!). In exchange you get pure oil that after refining (which uses nearly 50% LESS energy than refining from fossil crude, another winner!) burns so clean that particulates and nox gases are reduced considerably. But the other thing is that the lubricity of the diesel made with this stuff is brilliant and better than the stuff we use today. So this further protects high pressure diesel pumps and will help diesel engines last even longer. James May has looked at the process and said it's the future. We'll no doubt see wont we!

Aye hopefully I will still be drivin then

To slightly rebalance EM's argument. The Leaf's batteries are unlikely to be replaced all at once. More likely they will need gradual replacement. The cost still remains considerable. Which is why the Leaf's resale value will depreciate faster than a soggy field full of VW Phaeton W12s. Eleven electric cars were sold in August 2010 in the UK; 34 sold in August 2011. Progress, but hardly electrifying...

Edited 6 September, 201114 yr by Adrianh1

To slightly rebalance EM's argument. The Leaf's batteries are unlikely to be replaced all at once. More likely they will need gradual replacement. The cost still remains considerable. Which is why the Leaf's resale value will depreciate faster than a soggy field full of VW Phaeton W12s. Eleven electric cars were sold in August 2010 in the UK; 34 sold in August 2011. Progress, but hardly

electrifying...

I'd love a pheaton for a while anyway, the best any leech car has done is about 80 miles on a full charge , what's the point once they do 250 miles i will purchase

Mmmmmm phaeton's

Mmmmmm phaeton's

Previous car was a superb2 but wanted a Tudor but never arrived :( so I like a big car wife wanted a small car hence the fabia

Edited 6 September, 201114 yr by seboni121

I want a superb2 - bet they are an amazing comfortable drive

I want a superb2 - bet they are an amazing comfortable drive

Oh my god comfy absolute silky, but the wife didn't like to drive it too big :( boot so long couldn't touch the end of it when boot hatch was open we had the 1.9tdi that engine not good enough innit, but an excellent car miss it loads

To slightly rebalance EM's argument. The Leaf's batteries are unlikely to be replaced all at once. More likely they will need gradual replacement. The cost still remains considerable.

Hi Adrian,

That would be much more attractive (but not much). Auto Express talked about the 'battery pack' as if it just had one sealed pack. But I've never seen one of these motors in the flesh. It's normal I understand, to replace all the batteries in other electric cars at the same time to maintain the battery performance and amps and avoid damage to the charging system. Old batts and new ones don't normally mix because they accept charge at differing rates and meter it out again at different rates. This can cause quite a bit of damage to motors and charging systems. But maybe there is a way on the Nissan. I'd like to know for sure.

batteries, other fuels etc will never be the norm while the cartels have the money to buy the tech and bury it. oil runs the world and, whilst its still available, it always will

Eleven electric cars were sold in August 2010 in the UK; 34 sold in August 2011. Progress, but hardly electrifying...

Hmmm, not sure, the marketing department would turn that into a headline 300% increase in sales in a single year, which means that sales are booming !