Checking in on owning an Electric Vehicle after 1.5 years
At the end of September 2024, I leased a Nissan Leaf for a song. In April 2026, how is it holding up? Do I still like it? Would I get another one? Let's dive into some stats about how it's going.
10,504 miles
The amount I've driven it in 18 months. One downside I neglected to mention about the lease in my last post is that you can only drive 10,000 miles per year. Truthfully, I completely forgot to mention it because it's a complete non-factor for me; since this is my non-road-trip vehicle, I only drive it around town about 6,000 miles per year. It's still worth mentioning. I'm projected to hit around ~14,005 miles at this rate, which is well under the 20k limit.
5/32"
How much tread is left on my tires. This was pretty surprising to me, since I haven't driven it very far. Apparently I enjoy the snappy acceleration too much:
The instant torque and acceleration capabilities of electric vehicles can lead to more aggressive driving styles, which in turn can accelerate tire wear rates.
Hopefully, with only six months left in my lease, I won't wear it down enough to require buying new ones when I turn it in!
~2% per hour
How fast the Leaf's battery charges off my standard 110V wall outlet. I never wanted to pay for a Level II charger, and I never felt tempted to. I've easily been able to keep the car charged between 50% and 80% with regular usage and overnight charging.
$606.11
How much my registration renewal was in 2025. This was a good bit more than the $206.23 I paid for my 2019 Subaru Outback (before it got totaled). This is less than the initial $1,000 outlay I paid when I newly registered the vehicle last year.
$0
Amount I spent on gas. I spent $625.35 on gas for my Subaru in 2025, but how much did it cost to charge my Leaf with electricity?
While not a perfect methodology, I can compare my electric bill prior to getting the Leaf, and after acquiring it. This assumes the entire increase in my electricity bill would be attributable to the Leaf, which makes it a liberal estimate. I have data six months prior to my lease's begin date, so I'll work with that six-month window on both sides. Uploading the data for Claude Opus 4.6 (Extended Thinking) for analysis shows:
It's estimate for ~6,000 miles driven is nearly exact! That means I can confidently say I've spent ~$217 on electricity to get it around town annually.
100%
Alleged battery capacity. I didn't research this a whole lot, but apparently topping off your battery at 80% and only using trickle charging (via my 110V outlet) is best for your EV's battery health. While I expect my battery is in great shape, I don't know how much I trust this self-reported number. It should at least say 99% the minute I drove it off the lot!
$463.77
How much my "New Car" investing account has grown. When I sold my old car and leased this one, my monthly loan payment on the old car was $360. Each month I pay $118/mo for this lease and save the rest in a Betterment investing portfolio. As of this writing, that balance sits at $7,246.58. By the time my lease is up, Betterment projects it will be worth $8,600.01.
Will I buy this car?
At the end of the lease, I have the option of buying this car outright. My family has really enjoyed this car. We've proven that owning an EV makes sense for us to drive around town since we have another car for longer road trips.
The original plan was to take the $8,600.01 and buy whatever is available at that price as a replacement. That's still a solid option, however, I recently read that used EVs are a bargain right now.
Shopping around locally has surfaced some good EVs in the ~$10-20k price range. If I wanted to buy my lease out, that would cost me $24.1k. With that price difference, I probably won't keep this car, but instead I''ll try to save as much as I can to buy another EV. Apparently, used cars generally sell for $25.5k in Jan. 2026, which surprised me when I played Off By today.
That's quite a stretch goal to save for in the remaining six months of my lease ($1,900/mo on the high end!). Ideally I would've been saving more per month at the beginning of my lease. From the beginning of this lease, I've mentally prepared myself to accept that my next car will not be as nice as this one.
Final EV thoughts
I've been pleasantly surprised with the EV. Qualitatively, I've enjoyed
- Easy acceleration to merge into traffic (as evidenced by my tire wear)
- The interior heats up quickly in the winter because you don't have to wait for an engine to warm up first
- No need to stop at gas stations
- How quiet the EV operates
- One-pedal driving with the e-Pedal is a fun way to "gamify" saving battery
- If you smell any gas/oil, you know it's not coming from your car
- It's nice to use your phone to start/stop, lock/unlock the car remotely.
Are these features worth the premium? Maybe. We'll see how things go between now and the end of my lease.