What is Reddit's opinion of Leaf Spy?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

I just helped my wife buy one a while back. Here is the one thing that made me feel good about the purchase.

Get and ODB2 bluetooth adapter and plug it into the car you are looking at. Use the app Leafspy to check the actual battery state of the car you are buying. The battery is by far the most important part of the car.

Just ask for a detailed battery report. They have a diagnostic tool they can use that checks all of the cells of the battery. At the low amounts of mileage, I don't really expect you to find anything alarming. LeafSpy is an app you can get yourself, allows you to see the data held in the electronics. But, the dealership should have the tools to run a detailed report for you.

Again, honestly, I think that the price is fine. I don't know if it's the cheapest price you can get, the only way to know that is to shop around in your area to see if you can find one with similar features and mileage cheaper. But... I know that I'm very happy with my 2013 Leaf SV, and I'm paying more per month for it on a lease.

When one considers the cost of operating an electric car versus a gas or diesel powered one, there are several factors at play. One is the cost of fuel. Right now, gas is cheap. It might remain cheap, or there might be another storm in the Gulf, or someone might damage a refinery, or war might break out in the middle east again. If that happens, expect the price of gasoline to double again, like it did the last time.

My car costs me pennies a day in fuel to drive. Even at $2 per gallon, a typical high mpg hatchback, getting 45 miles per gallon, would cost $0.23 per mile in fuel costs alone. Then you have 4 oil changes a year, air filter replacements, etc. Call it another ten cents a mile. That's more than 10 times the cost per mile that my Leaf costs.

On the flip side, the batteries will have to be replaced eventually, and they will degrade over time. Nissan has said that they would replace the batteries for $5500. If you drove the car 55,000 miles before needing the battery replacement (a reasonable guess), then the cost of the battery is equivalent to the cost of oil changes, air filters, water pumps, and such that an ICE needs.

I looked up 45 mpg used cars - the cost of 2013 models is about the same as the quoted cost of the Leaf, about $14,000, but the mileage is higher. I figure I save over $100 per month in gasoline costs alone on my car, versus a normal vehicle getting about 35 miles per gallon.

For $10, 561, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

>Then if it is safe to put in a deep cycle battery into a leaf the extra duration of the deep cycle battery means you would not need to turn 'on' the car as often(To charge the battery through the dc-dc converter)

Yeah, that would be the idea. And monitoring the 12V voltage would be a good idea so you know when to charge. LeafSpy is a great app for the Leaf that will give you all kinds of details about the car, including 12V battery voltage, through the OBD2 port. If you're shopping for a used Leaf I can't stress enough how important it is to get this app BEFORE you buy one so you can determine how much the traction battery's capacity has degraded in the cars you're checking out.

I can't tell you how fast the DC-DC converter will charge a depleted battery, but it probably does use up most of that 1 kW when charging. Here's a good thread about battery charging / jump starting.

>Regarding the AC unit... you can turn it on with out powering up the motor? That would mean sending juice only to the ac and not the motor? I wonder how much juice it sends to the ac unit and if that power line can be tapped into. such a job would be better for an electrical engineer and I am not one so that will never happen.

The big distinction between all the car's modes is whether those high voltage contactors are closed (i.e. the traction battery's "on"). This only happens when the car is in "ready" mode (like ready to drive), when the car's charging, and when the climate control is activated remotely or via timer. Whenever those contactors are closed, everything - including the motor - is "powered", but the car's software determines stuff like whether it'll let you drive or not. It is possible to tap into the high voltage DC lines directly, but that's DEFINITELY one of those "don't try this at home" kind of things. One of the guys in the forum likes to post this image about that sort of thing.