Eva and I just bought a 2012 Leaf with 16K miles on it for a little over
$15k (after CO state incentives.) About the same cost as the components
for doing a conversion, but you end up with a _much_ nicer car than you
could ever think of building yourself. Plus, you are spared a year's
work of doing the build.
We were convinced that now is the time to buy by Steve and Dee West in
New Zealand during our recent visit. We went to Green Eyed Motors in
Boulder to buy our Leaf. They very cleverly only sell used EVs that they
purchase from out of state, and never titled in Colorado. They thus
qualify for the full Colorado tax credit. The liked us, so they even
threw in a wall charger. (Usually ~$400.) Very knowledgeable folks that
were a pleasure to buy a car from.
http://www.greeneyedmotors.com
What we were blown away by is the sheer number of charging stations that
are now available. There are over a hundred in the Denver area alone!
https://na.chargepoint.com/charge_point
Most of them are free. You simply sign up for "ChargePoint" and tap the
charger with your ChargePoint card. Tried it out for the first time
today at Beau Jo's Pizza. Had a wonderful meal while my car charged for
free. You can ask the car navigation system where the nearest charging
station is, check using your phone to see whether or not it is in use,
reserve it, and the nav. will lead you right to it. Once you are plugged
in, the Leaf sends you messages on your smart phone, like "charge
complete". You can then tell it to turn on the climate control or ask
for a status update using your smart phone.
A _lot_ has changed in the short time (17 years?) I have been on the
EVDL. Who would have thought then that you could buy an OEM EV at a
reasonable price that would have 80+ miles of real-world range, (with
heat!) and that there would be a whole network of chargers to plug into?
You can visit out Facebook Fan page to read about our Leaf, our NZ trip,
and our EV land speed racing:
https://www.facebook.com/killacycle
No need to be a facebook member to look at our "fan" page. Just ignore
the annoying sign-in request by pressing <escape> or clicking cancel.
Bill & Eva
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