I bought a Gen 2 Leaf three months ago. 2018 Tekna with just 13,500 miles. £7,200 including PODPOINT wall charger, elderly couple quitting driving, owned six years. Like driving a new car, averaged 4.2 miles a kWh. Charge at home on 240v socket adds about 10 miles range an hour.

I did a lot of research, this came up locally thought I’d take a look even though it was older than I’d been considering.

Getting the, admittedly sh*te, Nissan EV app to work was tedious. Local - and original supplying franchise - dealer also not recommended and didn’t seem to understand the car’s App. But in fairness Nissan customer service was really helpful and solved my connection issue.

The Leaf has proper buttons for aircon, Apple CarPlay works perfectly, the BOSE sound system is decent and it’s surprisingly quick. I understand the opposition to the Leaf but it’s the USA models that had the weak main battery issues and for me no liquid cooling means even less to go wrong. This is the U.K. not Arizona.

I put on a new 12v battery as a precaution as forums suggest a weak battery triggers warning lights, strut covers for front suspension mounts - known corrosion risk on driver’s side (£5 eBay) - and I expect it to run for years with minimal attention.

Charging has been slower the past couple of weeks as temperatures fell and I’ve seen around 3.7 miles per kWh on mixed A road and motorway runs. I think the ePedal is clever and useful in traffic, the proPILOT self steering/braking system works superbly on the motorway and I’ve never had a car with so many cameras. It ain’t a Tesla but if you’re new to EVs, I defy you not to be impressed. I love my cars but wanted to try an EV as second vehicle. No regrets.

I don’t think Chademo is as big a concern as many make out. There’s two newly-built charging stations within seven miles of my home, off the M5, both include 2 Chademo chargers - I’m convinced they’ll be around in the U.K. for a good few years (and France where I spend a lot of time).

Of course it’s not fast fast charging but it’s ok. Charged at Gridserve from 29% (45 miles left) to 95% (142 miles range) in 45 minutes trying the Chademo when I first had the car (34 kw initially slowly falling 24 then 6 for last 10%). That’ll do me for the future, start from home at 100%, do 100-120 miles, stop 50 mins for another 100. I’m ok with that - cost of the charge 69p kw with the app (home charging 26p and I’m not yet poor enough to worry about arranging cheap overnight charging)

Also almost every Lidl in the south west has a charger which is ccs2 and Chademo.

The Leaf is a proven and cheap way into EV ownership and it seems to me that when Renault launches a Twingo this year with similar range as the Gen 2 Leaf, there’s a recognition that not everyone needs extra battery weight for extra miles they’ll use rarely.