FirstGenFixer

Been driving my '13 Leaf since it was new and I've heard "the good ones are coming, just wait" about foreign EV models for a solid decade now at this point. Might be different this time with how far ahead the Chinese battery cost curve has gotten — that part of the piece checks out against everything else I've read. But I've learned not to hold my breath on any specific model showing up here on any specific timeline. Believe it when it's on a lot.

Fourteen months and a finished build that pulls a crowd at Cars & Coffee — that's the version of this hobby people don't post about enough. Everyone shows the shiny final product on social media. This kind of honest build log, mistakes and all, is worth more than a hundred highlight reels. Bookmarking the battery voltage lesson for whenever I finally start my own.

Been building home battery packs since before "DIY LFP" was a common phrase around here, and the answer to "which cell should I buy" has been the same boring answer for years: whatever has a mature supply chain and real cycle data behind it. Right now that's still the EVE. Exotic salvage cells make for a fun project if you've got the patience and the enclosure skills, but they're a hobby project, not the recommendation for someone who just wants a working pack on a reasonable timeline.

Been filling up on electrons since 2013. Watched gas prices spike and crash three times since then. Each time, a different friend decides now is the moment to look at an EV. What I tell them: don't buy it because of the gas price. Buy it because of what it's actually like to own one. The gas price reason doesn't survive the first time prices drop again.

The defect rate section is what I needed to read before I did something dumb. I was tempted by eBay listings at $28/cell — clearly not Grade A. The guidance to stick with vetted importers even at a slight premium is right. I've been watching the r/diysolar megathread on Alibaba supplier reputation and the variance in cell quality is wild. Spending an extra $200 on 16 cells from a trusted source is obviously correct once you actually think it through.

Gen 1 Volt modules occasionally surface and they're consistently left off lists like this. Lower density than Gen 2 but the thermal stability is excellent and the DIY documentation from early builds is thorough. If Gen 2 supply ever tightens, they're worth a look before you go hunting elsewhere.

The brake pad point surprised me too when I finally understood why. My 2013 Leaf has 62,000 miles on it and I'm still on the factory pads. One set of wiper blades. One cabin filter. That's the complete maintenance list for eleven years of ownership. The savings are real and they almost never show up in the comparison articles.

Eleven years in with my 2013 Leaf and the TCO numbers track with this breakdown — with one wildcard the article underestimates for older EVs: battery replacement. I'm at 78% SOH after 62k miles, still fine for my 14-mile commute, but the writing is on the wall. A reconditioned pack from Greentec runs $3,000–4,500 installed, which changes the 10-year TCO picture meaningfully compared to a newer car still under warranty.