Brian Sanderson, owner of a Nissan Leaf electric car, said his experience was a cautionary tale for others who might jump into electric cars.

  Although Brian Sanderson paid 417 Nissan, the dealer servicing the car, nearly $10,000, he said the bills aren’t even the saddest part of his experience.

Sanderson, a professional musician who won four Juno awards with his rock chamber music band Esmerine, said: “It’s harsh because I don’t want to be part of the ‘let’s bash electric cars’ audience.”

He confirmed that currently, instead of being able to drive 120 kilometers which a 2013 Leafs car could originally cover on a full charge, Brandor can’t drive more than 80 kilometers. He even became hesitant about turning on the heater or the window defroster, as using these features requires battery power and will further reduce the driving range.

Brandor always knew that batteries lose their capacity over time, and thought there would be no problem getting a new one.

Brandor said: The dealer he bought the car from said that within a few years, you could replace the battery for about $5,000.”

But now, he can’t find one. He tried two nearby Nissan dealers, three local repair shops, and contacted Nissan Canada.

Brandor explained: “Nissan was not helpful. I probably sent them six emails.” “They constantly ask me to go to the dealership. I called my local dealer, and they sent emails to Nissan Canada. And after six weeks, none of us received any response.”

He confirmed that both dealers told him a new battery—if he could find one—could cost him at least $15,000, which would be more than he paid for the car in the first place.

His local dealer encouraged him to solve the problem by simply buying a brand new Nissan Leaf. The base model for 2020 costs $42,000 and can travel about 240 kilometers on a full charge. This suggestion doesn’t seem very sustainable to Brandor.

He added: “It seems like these things will end up in the landfill.” “I think it makes financial sense for them to sell new cars instead of servicing old cars.”

Olivier Trépanier, a professor at the Electric Vehicle Research Center at the University of Toronto, said Nissan deserves praise for being a pioneer.

He said: “They were among the first to launch an attractive electric car with a reasonable range, and most importantly, at a low price.”

But he added that one of the “trade-offs” Nissan made initially to keep production costs low was not installing an advanced cooling system for its batteries. “They were using particularly temperature-sensitive chemistry, and they did not use expensive liquid cooling.”