Family celebrates 200,000km milestone in Nissan Leaf – and no petrol bills

A Washington family that bought one of the first Nissan Leaf electric cars in the US has celebratd 10 years of ownership and the milestone of driving 200,000km without paying for petrol.

In a story shared by the Japanese carmaker, Shannon Monroe has described the family’s experience of owning the Leaf over the past decade, and the joy at not having contributed to carbon emissions with their vehicle for their children’s entire lives.

“I think it was about 2009 my wife and I were looking for a new car and I’ve always wanted an electric car,” says Monroe in the video you can see at the bottom of this article.

“I rode in one as a kid that my neighbour had built out of scrap parts and it was amazing. So when Nissan actually came out and said they were going to produce the Nissan Leaf I was super excited.”

Monroe says the couple test drove many other cars as well but ultimately came back to the Leaf.

“I realised I really wanted to make that transition to electric,” he says. “We were the first one registered in the state of Florida and it’s been such a great car we kept it with us for the last 10 years.

“We’re at about 125,000 Nissan EV miles at this point – we’ve taken it from Florida to California and now up here to Washington.”

The couple brought their child home from the hospital in the Leaf, and have driven him around in nothing else since – except for in his grandparent’s Leaf after they were so impressed they went and bought their own.

“As soon as my parents realise we were that committed to it they went out and bought a Nissan Leaf as well,” says Monroe.

“That was another great moment that we made that transition for someone else.”

He adds how easy it has been owning the car: “Over last 10 years there’s no real maintenance costs, there’s been no trips to the dealership.”

“We drive this thing every single day. My wife drives it to work, we drive it the kids to school in it, we take the kids to taekwondo practice in it. It’s our daily car. We’re excited to see what Nissan’s coming up with next because once you’ve had an electric car you’re really not going to look at anything else. There’s no going back.”