New Nissan Leaf Review
This is the Nissan Leaf. The world's best-selling electric car - for now. Since 2010, it's sold more than 400,000 units globally, and in the UK it enjoys a 36% share of the fast-growing EV market.
But while the Leaf was certainly a trailblazer for mainstream electric cars, now it's actually fallen behind in the pecking order, compared to new rivals like: the Kia e-Niro and the Hyundai Kona Electric. This is the second generation Leaf, and Nissan has just added a new range-topping version.
It gets a few changes inside and out, a bigger battery, and crucially that means a longer range. But just how long is that range and what is this new car like? Well that's what we're going to find out.
So, this is the Nissan Leaf e Tekna and if you choose it you get a few upgrades including this e+ badging on the charge port here, and then a slightly redesigned front end - including these blue highlights along the bottom. But the more significant changes are under the bonnet... Well under the floor actually.
This range-topping model gets a bigger 62 kilowatt-hour battery which joins the 40 kilowatt-hour battery that the rest of the Leafs in the lineup get. Nissan says the bigger battery can cover 239 miles on a full charge, under the new WLTP test cycle, which is a 62 mile increase on the standard model.
Now that's a pretty useful extra amount, Nissan has also ensured that the new battery can still be fast charged in roughly the same time as the smaller battery. So it's a bigger battery but the rate it can charge at is higher, the Leaf does still only use CHAdeMO to rapid charge, whereas most of the competition uses the now more common CCS connector instead. Inside you get a larger 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system, but this is still not quite so good as the Hyundai and Kia equivalents in this class.
There's also a Bose 7-speaker stereo, plus you get Nissan's Pro Pilot semi-autonomous driving assistance, which includes Lane keep assist and adaptive cruise control. But, isn't it ridiculous that you spend $40,000 on a car and you cannot adjust the reach of the steering wheel. In the Leaf it only moves up and down, not in and out.
Rear legroom is decent, but rear headroom is a bit tight. The boot is good, but this version gets a subwoofer in the back, and look that is a pretty inconvenient place to stick it, isn't it. Which electric car would you buy? We want to know so, tell us by voting in our poll. Would you buy a Nissan Leaf, Kia e-Niro, Hyundai Kona Electric, or Tesla Model 3 cast your vote now.
The Leaf e+ also gets more power, so now peak power is 214 brake horsepower as opposed to the standard model, which gets 148 brake horsepower. It also gets 250 lbft of torque, and an increased top speed of 97 miles per hour.
All of which means, it is quick. Certainly quicker than before, the Leaf e plus will do 0-62 miles per hour in 6.9 seconds, while the 40 kilowatt hour version will do the same in 7.9 seconds, which is a decent increase in pace and it really is noticeable.
Especially with the extra torque, the Leaf e+ feels rapid off the line, but it's a hundred and fifty kilograms heavier, and the ride height has been raised by five millimetres to help accommodate the bigger battery under the floor.
The result? Pretty disastrous for the ride. So just like the standard car, the e+ is still relatively soft, which is fine around town - but on the motorway and at higher speeds it is completely unsettled. When you're on undulating roads like this, your head is bobbing constantly back and forth, and that's something that gets really annoying after a while.
So the ride is five millimetres higher, the car is heavier, to try and cope with that, they've stiffened the suspension but it's not worked anywhere near as well as it could have done. If you want to know even more about the whole of the Nissan Leaf range, then watch our full in depth review by clicking on the link in the top right hand corner of the screen.
So if you're going to buy a new Nissan Leaf we'd actually be tempted to stick with the cheaper, standard version - if you can cope with the range. That's because, those models ride better, and they can still get 128 miles off of a full charge in real-world driving conditions.
But the Leaf is starting to feel a bit off the pace, since the Kia e-Niro and Hyundai Kona Electric have come along. They've made this Leaf e+ look very expensive, that's because both those cars can travel more than 250 miles off of a full charge - that's in real-world driving conditions - so it's difficult to make a case for the expensive Leaf e+.
