Nissan turns over new Leaf
accept an interior that doesn’t feel like it belongs in a $60K car.
The Leaf does have some hard plastics present in the cabin (and the design is very conservative), but the amount of high-quality soft touch material far outweighs this, and it boasts excellent build quality, a high level of clever tech and, of course, driver assists.
While not quite the full Nissan ProPilot semi-autonomous system that some overseas markets get, the Leaf comes with all the expected assists and aides, including adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, blind spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alert and autonomous emergency braking. impressive amount of rear leg room and boot space also help make the Leaf a thoroughly practical and usable urban runabout.
What’s the pick of the range?
Nissan is keeping things simple with the Leaf, only bringing in a single high-spec model at $59,990.
With a far higher quality interior and superior ride comfort to the likes of the Hyundai Kona or Ioniq, the Leaf represents the best value for money we have seen in a mainstream EV in this country to date.
Sure, at $60K it isn’t ‘‘cheap’’, but the premium you are paying over something equivalent with a combustion engine is far smaller than it has ever been before.
Put it this way, something with the same interior quality and equipment levels in the ICEpowered small hatch segment would set you back around the $50K mark (think the $49k Mazda3 Limited or $51k Lexus CT200h), so the EV premium is around $9 to $10K, depending on what you compare it to.
Why would I buy it?
You’ve been holding out for a New Zealand-new Leaf or you just want a comfortable urban commuter electric car that is highly equipped, looks good and comes with an excellent warranty (the Leaf gets five years on the car and eight years for the battery).
Plus, you see potential for that whole bi-directional charging thing to save you some coin on your home electricity costs.
Why wouldn’t I buy it?
You can’t get past that whole usedimport stigma the Leaf still has clinging to it.
Or an EV doesn’t suit your needs – it’s true, they don’t suit everyone (weird, huh? I mean, every other type of car suits literally everybody’s needs, right?) and the Leaf doesn’t have the megarange capabilities of the likes of a Tesla, but Nissan has never pushed it as anything more than an urban commuter anyway. And at that, it excels.