NISSAN LEAF

Original mainstream EV transforms into a family crossover for third era

- JAMES ATTWOOD

The new Nissan Leaf feels like a bit of a milestone moment: it's the first mainstream mass-market electric vehicle to reach a third generation. Although that really depends on how you define such things: to all intents and purposes, the new Leaf is an entirely new model. The only thing it has in common with its pioneering predecessors is a name.

The original Leaf arrived in 2010 as a mid-sized five-door hatchback with a Chademo charging port, a 24kWh battery, a 124-mile range, a price tag of £23,350 after a government grant and a whole load of novelty about whether a car powered by batteries could actually find mainstream buyers.

The Mk2 Leaf followed in 2018, eventually featuring a 60kWh battery that gave it a range of up to 239 miles and priced from £21,990 (again, after a government grant).

Fifteen years after being launched and the Leaf is as unrecognisable compared with its predecessors as the concept of a government grant is to UK EV buyers. For this third generation it has grown substantially and is now firmly a crossover-albeit a very sleek one-rather than a hatchback. That shift in size helps make way for the new Renault-built Nissan Micra (driven, p32) but is also designed to position the new Leaf as the primary car of a household.