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New NISSAN LEAF review at a glance:
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Advantages: The Leaf wears its eco-credentials lightly beneath a striking chassis. It has responsive acceleration and in Eco-mode it makes inefficient driving a near impossibility. The standard spec comes with all the equipment you’ve come to expect from a normal car.

Disadvantages: The Leaf won’t suit everyone and it is not suited to motorway driving. The boot space is not up with conventionally powered rivals. Until Charging Infrastructure has been properly rolled-out long-distance journeys is not an option.

Summary: Eco-credentials and good looks make the Leaf a contender within the urban and sub-urban environment. Good handling and efficiency make the Leaf an entertaining car to drive for the family with green themes on their mind.

New NISSAN LEAF Review:


The new Nissan Leaf wears its all-electric eco-credentials lightly beneath a sleek exterior. While other manufacturers lauded their all-electric green credentials over all else, Nissan’s early adoption of the technology means any charging vehicle-charging won't mean significant lifestyle changes to the user.

Installing a home-based charging point, estimated at up to £1000 may be an obstacle to ownership of an all-electric vehicle as is the lack of public-charging places, but once over this obstacle there should not be much of a problem for early adopters. True charging a vehicle after every night may not suit a single person living in a flat with long-journeys home every weekend to visit families but for a settled family with a garage, the nightly charging of the Leaf may not be any more burdensome than fitting in a walking schedule for their pet dog.

Save for the regular charging of the Leaf, it is just like any other car in almost every way. The amount of standard equipment on the model means that once the government's £5,000 subsidy is taken into account the Leaf is very competitive with its conventionally powered rivals in terms of price and packaging. It comes with a rear parking camera, sat nav, a highly specified stereo, Bluetooth and an auto gearbox. The description of an auto gearbox is slightly misleading since there are only two gears, forwards and backwards.

The lack of shifting cogs is just one reason why the Leaf is so smooth to drive and there is a fantastic amount of pulling power available from almost any speed with no hint of the momentary delay you'd get in an internal combustion engine. Only when higher speeds are achieved does the Leaf begin to struggle with surges of acceleration. Apart from the lack of acceleration that makes overtaking a more considered affair, high speeds sap the batteries energy very quickly and the lack of a heavy lump of engine up front means the Leaf feels a little unstable on the motorway. .

Stick to the car's natural urban and suburban habitats though and it comes into its own. Slot the gearlever into D twice and you go into an eco-mode that virtually eliminates the possibility of draining the battery. The estimated 100 mile range proves to be realistic and accurate and when driving in eco-mode it feels like it could travel a lot further.

In normal mode, the car is surprisingly entertaining as the steering is responsive, and the delightfully rapid thrust is hard to tire of. The Leaf is proof that electric cars need not be slow, boring or even that much of a lifestyle compromise.

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