The new electric Nissan Ariya goes on sale in the UK from £43k, as Nissan finally delivers a new EV to the market, 12 years after the Nissan LEAF arrived.
Nissan has become synonymous with EVs ever since the electric Nissan LEAF arrived back in 2009, but despite that early lead in electric cars it’s failed to deliver anything really new to the market since.
OVO Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) charging (Image: T. Larkum/Fuel Included)
But that changed last year with the arrival of the Nissan Ariya, an all-new electric Nissan Crossover / SUV, which we’d expected to have gone on sale at the start of 2021.
But ‘Covid and Chips’ put paid to an early arrival for the Ariya, but now Nissan is ready to take orders for the Ariya in the UK – with first deliveries in summer 2022 – with prices starting from £41,845.
Offered with a choice of front or four-wheel drive, and two battery capacities, the Ariya sits on the new CMF-EV Platform, with the range kicking off with the FWD Ariya Advance with 215bhp and 65kWh battery, good for 0-62mph in 7.5 seconds and range of 233 miles.
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A decade since its creation and into its second generation, the first mass-market electric car is established and here to stay. We drive an original and a new e+ and trace its development
Ten years ago, with then all-powerful Carlos Ghosn standing in the foreground to accept plaudits, Nissan revealed its revolutionary Leaf, a Ford Focus-sized hatchback and the world’s first modern mainstream EV.
Its design and development had cost about £4 billion, Nissan insiders boasted, which was around double what they would have had to spend on a similarly sized conventional car. But, they said, their view of the future made that outlay well and truly worthwhile – and so it has proved.
Reception of the Leaf was mixed. Futurists, early adopters and the eco-minded all admired the confidence of Ghosn and co in seeing where car engineering would need to go, but industry pragmatists were much less sure. Where were the customers for this car or the market forces that would make car buyers, always conservative, take it seriously? People rarely change their habits without powerful inducements, and there were none here.
It helped that the world’s motoring journalists were encouraging. Many hadn’t driven a decent electric car until their first go in a Leaf so had laboured under the delusion that an EV would be as sluggish and unresponsive as the proverbial milk float or golf buggy. (A delusion that took longer to shift among potential customers and still lingers today.)
Nissan Leaf (Image: Qurren/Wikipedia)
They loved the Leaf’s simplicity, refinement and responsiveness, thus it was voted both Europe’s Car of the Year and World Car of the Year in 2011 – better recognition than even Ghosn and his most optimistic colleagues could have expected.
To underscore the Leaf’s decade of achievements, crowned by the fact that global sales of this UK-made car have now passed 500,000 in 59 countries (and a third of them in Europe), we decided to borrow both an original and a current model from Nissan to view and drive them – and, above all, to compare them for steadiness of concept. After all, many of Nissan’s decisions back in the 2000s, when it was deciding what EV owners would want, were essentially shots in the dark.
The early Leaf we found was a 30kWh ‘station car’ in near-perfect order because of a low mileage and a fastidious owner; the current car was an example of the recently launched Leaf e+, packing more than twice the power and range of that original, and with 0-62mph acceleration that shaved more than 3.0sec off the 2011 model’s perfectly respectable 9.9sec.
Such progress in a decade paints an interesting picture of the speed and direction of all EV development: the latest Leaf may be dynamically more capable but it also, despite growing very little in its exterior dimensions, adds handily to the original’s cabin and boot space.
In early 2011, the Leaf created immediate headlines by playing an unexpected but vital role in Japan’s recovery from a disastrous earthquake and consequent tsunami. With regular supplies knocked out, power from Leaf batteries provided much-needed electricity and light to assist Japan’s doctors to continue treating patients in some of the worst-affected areas. A total of 4.8 million households lost power; and Nissan provided 66 Leafs, grabbed back from early distribution, to power clinics and operating theatres.
This unique-to-Leaf contribution has been repeated several times since in Japan, which suffers 10% of the world’s earthquakes and experiences frequent typhoons.
Nissan has since made its EVs’ ability to ‘give something back’ a powerful selling point: working through a suitcase-sized power converter, a fully charged Leaf can power an average house for between two and four days, and when the power is expended, it can travel to an EV charger and return to do it all again. Small wonder that Nissan is a leader in efforts to portray EVs as lifesaving power sources as well as mere cars. The day is fast coming, says Nissan, when EVs will play a full-time role in powering households.
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Nissan is celebrating a decade-long history of the all-electric Leaf, which hit the streets in late 2010 becoming the world’s first mass-market electric vehicle.
The milestone anniversary has caused the company to take a moment to reflect upon the impact that the modest electric hatch has had upon the transition to zero emissions transport, as well as the upgrades the Japanese car makers has made to the Leaf during its 10 years.
“Over the past decade the journey of transformation with the Nissan Leaf represents the true innovation and advancements of EV development at Nissan,” said Helen Perry, head of electric vehicles at Nissan Europe.
With 500,000 Leafs now sold worldwide as of September, the unassuming electric hatch became a “debunker of myths and conceptions” that “kick-started” electric mobility, said Nissan.
Nissan has highlighted the increase in battery size and driving range, now up 160% and 120% respectively from the first year of release.
When the Leaf was first introduced in 2010, its 24kWh was rated for 117km driving range by the US-based EPA. Known as “ZE0”, the first generation Leaf had various system upgrades in 2014-2015 to achieve a slightly higher 135km driving range.
Nissan has since then greatly improved the battery size and hence also driving range. The “ZE1” second generation Leaf was the first to upgrade to a 40kWh battery with up to 240km driving range in 2018.
In 2019, Nissan announced it would also release a “long range” Leaf with 62kWh battery that could drive up to 364km on a single charge according to EPA “real world” figures.
“These increases have ultimately boosted customers’ confidence on the road,” says Nissan.
The company is also celebrating the Leaf’s claim as the first all-electric vehicle to win “World Car of the Year” title in the 47-year history of the prestigious awards.
In Australia, the Leaf made a return in 2019 after being pulled from the market in 2015, with then Nissan Australia managing director Richard Emery lamenting the lack of federal government support for EVs in Australia to help make electric vehicles more affordable.
While Australia is still waiting for a federal strategy on the adoption of electric vehicles, Nissan decided to re-introduce the new 40kWh Leaf in mid-2019 when it became one of few EVs on the local market priced under $50,000 before on-roads.
More recently, Nissan finally promised the long-range 62kWh Leaf e+ would be introduced locally in 2021 – but not before one couple imported their own privately under new grey import rules.
The Leaf is singular on the market in that it has bidirectional charging capabilities, and 51 Leafs are now being used in an ANU trial to assess their potential as mobile batteries to help smooth grid peaks and troughs.
It has been used in Japan to help provide power after natural disasters, and was recently re-imagined as an emergency vehicle by Nissan.
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Volkswagen hopes its new EV can become the new face of a brand scarred by Dieselgate – upending the Leaf in the process
Brave new world, meet same old world. Electric cars once stood alone (dear early adopter, here is a vehicle unlike any other), but they certainly don’t any more. At the launch of the new Volkswagen ID 3, potential buyers could make a shortlist of several similarly priced, similarly specified battery-powered cars. As it is, we’ve chosen just the one to pitch it against.
Volkswagen says its new zero-emissions family hatchback heralds a third generation for the company, after the eras of the Beetle and Golf.
Like the Golf, the ID 3 is joining an established class. A legend of Volkswagen history, the Golf arrived with a transverse-front-mounted petrol engine, driven front wheels and MacPherson-strut/torsion-beam suspension – specifications that were considered sufficiently ‘so what?’ that the Citroën CX beat it to the 1975 European Car of the Year award. So joining a game rather than changing it is clearly no barrier to success.
Changing it can work too, mind, as Nissan has found since launching the Leaf in 2010. Built in Sunderland and now in its second generation, it has become the world’s most successful electric car to date. It also looks like it has acted as a strong benchmark for the ID 3. Hence it’s here, as the Nissan Leaf e+ 3.Zero (but I will just stick with Leaf, if that’s okay).
The specification sheets of the new Volkswagen and the familiar Nissan exhibit the kind of closeness that you would find in any other family car twin test. Power is about 200bhp apiece; the front seats, back seats, boot space and equipment levels are competitive with each other; and the price is £35,215 (ID 3) versus £36,970 (Leaf). This test isn’t an ‘EV thing’. It’s just car meets car.
Nissan Leaf (Image: Qurren/Wikipedia)
And that’s all we can decide for now, by the way. It will take 20 years for us to know for sure whether the ID 3 has firmly established its own piece of Volkswagen heritage.
It looks new, though, yes? Beetle, designed by Ferdinand Porsche, Mk1 Golf, lines by Giorgetto Guigiaro, meet Klaus Zyciora’s ID 3: attractive, slightly familiar yet also strangely not so, as if somebody has made a squeaky dog toy of a Golf in 1:1 scale. I’m told that it’s quite aerodynamic.
Underneath is the kind of EV architecture that’s becoming familiar and has tremendous flexibility (of purpose, not structure). There’s a relatively long wheelbase for this Golf-sized hatchback, with a phalanx of batteries mounted low and level between the front and rear axles.
This 1st Edition of the ID 3 has a single motor at its rear, driving its rear wheels, but the platform can host one at the front instead or as well, and fewer or more batteries.
If and when EV batteries become solid-state, want less cooling and can be packaged differently, maybe engineers will move them around a bit, but for now this is the go-to layout. It places the cells (and they’re the heaviest hardware in an EV) low, which is at least the best thing you can do with them dynamically.
There are different battery packs available on both of these cars, but this ID 3 has a usable array of 58kWh of cells (the total capacity is 62kWh). WLTP range works out at 260 miles.
The e+ version of the Leaf also arrives with a 62kWh battery pack, so the usable bit of it will be a similar amount to in the ID 3 – one reason why its WLTP range is 239 miles.
However, despite this seemingly significant disparity, we saw very little difference between the range of the two cars while they were on test; both will manage 200 miles and a bit, depending on the weather.
The range of any EV will dip in winter. Start your day with a tingly warm battery fresh from an overnight tickle and it will increase. Both of these cars have a Type 2 charger for slow charging; the ID 3 gets a CCS charger for fast charging and can accept a rate of up to 100kW. The Leaf can theoretically reach 100kW too, although it has a Chademo socket, for which most public chargers are still 50kW – and when you do find a 100kW unit, the Leaf’s air-cooled battery will stay at the fastest rate for only a short time in order that it doesn’t overheat. I think there’s a Betamax/VHS thing going on (ask your dad) with these systems and that CCS is winning. Nissan will move its future EVs to CCS in Europe.
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When it comes to more sustainable driving, there is a whole host of options now and it can be confusing knowing what’s what. In the olden days you pretty much had the choice of diesel or petrol, but with the ever-evolving market of low-emission vehicles, there’s more choice than ever.
When it comes to “EVs,” you can choose from BEVs, PHEVs, HEVs, or FCEVS, all of which are classed as ULEVs. But what do all these acronyms actually mean?
If you need some quick pointers on what all these acronyms stand for and what they refer to specifically, look no further.
BEV
Let’s start with the most common type of EV, and the type of vehicle we usually refer to when we’re talking about EVs: the battery electric vehicle, or BEV.
As the name suggests, a BEV is an electric vehicle that uses batteries to store and deploy power which powers electric motors to drive the wheels. It’s also common to see words like “pure electric,” or “all-electric” when you read about battery electric vehicles.
Popular BEVs include cars like the Nissan Leaf, the whole range of Teslas, the Polestar 2, the BMW i3, Hyundai Kona Electric, Kia Soul EV, VW’s ID.3 and e-Golf, the Jaguar i-Pace — you get the idea.
Tesla Model 3 (Image: Tesla.com)
PHEV and HEV
Plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) are perhaps the most confusing of the partially-electric vehicle world. There’s one key difference, though: plug-in hybrids can be charged up like a battery electric vehicle by plugging-in to an EV charge point, regular hybrids cannot.
It gives you the flexibility to drive and use your PHEV like it was a BEV and not rely on the combustion engine, for very short journeys at least. They typically have very small batteries and are only capable of driving between 30 and 50 miles on all-electric mode.
Popular PHEVs include the Mitsubishi Outlander, Hyundai Ioniq, MINI Countryman PHEV, and the Volvo XC60 T8.
Regular hybrid vehicles (HEVs), like the original Toyota Prius, can’t be plugged in and the only way to charge their batteries is from regenerative braking or by using the engine like a generator.
Some companies have even referred to these vehicles as “self-charging hybrids,” as if not having to plug them in is a benefit. That phrase has been branded as misleading, and Toyota and Lexus ads in EV loving Norway using the tag line have been banned for being misleading. In reality, to charge them, you need to fuel them with gasoline.
FCEV
FCEV stands for, Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle. These are a small offshoot of EVs that use hydrogen fuel cells to create an electrical charge that’s used to power motors that drive the wheels.
Most FCEVs use a small battery or super capacitor to act as a buffer between the fuel cell and the motors to ensure power delivery is consistent and reliable.
Some tout fuel cell vehicles as a better option than batteries for the future of sustainable transport. They can be filled up in the same way as a combustion engine vehicle, hydrogen is the most abundant element in the world, and their only waste product is water vapor.
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With the announcement of the 2040 ban on all new petrol and diesel cars, we get behind the wheel of three electric vehicles to see if the future really is green.
(L to R) Nissan LEAF, Hyundai IONIQ, Renault ZOE
WHAT’S NEW?
Since the announcement of the 2040 ban on new petrol and diesel cars, all you read in the news is about how we’re all going electric. So if that’s the case, which is the best electric car to buy? We chose three to test – a Renault Zoe, Hyundai Ioniq and Nissan Leaf.
The Hyundai Ioniq is by far the newest and in our opinion one of the best-equipped. The Nissan and the Renault have both been around for some years now, and the Leaf is actually due to be replaced by a new model next year.
The Ioniq is Hyndai’s first attempt at making an all-electric car, and it’s very good.
Inside, the cabin feels solidly built and very comfortable. It also has lots of kit including, on our car, heated and cooled electric seats.
Next is the Renault Zoe, a great-looking little car with bags of character on the exterior alone. Step inside and it’s also a funky place to be. It also features the best-claimed range of the three EVs, with 250 miles on the NEDC cycle thanks to its new ‘Z.E. 40’ battery.
Finally, we have the Nissan Leaf, the oldest of the three in terms of design and this shows in its rather ungainly styling and outdated technology. It also has the lowest theoretical range with just 155 miles.
LOOKS AND IMAGE
This is where the Nissan Leaf falls down – massively. It is not appealing at all on the outside with its bulbous rear-end and huge headlights. This continues inside where it can best be described as dull and old-fashioned.
The Hyundai is in a different league. It looks fresh, funky and modern. Add a touch of colour and you have a car that will be very enjoyable to own. This continues inside too where it feels light and airy with a very easy to use dashboard and centre console.
The Renault is the best looking of the bunch. Its chic Parisian styling blends well with modern life and makes it look more premium than it actually is. However, this doesn’t quite continue inside. Although the cabin looks chic, it feels cheap, with the plastics belonging in a cheap supermini.
SPACE AND PRACTICALITY
In terms of space, all three are roughly the same, offering ample leg, head and luggage space and a plethora of cubbyholes throughout the cabin.
The Hyundai feels a tad better than the other two, and has a fairly decent-sized boot at 350 litres – enough for some suitcases or a weekly shop. You can probably fit the family dog in there too.
The Zoe feels slightly smaller in comparison, but is more of a hatchback compared to the Ioniq’s saloon looks. It has a marginally smaller boot at 338 litres, but this would definitely be enough on a daily basis.
The Nissan Leaf boasts the largest boot at 370 litres. It also has a fairly large cabin, which can easily accommodate four adults.
Renault-Nissan Alliance, after the acquisition of Mitsubishi, is now approaching 500,000 cumulative all-electric car sales – more than any other automotive group.
The Renault-Nissan Alliance includes also Mitsubishi Motors Corporation
At the end of June 2017, the Alliance counter stands at 481,151 units (some 130,000 more than year ago).
The biggest impact on the number comes from the Nissan LEAF and Renault ZOE.
The number doesn’t include plug-in hybrids – of which, new Alliance partner Mitsubishi has sold over 130,000 copies of the Outlander PHEV.
Renault-Nissan Alliance CEO Carlos Ghosn with Renault ZOE and Nissan LEAF For COP21
“Cumulative sales of electric vehicles by the companies also rose significantly to 481,151 units, reaffirming the Alliance’s role as the leading electric car manufacturer for the mass-market segment.
The increase was driven primarily by demand for the Nissan LEAF and the Renault ZOE, which remains the #1 EV sold in Europe, and Mitsubishi’s i-Miev.”
Renault-Nissan Alliance is now aiming to become industry’s number-one automotive sales group for full year 2017.
Total Renault-Nissan Alliance increased in the first six months of 2017 by 7% to 5,268,079 million.
The newly updated Renault ZOE is the best selling EV for Europe so far in 2017
Here is list of Renault-Nissan Alliance brands (excluding joint ventures in China):
Renault (includes also Dacia, Alpine and Renault Samsung Motors)
Nissan (includes also Infiniti and Datsun)
Mitsubishi
And list of plug-in models:
Renault ZOE
Renault Kangoo Z.E.
SM3 Z.E.
Nissan LEAF
Nissan e-NV200
Mitsubishi i-MiEV and other MiEV family in Japan
Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV
There is also Renault Twizy – a heavy quadricycle.
Nissan must be pretty sure of finding success with the next generation 2018 LEAF (which debuts in September), as the Japanese company expects that up to 20% of its new auto sales in Europe to be zero emission in just 3 years time. Nissan has also stated that two more all-electric vehicles will arrive between now and the end of this decade.
2018 Nissan LEAF spyshot
The statement on EV sales in Europe comes from Gareth Dunsmore, Electric Vehicle (EV) Director for Nissan Europe, after the French environment minister hinted at end of gas and diesel sales entirely by 2040.
“By 2020, where the market conditions are right, I’m confident we’ll be selling up to 20 percent of our volume as zero emissions vehicles and this will only grow,”
Dunsmore via Reuters.
What does 20% mean for Nissan in raw sales?
Well, in fiscal year 2016 Nissan sold 735,725 vehicles in Europe, so 20% of that would be more than 147,000 EVs! That’s a lot, but if the new LEAF is reasonably priced, and the new offers are competitive, then it also seems doable at the same time.
As for those “other” offerings: Freshly minted Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa has said his company will bring two new all-electric vehicles to market over the next two years, while recently retired Nissan Chief Engineer Shiro Nakamura gave some background on what those new EVs might be, as he said Nissan plans for a BEV sedan and a utility vehicle.
The pending arrival of the new 2018 Nissan LEAF has had little effect on current generation sales…thanks to some deep discounting!
In 2016 Nissan sold some 23,000 EVs (18,500 LEAFs and less than 4,500 e-NV200).
But what do we really like about this 20% figure Nissan is putting out there? It’s the fact that Nissan isn’t just talking about a new EV to being introduced in 2020, or an ambitious fleet goal set for so far away that they can’t be accountable for it (like 10 years from now)…but one that is only some ~30 months away.
As Nissan LEAF charged past the milestone of 20,000 sales in the UK, owners of the best-selling electric vehicle have heaped praise on the model in the 2017 Driver Power survey.
The Nissan LEAF was awarded Best Green Car overall and also came top in the Best Engine and Gearbox and Best MPG and Running Costs awards categories.
Driver Power is the UK’s biggest and most in-depth car satisfaction survey, with seven surveys covering the different phases of vehicle ownership. There also nine Judging Category awards split into satisfaction categories.
Editor of Auto Express, Graham Hope, commented;
“The Nissan LEAF’s results in the 2017 survey indicates that the hard work that the Nissan team has put in developing the vehicle and educating the market about the benefits of Electric Vehicles (EV) has paid off.”
“Leading the way in EVs is important. People are becoming more conscious of green vehicles (Hybrids and Electric Vehicles) and this year we have seen a 375% increase in the number of green vehicle owners.”
The Driver Power results came as Nissan GB confirmed it had sold its 20,000th Nissan LEAF in the UK.
The buyers of the milestone model were Diane and Chris Ray of Hollesley in Suffolk, who took home a range-topping 30kWh LEAF Tekna from local dealer Hammond Nissan.
It is the couple’s second Nissan LEAF – replacing a two year-old 24kWh model – and it was the only car on their shopping list when the time came for a replacement.
Diane, who runs a holiday let business, said:
“I love the LEAF. It does everything I want from a car and is beautiful to drive.
“When the time came to replace mine I didn’t look at anything else. I only wanted another LEAF but this time with the bigger battery.”
She added:
“It was a real surprise to find out I was the 20,000th LEAF customer but it’s so encouraging to see more and more people switching to all-electric cars and exciting to know I’m a part of that story.”
Heathrow airport has added 17 Nissan Leafs to its fleet to inspire a new culture of electric car usage.
The airport has allocated 12 vehicles to airside teams such as security and baggage while another five are to be used as pool cars.
Heathrow is committed to making the cars and small vans within its fleet electric or plug-in hybrids by the end of 2020.
Sales director at Nissan Motor (GB), Darren Payne, said:
“I’m sure this initiative will inspire other businesses to follow Heathrow’s lead by using Nissan’s electric vehicles to both reduce their emissions and cut their running costs.”
It is hoped that the visibility of the airside vehicles will encourage third parties operating at the airport to follow suit.
Head of operational strategy at Heathrow, Peter Leeming, said:
“We trialled the Nissan Leaf and found it was the perfect fit for many of our teams and the types of journeys they make. The trial went seamlessly, and within months we placed our order and put the Leaf into full time service.”
A video has been released detailing how the airport intends to implement the conversion and the trial process.
