To keep up in the electric car arms race, the Nissan Leaf gets more range, thanks to a larger-capacity battery. Does this make the e+ more appealing than the regular model?…
Priced from £39,395 (before £3500 gov. grant) Release date Now
Electric cars, such as the new Nissan Leaf e+, may not be the panacea for the crisis of climate change, but they can certainly help, even if only on a local level, to clean up the air in our cities. It’s a good job, then, that we’re in the midst of an electric car arms race.
Nissan Leaf 3.Zero e+ (Image: Nissan)
What do we mean by that? It’s all about range. Just five years ago, tackling the London-to-Brighton run in a Kia Soul EV would’ve been pushing it. Then along came Tesla and simply blew away the mainstream manufacturers with the ever-increasing range of its Model S. And now they’re catching up – fast.
The Kia e-Niro, our 2019 Car of the Year, is capable of covering around 280 miles between charges, according to the official WLTP test, as is its sister car, the Hyundai Kona Electric. So, despite having been launched only last February, the regular Leaf’s official range of 168 miles now looks feeble. The Leaf e+ increases it to a claimed 239 miles, thanks to a bigger battery – 62kWh over 40kWh.
TBWA\London and MGOMD have created a tech and data-driven campaign for Nissan that highlights how the brand’s 100% electric vehicle, the Nissan LEAF, is exempt from London’s impending ULEZ (Ultra Low Emission Zone) charge.
The campaign uses the latest DOOH (Digital Out of Home) technology with ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) at congested traffic light locations like Gypsy Corner, Finchley Road and Holland Park in central London.
The intelligent technology detects the make, model and colour of vehicles waiting at the lights, and shows messages in real-time to those drivers who will incur a charge if they enter the new ULEZ zone from April 8th
Nissan Leaf 3.Zero e+ (Image: Nissan)
The messages are served with pinpoint accuracy, delivering zero wastage. The vehicle detection technology for the screens, developed by Ocean, does not store any personal driver or vehicle data.
Drivers will then see a screen presentation of the charge they can face. For example, the screen could show messages like ‘You could save up to £24 a day on the ULEZ and Congestion charge’ or ‘For an electric car, it’s not too keen on charges.’
If the driver is already in a Nissan LEAF the copy congratulates them on avoiding the charge by being #ULEZready.
Throwing the confetti for the long-running, mass-market electric car
Nissan said Tuesday that the Leaf surpassed 400,000 sales, making it the first electric vehicle to hit that sales plateau. Of course, it’s also had a hefty head start over its closest competitors, the Tesla Model 3 and the Chevrolet Bolt, having first gone on sale in late 2010, and it has a few other advantages as well. Not to rain on the Leaf parade or anything.
Now in its second generation and sporting improved driving ranges, Nissan says Leaf owners have driven their cars more than 6.2 billion collective miles, equating to an estimated savings of 3.8 million barrels of oil per year. The battery-powered hatchback is now available in more than 50 markets across the world, with six new markets coming on board during the first half of 2019 in Latin America, and seven across Asia and Oceania by year’s end. The Leaf was the best-selling EV in Europe in 2018 and the top-selling vehicle of any kind in Norway last year, Nissan says.
Nissan Leaf 3.Zero e+ (Image: Nissan)
Nissan also builds the Leaf at three different plants globally: Oppama, Japan; Sunderland, England; and Smyrna, Tenn.
By comparison, a spokeswoman for Tesla said the company had built more than 150,000 Model 3s as of the end of 2018, with nearly 140,000 sold since it went into limited production in mid-2017, according to its most recent quarterly letter to shareholders. Tesla said December was the car’s highest-volume month ever, with 63,359 Model 3s delivered in the fourth quarter. The company also has begun producing the vehicle for export to Europe and China, has begun construction on a new plant to build it in Shanghai, China, and it recently announced it would finally start selling the vehicle at its long-promised entry-level price of $35,000, making it competitive on price with the Leaf.
Last week we were invited to San Diego to drive the new Nissan Leaf Plus, the updated version of the Leaf with a new 62kWh battery pack, which will start sales in March.
We spent the day driving it all through the county on a variety of roads, and came away impressed if not surprised by this iteration on an already-solid package.
The main practical upshot of the Leaf Plus’s larger battery is that the car has increased range, power and quick charge ability.
Nissan Leaf 3.Zero e+ (Image: Nissan)
Nissan has managed to fit a larger battery in about the same volume by eliminating dead space in the battery pack. They employ a new battery module design with less space between cells and adopted laser welding to reduce the size of connections between cells and squeeze more energy into the space they have available. They’ve also added another parallel module to modify the input/output current of the pack in an attempt to reduce heat generation.
…
Performance
As soon as we got onto the freeway, the Nissan Leaf Plus impressed. The main place where increased power output from the larger battery is noticeable is in high-speed acceleration. Electric cars typically only have one gear and suffer from a drop-off in power delivery at higher speeds. The easiest way for manufacturers to solve this problem is to attach a larger battery. The Leaf Plus has done this, and that allows it to pull more at higher speeds, offering better highway-merging and lane-change acceleration.
Even in “ECO” mode, I felt that the Leaf Plus offered good acceleration at all legal highway speeds. When I discovered that I had accidentally been driving in ECO mode for the first 10 miles or so of the review (and then, naturally, turned it off right away), I found that the car was even snappier.
The increased power resulted in some torque steer. On front-wheel drive cars with a lot of torque (thus, many electric cars), torque steer is the sensation that a car is pulling to one side or the other, particularly under hard acceleration. It can be a bit surprising to drivers who experience it for the first time, so this is something to be aware of in this vehicle.
One thing I appreciate about the Leaf is that Nissan has not artificially slowed down the throttle response of their car in any noticeable way. When I speak of throttle response, I mean the time delay between pressing the pedal and the car surging forward. In many electric cars, manufacturers seem hesitant to allow drivers full access to their car’s instant torque, so they slow down the throttle pedal response just a little bit. This is presumably done for safety or comfort reasons, as a driver who isn’t used to this could end up driving in a “jerky” manner. Personally, I think manufacturers just do it so they don’t make their gas cars look bad.
Nissan’s top-range Leaf finally has battery range on par with other affordable EVs
Remember the horsepower wars of the 1960s?
In yet another twist on Mark Twain’s saying, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes,” the car industry is humming its 50-year-old, horsepower one-upmanship tune once again. But now there’s a new verse, with the lyrics “miles of battery range” instead of “plain ol’ horsepower.”
Nissan Leaf 3.Zero e+ (Image: Nissan)
A right-now snapshot of the current BEV-range leader board of affordable EV offerings, with more than 200 miles of range, looks like this:
1: Hyundai Kona Electric – 258 miles
2: Kia Soul EV (just announced) – 243 miles
3: Kia e-Niro – 239
4: Chevrolet Bolt EV – 238 miles
Where, pray tell, is the biggest-selling affordable EV of them all, the Nissan Leaf? When its second-generation version was introduced two years ago in Japan, the Bolt’s then-staggering 238 number had already been announced. Needless to say, that cast a pall over the Tokyo proceedings as Nissan struggled to justify the new Leaf’s 150-mile range. Sure, sure, we all nodded in agreement; of course it’s way better than the first gen’s 107 miles. But it was as if Ford pulled the sheet off a Mustang with 37 percent fewer ponies than the existing Camaro. The guys in Yokohama had miscalculated. They knew it. And Scouts’ honor, they promised a bigger-battery fix, ASAP.
True to its word, here’s the car Nissan wishes it had actually introduced: the descriptively named Leaf Plus.
The latest version of Nissan’s Leaf has been unveiled at CES 2019, and it features a subtle but reassuring twist for any potential owners who suffer from range anxiety.
Nissan Leaf 3.Zero e+ (Image: Nissan)
Top of the pile is the Nissan Leaf 3.Zero e+ Limited Edition, which boasts a higher output. The fun and funky saloon, best known for its wonderfully addictive e-Pedal, will deliver 160kW (217 PS) of power, 340Nm of torque and a predicted 239 mile range from one charge of the 62 kWh capacity battery.
The Leaf 3.Zero e+ Limited Edition will deliver a 40% range increase over another cheaper edition of the car, the Leaf 3.Zero, which is equipped with a 40 kWh battery. Anyone worried about making it from A to B will most likely want to plump for the model with the beefier battery, which is predicted to deliver up to 62 miles more on one charge.
Limited edition of Nissan’s popular electric car gains bigger batteries and produces 214bhp
Nissan has launched a new range-topping version of the Leaf EV, which features a boost in power and a longer range.
The Leaf 3.Zero e+ Limited Edition, launched at CES in Las Vegas, replaces the electric car’s standard 40kWh battery with a 62kWh unit. Nissan says it can achieve 239 miles on the WLTP test cycle, a 62-mile increase on the standard model.
Nissan Leaf 3.Zero e+ (Image: Nissan)
The special edition, of which 5000 units will be offered in Europe, has also had its power increased to 214bhp, compared with 148bhp for the standard model. The car also features 250lb ft of torque and an increased top speed of 97mph.
The new 62kWh battery features 288 cells, compared with 192 in the standard unit. Nissan says it offers an increase of 25% in energy density and 55% in energy storage capacity but is a similar size to the 40kWh battery. The car sits 5mm higher on 16in wheels to account for the underfloor battery, but all other dimensions are unchanged.
Leasing costs of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) have fallen throughout 2018 according to data experts at Cap HPI.
The study looked at five of the best-selling models in the UK and discovered that monthly lease costs had fallen by 9.5% on average.
The UK’s best-selling electric car, the Nissan Leaf saw monthly lease values fall by 6.6% between January and November 2018. Monthly lease prices for the Renault Zoe fell by 16% between June and November.
Between in the 12 months up to November 2018, the BMW i3 saw lease prices drop by 9.2%. The Volkswagen e-Golf saw prices drop 14% over the same period.
The Jaguar I-Pace saw the smallest price drop with a fall of only 1.7% since April 2018.
Jaguar I-PACE Electric Car (Image: T. Larkum)
Mark Turnbull, global head of consulting at Cap HPI, said: “Over the next few years the new price of BEVs will come down as more affordable ‘mainstream’ model ranges are introduced by many manufacturers.
“Used buyer perception will continue to improve as battery ranges are extended and charging times are reduced, and electric car technology proves to be robust and reliable. So subject to adequate investment in charging infrastructure, and positive government legislation, I believe their residual values will be stronger.
“A pincer movement of lower new prices and improved RVs will mean less depreciation in pound terms, and cheaper lease rates will speed up the adoption of this technology.”
OVO has successfully installed its first vehicle-to-grid charger in a customer’s home, after the charge point was unveiled at the Energy Technology Product Showcase earlier this year.
The 6kW OVO Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) domestic bi-directional charger offers drivers of certain electric vehicles the opportunity to discharge excess electricity from their cars back to the electric grid to help supply energy at times of peak demand.
OVO Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) charging (Image: T. Larkum/Fuel Included)
Available to Nissan Leaf drivers with a 30 or 40kWh battery, the vehicle-to-grid charger could enable Nissan drivers to have free power for their electric vehicles by selling energy back to the grid, says OVO.
It is part of the Innovate UK Vehicle-to-Grid competition, funded by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) and the department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), in partnership with Nissan, CENEX, Indra and OVO.
