Despite being among the market's oldest battery-electric cars, the Nissan Leaf is still a good option for some people. At less than $30,000, it's one of the most reasonably priced EVs available. The range of the trade-off is present. Leaf S offers 149 miles, while the more expensive SV Plus offers 215 miles. Both lag behind competitors like the Tesla Model 3 and the Hyundai Ioniq 6, and the Nissan's maximum 50-kW DC fast-charging capacity is also less rapid. Our highway test at 75 miles per hour showed that we could only get 180 miles of range on a single charge. However, the Leaf's hatchback adaptability and availability for nighttime charging make it a sensible choice at this price for a second car that is used locally. The current Leaf is reportedly about to be phased away. But Nissan has stated that a revised Leaf will be available in the future; the company did not specify when this would happen. If the 2024 model of the Nissan Leaf is still available, go for it if you're interested in one in the interim. Although it loses this benefit for 2025, it is mechanically equivalent and qualifies for a $3,750 federal EV tax credit.
Leaf vehicles have front-wheel drive. By today's standards, the basic Leaf S has a 40.0-kWh battery pack and an electric motor with 147 horsepower. A more powerful 214-hp electric motor and a larger 62.0-kWh battery are added to the Leaf SV Plus. With the help of the Leaf's e-Pedal feature, the driver can switch between two modes of regenerative braking: one that lets the car coast when the accelerator is released and another that slows down the vehicle and uses the energy to replenish the battery.At our test track, a Leaf S recorded a zero-to-60-mph time of 7.4 seconds, but because of the electric motor's immediate power delivery, it feels more agile than this time implies. However, as a result, it is slower than the Model 3. Faster acceleration is a benefit of upgrading to the more powerful model, as the SV Plus demonstrated in our tests with a 6.8-second run to 60 mph.