Expert rating out of 5
4
3 pros
The funky styling
Instantaneous torque
Its low environmental footprint
3 cons
The fact that it’s not available in South Africa yet
Range anxiety (yes, we still had it!)
It could be more fun to drive
Right now, we’re all talking about Greta Thunberg. I’m sure that she would richly disapprove of the car of choice for the average South African. Because chances are really, really good that it will contain an internal combustion engine. (I can just hear her asking us: “How dare you?”)
In fairness, though, we don’t have many other options. Yes, there are always cars such as BMW’s i3 or Jaguar’s utterly exceptional I-Pace which, quite rightly, is the current World Car of the Year. But, let’s face it, they’re both quite expensive. Let me rephrase that: the I-Pace is flipping expensive! This means that most South Africans can’t afford electric cars. And, Greta dear, we don’t have decent public transport. So, we’re faced with three options: walk, ride a bicycle or buy a car with an internal combustion engine.
However, all this is about to change. After a break of some time, the new Nissan Leaf is on its way to South Africa. We’ll get it in 2022. And we’re hoping and praying that it will be fairly affordable.
Styling
I drove the new Leaf in the United Kingdom, where it’s the best-selling electric vehicle in the country. Specifically, I drove it in and around Oxford. This is apt because the city is looking to ban petrol and diesel engines from its centre next year (let’s see if this actually happens; some locals are not a big fan of this proposal). When the Nissan PR team delivered “my” Leaf to me, it was rather fortuitous in that a previous generation Leaf (the same one that used to be sold here in South Africa) was parked across the road. Goodness gracious me! How the Leaf has grown up! Gone is that rather bulbous look. In its place is a sleek and sculptured car.
The front is far more aggressive than its rather sedate-looking predecessor. Those big round headlights are history; in their place are LED daytime running lights up front (and at the back too). I love the V-shaped grille that we’re now seeing on so many vehicles in the Nissan range. It’s not the same as other Nissan vehicles though, because it has a funky 3D blue mesh pattern. The sides boast lots of strong angular character lines; this is one good-looking car!
The Drive
The Leaf is an extremely interesting car to drive – largely because you can drive it in so many different ways. There are two settings that are important: the Eco and the ePedal. When you push the Eco button, you cannot drive the car like you stole it; that’s simply not possible. I tried it out and the performance isn’t too bad. And yes, when you drive in Eco mode, the range will increase. But it didn’t work for me; it simply wasn’t frisky enough. The ePedal setting is another story. Activate that and you really can drive using one pedal only, namely the accelerator – because, the second you lift off the accelerator, aggressive regenerative braking kicks in. The chap who delivered the car suggested that I use this in city traffic only (he didn’t enjoy using it on the highway). To be perfectly honest, I was very happy to drive in that mode all the time. Yes, you need to completely adjust the way in which you drive. But it’s actually a lot of fun planning ahead (to ensure that the car will stop in time). I managed to drive in that mode virtually all the time. However (and this is important), if an animal runs out in front of the car, or the car in front of you suddenly brakes, simply lifting off the accelerator isn’t enough. You DO need to hit the brakes.
While it’s a million times better than the previous Leaf, the ride and handling are good if not exemplary. I do prefer a somewhat sportier ride. There was very little road or wind noise.
Performance
My test car with the LEAF e+ 3.Zero, which comes with a 62kWh electric motor. It does 0 to 100 in an extremely decent 6.9 seconds and it has a maximum speed of 158 km/h. The torque is the big news; it offers 340 Nm of torque from 500 to 4000 r/min. This makes for a really exhilarating drive!
The claimed maximum range of my test car was 319 miles (about 513 km, so you cannot quite drive from Johannesburg to Durban sans a charge). I never managed to “empty the tank” so to speak. However, based on my driving style, I would have been able to do about 380 km without recharging.
I did recharge the vehicle anyway, and it’s really easy. I charged the vehicle at my hotel (I just popped the charger into a normal wall socket) and I also charged it at a public charging station. The really cool thing is that there are lots of different apps in the UK that show you the location of the nearest charging station. I have no doubt that, by 2022, the same will apply in South Africa (both the convenience and the multitude of public charging stations).
The charging time depends on the battery size. In the case of my test car, it would have taken 11.5 hours to charge via a domestic socket and around 90 minutes to charge from 20 to 80% at a 50kW public quick charger.
Space and Comfort
The Leaf is really spacious and it’s fairly comfortable up front and at the back. I say “fairly” because I found the driver’s seat to be a little bit on the hard side. I found the NissanConnect EV navigation and entertainment system (which comes with an 8” touchscreen) to be very user friendly. The sound quality of the Bose premium audio system (which comes with seven speakers) is terrific. The boot – at 420 litres – is a useful size. It compares very favourably to the BMW i3’s 260 litres.
Safety
The Leaf has a five-star Euro NCAP rating, so it’s pretty safe. Standard safety features of my test car included ABS; EBD; Brake Assist; Hill Start Assist; driver, passenger, side and curtain airbags; and Intelligent Emergency Braking with Pedestrian Recognition.
Fuel Consumption
Being an electric car, the Leaf doesn’t consume any fuel whatsoever. Yay to that!
Price
The price of the vehicle that I tested, including £350 worth of options, was £36 820 (roughly R685 000). However, the bottom-of-the-range Leaf costs a far more reasonable £27 995 (about R521 000). Bear in mind the fact that the X-Trail costs from £25 795 (about R480 000) in the UK whereas pricing starts at R401 900 here. Despite the fact that we all complain about the prices of new cars, we don’t always pay as much as our foreign friends. In theory, the Leaf should cost well under R550 000 when it arrives in South Africa. But hey, 2022 is a long way away … and our currency is massively unstable.
The Verdict
The Leaf’s closest competitor in South Africa right now is the BMW i3. I wouldn’t think twice; I’d buy the Leaf in a heartbeat – it looks so much better and it’s also so much nicer to drive. However, lots of manufacturers will launch new electric vehicles in South Africa by 2022 – so the Leaf will have some extremely stiff competition by then.
