Charlotte drives a Nissan LEAF 2014.

This is Charlotte’s first electric car, she’s owned the Nissan LEAF 2-3 years and drives 10,000-15,000 miles annually. The current mileage of the car is between 60,000-70,000 miles and she achieves 70 miles from a full charge.

Why did you choose the Nissan LEAF?

At the time there were not many models on the road, even fewer available second-hand. It became affordable when we split it between the two of us and on average, most journeys fitted within the range in at least one direction.

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Positives – List 3 or more reasons why you love about your Nissan LEAF

• It’s very reliable
• never had an issue charging it
• very speedy
• doesn’t have any weird user experience quirks.

Negatives – List 3 or more things that you really don’t like about your Nissan LEAF

• The range is so low
• the insulation in the cabin is so poor in winter you constantly have to demist the windscreen (so even if you can withstand the heating being off you need to put it on to be able to see!)
• the slow charger is type 1 so it’s almost never worth using non- rapid chargers when out and about
• it’s also CHAdeMO so your rapid charger options are limited
• you have to press a button from inside the car to open the charging flap.

Have you experienced any faults with the car? If so, what have they been?

1 minor issue – when we first got it, the charging flap wouldn’t close.

What are the standout technological features of your Nissan LEAF?

Honestly, it’s a generation one EV. There aren’t a lot of standout things about it. It’s nice to own as a piece of history and a good thing to look at for a second car as it’s very cheap to run.

What electric car(s) are you interested in next and why?

We’ve now got a lease on a Polestar 2 which is such a huge upgrade. The Nissan LEAF did us 2 years, a house move and several trips far beyond its range (Sandy to Durham and back) but we got the Polestar as we got tired of the amount of time spent at chargers and freezing in winter.

Home charging unit – outline both positive & negative elements

myenergi zappi (untethered) – it’s a very reliable unit, it’s never caused any faults with our house electrics and it has an app and the ability to schedule charging.

Unfortunately the app is really bad – it’s not reliable to connect to and they have a lot of server downtime. This has never prevented the charger from working but it’s a shame the platform is bad as the dream of having all your solar abilities in one power platform is great.

Also the cable on the hub you have to buy can come loose which means you won’t be collecting any data.

Electricity supplier & tariff – outline both positive & negative elements 

Octopus Energy EV tariff – the tariff has off-peak hours from 12:15am to 4am which is long enough to get about half the Nissan LEAF’s range (as it’s so slow to charge!) and 60% of the Polestar 2’s range, which on a long range car is fine! The customer service has been really bad, they installed an older generation gas smart meter despite the newer generation having been already released and won’t fix it, so the gas smart meter basically doesn’t work.

What public charging networks would you recommend to others and why?

• InstaVolt for definite – always reliable, always multiple chargers, generally have both CCS and CHAdeMO
• Osprey – generally reliable, generally at most pubs
• GRIDSERVE – dual charging, cheap tariffs
• Shell – on the higher side tariff-wise but very reliable.

I steer clear of bp unless I know it’s a new pulse charger. The Chargemaster and polar ones are hit and miss as to whether they’re properly maintained, especially in Milton Keynes. Generally don’t like GeniePoint as they have a ‘top-up’ system on the app and annoyingly so, do Pod Point unless there’s a contactless reader.

Insurer – outline both positive & negative elements

Never had an issue, been through several insurers. I’d just go with whatever’s on ‘compare the market’; have never needed to make a claim.

Please itemise where you’re saving money owning & running a Nissan LEAF

Mainly maintenance but also petrol. It’s been a long time since I ran a petrol car so can’t estimate!

See other owner reviews here