Paul drives a Nissan LEAF N-Connecta 40kWh 2020.

This is Paul’s third electric car, he’s owned the Nissan LEAF 2-3 years and drives 5,000-10,000 miles annually. The current mileage of the car is between 10,000-20,000 miles and he achieves 160 miles from a full charge.

Why did you choose the Nissan LEAF?

This was our first electric car and first automatic. We chose it for its relative low cost but more for the physical buttons on the dashboard. This seemed much more familiar than the Tesla-style interiors of other cars and therefore less of a jump. I now know that we didn’t need this safety blanket but at the time the decision felt right.

The car was great, so easy to drive and the one pedal driving mode was a game changer. It makes your driving so much smoother and easier to drive in traffic. The range is OK, but we benefited from home charging. You will be charging frequently on longer journeys. Having said that, my sister took hers to France without issue. Great car, until someone wrote it off by driving into it. Would I have one again? Over an ICE car, yes. Over a different EV? Probably not. Why? Range and dated interior.

Positives – List 3 or more reasons why you love this electric car

• e-Pedal
• affordable
• solid build quality.

Negatives – List 3 or more things that you really don’t like about this electric car

• Range
• dated interior
• lots of beeping from the sensors.

Compared to when you first bought the car, does your battery still charge at the same rate & do you still get the same range?

In the 2.5 years we’ve had the car, we didn’t see any battery degradation. Charging is rather slow at a max of 50kWh on a rapid charger but we charged mainly at home. The relative small battery size means that you aren’t waiting too long when on a rapid to get to 80%. Frequent short stops are the name of the game with the LEAF.

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

No faults

What are the standout technological features of the car?

• This car is well specced compared to the competition
• heated seats and steering wheel
• heated rear seats
• 360 camera to help with parking
• these features are available on others but not always all of them and not at this price point.

Surprise us! Tell us something people wouldn’t readily know about this electric car

Our car came with a 3-pin cable for ‘granny’ charging which a lot of other cars do not. They have thought about cable management with storage for these in the boot.

What’s the biggest or funniest myth you’ve heard about EVs?

That EVs catch fire. Actual car fires that are caused by a battery issue are very rare. They seem to be much safer than filling your car with a flammable liquid.

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

BYD Seal – the Chinese battery technology coupled with an ever-improving push to a quality finish makes for an interesting proposition.

Home charging unit – outline both positive & negative elements

Pod Point Solo

Please outline both positive & negative elements of your electricity supplier & tariff

Intelligent Octopus Go – this is a great tariff for EV owners. 7.5p per kWh overnight which allows us to charge our house battery and use that during the day. The 6-hour cheap rate is long enough to charge the car sufficiently (7kWh x 6 hrs). The schedule is set by Octopus but I set the charge limit and the ‘ready by time’ in the app. It hasn’t failed me yet. Their customer service lives up to their reputation in my experience. The annoying thing is that Intelligent only works with one car at the moment.

We had to wait until we had a compatible car before we could use the Intelligent tariff. The LEAF was charged by setting the charging time on the car. The other car allowed us to use Intelligent.

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

GRIDSERVE

Insurer – outline both positive & negative elements 

Direct Line was my ICE car insurer. They charged a premium increase due to the car change but this brought it in line with quotes that I had from others such as LV.

Please itemise where you’re saving money (or not) owning & running a Nissan LEAF

Petrol costs used to be around £140 a month, charging costs are about £25 a month instead.We save on electricity costs for the house because we load shift and utilise a house battery. This means that we paid an average of 7.93p/kWh for our electricity in January. This would have cost about £220 at our peak rate price but cost us around £60.

See other Nissan LEAF Owner Reviews here