Nissan LEAF 2019 electric car owner review

Bill C drives a Nissan LEAF N-Connecta 40kWh 2019.

This is Bill’s second electric car, he’s owned the Nissan LEAF 2-3 years and drives between 5,000-10,000 miles annually. The current mileage of the car is between 50,000-60,000 miles and he achieves 120 miles from a full charge.

Why did you choose the Nissan LEAF?

It was in our price range and gave us enough range for our daily needs. At the time of purchase our old 24kWh LEAF would not take us to the Suffolk coast and back without a charge and, at the time, there were no rapid chargers available to enable us to public charge. There are still not enough chargers in rural areas of Norfolk but the situation is improving. There are not enough chargers on many of the long distance routes we use either so unless we had a vehicle with twice the current range we would probably not see any difference.

Positives

Very quiet
easy to use
good technical functions
e- Pedal driving
adaptive cruise control
no turbo lag
good acceleration with no flat spots or any other vices
very cheap to charge at home, typically less than 2p per mile
ability to heat/cool/de-ice remotely using an app
heated seats and steering wheel
Android Auto function.

Negatives

No panoramic roof
Rubbish sat nav function which is out of date and there’s no way to update the maps; it means we have to use a third party App so a smart phone is essential.
Sat nav function also directs to fast (AC) not rapid (DC) chargers when it says we are low on battery. The system doesn’t easily identify the nearest rapid charger either.

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

Roughly, yes.

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

Noisy drive shafts fixed under warranty.

What are the standout technological features of the car?

As already mentioned:

e – pedal
adaptive cruise control
no turbo lag
great acceleration
quiet and very comfortable ride
heated seats all round & heated steering wheel
ability to remotely heat/cool/deice the car using an app.

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

An upmarket car for normal car price!

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

Batteries only last 5 years.

Ours is deteriorating, as do all things, but is losing less than 2% per year so will last at least 15 years before it gets to 75% of the new capacity and that will still be a very good range.

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

BYD ATTO 3 – it looks about the same size as our LEAF but has a full panoramic roof.

Home charging unit

Wallbox Pulsar Plus – very cheap electricity from Intelligent Octopus Go (IOG). IOG can manage the charger so I can use any EV with it without re-programming. It also gives more than enough info about the charging etc. The downside is that wi-fi connectivity is suspect at times. It needs a very good, not just good, wi-fi signal to work reliably.

Electricity supplier & tariff

Intelligent Octopus Go – very cheap electricity overnight and it covers the whole house, not just the car. It also gives very cheap electricity at other times too, up to 11am sometimes, when the car is plugged in and charging.