DRIVING IMPRESSION
Living la vida electric with the new Nissan Leaf
Mark Smyth put the new Nissan Leaf through its paces ahead of its possible introduction in SA
The first generation Nissan Leaf was exactly that, the first generation, meaning plenty of room for improvement. Yes it was a decent five-door family hatchback, but its only real selling point was its electric powertrain. It didn’t excel in terms of design, comfort or space and it certainly didn’t rate well in terms of capital outlay. It was an early adopters car, particularly in SA. In spite of all this, the Leaf is the best selling electric car in the world, with more than 340,000 units having been sold since it was first launched in 2010. Earlier in 2018, the second generation went on sale in many markets and we lived with it for a week in the UK recently. The new Leaf is a big jump from the original. Firstly, the design is more edgy and far less bland than the first generation. Nissan has made a car that looks appealing but it has also tried to engineer it with more everyday appeal courtesy of a 40kWh battery pack. That gives it a claimed range of 260km, but good luck achieving ...
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