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CALVIN KIM: Behind me is the 2018 Nissan LEAF.
And alongside its fresh new face,
it gets a new battery for much more range, and a host
of new technology features such as ProPILOT Assist,
which is Nissan's advanced driver-assist functionality.
But with competitors like Chevrolet's Bolt
and to a certain extent Tesla Model 3,
could the Nissan LEAF be the best all-around EV out there?
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First-time electric car buyers don't realize this,
but electric cars have a lot of torque.
And as we're rolling on this on-ramp,
we are rapidly catching up to the car in front of us.
The Nissan LEAF has what sounds like a low number--
146 horsepower.
But it's the torque that really gives it the beans.
It's got about 236 pound-feet of torque.
Don't quote me on that, but 236 is a lot
for a small car like this.
The car weighs about 3,500 pounds, so it's well in line.
I mean, basically, it'd be equivalent to a bigger
engine in a compact car.
Needless to say, acceleration is easy and brisk.
One area where you might find some weakness with the Nissan
LEAF is on the highway.
Right now, we're on a smooth asphalt surface.
But if you're on a concrete highway,
or on a natural surface that's broken up,
like you'll find in just about every major city in the world
today, the low-rolling resistance tires,
which are very hard, transmit a lot
of the edges of the bumps right into the cabin.
It kind of can get annoying.
One of the best advantages of electric vehicles--
number one, regen break, which is regenerative braking.
One thing that they did very cleverly,
though, is give you a switch right on the center
console here called e-Pedal.
And just by clicking the switch, you immediately
engage that regen braking.
Nissan says you can break as much as 2/10
of a "g," which doesn't sound like a lot,
but from our testing it's plenty.
The second advantage of electric vehicles
is their instantaneous torque off the line.
Unlike a gasoline engine or even a hybrid, it's very instant.
With this facelift of LEAF, you get 150 miles of claimed range.
Now, wonderfully for us, if you put it in ECO mode
and enable e-Pedal, you can get a lot more than that.
With our long-term LEAF, we've been
able to drive it a little bit already.
And we've routinely gotten over 150 miles
with those features enabled.
That's great news for commuters, especially
those that drive a little bit longer distances.
So they can go a week without charging.
Now, for EV owners, the best way to do it
is to charge every night.
But, hey, if you're going to go visit a friend's house,
or maybe go across town to hang out somewhere,
it's nice to have that option.
The Nissan puts the charger port right
at the front, which is super convenient for nose-in parking.
It comes with a cable.
And this is a level 2 cable.
So if you have a 240-volt outlet at home,
you can go ahead and plug it in and get the max capable
that the charger will give you.
Now, there is an on-board charger
that modulates that power.
And that's a 6.6 kilowatt charger.
Now, what that means is this is a 40-kilowatt battery.
You can kind of do the math to see how long that'll
take you to charge.
This car also has the optional CHAdeMO charger.
CHAdeMO is a Japanese word that basically translates to, hey,
let's grab some tea, which is the idea behind the charging
system.
Now, it's a DC charger which is direct current--
which basically feeds a massive amount of voltage--
4 or 500 volts at high amounts directly to the battery.
It's not something you want to do every day.
With that much current and that much voltage,
you're going to cause a lot of heat
to the battery which, as you know,
heat and batteries don't mix.
So use it sparingly.
Compared to its competitors, the LEAF prices pretty well.
Now, in this SL trim with the ProPILOT Assist
and everything like that, that'll
set you back a little over $37,000.
That's a little bit less than the Bolt.
Obviously, a lot less than the Model 3.
And the federal tax credit is still available for this car,
so you can get out the door for a lot less than that.
You do get a lot of car for your money.
The biggest attractor, though, will be the range.
Both the Bolt and the Tesla Model 3
have a lot more range than the LEAF does.
That's a fair point.
But the reality is most electric car owners--
they're not using all those miles all at once.
In a commuting environment, you're
maybe using 40 to 60 miles at a chop, which
means this car is totally fine, even for emergency side trips.
Now, for those that are truly range conscious that really do
want to go on longer trips, rumor
has it that Nissan LEAF-- bringing out
a higher range LEAF next year, one with a 60-kilowatt battery
that cracks the 200 barrier.
Even if you're on the fence about that,
this standard range LEAF with 150 miles
is nothing to sneeze at.
Definitely one of the coolest features of the LEAF
is ProPILOT Assist.
Now, it's not an autonomous driving system.
What it is, though, is a very, very connected
driver-assist system.
Now, just one button push on the steering wheel
enables the system.
And then to turn it on, you just activate your cruise control.
Now, what that gives you is adaptive cruise control,
which keeps the distance from ourselves and the car in front.
It does lane centering, so it keeps the car
in the center of the road.
And it'll even bring you to a complete stop.
It's not a self-driving car.
All it's doing is just keeping it in the center
and at a safe distance from the car in front.
In an interesting twist of fate, this system actually
works pretty darn good, even alongside the Tesla's Autopilot
system.
Now, the Tesla has the advantage of GPS and a connected system,
where it knows road conditions to a certain extent.
The Nissan does not have that feature set.
But considering the price premium that Autopilot has
and that Tesla has, we believe ProPILOT is a fantastic
addition to the Nissan LEAF.
Inside the Nissan LEAF, you'll find
a pretty much traditional car.
Materials are good.
There's not a lot of busyness with the colors and design
choices.
We're in the top SL model, so the seats
are this nice leather with microsuede inserts.
The controls-- again, easy to use, well laid out.
Again, it's more like a regular car, instead of maybe a science
project, or a sci-fi set you'll find in some of the other EVs.
On our SL model, we have the top-level Bose
7-speaker surround sound system.
It includes a head unit that is Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
compatible.
Now, the system itself has its own navigation built into it.
And you can use that to find charging stations
and addresses, like you normally would any other navigation
system.
But you may find using your smartphone
to be a little bit easier.
Another technology item that interfaces your head unit
is the surround-view camera.
When you put it in reverse, or you hit the camera button right
on the dash, there's a bunch of cameras
around the car that turn on.
And that gives you not only a rear or front view,
but in a third person kind of above the car
view, so you can see if there's any obstacles
alongside the car.
One of the best benefits for the Nissan LEAF is the back seat.
Not only is it sized for full-size adults,
the seat itself is very comfortable.
An interesting aspect of having the battery under the floor
means that the floor itself is a little bit higher.
So even though from the outside the Nissan looks pretty tall,
on the inside it's a little bit more like a traditional car.
That's not such a bad thing.
I'm 6 foot tall, and I still fit in the back of the LEAF.
No problem.
But the seat's elevated to make room
for that battery, which means even in the back seat,
I can still see down the road.
The Nissan LEAF is a hatchback, which means, obviously,
it's got a big hatch.
A lot of the interior cargo room with the seats folded up.
The rear seats do fold 60/40.
You'll find that once you do fold them up,
there is a bit of a shelf from the seatback to the cargo
floor.
But I'd say that between its comp competitors,
this general cargo area is very useful--
the low-loading height, and a nice, deep floor,
and a tall ceiling height.
So you can fit taller cargo, bulkier cargo in a little bit
easier.
Is the LEAF the bestseller EV on the market today?
Well, it's not the fastest.
It doesn't have the most range.
And it's not the sexiest.
But it's got a lot of utility.
It's very comfortable, and it's a great value.
But probably the most important thing--
it's available now.
For more information on the Nissan LEAF
and other electric vehicles, go to edmunds.com
and be sure to click Subscribe.
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