Nissan LEAF e+ 2021 Review

The average punter judges the value of an electric vehicle quite harshly at times. If it’s a small car like the 2021 Nissan LEAF e+, costing $60,490 plus on-road costs, prospective buyers will struggle to see how the numbers stack up, not least of all when a standard LEAF costs just $49,990 plus ORCs.

But it’s not that simple, in practice. Despite being a small hatch, the LEAF e+ is packaged more like a small SUV, and with a larger 62kWh battery it’s a close competitor to the Hyundai Kona Electric for price.

The LEAF e+ also delivers significant benefits to the consumer that the Kona Electric doesn’t. Note that word, ‘consumer’. LEAF buyers will soon be able to plug the EV into a newly-developed wallbox and use the car as a stationary battery to power the house and save costs during peak hours.

This system – V2G or ‘vehicle-to-grid’ – is potentially worth hundreds or thousands of dollars a year to a homeowner. The capability has been available for some time, but now Nissan Australia is poised to offer it to all LEAF owners, whether it’s the regular version or the new e+.

So the purchase price for the LEAF e+ – an increase of $10,500 over the standard LEAF – doesn’t look quite as steep in that context, considering the benefits it brings such as 22kWh of extra battery capacity, plus added performance.

But in basically every other respect, the Nissan LEAF e+ is equipped the same as the more affordable LEAF.

As standard, therefore, the LEAF e+ comes with 17-inch alloy wheels, privacy glass, heated electric fold-in mirrors, auto-on/off LED headlights with high beam assist, climate control, auto-dimming rear-view mirror, rain-sensing wipers, keyless starting, adaptive cruise control, leather-accented upholstery, front seat heating and a 60/40-split folding rear seat.

The infotainment system offers Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, USB port, voice recognition, 8.0-inch colour touch-screen, satellite navigation, seven-speaker Bose audio, digital radio and Bluetooth.

ANCAP has rated the second-generation Nissan LEAF a five-star car for crash safety, based on the testing authority’s 2018 protocol.

By that standard, the 2021 Nissan LEAF – including the new LEAF e+ variant – is quite a safe car. Broken down, the five-star rating was extrapolated from a 93 per cent score for adult protection, 85 per cent for child protection, 71 per cent for vulnerable road users and 70 per cent for safety assist technology.

According to ANCAP, the LEAF could improve with rear autonomous emergency braking (AEB) and ‘junction assist’ AEB.

In addition to the front airbags, side curtain airbags and side-impact thorax-protecting airbags (front seats), the LEAF also comes with a centre airbag to deploy between the driver and front passenger in the event of an impact.

Other standard features that helped the LEAF achieve the five-star rating include ISOFIX child safety seat anchorage points with complementary top tether anchorage, hill start assist, all-round camera monitoring, front and rear parking sensors, driver fatigue monitoring, forward collision warning, AEB with pedestrian detection, lane departure warning/lane keep assist, blind spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alert, tyre pressure monitoring, traffic sign recognition and audible warning for pedestrians (low speed only).

Nissan estimates the ambient noise in the cabin of the 2021 Nissan LEAF e+ to be just 21 decibels, compared with 30 decibels for a library.

And while the statement begs a couple of obvious questions – Was the library located in downtown Kabul? Was the LEAF parked in an anechoic chamber? – it’s fair to say that the Nissan LEAF e+ does a good job of suppressing noise from the powertrain and the Dunlop 215/50 R17 tyres.

About the only time the motor can be heard is when the car is being hammered with the right foot flat to the floor. And in that circumstance, the LEAF e+ accelerates quickly enough to satisfy most drivers.

On the day of the launch, the maximum temperature for Daylesford, our destination, was just 13 degrees. We were warned to conserve energy for the trip there and back by switching on the seat heaters and the steering wheel heater, rather than rely on the climate control to heat the entire cabin.

Even so, the battery was discharging power at the rate of 20kWh/100km – which is not unexpected with two people on board and slogging uphill to Mount Macedon and then on to our lunch stop.

For the return trip, my co-driver and I decided to hell with conserving energy: on went the heater to demist the windscreen and warm us up generally – but we did also recover energy on the downhill run from Mount Macedon by using the ‘B-Mode’ facility and the ‘e-pedal’.

By the time we arrived back at Melbourne Airport, the LEAF e+ was down to 13 per cent battery charge and just 51km of theoretical range remaining.

That was from a full charge and after travelling around 250km. Add the 51km remaining and you’re left with about 300km of real-world range from a full battery charge.

That falls a long way short of the WLTP figure of 385km, but name an electric vehicle that will get anywhere close to its official energy consumption figure anyway – in ideal circumstances, let alone driven uphill on a cold day by a couple of motoring journalists.

We’ve made the point previously that the Nissan LEAF is not a car for driving enthusiasts. It’s aimed at people who like a gentle ride and don’t want the car to talk back at them.

And the 2021 Nissan LEAF e+ is more of the same. Its roadholding is quite secure, but there’s no sign of life from the steering, and the brake pedal is firm, but not really communicative. On a couple of occasions, I found myself braking harder and later to compensate for the lack of feedback.

The driving position is generally good though, and the drive mode selector is easy enough to use, but a lot of buyers will baulk at the retention of a foot-operated parking brake – not that it’s necessarily a deal killer.

I found the instruments, including the trip computer readout, to be legible and in plain view.

The front seats are comfortable, with cushioning that’s quite soft, contributing to the overall ambience and plushness in the cabin. Occupants sink into the seats, which also offer enough shape to hold someone in place properly for cornering.

Of note, however, there’s no electric adjustment for the front seats. Everything about the driver’s seat has to be set up by hand – which is ironic in a car with a 62kWh battery, but every ounce of weight saved, every electron conserved all goes to the greater good.

The LEAF e+ sits high-ish (5mm higher to provide extra ground clearance for the larger battery), so the hip point is suitable for older adults, without posing too much of a challenge for littlies.

And there’s undeniably decent legroom and headroom in the rear. Even with the stadium seating in the rear, the hip point is low enough for kids beyond the age they need to be in booster seats and high enough for teenagers right through to adults.

On the downside, there are no adjustable vents in the centre console, and there are no recharging ports back there for portable devices, and the only cup holders for rear seat occupants are in the rear doors.

Although the rear seat does fold down in a 60/40 split, it doesn’t have a separate fold-up arm rest. And the LEAF e+ is a five-seater in name only. You wouldn’t actually consign a child to the centre/rear position.

The boot is large, deep and reasonably practical, but the Bose subwoofer occupies valuable real estate near the base of the rear seats. As if that isn’t unfortunate in itself, when the seat folds down it leaves a sizeable step in the floor, limiting the objects you can load through into the cabin.

The boot also has a high loading lip, which will make it harder for some owners to load heavier bags of groceries.

As a package, the 2021 Nissan LEAF e+, which is notionally a small hatch according to VFACTS and Nissan Australia, has all the hallmarks of a small SUV, which makes its direct rival more likely Hyundai’s Kona Electric rather than the current Hyundai IONIQ.

And if you look at it that way, the LEAF e+ makes some sense. It doesn’t offer the range the Kona does, but it’s also slightly more affordable, and there’s enough differentiation between these two cars that they should each find their own customer base.

Looking ahead to the introduction of a V2G wallbox later this year, there’s another arrow in the quiver of the LEAF e+. Any car that can power the average home for four or five nights straight without recharging, but can also recharge from photovoltaic cells on the roof of the home, will eventually pay for itself.

While motoring journalists would typically want every car – even the small hatches and SUVs powered by electric motors – to corner and brake like a race car, the LEAF e+ will appeal to the 80 per cent of the population looking for comfortable and safe motoring.

The fact that there’s a convoluted monetary argument to complement the simpler environmental message are two reasons Nissan will find willing buyers for the LEAF e+.

How much does the 2021 Nissan LEAF e+ cost?
Price: $60,490 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Powertrain: AC synchronous electric motor
Output: 160kW/340Nm
Transmission: Single-speed reduction gear
Battery: 62kWh lithium-ion
Range: 385km (WLTP)
Energy consumption: 18.0kWh/100km (WLTP)
Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP 2018)