Nissan will stop producing the Leaf in 2025

July 22, 2022

Nissan Leaf

Nissan is busy electrifying its entire range. They are introducing as many as 15 new electric models through 2030. It seems that in 2025 – after 15 years – Japanese will therefore finally wave goodbye to the Leaf. Nissan will focus on new EVs, such as the Ariya and the new all-electric Micra successor. Nissan would not yet officially confirm the news, but sources say that production of the Leaf’s successor will start in the middle of this decade at Nissan’s Sunderland plant. Whether this model will be a direct successor to the Leaf is not yet clear.

Best-selling electric car

Officially, the Mitsubishi i-MiEV was on the market just a little earlier, but the Leaf is often seen as the first electric car for the masses. For years, the Leaf was the world’s best-selling electric car. For now, Nissan has already built 577,000 units of the Leaf. Some 14,000 of them have yellow license plates. The first generation Nissan Leaf was introduced in 2010. The first generation, thanks to a 24 kWh battery pack, went 175 kilometers on a single battery charge. If the weather was bad, sometimes the fun was already over after 80 kilometers. Figures that make us chuckle a bit these days, but back then the Leaf’s technology made a big impression.

Competitive price

The technology was brand new in 2010, which sometimes posed a challenge for the Japanese. Battery suppliers for car manufacturers were basically non-existent. Batteries were intended for laptops and other electronic devices. For an electric car, the Leaf was priced quite competitively. Especially for that time. In 2011, you drove a new Leaf out of the showroom for 32,590 euros. For that, you didn’t get a small space car like the Mitsubishi i-Miev, Citroën C-Zero and Peugeot i-On, but a full-fledged C-segment five-door hatchback.

Second generation Leaf

The second generation of the Leaf appeared in showrooms in 2017. It received a more powerful electric motor (150 hp) and a larger 40 kWh battery pack. In 2019, it also became available with a 62 kWh battery pack and rated at 217 hp. Both variants are still offered by Nissan at this time. With the compact battery pack, the Leaf gets to 270 kilometers according to WLTP figures. The Leaf E+ with the large battery pack kicks it up to 385 kilometers.