Nissan Leaf

Electrek‘s Michelle Lewis spoke with three electric car owners in Texas. They each explained how their EVs helped them get through February’s deep freeze and rolling blackouts.

Tesla cofounder JB Straubel announced that his new startup, Redwood Materials, is going to recycle Nissan Leaf battery packs.

Happy New Year! Now that 2021 has arrived, dealers are even more motivated than last month to move old inventory off their lots. Remaining stock of 2020 models is already thin in some locales, so act soon if you find any of these offers on 200-mile EVs enticing.  

As always, check our Electric Vehicle Best Price Guide and Electric Vehicle Best Lease Guide for the best deals on EVs in the US.

During our monthly search for the best EV discounts, we found four models – two BEVs and two PHEVs – that can cost less than $20,000 before tax and license. Considering the average used vehicle price as reported by USA Today was trending upward at $21,558 in July, and that the average new vehicle transaction price is just shy of $40,000 ($39,259 to be exact, per Kelly Blue Book), $20K for a brand-new electric vehicle looks like a relative bargain.

Note this is the last week we’ll include PHEVs in our roundups. Our resolution for 2021 is BEVs only!

Black Friday deals are here! Our Electric Vehicle Price Guide and Electric Vehicle Lease Guide have been updated with the latest EV offers, many of which are set to expire on November 30. Below are some of the best lease deals and discounts we’ve found…

Nissan modified a Leaf electric car to turn it into a cool-looking mobile power supply on wheels for disaster relief.

Nissan will hold a global, digital unveiling of its new all-electric SUV on July 15. Few details about the Ariya have been announced since its unveiling at the 2019 Tokyo Motor Show. The new Nissan EV is expected to offer nearly 300 miles of range, 0-60 acceleration in less than 5 seconds, and a mainstream price of around $40,000. Hopefully, we’ll get confirmed details and a look at the production design two weeks from now.

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Nissan yesterday unveiled its four-year growth plan. The Japanese automaker will “right-size” its production capacity and streamline unprofitable parts of its business. At the same time, Nissan said it would invest in areas of strength, such as sports cars and electric vehicles. That said, Nissan will introduce the Ariya EV to the US in 2021, while most of its EVs will be sold in China.

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At the end of the month, Nissan will present its new “operational performance plan.” Early media reports show that Nissan will expand cooperation with Mitsubishi for plug-in hybrids in Asia and Renault for EVs in Europe. Plans for the Ariya, a new all-electric crossover, remain murky.

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In the past two years, more than 8 million households in Japan have experienced power outages due to natural disasters. In response, Nissan developed a system that uses vehicle-to-grid technology that allows customers to use the Leaf’s battery pack to power buildings.

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Here’s one for the “find an EV non-problem” file. Nissan cites research that says 60% of parents with children under age 2 lull their kids to sleep by taking them on a drive. The Japanese automaker claims that the “soothing sound frequencies of an internal combustion engine are the biggest contributor to a child falling asleep in the car.” In other words, a non-polluting EV like the Leaf won’t get the job done without piping in combustion noise.

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While the EV revolution is in full swing, the shift to highly automated driving is still at least a few years away. That self-driving future got a tiny bit closer this week after a modified all-electric Nissan Leaf completed a difficult 230-mile journey autonomously in the UK.

The journey began at the Nissan’s European technical center in Cranfield in southern England and ended at its Sunderland factory in the northeast.

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Nissan flew us out to Las Vegas during CES 2020 and put us up, allowing us to get a first-hand drive of the new e-4ORCE AWD technology going into their upcoming Ariya platform vehicles. We got to drive the new technology around the Las Vegas Motor Speedway – a place where exotic supercars are rented out the to wealthy with a backdrop of the Strip and F-35s flying overhead out of Nellis Air Force Base. It was quite the scene.

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Nissan has today announced its pricing for the 2020 Leaf in the US. The electric car starts at $31,600 before incentives for the 40 kWh battery pack version. If buyers want over 200 miles of range, they are going to pay at least $38,200 for the 62 kWh battery pack before incentives.
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Ivan Espinosa, Nissan’s global product strategist, wants to strengthen the ailing Nissan brand by “bringing more electrification.” For Espinosa, this means more hybrids alongside EVs. Those hybrids can give drivers a sense of an “EV drive feel,” even though a gas engine is used as the source of power. Meanwhile, according to his interview published today in Automotive News, he believes that EV charging has been a “hassle.” Nissan responded by finding better locations for charging ports and making charging connectors more user-friendly.

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Nissan announced Monday that it outfitted a Leaf electric vehicle with thousands of LED holiday lights. The cool thing is that all those lights are powered by the EV’s regenerative braking. Sure, it’s a stunt – but it illustrates a good point about an EV’s ability to reclaim energy on the road. And it’s done in the spirit of the holidays.
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Nissan has launched a new program called “Nissan Energy Perks by EVgo” as an extra incentive for Leaf buyers, promising $250 worth of charging credits for use on the nationwide EVgo charging network. This is available to all Nissan Leaf buyers backdating to November 1, 2019.

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Nissan has unveiled a dual-motor AWD version of its all-electric Leaf, but the automaker is not making it available for sale.
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In this post, we review the portable EV charging cords that come standard with the following electric vehicles sold in North America: Tesla (all models), the Audi e-tron, the Nissan Leaf, the Jaguar I-Pace, the Porsche Taycan, the Chevy Bolt, the BMW i3, and Hyundai (all BEVs). This review is pretty wild; the specs (usefulness) of OEM standard charging cords are all over the place. Some car makers gave a ton of thought to this while others clearly gave none. That’s concerning, because “electricity is everywhere” is a major argument in favor of EV ownership, but that’s only meaningful if you can usefully tap the grid.

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Nissan and EVgo are announcing today that they are expanding their collaboration and will deploy 200 more fast-charging stations for electric cars in the US.
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Latin America has been underserved by automakers when it comes to electric vehicles, but Nissan is looking to change that by launching the Leaf in the biggest Latin American markets.
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