The 2026 Nissan Leaf Platinum Is A Pioneering Electric Car At An Affordable Price
In the world of all-electric vehicles, Nissan was technically the first brand to bring it into mass production state when they introduced the all-electric Leaf to America all the way back in 2010. Now, at the time, the Leaf was kind of a dorky hatchback that just happened to be electric, and it really didn’t have the range or performance figures that people were expecting, especially when Tesla was also just hitting the market. Now, fast forward a few years, and Nissan introduced a second generation Leaf, improving the range, but not really adding additional style to the vehicle. Well, for 2026, Nissan is ready to reinvent the segment with the introduction of this. This is the all-new third generation 2026 Nissan Leaf. As you can see, it has a design that truly stands out, and Nissan here is on a mission to make their EVs a little bit more premium because this vehicle rides on the same dedicated EV architecture that also underpins the Arya. So, today we’re actually out here uh just north of San Diego, California, because we’re finally able to drive the allnew third generation Leaf. And the big question I want answered, has Nissan managed to make enough changes to their most affordable electric model to keep consumers flocking into showrooms? Stay tuned to find out. Now, before we start talking about the styling direction that Nissan has gone here for the allnew third generation, I thought I’d pop the hood and remind you guys what’s powering this thing. Now, as you can see, just like the Arya in which this vehicle is based, there is no front trunk storage space. And that’s because Nissan says they wanted to give you more interior space on the inside. So, that’s where they kind of had to package a few things here for the electric motor componentry underneath the hood, which negated the ability for them to give us a front trunk. Now, of course, Nissan says here with this all new generation, you get a completely new motor. Although the power figures stay pretty much the same. They have an entirely new thermal management system for this vehicle. Whereas the original Leaf was kind of air cooled, it didn’t really do well in cold weather, all of the new generation Leafs now have that water cooled feature where if you have a battery pack that’s too warm or too hot, the system can actually pull power from the electric motors to kind of warm the battery pack. That’s something that that’s a technology that every other EV has had for years now. But since we’re underneath here, let’s go ahead and talk about this powertrain specs. Now, here in America, Nissan will offer the Leaf in two different battery uh specs at launch. However, we’re just going to get the plus model. So, you have a much larger 75 kWh battery pack, which is good for up to 303 mi of range on the base S+. Now, this model here is a Platinum Plus trim, so it drops the range to 259. But when you have the Plus battery pack, you get 214 horsepower and 261 pound- feet of torque. That horsepower figure is actually the same as last year’s Leaf, but you do have around 11 more footpounds of torque. Keep in mind, if you guys go for the smaller 53 kWh battery pack, it’ll drop the horsepower to 147 and 253 poundft of torque. We’ll have to wait until we get a chance to drive that uh on a separate review. It all goes out through a one-speed reduction gear transmission and all Leafs remain frontwheel drive because there’s only one motor on the front axle. This is kind of where Nissan could offer all-wheel drive because it rides on the same platform as the Arya, but as of this filming, they have not actually mentioned they’re going to do that. Now, the company doesn’t quote a 0 to 60 time. We’ll try it out when we get this vehicle out on the road. Uh this is now a crossover SUV type vehicle, but they actually didn’t talk about it rating to tow. Top speed, I would estimate, is around 106 mph. based on the previous generation Leaf, although this could actually be faster. And of course, being that this is now riding on a dedicated EV architecture, the weight has gone up tremendously. As this model sits, it weighs in at around 4,300 lb. It’s around uh 500 lb heavier versus last year’s Leaf, which is surprising to me. Although, compared to the Arya, this is around 700 lb lighter versus Nissan’s bigger electric crossover. But let’s go ahead and close up the hood here. And before we start talking about the styling, I want to actually point out a couple things here. On this side, if you want to follow me over here, there’s two charge ports for this vehicle. On the driver’s side here, uh you’re actually going to find the standard J1772 plug. So, this is the plug that everybody has been using for a while now. The vehicle has an onboard 7.2 kWh charger. It’ll probably take around 13 hours to charge this thing. So, it’s a slow onboard charger. That’s an area where I think Nissan could have addressed that and given us a faster charger. But again, on this side, on the driver’s side, you’re only going to be able to AC charge the vehicle. If you guys want to DC fast charge, you need to follow me over to this side on the passenger side. And this is kind of where Nissan has finally removed the Chattamo plug from the previous generation because over here you’re going to find an NACS plug. So, this is the J3400 Tesla plug that gives you access to over like 20,000 Tesla Superchargers. However, on this side, you can only DC fast charge, which is an interesting thing because you have to basically use the older J1772 um to AC charge, which is on a level one or two DC fast charging. This will accept up to 150 kW. Nissan says you can go from 10 to 80% in about 35 minutes. So, this actually charges faster than the Arya if you can believe it. So, Nissan definitely has, you know, improved the charging, but it’s still not class leading. Now, in terms of the exterior styling, let’s go ahead and talk about that. First of all, this is the Platinum Plus trim. I’m going to actually move over here and you guys can see a better look at the front. Uh, it’s painted in this new color called Seab Breeze Metallic in a two-tone configuration, and it’s extra $800. This is the color that Nissan first launched the vehicle when they showed it a couple months ago. It certainly is very bright. It’s very bold. It’s an extra $800 with the two-tone roof as I mentioned earlier. But you can see this vehicle just looks like it had a glow up. You have a much wider design. You have their, you know, V motion face uh front fascia because it doesn’t actually need a grill for cooling. But you can see there’s that trademark LED light bar, which is very trendy. A lot of electric vehicles are doing that. You can see the headlights remind me a lot of other Nissan models with the three individual LEDs. You actually have a premium LED on this trim. You have LED daytime running lights, LED turn signals, LED low and high beams. No LED fog lights. That’s something that the old Leaf offered were H hallogen fog lights. So, Nissan decided to remove the fog lights entirely. Down here, you can see it’s kind of an unpainted plastic area. You have a full 360 camera that’s standard on all versions of the Leaf, which is not something that you get on most of its rivals, or at least you have to pay extra for. You have some active grill shutters here along with some parking sensors. But overall, you can definitely tell this vehicle feels a lot more premium. It has a much more sophisticated look to it. Let me know in the comments section below what you think of the design. The vehicle in general is around a/ an inch wider and around a/ an inch uh lower in height. Again, it’s giving us more of that sleeker sportback crossover look to it. Now, if you want to follow me over to the side profile here, you can really see the uh different shape of this vehicle. The entire silhouette is no longer kind of like a hatchback, an economy hatchback like the old Leaf. Instead, it kind of has that sportback coupl like design, but it also tries to look a little bit like a tall sedan. And you can see it looks a lot like similar in profile to like a Toyota Crown to me or someone even compared to like a Tesla Model Y. In terms of the dimensions, this is where things get interesting because the new Leaf is actually 3 in shorter than the old model. 173.4 in long uh with a 105.9 in wheelbase. The wheelbase actually shrank by4 in, but the vehicle again got to lower and it got wider. So, that kind of gives it a more aggressive stance. The wheels have also been enlarged. All Leafs come with an 18-inch wheel uh with a steelely and a hub cap on the base S+. That’s the one that gives you 303 miles of range. The SV has an 18-inch alloy with 288 miles of range. This drops it to 259 because it’s a 19-in wheel. It also has a very interesting design to it. In fact, Nissan first introduced this style of wheel on the updated Leaf uh for the previous generation, and they’re kind of carrying it over here because it’s a crossover. You have the unpainted cladding here along the side, along the side profile as well. But overall, you only have around 5.3 in of ground clearance. So, this is not a vehicle you’re going to be taking off-road anytime soon. The black painted roof, I think, is also a nice touch. It’s necessary to kind of bring down a lot of the mass that you see up at the roof here. You also have a panoramic glass roof here on this trim, which has dimmable panels, which is kind of similar. That’s something that Porsche and Audi does. And this is also the first Nissan vehicle to get these auto retracting door handles. So, these flush door handles are all there for the aerodynamics, which Nissan claims is now 0.26, 26 among the best in the segment. You also have this kind of a d-pillar mounted uh handle here for the rear passenger along with again this kind of sportback design here at the back of the vehicle. In fact, Nissan says the roof panel, there’s some elements here that kind of remind you of like a Japanese sword um which is, you know, kind of going throwing in a mod to their heritage. And then when you look at the rear, you can see you’ll be able to tell that this is a platinum trim by the additional tail light modules here. So, I want you to notice there’s actually two rectangular or oval tail light elements here. They’re holog 3D holographic and on the outer portion there’s actually three. That’s an homage to the company’s name because knee basically is two while son is three. That’s where you’re getting Nissan. And then of course in case you forget it’s a Nissan it spells it out here at the back. I don’t particularly love this black portion here. I actually would like to see this area bodycoled as opposed to it being black. They don’t offer that currently. But remember the base S and the SV won’t have this additional tail light portion. I actually think it looks a little bit cheaper without it. I think it should be standard across the board, but it’s again it’s something that Nissan wanted to do to give you a different look. Uh there is no rear wiper back here, but there’s kind of an integrated duck bill spoiler with the third brake light down here on the rear bumper. You can see uh it’s got a gloss black with some unpainted areas. You have rear parking sensors, backup camera, your reverse uh light is back down there at the lower area. And then if you guys want a power lift gate, that is finally available on the new Leaf only on this Platinum Plus trim. And then when you look at the cargo area, this is kind of where the shape is reducing the cargo space slightly compared to the previous generation. You have 20 cubic feet of storage space with the seats up. The old model offered around 26 cubic feet of space. If you fold down the back seats, uh, which you can easily do from back here because it’s pretty much an easy reach. The floor is not completely flat, but it’s relatively flat. It expands the cargo to around 55 cubic feet of space, which is pretty usable. But again, the old Leaf didn’t have this kind of sportback shape, so that kind of added or it added a little bit more space. There’s also an underfloor storage area here, which Nissan calls divide and hide. It also has another storage shelf from uh this little area here. So, this is kind of a nice, you know, area where you can organize your stuff, which is good because remember there is no front trunk storage space. So, keep that in mind. However, what’s interesting is the fact that the Arya is around 10 in longer, but it really doesn’t offer that much more cargo space versus the Leaf. So, obviously Nissan did a pretty great job with the exterior design of the new Leaf, but the interior is where you’re going to be spending most of your time. And this is where Nissan again took a lot of uh information that they learned from the Arya and previous generations and applied it to the new to the new version. As you can see, the seats in this model. I really like this color combination with the uh Seabbze blue metallic and this kind of new material that they call tailor fit. This is technically a recycled or it’s a synthetic leather that’s made with 65% recycled materials. These seats are unique to the Platinum Plus trim. I love the two-tone of the dark blue with the gray combination. The seats are also perforated. They’re three-level heated. And on the driver’s side here, you have a 12-way power driver seat with twoerson memory. On the passenger, sadly, it has a four-way manual. The one thing this seat or this interior is missing are ventilated seats. You can’t get that in the new Leaf, even at this top trim. But this trim also has a 10 speakeraker Bose stereo system, which even includes includes uh speakers in the headrest, which is kind of a nice upscale touch. It really makes a great first impression, especially if you guys have the old Leaf that you’re upgrading into. Now, stepping inside the vehicle, it has only 5.3 in of ground clearance. So, it feels like I’m stepping into more like a sedan as opposed to an SUV, even though Nissan wants to call this a crossover. As I shut the door, the door actually has a really solid sounding thunk. Remember, this is built on their CMF dedicated EV architecture. Now, here’s the key fob for the vehicle. You can see every Leaf comes standard with their latest intelligent access key. It’s their newest key, which is kind of an evolution of the previous model. It’s a nice size key with the new Nissan logo. Lots of buttons here for lock, unlock. Uh, you can also power open the liftgate, activate panic function, although there’s no um remote start from the key fob itself. So, that’s a little surprising to me. Starting the vehicle up, you can see the start stop button is right there where you’d expect it to be. It’s got the newer Nissan Chime. And then this model, if you guys go for the SV Plus trims and up, you’ll have the dual 14.3 in display. So, this is essentially the same infotainment system we’ve seen from the Armada, from the Infiniti QX80, and it’s here on the Leaf, which is one of their most affordable vehicles. Keep in mind if you guys go for the base S trim or S+ trim, you’re going to have the dual 12.3 in display. So remember, the old Leaf had a 7in display here and an 8 in display here. So this is almost twice the size. So this is definitely a big upgrade. You can see we’ve got uh wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. You can see this is actually Android Auto hooked up. We’ve got uh Drew Hardest’s phone connected to it. He’s an Android user. So I don’t really know much about Android Auto, but I actually do like the fact the way this looks. And it actually will put your phone background kind of in the background here, which is something that Apple CarPlay doesn’t do. So, it’s kind of nice how Android Auto gives you that along with Google builtin, which Google built into this vehicle allows you to access the route planning features. You have the access to the Google Play Store, so you can kind of keep the vehicle updated. So, this infotainment system is actually a huge upgrade. Now, in terms of the materials, uh the door panel, you can see has this interesting cloth material, which I personally think looks really nice and feels nice, but I worry about the longevity of this, especially in this light color. You can actually see there’s almost like a dark stain already there. So, that’s something that I’m hoping Nissan puts some kind of stain resistant thing where you could use a cleaner and clean that off. Here you can see there’s that leatherrett material here, the tailor fit. Same thing over here. You have a silver painted plastic door handles. The windows have their latest switch gear. Although the window controls, only the driver is onetouch up down. I kind of think Nissan should have made the passenger at least one touch down as well. I like the new steering wheel as well. It’s a flat bottom and a flat top design or I’m sorry, it’s only a flat bottom design, but it also offers tilt and telescoping. This is pretty similar to the one that they offer in the Arya with these uh touch sensitive buttons. You have paddles to control the regen braking. And then you can also see the digital drivers display is also slightly customizable where you can kind of hit this button over here. You can change the meter view if you want to go to a more, I guess, display view where you can see more of the trip computer and like the GPS functionality as well. So, this is definitely very impressive. The graphics have also gotten noticeably better, especially if you guys are coming from the previous generation. This trim also includes a heads-up display, which is unexpected in this class. Um, so that’s a really nice upscale touch. You can see more of that cloth material carries over here onto the dash, which over here, this is okay because you’re not really going to touch it. U versus the door panels. This upper area here is hard touch plastic. You have more of that softer uh plastic here where this is supposed to look like the tailor fit, but it doesn’t feel very soft. It just looks really upscale. Down here, you can see it’s pretty similar to the Arya. You have some of these touch sensitive controls, although they don’t have haptic feedback. For example, the heated seat, as you can see, for the most part works, but I did notice at times it can be a little finicky. And I really wish again it had uh ventilated seats. That would have been a nice touch. If I push that button, you can see that brings up your full 360 camera, which offers trajectory, distance markers, uh, reverse automatic cross traffic braking, and then you can also even go to like different views where you can show a curb view, you can show like an ultra wide view with an invisible hood view. So, this is kind of something that, you know, Nissan typically reserves for a lot of their higherend vehicles, and it’s here in the Leaf, and it’s standard equipment even on the base S plus trim. So, this is really great technology that a lot of competitors simply don’t offer or they make you pay extra for. Now, you can see over here, I like how this is not piano black plastic. This is much going to be much more durable. Uh the transmission selector from the one-speed is a simple uh I guess PR and D button. Uh you can also adjust the drive mode selector here. There’s four different drive modes including an individual personal mode, although this car doesn’t have adaptive dampers. Estep refers to their uh regenerative braking, although it doesn’t offer a full one pedal drive feature. We’ll talk about that later on in the driving scene. Then you can see here Nissan also wanted to give you a lot of uh passenger space. So, there’s this kind of open area here along with this little uh open or storage compartment which is kind of hidden which is nice. It’s not power like it is in the Arya. And I also notice there’s some exposed screw heads there, but it’s a nice little hidden storage compartment. There’s also a power outlet here. Uh you can see this little console uh will house a lot of additional storage along with your two USBC charging ports. Your wireless phone charging pad is here. I believe this is only on the SV trims and up. You can see there’s also nice padded leather here. Open that up. You can see it’s not the biggest center console area, but it certainly provides additional storage, which is nice. Uh, and then the glove compartment, you can see, is uh, damped, but not lined with felt. It kind of goes into the dash. It offers even more additional storage. And then, if you guys are an audio file, the Bose premium stereo system is an upgrade versus the six speaker that you get in the baser trims. And then above me here, I want to mention really quick is this glass roof. So, this was a feature that’s only on the Platinum trim. And what’s cool about this glass roof is it doesn’t open up to vent air, but you can actually sit there and frost and defrost the roof itself. And you can see when you do that, it does it in like individual segments. So you can kind of, you know, create uh I guess light coming through on the passenger or on the front area versus the rear. It also shows the leaf branding there that’s actually in the actual roof panel itself. When you pull that up, it actually is a little bit slow to respond, but you can see that’s pretty cool where it’ll actually will show the leaf branding there. It will kind of leave a shadow in the interior. So, that’s a nice upscale ambiance that I wasn’t really expecting. These seats are also very comfortable and supportive. I just wish that it offered a ventilated seat function, but overall, the interior feels really high quality. It has most of the tech you’re going to want, and it is a huge step up versus the previous generation. But let’s go ahead and hop into the back seat area. I want to show you guys that space really quick. This is kind of where because they made the new Leaf a little bit smaller than the previous generation, they actually have a little bit less space back here. Now, the old Leaf had around 33 1/2 in of legroom. This new version has just under 32 in of legroom, which I’m actually a little surprised that it has less. Although, it looks like it has about the same. These seats, sadly, they don’t offer a recline function. They just kind of fold down to expand the cargo capacity, uh, which is obviously nice. But once I get back here, you can see this is pretty much my driving position. As I shut the door, um, this space here is still pretty good. Now, I will say that the material quality carries over back here, which is nice. Uh, I imagine kids though are going to get this really disgusting if you have little kids back here all the time. Um, you can see this nice padded area over here. You have two storage compartments and you have a completely flat floor here. Uh, space in this back seat area is certainly not great. This is where I believe the Hyundai Kona offers more space. At least you do get rear seat air vents. You get two USBCs. You have three level heated seats. And you also have a 12vt power outlet. In fact, this vehicle does introduce vehicle to load functionality. So, the Platinum Plus, I believe, is the trim that gets it as standard where you can basically power external devices. It’ll uh basically discharge it up to 3.45 kilowatt. So, that’s great if you’re camping. You can hook up a refrigerator, for example, or like a portable electric grill or stove, for example. Um, these seats back here also look great. These are these are included with tailor fit back here. If you guys go for the SV Plus trim level, you’ll actually downgrade to a lower quality leatherrett, while the S+ will just have a cloth interior. So, I like the two-tone carries over back here. Only on this trim, you also have an armrest that folds down, gives you two cup holders. Leg room space is good. Headroom space, I have maybe like an extra inch and a half, 2 in of additional clearance. The glass roof obviously takes up a little bit of space. Uh, but overall the back seat is certainly usable for average size adults, but keep in mind if you want more space, the Arya offers roughly five more inches of legroom in the back seat. So, welcome to the inside of the allnew 2026 Nissan Leaf. And as you can see, I am joined by my friend Drew from Car Confections. Drew, this is the second time that we were able to do a video. Actually, the last time you guys saw him, we were in your area, Kentucky, uh, driving the Kia Nero, uh, the hybrid version or not the Nero, the Sportage. But now, of course, we’re driving the new Leaf. And Drew, I think you said this is your first time in the Leaf, correct? It is, actually, which is kind of surprising, but a car. Well, I mean, that’s the thing about this car is it’s always been kind of like the underdog. A lot of people just made fun of the Leaf cuz it’s it was a very dorky car when it first came out, but Nissan gave it a pretty big glow up this year, especially when you look at the design, the range, the technology. Uh, this model we’re driving is the Platinum Plus, so we have the bigger battery pack, 214 horsepower, 262 footpounds of torque. Nissan doesn’t quote a 0 to 60 time, but let’s go ahead and see what we can get um when the traffic clears up here. The competitive set Nissan says is like the Kona Electric, which I got 6.9 seconds in. And let’s see what we can get here. It’s in sport mode. Foot is to the floor. You can really feel it’s limiting power initially, but okay. That’s pretty level surface. We got 7.51 seconds there. What do you think of that time, Drew? Is it quick enough? Slow? I think it’s fine. Like, you know, you’re not buying this to be a speed demon, right? Um, you know, ultimately this kind of just fits into the mainstream. If you had a lot of gas powered products, you’re going to be right in that range, right? Yeah. And that’s the thing about this car is like if you’re replacing an a economy gas car, you’re going to get into this. It’s going to have plenty of power. I mean, it it still delivers 262 footpounds of torque. It’s electric, so it’s instantaneous. And we have a much larger battery pack now. 75 kwatt hours. In fact, when we started out this review, we were at 99% state of charge. It was only showing 233 mi, though, which is far short of the 259 that the EPA says. This model that we’re driving, remember, has the lowest range because it’s the heaviest model. It’s also got uh the 19-in wheels, which add more drag and weight. In fact, this car, Drew, weighs 4,400 lb almost. Do you remember what the old Leaf used to weigh? Have no idea. So, the old Leaf was 3,800 lb. They added 500 lb of weight to this new version. Um, and I think it’s because it’s built off of the Arya architecture. So, they called it CMF. I think that’s what they said in the presentation. Um, which is a dedicated EV architecture. So, the Leaf, when you drive it, it actually feels like a much more premium car. And I think that’s what I really like about the new Leaf is it doesn’t feel like an economy car anymore, whereas the old one was kind of like a Nissan Versa Note, which is probably why it had that dorky reputation that enthusiasts just didn’t even want to touch that thing with a 10-ft pole. nowadays. I mean, it certainly has a distinctive look. The ride quality is really good. Uh, would you say so with the It has an independent rear suspension nowadays. Yeah, it feels quite comfortable inside of this cabin. Like they were saying, they kind of designed it to feel a class above. I think it does accomplish that. Plus, when you have seats that are as comfortable as Nissan Zeroravity seats, it really doesn’t feel like you’re in an inexpensive vehicle. And obviously, this is definitely on the very inexpensive side of electric crossovers. Yeah. I mean, for this one that we’re driving is just over $40,000 and it, as you said, it definitely feels like you’re driving a class above vehicle. It’s the ride is smooth. It’s pretty quiet in here as well. They added a lot more sound deadening materials to this car. Uh, and it just kind of goes down the road with a premiumness that the old uh Leaf didn’t have. Now, in terms of the dynamics, Drew hasn’t had a chance to drive it. We’re going to switch after we do this video, but um it feels not sporty, but at the same time, the steering is pretty quick and responsive. It’s electric. They’ve retuned, I think, the rack on the steering. Um, so it feels like, you know, it’s just a comfortable car. It’s not going to win any drag races, obviously, or, you know, be the kind you’re going to attack your favorite back road on. But I was just saying to Drew earlier, they should do a Nismo version of this thing, would you say? Like a Nismo version with all-wheel drive and 400 horsepower would be freaking awesome because I mean 7.5 seconds is fine. And if you guys are coming from like the Nissan Kicks, which Drew, you were saying earlier is about the same size of this vehicle. This is probably two seconds faster to 60. Yeah. Um, so you are getting that that benefit uh there. This car also comes with their latest 14.3 in display, dual 14.3 in displays. It has Google built in. It has route planning. Although this infotainment system is actually better than the one that’s in the Arya, which at least for now doesn’t really make sense. Uh Nissan did get rid of their true one pedal drive feature that they had in the older Leaf. They were claiming that there were certain like regulations and stuff that they were dealing with uh in Japan which forced them to just remove it. But you still have their ESEP functionality which gives you four different levels of regen on maximum regen. It feels pretty close to one pedal drive but it doesn’t actually bring you down to a stop at around 12 mph. You have to take over and hit the brakes which is fine. Although I was saying to you earlier like it should be pretty consistent um there. And then Drew, you were saying these seats are also pretty comfortable for you as well. Yeah, I’m really liking these. The longer this ride has gone on, the more I’m just kind of settled into this. U I feel like that’s a consistent thing across the Nissan lineup is the zero gravity seats really always feel very nice and comfortable. Yeah, there I mean the zeroravity seats and then this material is called tailor fit which is like a synthetic leather. They said it’s made from 65% recyclable materials. And actually, Drew, this is the same material that Infiniti uses. I think you guys just had a QX60, although the Sport I think doesn’t have the tailored fit the Baser trims do. But yeah, I mean for a synthetic leather. The only thing I wish it had was just ventilated seats. Um the seats are already perforated in general, so they could add ventilated seats, but I mean overall the visibility is good. I can see out of the front and the side nicely. The rear is blocked a little bit by that windshield, that back windshield. But um I did that’s kind of where a digital camera rearview mirror would be a nice addition. But other than that, uh it’s a really easy car to drive, which I think is kind of important when you’re buying a car like this cuz Nissan says this is going to be like, you know, just like the original the original Leaf was like your second car, but this could actually be a daily driver. I mean, 303 mi of range on a full charge. It charges at 150 kW. You can go to Tesla Superchargers. Although, Drew, what do you think about the fact that you can’t AC charge from the Tesla charger? Do you think that’s kind of Tom? I do. I mean, it’s just like a little bit strange, but I I maybe they save some money somewhere along the way. I recognize you have to, you know, hit that price point to make this, you know, as compelling of a price point as it is, but it’s going to be a little bit strange if to the fact that you might have to have two different types of adapters, right? That’s I don’t know about that. Well, their their reason in the presentation was that they didn’t want to, I guess, piss off their loyal customers who have a J1772 installed and then they would need an adapter. But I feel like Nissan, you know, it’s an excuse for now because later they’re going to have to switch it. Everybody’s kind of going to the NACS and I think they should have just done that. I mean, I’m glad that it’s there. Um, it’s just strange how on the passenger side you can only DC fast charge. On the driver’s side, you can only AC charge or I just think that’s a little bit weird. But, I mean, overall, I think this is a really big improvement. You know, this thing has moved so much more up market in terms of refinement, in terms of range, in terms of technology. It doesn’t offer all-wheel drive, which Drew, do you think they should offer all-wheel drive on this thing? I think they should. I mean, a lot of people are looking for that. You know, just different climates and stuff or weather conditions, people just want the little extra assurance of all-wheel drive. Um, of course, again, I get it why you’re just using the single motor at the front wheels uh to save money, but they might eventually do an all-wheel drive version. They just haven’t said anything about it yet, right? All right. I mean, cuz it’s this rides on the same platform as the Arya, so it can accommodate all-wheel drive. Obviously, they didn’t because of the price point that they were trying to hit, but also I was trying to get this thing to spin its tires, and it doesn’t really spin its tires that much, and it’s because they’re limiting the power initially. Um, so I think a Nismo version with all-wheel drive, that would be a really cool addition, and it would it would add some, I guess, just points back to the Leaf. It would make enthusiasts more interested in this car if they would just do a Nismo. That’s the thing about EVs. that it’s it kind of makes it a lot easier for them to add more power. Like you can easily add more power. You could add the extra motor. You could tune the suspension cuz this thing is definitely really soft. It’s it’s a car that I think is a logical step forward for the Leaf. I’m still not quite sure about the overall silhouette of this car. It kind of has that coupe SUV look to it, which I just don’t think fits the persona of a Leaf, but at the same time, I’m glad that it’s different. I’m glad that it’s a lot more unique. Uh, and it also incorporates a lot of like that Japanese design language that Nissan is known for. Now, with just under 12,000 units sold in America last year, the previous generation Leaf wasn’t exactly a top seller. In fact, when the second generation first came out, at one point, Nissan did well over 30,000 units. So, clearly, they’ve been needing to redesign the Leaf for quite some time. So, after spending the day driving the all-new version, I’m pretty happy to report that Nissan has pulled out all the stops here. They really want to make this vehicle truly an EV for everybody and they also want to make sure that this is an EV that I think a lot of people can comfortably get into and that’s going to really be or notated when you look at the pricing of this vehicle because as you guys saw uh the way it drives is a lot more premium 0 to 60 we got 7.5 seconds. I’ll have to wait until I get one back home to retest it and also test out the real world range. The independent rear suspension also greatly imp improves the ride quality. The handling is definitely not sporty but it’s it’s comfortable. It’s competent. It’ll get the job done. The interior, however, is really where Nissan also gave this thing a boatload of technology, much more premium interior materials, comfortable seats. I just would like to see them add a digital camera rearview mirror and uh ventilated seats. I think at the this price point, the Platinum trim should have it. I love that dimmable panoramic sunroof, although I kind of wish it also opened up to vent air. I would probably trade the dimmable part for the ventilation part. And while the cargo area is a little bit smaller, I think I’d argue that it’s probably worth it because you have a vehicle that’s just less dorky, a lot more sophisticated, a lot more sleek. It’s going to attract a lot more buyers into showrooms. Now, this is kind of where Nissan really surprised a lot of folks when they introduced this model because it got cheaper uh compared to the original Leaf when that model first came out back in 2010. Now, compared to the 2024 Leaf, this model is more expensive. And that’s because we don’t have final pricing yet on the base S. We only have pricing on the S+, which starts at $29,9.90. That’s plus a $14.95 destination charge. Now, that price makes it around $1,800 more expensive than last year’s base S. However, this is where things get interesting because if you guys want to go to the mid-level SV Plus trim level, Nissan offered that last year on the previous generation. It starts at around $34,500. It’s actually around $2,000 less expensive than the 2024 model, which had a smaller battery pack, less range, less technology. This Platinum Plus trim level that I’m showing you here is a new trim. It’s the fully loaded model. It starts at $38,9.990. Now, remember that’s plus a 14.95 destination charge. And my particular test car has a couple of options like the two-tone paint for $800. It has the battery warmer for an extra 300 bucks um with destination. All in this model here is around 42,980. So, just under 43 grand. Certainly makes it a little more expensive or I’m sorry, 41980. So, just under 42 grand, which makes it a little more expensive obviously than the previous generation. But at the same time, you have to look at the competitive set because no other EV can touch this vehicle for price point because the cheapest Tesla Model 3 right now is around $44,000. Even the Kona electric, I just had recently had that was around $42,000. It had less range. It had a little bit less power. It had less space and less technology. So, there’s a lot of features that Nissan is throwing into this vehicle. So, I’ll be curious to see what they plan to do with the follow-up. Because I mentioned earlier in the driving scene, I would love to see Nissan do a Nismo version. I’d like to see them do all-wheel drive. That will obviously make the price go up, but I think that if the demand is there, they could easily add that and it’ll just kind of make the Leaf a much more interesting vehicle, which this new generation certainly is able to do, but they just need to add some performance to actually back that up along with the added traction. Because I personally think I might like this car more versus the Arya, which should be the other way around. But there’s just so much to like about this car. It’s the cheapest new EV you can buy, at least until Chevrolet comes out with another Bolt, which they confirmed will be showing up sometime by the end of this year. Well, all that said, hope you guys have enjoyed my full overview on the brand new 2026 Nissan Leaf and this Platinum Plus trim. If you’re also looking to see the latest cars I’m testing, be sure to follow me on Instagram at Redline Reviews. Like us on Facebook, and as always, guys, please keep subscribing to the Redline Reviews YouTube channel for all the latest reviews. Thank you so much for watching. I’ll catch you all in the next video. [Music]
The #NissanLeaf was the first mass-produced #ElectricCar that was affordable and readily available to consumers back in 2010 and while the original #Nissan #Leaf offered only 75 miles of range, the all-new 3rd generation arrives with over 300 miles of range and a premium new look that will make you forget about the dorky proportions of the old model. the #LeafPlatinum trim also borrows a lot of premium features from the also new #NissanAriya and the result is a sub $30k EV that doesn’t feel like a cheap economy car anymore.
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