The Nissan LEAF certainly doesn’t have a reputation as a serious performance car. With far less power than any Tesla, “semi-independent” rear suspension like you’d find under a Chevy Cavalier, and many similarities with the Versa, the LEAF is widely regarded as an economy car, not a luxury or sports car. It certainly isn’t seen as a real competitor to a Tesla, even an older Model S.
A recent road test by German EV rental specialist Nextmove has found that the new 62 kWh Nissan LEAF still suffers from similar DC fast charging throttling (#Rapidgate) issues at elevated temperature as the 40 kWh LEAF. On highway journeys requiring more than one DC charge (i.e., journeys over 310 miles or 500 km), onwards progress in the new 62 kWh LEAF may become frustratingly slow. Let’s take a look.
This is the story of a 1200 mile journey taken in what’s basically the wrong car for the job. I decided to test the 2018 LEAF to the limits, in several different ways. Rapid charging repeatedly, going up one of the steepest interstate highway climbs in the US, some off-highway driving, and long journeys into places with no charging stations were just a few of the things I decided to take on. I thought that after more than a year with the car and almost 50,000 miles on the odometer I knew what the LEAF was made of, but it turned out that I still had more to learn.
The most popular CleanTechnica articles of the past week included an original analysis of used Tesla Model 3s versus some of the used gasmobiles it competes against, a 380 mile used Nissan LEAF upgrade, a showering of love for Tesla’s motors from a top auto industry expert, and much more.
Yes, it’s technically possible to stuff over 100 kWh of batteries in an older LEAF, but for most customers, Fenix Power will be providing new cooled and monitored batteries of 24–40 kWh to replace their aging and degraded factory packs much more affordably than Nissan does.
While the 2019 Nissan Leaf is part of the second-generation model of the best-selling electric vehicle, the battery pack inside the new Leaf+ is actually more like a fifth-generation unit.
The Nissan LEAF is the best-selling electric car in history with more than 400,000 sold since 2010. The company plans to introduce it to new markets in Central and South America and throughout Southeast Asia and Oceania this year.
The European passenger plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) market ended the year on a positive note, registering a near record 40,500 units in December (+23% YoY), with the 2018 count ending at a record 386,000 deliveries, a 33% increase over 2017. The 2018 PEV market share ended at a record 2.5%, thanks to an impressive 3.9% performance in December.
Renting a car can be a pain in the ass. We’ve all been there — waiting in line, filling out paperwork, only to find out that the car you’d reserved is unavailable and you’re suddenly stuck with a vehicle you didn’t want. For Aidan McClean, founder and CEO of UFODRIVE, it was a breaking point.
Two weeks ago, we published our 2019 CleanTechnica Car of the Year finalists. In case you missed that announcement or just felt too lazy to take 10 seconds to vote, we wanted to give you a proper second chance. So, I’m republishing a portion of that article intro, the finalists again, and how to vote. After this, the polls will be closed and we’ll be announcing the winner.
