The refreshed Nissan Leaf has officially landed in Europe. This compact battery-electric vehicle gets a refreshed exterior that’s more streamlined and gives the car the new Nissan family look. Most of the major changes are in the front fascia where you find reshaped headlights. Nissan also deleted the chrome piece that formed an outline of the brand’s V-motion grille on its internal combustion vehicles. The car now sports Nissan’s new logo on the hood and the hatchback. Another significant update is the alloy wheel options. While they remain between 16 and 17 inches in diameter, their designs have changed and one looks like it came straight from the Chill-Out Concept.
Additional changes for the refreshed Nissan Leaf include two new colors taken from the Qashqai and Ariya: Universal Blue and Magnetic Blue. There’s no word yet on whether these colors will eventually make it to the North American-spec model. The interior carries over unchanged save for the new Nissan badge adorning the steering wheel. You still get a partial digital gauge cluster with a 7.0-inch reconfigurable display. In the center stack, you’ll find an 8.0-inch touch screen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility.
Nissan’s ProPilot Assist semi-autonomous system will be available once again. However, unlike the version found on the Rogue and Pathfinder, it doesn’t appear to use data from the built-in navigation system to anticipate turns on the highway and offramps. The Ariya will have the most advanced version of ProPilot Assist, dubbed ProPilot Assist 2.0. This latest iteration allows for hands-free single-lane highway driving, automatic lane changing, and will even let you know when your exit is coming up.
As before, the refreshed Leaf will be available with two lithium-ion battery packs. The standard unit will remain the 40-kWh unit coupled to a single electric motor with 147 hp and 236 lb-ft of torque. In the pre-refreshed model, this variant is EPA-rated for 149 miles per charge. Using a level 2 AC charger, the Leaf has a peak charging rate of 6.6 kW and will give you a full charge in 7.5 hours. A level 3 DC charger will get you from empty to 80 percent in 40 minutes because the peak rate is limited to 50 kW due to the air-cooled battery. Unlike its newer competitors, the Leaf is one of the last BEVs to use the CHAdeMO DC charging standard.
The more powerful Leaf Plus uses a 62-kWh battery pack. Thanks to the bigger energy capacity, the electric motor generates more power at 214 hp and 250 lb-ft. DC charging time increases to 45 minutes while a level 2 AC charger will get you a full charge in 11.5 hours. The EPA rates the current Leaf Plus at 226 miles per charge for the base S trim and 215 miles for the SV and SL grades.
Expect the refreshed Nissan Leaf to arrive in the U.S. as a 2023 model since the 2022 car is the pre-refresh car. The existing car saw a massive $4,245 price drop, meaning the base Leaf S starts at $27,375 before any incentives. In its most expensive form, the Leaf SL, which comes with the larger battery as standard, costs $38,375 or $4,620 less than the 2021 model. The smaller battery should remain to keep the Leaf’s cost of entry low. This refresh should also be a hint that the current car will be replaced soon. Nissan already announced that multiple assembly plants will make a new BEV that’s likely the third-generation model, which is most likely a small crossover slotting below the Ariya.
